uvLHion   IBS  156  0 
1888 


THE 


MINOE  PEOPHETS. 


WITH   A 


COMMENTARY 


EXPLANATORY   AND   PRACTICAL 


AND 


INTRODUCTIONS  TO  THE  SEVERAL  BOOKS, 


THE  REV.  E.  B.  PUSEY,  D.  D. 

REGIUS  PROFESSOR  OF  HEBREW,  AND  CANON  OF  CHRIST  CHURCH. 


Vol.  n. 

MICAH,  NAHUM,  HABAKKUK,  ZEPHANIAH,  HAGGAl,  ZECHARIAH  AND  MALACHI. 
Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law.—Ps.  cxix.  13. 


FUNK    &   AYAGNALLS    COMPANY, 

1892. 

New  York, 


1892 
Toronto.  London. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S8.=>, 

By  FUNiY  a,   WAGNALLS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Wasliingtou,  D.  CI 


CONTENTS. 


I.  MICAH. 

INTRODUCTIOX. 

His  name  :  a  villager :  his  date  :  earlier  than  Isaiah,  yet  prophesied  under 
Aha-/,  and  in  beginning  of  Hezekiah"s  reign  :  divisions  of  his  book  :  simplicity 
but  vividness  and  energy  of  his  style.  His  extreme  tenderness.  His  use  of 
the  Pentateuch,  and  use  of  his  book  by  later  prophets,  ....    pp.     5-14 

COMMENTARY.— Chapters  I.— VII.         .  , pp.  15-hA 


II.  NAHUM. 

INTRODUCTION. 

His  date :  date  of  the  conquest  of  No,  mentioned  by  him.  Strength  of  Nineveh : 
its  history  :  its  might  enlarged,  until  within  22  j'ears  of  its  fall.  Suddenness  of 
its  fall.  Its  rivers  were  its  strength  and  weakness.  Commerce  continued  its  old 
coui'se  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  but  itself  perished.  Pseudo-criticisms 
as  to  his  style, PP-  ID-J-l-'S 

COMMENTARY.— Chaptees  I.— Ill PP-  129-164 


III.   HABAKKUK. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Prophet  of  faith :  earlier  than  Zephaniah :  pseudo-criticism  as  to  his  language. 
Suddenness  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  strength  of  Babylon :  mistake  of  Assyria 
in  placing  Chaldees  there.    Magnificence  of  Habakkuk's  style,        .  .  .  pp.  1(>5-177 

COMMENTARY.— Chapters  I.— Ill PP.  179-223 


IV.  ZEPHANIAH. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Correspondence  with  Habakkuk.  His  date,  use  of  former  prophets.  Distinct 
prophecies.  Myth  of  critics  as  to  Scythians  being  formidable  to  the  Jews. 
Vividness  and  tenderness,  .........  PP-  2^3-2*1 

COMMENTARY.-Chaptees  I.-III PP-  235-291 

Moabite  stone,  ti-anslation  of  its  inscription,  ...•••  PP-  291-29a 

VOL.  II.  " 


CO>'TE>'TS. 
V.   HAGGAI. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Lukewannnessof  his  times  ;  greatness  of  the  repentance  wrought  through  him. 

Energy  of  his  style,  ..........  pp.  293-297 

COMMENTARY.— Chapteks  I.— II. pp.  209-321 


VI.  ZECHARIAH. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Called  early  to  his  office.  Imaginative  richness  in  both  parts  of  his  book: 
correspondence  between  them :  references  in  both  to  prophets  before  the 
captivit}' :  correspondence  in  language  and  style  and  rhythm ;  Captivity 
spoken  of  as  past  in  later  chapters  also :  identity  of  authorship :  author  of  these 
chapters,  had  he  lived  before  the  captivity,  would  have  been  one  of  the  false 
prophets  condemned  by  Jeremiah.  German  criticism,  on  ground  of  philology 
and  history,  assigns  dates  varying  by  nearly  500  years  ;  alleged  grounds  of  prte- 
exile  date,  or  of  the  relation  of  c.  xi.  to  times  of  Menahem.  Arguments  of  phil- 
ology far  weightier,  allowed  to  be  invalid  as  to  Plato.  Table  of  discrepant  dates 
assigned  to  Zechariah  by  modern  German  critics,  .....  pp.  o2o-o;>S 

COMMENTARY.— Chapteks  Ir-XIV pp.  33iMo9 


VII.  MALACHI. 

INTRODUCTION. 

His  date:  characteristics  of  his  call  to  repentance;  co-operated  eflfectivelj'  in 
Nehemlah's  reformation.    Poetry  would  have  been  misplaced  in  his  prophecy  .  pp.  ^Ol-ioi 

COMMENTARY.— CHAPTEitS  I.— IV. .  .pp.  405-.5(  4 


USTTEODTJOTION 


THE    PROPHET 


MICAH. 


MicAH,  or  Micaiah,  this  Morasthite,  was  so 
called,  probably,  in  order  to  distinguish  him 
from  his  great  predecessor,  Micaiah,  son  of 
Imlah,  in  the  reign  of  Ahab.  His  name  was 
spoken  in  its  fuller  form,  by  the  elders  of  the 
land  whose  words  Jeremiah  has  preserved. 
And  in  that  fuller  form  his  name  is  known, 
where  the  Greek  and  Latin  translations  of 
the  Scriptures  are  used  *.  By  the  Syrians, 
and  by  the  Jews ''  he  is  still  called,  as  by  us, 
Micah.  The  fullest  and  original  form  is 
Micaiahu,  "  who  is  like  the  Lord  ?  "  In  this 
fullest  form,  it  is  the  name  of  one  of  the 
Levites  sent  by  Jehoshaphat  to  teach  the 
people  ",  as  also  of  the  mother  of  king  Asa  *, 
(the  same  name  serving  sometimes  both  for 
men  and  women).  Then  according  to  the 
habit  of  abridging  names,  in  all  countries, 
and  especially  those  of  which  the  proper 
name  of  the  Lord  is  a  part,  it  is  diversely 
abridged  into  Micaihu,  Micahu*,  whence 
Micah  is  readily  formed,  on  the  same  rule  as 
Micaiah  itself  from  Micaiahu.  The  forms 
are  all  found  indifierently.  The  idolatrous 
Levite  in  the  time  of  the  Judges  ^,  and  the 
son  of  Imlah  ^,  are  both  called  in  the  same 
chapter  Micaihu  and  Micah  ;  the  father  of 
one  of  Josiah's  officers  is  called  Micaiah 
in  the  book  of  Kings'",  Micah  in  the  Chron- 
icles *. 

The  Prophet's  name,  like  those  of  Joshua, 
Elijah,   Elisha,   Hosea,   Joel,  Obadiah,  was 

•  Mtxai'as  is  used  by  the  LXX.  in  Jer.  xxvi.  18  and 
Micah  i.  1,  as  also  in  the  other  places  where  the 
name  occurs,  except  Neh.  xi.  17,  22,  where  for 
ND'O  they  have  Mixa-  Josephus  calls  both  prophets 
Mixaia!,  Micah  son  of  Imlah,  Ant.  8. 14.  5.  and  our 
prophet,  Ant.  10.  6.  2.  The  Vulgate  uses  for  both, 
Mlcnssas. 

>>  They  substituted  HD'D  in  the  Krl  in  Jeremiah. 


significant.  Joshua's,  we  know,  was  clianged 
of  set  purpose  ^.  The  rest  seem  to  have  been 
given  in  God's  Providence,  or  taken  by  the 
Prophets,  in  order  to  enunciate  truths  con- 
cerning God,  opposed  to  the  idolatries  or  self- 
dependence  of  the  people.  But  the  name  of 
Micah  or  Micaiah,  (as  the  elders  of  the  land ' 
called  him  on  a  solemn  occasion,  some  120 
years  afterward)  contained  more  than  teach- 
ing. It  was  cast  into  the  form  of  a  challenge. 
Who  is  like  (he  Lord?  The  form  of  words  had 
been  impressed  on  Israel  by  the  song  of 
Moses  after  the  deliverance  at  the  Red  sea  "\ 
In  the  days  of  Elijah  and  that  first  Micaiah, 
the  strife  between  God  and  man,  the  true 
Prophet  and  the  false,  had  been  ended  at  the 
battle  of  Ramoth-Gilead  ;  it  ceased  for  a 
time,  in  tlie  reigns  of  Jehu  and  his  suc- 
cessors, because  in  consequence  of  his  partial 
obedience,  God,  by  Elisha  and  Jonah,  pro- 
mised them  good  :  it  was  again  resumed,  as 
the  promise  to  Jehu  was  expiring,  and  God's 
prophets  had  anew  to  proclaim  a  message  of 
woe.  Hast  thou  found  me,  0  mine  enemy  ^? 
and,  °  I  hate  him,  for  he  doth  not  prophesy  good, 
concerning  me,  but  evil,  Ahab's  words  as  to 
Elijah  and  Micaiah,  were  the  types  of  the 
subsequent  contradiction  of  the  false  pro- 
phets to  Hosea  and  Amos,  which  closed  only 
with  the  destruction  of  Samaria.  Now,  in  the 
time  of  the  later  Micaiah,  were  the  first 
dawnings  of  the  same  strife  in  Judah,  whicli 

0  2  Chr.  xvii.  7.  *  lb.  xiii.  2. 

elb.  xviii.  8.  Keth. 

'  IH'^'P  Jud.  xvii.  1,  4 ;  HD'P  5,  8,  9, 10. 
«in*3'D  1  Kings  xxii.  9,  2Chr.  xviii.  7;  HTD  2 

Chr.  xviii.  14. 
k  2  Kings  xxii.  12.  '2  Chr.  xxxiv.  20. 

k  Num.  xiii.  16.  >  Jer.  xxvi.  17, 18. 

«>  Ex.  XV.  11.    » 1  Kings  xxi.  20.    <>  lb.  xxii.  8, 18. 

5 


6 


IXTRODl'CTION   TO 


hasteneil  and  brouglit  aboiU  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem  under  Zedekiah,  whicli  re-ap- 
peared after  the  Captivity  p,  and  was  the  im- 
mediate cause  of  the  second  destruction  under 
the  Romans  *>.  Micah,  as  he  dwells  on  the 
meaning  of  names  generally,  so,  doubtless,  it 
is  in  allusion  to  his  own,  that,  at  the  close  of 
liis  prophecy,  he  ushers  in  his  announcement 
of  God's  incomparaljle  mercy  with  the 
words  ■■,  Who  is  a  God  like  unto  Thee  f  Before 
him,  whatever  disobedience  there  was  to 
God's  law  in  Judah,  there  was  no  systematic, 
organized,  opposition  to  His  prophets.  There 
is  no  token  of  it  in  Joel.  From  the  times  of 
^licah  it  is  never  missing.  We  find  it  in 
each  prophet  (however  brief  the  remains  of 
some  are),  who  prophesied  directly  to  Judah, 
not  in  Isaiah  only,  but  in  Habakkuk '  and 
Zephaniah '.  It  deepened,  as  it  hastened 
toward  its  decision.  The  nearer  God's  judg- 
ments were  at  hand,  the  more  obstinately  the 
false  propliets  denied  that  they  would  come. 
The  system  of  false  prophecy,  which  rose  to 
its  height  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah,  which 
met  and  thwarted  him  at  every  step  ",  and 
deceived  those  who  wished  to  be  deceived, 
was  dawning  in  the  time  of  Micah.  False 
prophecy  arose  in  Judah  from  the  self-same 
cause  whence  it  had  arisen  in  Israel,  because 
Judah's  deepening  corruption  drew  down  the 
))ropliecies  of  God's  displeasure,  which  it  was 
l)opular  to  disl)elieve.  False  prophecy  was  a 
gainful  occupation.  The  false  prophets  had 
men's  wishes  on  their  side.  They  had  the 
people  with  them.  Mtf  people  love  to  have  it 
so  ",  said  Go  1.  They  forbade  Micah  to  pro- 
phesy >■ ;  propliesied  peace  ^,  when  God  fore- 
told evil ;  prophesied  for  gain  *.  and  pro- 
claimed war  in  the  Name  of  God  ^  against 
tliose  who  fed  them  not. 

At  such  a  time  was  Micah  called.  His 
name  which  he  himself  explains,  was  no 
(rhance  name.  To  the  Hebrews,  to  whom 
names  were  so  much  more  significant,  parts 
of  the  living  language,  it  recalled  the  name  of 
his  great  predecessor,  his  standing  alone 
against  all  the  prophets  of  Ahab,  his  pro- 
jihecy,  his  suffering,  his  evidenced  truth. 
Tlie  trutli  of  propliecy  was  set  upon  the  issue 
of  the  battle  before  Kamoth-Gilead.  In  the 
])resence  of  Jehoshaphat,  king  of  Judah,  as 
well  as  of  Ahab,  the  400  prophets  of  Asli- 
taroth  had  promised  to  .\hal)  the  ])rize  lie 
longed  for.  One  solitary,  discriminating 
voice  was  heard  amid  that  clamorous  multi- 
tude, forewarning  Ahalj  that  he  would  perish, 
his  people  woidd  be  scattered.  On  the  one 
Hide,  was  that  loud  triumphant  chorus  of 
all  the  -prophets,  Go  up  to  Ramoth-Gikad,  and 

pNeh.  vi.  14.  <i  See  vol.  i.  pp.  334-330. 

'vii.  18.                      'i.  5,  ii.  I.                      ti.  12.  I 

"See  Jer.  v.  U,  31,  vi.  i:j-17,  vlii.  10-12,  xiv.  13-10,  j 

XX.  1-0.   xxlll.  9-enfi,   xxvi.  7,  8,   11,    xxvii.   14-18,  ,| 

xxvili.,  xxix.  8,  n,  21-32.  .1 

xJlt.  V  .•}!.  Til.  C.  «iii  .">.  »iii.  11. 


prosper ;  for  the  Lord  shall  drlivir  it  i)iln  the 
king's  hand.  On  the  other,  one  solemn  voice, 
exhibiting  before  them  that  sad  spectacle 
which  the  morrow's  sun  should  witness  *,  / 
saiv  all  Israel  scattered  upon  the  hills,  as  she^p 
that  have  not  a  sJiepherd,  and  the  Lord  said,  these 
have  no  master,  let  them  return  every  man  to  hi.^ 
house  in  peace.  Micaiah  was  smitten,  im- 
prisoned, and,  apparently,  ended  his  ministry, 
appealing  from  that  small  audience  of  the 
armies  of  Israel  and  Judah  to  the  whole 
world,  which  has  ever  since  looked  back  on 
that  strife  with  interest  and  awe  ;  ^  Hear  ye 
peoples,  each  one  of  them.  God,  who  guided 
the  archer  shooting  at  a  vnUure',  fulfilled  the 
words  which  He  had  put  into  the  Proj)het's 
mouth.  God's  words  had  found  Ahab, 
although  disguised;  Jehoshaphat,  the  im- 
perilled 8,  returned  home,  to  relate  the  issue. 
The  conflict  between  God's  truth  and  idol 
falsehood  was  doubtless  long  remembered  in 
Judah.  And  now  when  tlie  strife  had 
penetrated  into  Judah,  to  be  ended  some 
170''  years  afterward  in  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  another  Micaiah  aro.se,  his  name 
the  old  watchword.  Who  is  like  the  Lord  f  He 
prefixed  to  his  prophecy  that  .same  sum- 
mons' to  the  whole  world  to  behold  the  issue 
of  the  conflict,  which  God  had  once  accredited 
and,  in  that  issue,  had  given  an  earnest  of  the 
victory  of  His  truth,  there  thenceforth  and 
for  ever. 

The  prophet  was  born  a  villager,  in  More- 
sheth  Gath,  "a  village^",  S.  Jerome  says; 
("a  little  village"",  in  8.  Jerome's  own 
days),  "  East  of  Eleutheropolis,"  where  what 
was  " '  formerly  his  grave,"  was  "  now  a 
church."  Since  it  was  his  birthplace  and 
his  burial-place,  it  was  probably  his  home 
also.  In  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Je- 
hoiakim,  the  elders  of  the  laud  "'  speak  of  him 
with  this  same  title,  the  Mora.ithile.  He  lin- 
gers, in  his  prophecy,  among  the  towns  of  the 
maritime  plain  (the  Shejihelah)  where  his 
birthplace  lay.  Among  the  ten  places  in 
that  neighborhood ",  which  he  selects  for 
warning  and  for  example  of  the  univei-sal 
caj)trvity,  is  his  native  village,  "  the  home  he 
loved."  I?wt  the  chief  scene  of  his  niini.stry 
was  Jenisalem.  He  names  it  in  the  begin- 
ning of  liis  prophecy,  as  the  place  wliere  the 
idohitrics,  and,  with  the  idolatries,  all  the 
other  sins  of  Judah  were  concentrated. 
The  two  cajjitals,  Samaria  and  Jeru.salem, 
were  the  chief  objects  of  the  word  of 
God  to  him,  because  the  corruption  of 
each  kingdom  streamed  forth  from  them. 
The  sins  which  he  relaikesare  chiefly  those  of 
the   capital.     Extreme  oppression  ",  violence 

"^  iii.  5.  see  note.  '  I  Kinji.s  xxii.  \2. 

<i  lb.  17.  'lb.  28.  '34.  130-3. 

•>  from  the  beeinninj?  of  Jothnm's  relRn. 
'  HenK.'»t.  Christ,  i.  475.    J  Onom.    k  praf.  to  Mi<'. 
1  Ep.  80.  R(\  Eu.itoch.  r.pitaph.  Pnnin?  g  14.  I.  OOS. 
•"  ,Ior.  xxvi.  17,  l.^i.        "  i.  1 1-1 V        "  iii.  2,  \  ii.  J. 


MICAH. 


iimong  the  rich  v,  bribing  among  judges, 
priests,  prophets  i ;  building  up  the  capital 
even  by  cost  of  life,  or  actual  bloodshed  ■■  ; 
sjioilation " ;  expulsion  of  the  powerless,  wom- 
en and  children  from  their  homes  ' ;  covet- 
ou&ness  "  ;  cheating  in  dealings  "  ;  pride  ^. 
These,  of  couree,  may  be  manifoldly  rei)eated 
in  lesser  places  of  resort  and  of  judgment. 
But  it  is  Zioii  and  Jerusalem  which  are  so 
hnilt  up  v:ifh  blood '' ;  Zion  and  Jerusalem,  which 
are.  on  that  ground,  to  be  ploued  as  afield^  ; 
it  is  the  citij  to  which  the  Lord's  voice  crieth  "  ; 
whose  rich  men  are  full  of  violence  p  ;  it  is  the 
daughter  of  Zion^,  which  is  to  go  forth  otit  of 
the  city  and  go  to  Babylon.  Especially,  they 
are  the  heads  and  princes  of  the  people'', 
whom  he  u^jbraids  for  perversion  of  justice 
and  for  oppression.  Even  the  good  kings  of 
Judah  seem  to  have  been  powerless  to  re- 
strain the  general  corruption. 

Micah,  according  to  the  title  which  he 
prefixed  to  his  prophecy,  was  called  to  the 
prophetic  office  somewhat  later  than  Isaiah. 
His  ministry  began  later,  and  ended  eai'lier. 
For  Uzziah,  in  whose  reign  Isaiah  began  to 
prophesy,  was  dead  before  INIicah  was  called 
to  his  office  ;  and  Micah  probably  was  called 
away  early  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  where- 
as some  of  the  chief  public  acts  of  Isaiah's 
ministry  fell  in  the  17th  and  18th  years  of 
the  reign  of  Hezekiah.  Joel,  Amos,  Obadiah, 
Jonah,  had  doubtless  been  withdrawn  to 
their  rest.  Hosea  alone,  in  "grey-haired 
might,"  was  still  protesting  in  vain  against 
the  deepening  corrui)tions  of  Israel. 

The  contents  of  Micah's  prophecy  and  his 
relation  to  Isaiah  agree  with  the  inscription. 
His  prophecy  has  indications  of  the  times  of 
Jotham,  perhaps  also  of  those  of  Ahaz ;  one 
signal  prophecy,  we  know  histoi'ically,  was 
uttered  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah. 

It  is  now  owned,  well  nigh  on  all  hands, 
that  the  great  prophecy,  three  verses  of  which 
Isaiah  prefixed  to  his  2d  chapter,  was 
originally  delivered  by  Micah.  But  it  ap- 
pears from  the  context  in  Isaiah,  that  he  de- 
livered the  prophecy  in  that  2d  chapter,  in 
the  reign  of  Jotham.  Other  language  of 
Micah  also  belongs  to  that  same  reign.  No 
one  now  thinks  that  Micah  adopted  that 
great  prophecy  from  Isaiah.  The  prophecy, 
as  it  stands  in  Micah,  is  in  close  connection 
with  what  precedes  it.  He  had  said  *,  the 
mountain  of  the  house  sludl  be  as  the  high  places 
of  the  forest ;  he  subjoins  instantly  God's  re- 
versal of  that  sentence,  in  the  latter  days. 
"And  in  the  last  days  it  shall  be  that  the  moun- 
tain of  the  house  of  the  Lord  shall  be  established 
on  the   top  of  the  mounfainf^,  and  peoples  shcdl 

p  vi.  12.  q  iii.  11 ;  judges  and  priests,  vii.  3. 

'  iii.  10 ;  bloodshed  also,  vii.  2.       ■  ii.  8.       » ii.  9. 
"11.2.  »vi.  10, 11.  Jii.  3.  'iii.  12. 

»vi.  9.  >>iv.  10.  "  iii.  1,  9, 11,  vi.  12,  vii.  3. 

*  iii.  12.  'iv.  1.  'iv.  2. 


flow  unto  it.  He  had  said,  Zion  shall  be  plowed 
as  a  field,  and  Jerui^alem  shall  become  heaps  ; 
he  adds  forthwith,  in  reversal  of  this ',  the 
law  shall  go  forth  from  Zion,  and  the  word  of  the 
Lord  from  Jeru.'^alem.  The  two  sentences  are 
joined  as  closely  as  they  can  be ;  Zion  shall 
be  plotved  as  afield,  atul  Jerus(dem  shall  become 
heaps,  and  the  mountain  of  the  house  shall  become 
high  places  of  a  forest;  and  it  shall  be,  in  the 
last  days,  the  mountain  of  the  house  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  (abidingly)  ^  established  on  the  top  of  the 
mountains.  Every  reader  would  understand, 
that  the  elevation  intended,  was  spiritual, 
not  physical.  They  could  not  fail  to  under- 
stand the  metaphor ;  or  imagine  that  the 
Mount  Zion,  on  part  of  which,  (Mount  Mo- 
riah,)  the  house  of  the  Lord  stood,  should  be 
physically  placed  on  other  hills.  But  the 
contrast  is  marked.  The  promise  is  the  se- 
quel of  the  woe  ;  the  abiding  condition  is  the 
reversal  of  the  sentence  of  its  desolation. 
Even  the  words  allude,  the  one  to  the  other  ^ 

In  Isaiah,  there  is  no  such  connection. 
After  the  first  chapter  and  its  summary  of 
rebuke,  warning,  threatening,  and  final  weal 
or  woe  resting  on  each  class,  Isaiah,  in  his 
second  chapter,  begins  his  prophecy  anew 
with  a  fresh  title ' ;  The  word  that  Isaiah  the 
son  of  Amos  saw  concerning  Judah  and  Jerusa- 
lem; and  to  this  he  prefixes  three  vei-ses 
from  Micah's  prophecy.  He  separates  it  in 
a  marked  way  from  the  preceding  summary, 
and  yet  connects  it  with  some  other  prophecy 
by  the  word,  AnclK  He  himself  marks  that 
it  is  not  in  its  original  place  here.  So  then, 
in  the  prophet  Micah,  the  close  connection 
Avith  the  foregoing  marks  that  it  is  in  its 
original  place ;  Isaiah  marked  purposely 
that  in  his  prophecy  it  is  not. 

But  Isaiah's  prophecy  belongs  to  a  time  of 
prosperity  ;  such  as  Judah  had  not,  after  the 
reign  of  Jotham.  It  was  a  time  of  great  war- 
like strength,  diffused  through  the  whole 
land.  The  land  was  full '',  without  end,  of 
gold,  silver,  chariots,  horses,  of  lofty  looks 
and  haughtiness.  The  images  which  follow' 
are  shadows  of  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and 
extend  beyond  Judah  ;  but  the  sins  rebuked 
are  the  sins  of  strength  and  might,  self-con- 
fidence, oppression,  manifold  female  luxury 
and  bravery  ™.  Isaiah  prophesies  that  God 
would  take  away  their  strength  °.  Then 
they  still  had  it.  Judah  trusted  not  at  that 
time  in  God  nor  in  foreign  alliances,  but  in 
self.  Yet,  from  the  time  of  Ahaz,  trust  in 
foreign  help  infected  them  to  the  end.  Even 
Hezekiah,  when  he  received  the  messengers 
of  Merodach-baladan  ",  fell  into  the  snare ; 
and  Josiah  probably  lost  his  life,  as  a  vassal 

B  It  is  not  ^y\2\  but  JDJ-nTI'- 

h  The  nirr  no  in  iv.  i.  to  the  non  "in  m.  12; 

the  HTI'  H'nn-  Hengst. 
Iii.  1.  Jii.  2.  kl!?.  ii.  7, 11.  » 12-21. 

"iii.  1(5, 23.  "111.1-3.  'Is.  xxxix. 


8 


INTRODUfTTOX  TO 


of  Assyria  ^.  This  union  of  inherent  strength 
and  unconcemednoss  about  foreign  aid  is  an 
adequate  test  of  days  anterior  to  Ahaz. 

But  since  Isaiah  prefixed  to  a  prophecy  in 
the  days  of  Jotliaiu  this  great  propliecy  of 
Micali,  then  Micah's  prophecy  must  liave 
l)een  already  current.  To  those  same  days 
of  stren<,'th  it  belongs,  that  Micah  could 
prophesy  as  a  gift,  the  cutting  oil''  of  horxes 
ami  chariot.%  the  destruction  ojciliex  and  strong 
towers,  all,  in  which  Judah  trusted  instead  of 
God.  The  propliecy  is  a  counterpart  of 
Isaiah's.  Isaiah  prophesied  a  day  of  Judg- 
ment, in  which  all  these  things  should  be  re- 
moved ;  Micah  foretold  that  their  removal 
should  be  a  mercy  to  those  who  trust  in 
Christ. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  utter  dislocation 
of  society,  the  bursting  of  all  the  most  sacred 
bands  which  bind  man  to  man  together,  de- 
scribed in  his  last  chapter'',  perhaps  belong 
most  to  the  miserable  decay  in  the  reign  of 
Ahaz.  The  idolatry  spoken  of  also  belongs 
probably  to  the  time  of  Ahaz.  In  Jotham's 
time ',  the  people  sacrificed  and  burned  incense 
still  in  the  high  places ;  yet,  under  a  king  so 
highly  praised ',  these  are  not  likely  to  have 
been  in  Jerasalem.  But  Micah,  in  the  very 
head  of  his  prophecy,  speaks  of  Jerusalem  " 
as  the  centre  of  the  idolatries  of  Judah.  The 
allusion  also  to  child-sacritices  belongs  to  the 
time  of  Ahaz,  who  sacrificed  sons  of  his  own  ", 
and  whose  sacrifice  others  probably  imitated. 
The  mention  of  the  special  idolatry  of  the 
time,  y  the  statutes  of  Omri  are  kept,  and  all  the 
works  of  the  house  of  Ahab,  belong  to  the  same 
reign,  it  being  recorded  of  Ahaz  especially^, 
he  vMtlked  in  the  ways  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and 
made  also  molten  images  for  Baalim ;  the 
special  sin  of  the  house  of  Ahab.  That  char- 
acter too  which  he  describes,  that,  amid  all 
that  idolatry,  practical  irreligion,  and  wick- 
edness, they  leant  upon  the  Lord,  and  said,  Is 
not  the  Lord  airtong  us  f  none  evil  can  come  upon 
iw";  w;i8  just  the  character  of  Ahaz.  Not 
until  tiie  end  of  his  reign  w;us  he  so  embit- 
tered by  God's  chastisements,  that  he  closed 
His  temple''.  Up  to  that  time,  even  after 
he  had  copied  the  brazen  altar  at  Damascus, 
he  still  kept  up  a  divided  allegiance  to  God. 
Urijah,  the  hij^h  Priest,  at  the  king's  com- 
mand, oflered  the  sacrifices  for  the  king  and 
the  people,  while  Ahaz  used  the  brazen  altar, 
to  enquire  bg".  This  was  just  the  half-service 
whicn  God  by  Micah  rejects.  It  is  the  old 
history  of  man's  half-service,  faith  without 
love,  which  provides,  that  what  it  believes 
but  loves  not,  should  l)e  chmc  for  it,  and  itself 
enacts  what  it  prefers.  Urijah  was  to  ofl'er 
the  lawful  siicnfices  for  the  king  and  the 
people ;  Ahaz  was  to  obtain  knowledge  of  the 

p2  Kings  xxiii.  29,  2  Chr.  xxxv.  '20-22. 

a.Mio.v.  10, 11,14.  »vll.5,6. 

•2  Kings  XV. ^o. 

« 2  Kings  XV.  34,  2  Chr.  xxvii.  2,  6.  « I.  5. 


future,  such  as  he  wished  in  his  own  way,  a 
lying  future,  by  lying  acts. 

Micah  renewed  under  Ilezeklah  the  pro- 
phecy of  the  utter  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
which  he  had  pronounced  under  Jotham. 
The  prophets  did  not  heed  repeating  them- 
selves. Elo<iuent  as  they  were,  they  are  the 
more  eloquent  because  eloquence  wa.s  not 
their  object.  Even  our  Lord,  with  Divine 
wisdom,  and  the  more,  probaldy,  because  He 
had  Divine  wisdom,  repeated  in  His  teaching 
the  same  words.  Those  words  sank  the  deeper, 
because  often  repeated.  So  Micah  repeated 
doubtless  oftentimes  those  Wf)rds,  which  he 
first  uttered  in  the  days  of  Jotham ;  Zion  shall 
be  plowed  like  afield  and  Jerusal^'m  shall  be- 
come heaps,  and  the  mountain  of  the  house  as  the 
high  places  of  the  forest.  Often,  during  those 
perhaps  thirty  years,  he  repeated  them  in 
vain.  At  the  last,  they  wrought  a  great  re- 
pentance, and  delayed,  it  may  be  for  136 
years,  the  destruction  which  he  wa.s  con- 
strained to  foretell.  Early  in  the  days  of  Je- 
hoiakim,  about  120  years  afterward,  in  the 
public  assembly  when  Jeremiah  was  on  trial 
for  his  life,  the  ciders  of  the  land  said  explic- 
itly, that  the  great  conversion  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  nay,  of  that 
king  himself,  was  wrought  by  the  teaching  of 
Micah.  **  Then  rose  up,  says  Jeremiah,  certain 
of  the  elders  of  the  land,  and  spake  to  all  the  as- 
sembly of  the  people,  saying,  Micah  the  Moras- 
thite  prophesied  in  the  days  of  Hezekiah  king  of 
Judah,  saying.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
Zion  shall  be  ploughed  like  a  field,  and  Jerusalem 
shall  become  heaps,  and  the  mountain  of  the 
house,  as  the  high  places  of  the  forest.  Did  Heze- 
kiah king  of  Judah,  and  all  Judah,  put  him  at 
all  to  death?  Did  he  not  fear  the  Lord,  and  be- 
sought the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  repented  Him  of 
the  evil  tvhich  He  had  pronounced  against  themf 

It  may  have  been  that  single  prophecy 
which  Micah  so  delivered ;  some  have 
thought  that  it  was  his  whole  book.  Jere- 
miah, at  God's  command,  at  onetime  uttered 
single  prophecies;  at  amither,  the  summary 
of  all  his  prophecies.  This  only  is  certain, 
that  the  prophecy,  whether  these  words 
alone  or  the  book  containing  them,  was  de- 
livered to  all  Judah,  and  that  (iod  moved 
the  people  through  them  to  repentance. 

The  words,  as  they  occur  in  Jeremiah,  are 
the  same,  and  in  the  same  order,  as  they 
stand  in  Micah.  Only  in  Jeremiah  the  com- 
mon plural  termination  is  substituted  for  the 
rarer  and  poetic  form  used  by  Micah  ®.  The 
elders,  then,  who  (juotetl  them,  probably 
knew  them,  not  from  traditioif,  but  from  the 
written  book  of  the  Prophet.  But  those 
elders  speak  of  Micah,  as  exercising  his  pro- 
phetic office  in  the  days  of  Hezekiah.     Tliey 

»  2  Kings  xvi.  3,  2  Chr.  xxviii.  .3.      J  vi.  16. 
•  2Chr.  xxviii.  2.  -iii.  11,  vi.  6. 

•>2  Chr.  xxviii.  22-24.  "2  Kings  xvi.  1«. 

0  Jer.  xxvi.  17-19.  •  D";?  lor  Vy. 


^nCAH. 


1) 


do  not  sar,  he  prophci>ierl^  wliicli  niiglit  have 
been  a  single  act ;  ijut  he  was  prophesyinr/, 
hayah  nibbah,  a  form  of  speaking  which  is 
only  used  of  an  abiding,  habitual,  action. 
They  say  also,  "  lie  was  habitually  prophesy- 
ing, and  he  said,"  i.  e.  as  we  should  say,  "  in 
the  course  of  his  propliesying  in  the  days  of 
Hezekiah,  he  said."  Still  it  was  to  all  the 
people  of  judah  that  he  said  it.  The  elders 
say  so,  and  lay  stress  upon  it  by  repeating  it. 
Did  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  and  all  Judah  put 
him  at  all  to  death  f  It  must  have  been  then  on 
some  of  the  great  festivals,  M'hen  all  Judah 
was  gathered  together,  that  Micah  so  spake 
to  them. 

Probably,  shortly  afterward,  in  those  first 
years  of  Hezekiah,  Micah's  office  on  earth 
closed.  For,  at  the  outset  and  in  the  sum- 
m".ry  of  his  prophecy,  not  incidentally,  he 
speaks  of  the  destruction  of  Samaria,  which 
took  place  in  the  4th  year  of  Hezekiah,  as 
still  to  come  ;  and  however  practical  or  par- 
tial idolatry  continued,  such  idolatry  as  he 
throughout  describes,  did  not  exist  after  the 
reformation  by  Hezekiah.  This  conversion, 
then,  of  the  king  and  of  some  considerable 
part  of  Judah  was  probably  the  closing  har- 
vest of  his  life,  after  a  long  seed-time  of  teal's. 
So  God  allowed  His  servant  to  depart  in  peace. 
The  reformation  itself,  at  least  in  its  fullness, 
took  place  after  the  kingdom  of  Samaria  had 
come  to  an  end,  since  Hezekiah's  messengers 
could,  unhindered,  invite  all  Israel  to  join  in 
his  great  Passover.  Probably,  then,  Micah 
lived  to  see  the  first  dawnings  only  of  the  first 
reformation  which  God  wrought  by  his  words. 

At  the  commencement,  then,  of  Hezekiah's 
reign  he  collected  the  substance  of  what  God 
had  taught  by  him,  re-casting  it,  so  to  speak, 
and  retaining  of  his  spoken  prophecy  so 
much  as  God  willed  to  remain  for  us.  As  it 
stands,  it  belongs  to  that  early  time  of  Heze- 
kiah's reign,  in  which  the  sins  of  Ahaz 
still  lived  on.  Corruption  of  manners  had 
been  hereditary.  In  Jotham's  reign  too,  it  is 
said  expressly,  in  contrast  with  himself,  the 
people  were  still  doing  corruptly.  Idolatry  had, 
under  Ahaz,  received  a  fanatic  impulse  from 
the  king,  who,  at  last,  set  himself  to  close  the 
worship  of  God  s.  The  strength  of  Jotham's 
reign  was  gone ;  the  longing  for  its  restora- 
tion led  to  the  wrong  and  destructive  policy, 
against  which  Isaiah  had  to  contend.  Of 
this  Micah  says,  such  should  not  be  the 
strength  of  the  future  kingdom  of  God. 
Idolatry  and  oppression  lived  on  ;  against 
these,  the  inheritance  of  those  former  reigns, 
the  sole  residuum  of  Jotham's  might  or  Ahaz' 
policy,  the  breach  of  the  law  of  love  of  God 
and  man,  Micah  concentrated  his  written 
prophecy. 

'2  Chr.  xxvii.  2.  k  lb.  xxviii.  22-25,  xxix.  7. 

•>  ch.  iii.-v.  and  vi.  vii.  'ii.  12.         ^iii.  1. 

1  Hengst.  Chriat.  i.  477,  8.       ">  See  ab.  p.  289. 
» iv.  2, 7, 8.  -  o  iT.  1, 2. 


This  book  also  has  remarkable  syunnctiy. 
Each  of  its  three  divisions  is  a  whole,  begin- 
ning with  upbraiding  lor  sin,  threatening 
God's  judgments,  and  ending  with  promises 
of  future  mercy  in  Christ.  Tiie  two  later  j 
divisions  begin  again  with  that  same  charac- 
teristic. Hear  ye^,  with  which  Micah  \\\ui 
opened  the  whole.  The  three  divisions  an 
also  connected,  as  well  by  lesser  references  of 
the  later  to  the  former,  as  also  by  the  advance 
of  the  prophecy.  Judah  could  not  be  trusted 
now  with  any  simple  declaration  of  God's 
iuture  mercy.  They  supposed  themselves, 
impenitent  as  they  were  and  with  no  pur- 
pose of  repentance,  to  be  the  objects  of  God's 
care,  and  secure  from  evil.  Unndxed  prom- 
ise of  good  would  but  foment  this  irreligious 
apathy.  Hence  on  the  promises  at  the  end 
of  the  first  portion ',  and  their  king  shall  pa.'^s 
before  them  and  the  Lord  at  the  head  of  them,  he 
turns  abruptly  ^,  And  I  said,  Hear,  Ipray  you, 
Is  it  not  for  you  to  know  jiidgment  ?  The 
promise  had  been  to  Jacob  and  the  remnant  of 
Israel^.  He  renews  his  summons  to  the" 
heads  of  Jacob  and  the  princes  of  the  hovse  of 
Israel.  In  like  way,  the  last  section,  opening 
with  that  wonderful  pleading  of  God  witli 
His  people,  follow's  upon  that  unbroken 
declaration  of  God's  mercies,  which  itself 
issues  out  of  the  promised  Birth  at  Bethle- 
hem. 

There  is  also  a  sort  of  progress  in  the 
promises  of  the  three  parts'.  In  the  first,  it 
is  of  deliverance  generally,  in  language  taken 
from  that  first  deliverance  irom  Egypt.  The 
2d  is  objective,  the  Birth  of  the  Redeemer, 
the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Jews,  the  establishment  and 
nature  of  His  kingdom.  The  third  is  mainly 
subjective,  man's  repentance,  waiting  upon 
God,  and  God's  forgiveness  of  his  sins. 

Throughout,  the  metropolis  is  chiefly  ad- 
dressed, as  the  main  seat  of  present  evil™  and 
as  the  centre  of  the  future  blessings  ;  where 
the  reign  of  the  long-promised  Euler  should 
be  " ;  whence  the  revelation  of  God  should  go 
forth  to  the  heathen";  whither  the  scattered 
and  dispersed  people  should  be  gathered  p. 

Throughout  the  prophecy  also,  Micah  up- 
braids the  same  class  of  sins,  wrong  dealing 
of  man  to  man,  oppression  of  the  poor  by  the 
rich  '°.  Throughout,  their  future  captivity 
and  dispersion  are  either  predicted  i,  or  as- 
sumed as  the  basis  of  the  prediction  of  good  ■■. 
Throughout,  we  see  the  contemporary  of  the 
prophet  Isaiah.  Beside  that  great  predic- 
tion, which  Isaiah  inserted  verbally  from 
Micah,  we  see  them,  as  it  were,  side  by  side, 
in  that  city  of  God's  visitation  and  of  His 
mercy,  prophesying  the  same  respite,  the 
same  place  of  captivity  and  deliverance  from 

p  iv.  6,  7,  vii.  11, 12. 

q  i.  11, 14-16,  ii.  4,  5, 10,  (utter  abiding  destruetioa 
of  Jerusalem)  iii.  12,  iv.  10,  v.  3. 
'  ii.  12, 13,  iv.  6,  7,  10,  vii.  11,  12, 15. 


10 


INTRODl'CTION  TO 


it,  tlie  same  ulterior  mercies  in  Christ. 
"'The  more  to  establish  ilie  i'aith,  God 
willed  tliat  Isaiah  and  Miciili  should  speak 
together,  as  with  one  mouth,  and  use  such 
agreement  as  might  the  more  convict  all 
rebels."  Assyria  ^^as  then  the  monarchy  of 
the  world;  yet  lx)tli  prophets  promise  deliv- 
erance from  it';  both  foretell  the  captivity 
in  the  then  subordinate  Babylon";  both,  the 
deliverance  from  it".  Both  speak  in  tlielike 
way  of  the  gathering  together  of  God's  peo- 
ple from  lands  >',  to  some  of  which  they  were 
not  yet  dispei-sed.  Isaiah  prophesied  the 
Virgin-Birth  of  Immanuel";  Micah,  the 
Birth  at  Bethlehem  of  Him  W/tose  yoinga 
forth  have  been  nf  old,  from  everlasting^.  Both 
speak  in  the  like  way  of  the  reverence  for 
the  Gentiles  thereafter  for  her**,  by  reason 
of  the  presence  of  her  God.  Even,  in  out- 
ward manner,  Micah,  representing  himself, 
as  one  who  went  mourning  and  wailing,  stripped 
and  naked",  is  a  sort  of  forerunner  of  tlie 
symbolic  acts  of  Isaiah''.  Micah  had  this 
also  common  with  Isaiah,  that  he  has  a  pre- 
dominance of  comfort.  He  is  brief  in  up- 
braiding*, indignant  in  casting  back  the 
])leas  of  the  false  prophets',  concise  in  his 
threatenings  of  woe 6,  save  where  he  lingers 
mournfully  over  the  desolation'',  large  and 
llowing  in  his  descriptions  of  mercy  to  come'. 
lie  sees  and  pronounces  the  coming  punish- 
ment, as  absolutely  certain  ;  he  does  not  call 
to  repentance  to  avert  it;  he  knows  that 
idtimately  it  will  not  be  averted;  he  sees  it 
irrespectively  of  time,  and  says  that  it  will 
be.  Time  is  an  accident  to  the  link  of  cause 
and  effect.  Sin  consummated  would  be  the 
cause;  punishment,  the  eflect.  He  spoke 
to  those  who  knew  that  God  pardoned  on 
repentance,  wiio  had  lately  had  before  them 
that  marvelous  instance  in  Nineveh.  He 
dashes  to  the  ground  tlieir  false  security,  by 
reason  of  their  descent  from  Jacob '',  of  God's 
Presence  among  them  in  the  Temple';  the 
multitude  of  their  offerinsjs  amid  the  multi- 
tude of  their  sins'".  He  rejects  in  God's 
name,  their  false,  outward,  impenitent,  peni- 
tence; and  thereby  the  more  implies  that 
He  would  accept  a  true  repentance.  They 
knew  this,  and  were,  for  a  time,  .scared  into 
penitence.  But  in  his  liook,  as  God  willed 
It  to  remain,  he  is  ratlier  the  iirophet  of 
<Tod's  dealings,  than  the  direct  preacher  of 
repentance  to  individuals.  Yet  lie  is  the 
more  an  evangelic  preacher,  in  that  bespeaks 
of  rejientance,  only  as  the  gift  of  (xod.      He 

•Carpz.  Introd.  p.  .1(15.  in  IISv.  ii.  304. 
« Is.  X.  2-J-.14,  xiv.  25,  xx.x.  Ill,  xxxi.  8,  f),  xxxvii.  fi, 
7,  '21-35,  Mic.  V  6,  b. 
"  Is.  xxxix.  6,  Mic.  iv.  Ki. 
»  Ls.  xlviii.  2(),  Mic.  ib. 

y  Is.  xi.  11  .oqq.  Mic.  vii.  12.  •rli.  U. 

•V.  2  Enx.  (1  Heb.) 
'Is.  xlix.  23,  Mio.  vii.  17.  H«v.  ib. 
•  i.  8.  spe  note.  «  1.9.  xx.  2,  3. 

•i.  5,  ii.  1.2,  0-11.  fii.  7,  11,  iil.  5-7. 


does  not  ignore  that  man  must  accept  the 
grace  of  God  ;  but,  as  Isaiah  foretells  of  the 
days  of  the  (Jospel,  the  idols  He  shall  utterly 
abolish",  .so  Micah  fii-st  foretells  that  God 
would  abolish  all  wherein  man  relied  out  of 
God,  all  wherein  he  prided  himself",  every 
form  ol  idolatry  P,  and  suljseipiently  describes 
the  future  evangelic  rejientance,  submission 
to,  and  waiting  upon  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness *•  ;  and  God's  free  plenary  forgiveness  ■■. 

Micah's  rapid  unprepared  transitions  from 
each  of  his  main  themes  to  another,  from 
upbraiding  to  threatening,  from  threatening 
to  mercy  and  then  back  again  to  upbraiding, 
is  probably  a  part  of  that  same  vivid  percep- 
tion of  the  connection  of  sin,  chastisement, 
ibrgiveness,  in  the  will  and  min<l  of  God.  He 
sees  them  and  speaks  of  them  in  the  natural 
sequence  in  which  they  were  exhibited  to 
him.  He  connects  most  commonly  the  sin  with 
the  punishment  by  the  one  word,  therefore ', 
because  it  was  an  object  with  him  to  shew  the 
connection.  The  mercies  to  come  he  subjoins 
cither  suddenly  without  any  conjunction  ',  or 
with  the  simple  and.  An  English  reader 
loses  some  of  the  force  of  this  simplicity 
by  the  paraphra.se,  which,  for  the  simple 
copula,  substitutes  the  inference  or  contrast, 
therefore,  then,  but,  m)twith.'itanding'^,  which  lie 
in  the  subjects  themselves.  An  English 
reader  might  have  been  puzzled,  at  first  sight, 
by  the  monotonous  simidicity  of  the,  and,  and, 
joining  together  the  mention  of  events,  which 
stand,  either  as  the  contrast  or  the  conse- 
quence of  those  Avhich  precede  them.  The 
English  version  accordingly  has  consulted  for 
the  reader  or  hearer,  by  drawing  out  for  him 
the  contrast  or  consequence  which  lay  be- 
neath the  .surface.  But  this  gain  of  clearness 
involved  giving  up  so  far  the  majestic  sim- 
plicity of  the  Prophet,  who  at  times  speaks 
of  things  as  they  lay  in  the  Divine  Mind,  and 
as,  one  by  one,  tliey  would  be  unfolded  to  man, 
without  explaining  the  relation  in  which 
they  stood  to  one  another.  Micah  knew  that 
suHerings  were,  in  CJod's  purpose,  travail- 
pains.  And  so,  immediately  after  the  de- 
nunciaticm  of  ininisliment,  be  adds  so  calmly, 
""yl/irf  in  the  last  days  it  shall  be;'"  '^  And 
thou,  Bethlehem  Epiiratah."  Or  in  the 
midst  of  his  descriptions  of  mercies,  bespeaks 
of  the  intervening  troubles,  as  the  way  to 
them.  Now^  whji  do-ft  thou  cry  aloud  f — jxings 
hare  taken  thee,  as  a  woman  in  tramiJ — be  in 
pain — thou  shalt  go  even  unto  Babglon  ;  there 
shall  thou  be  delivered :  or,  '  Therefore  will  H« 

« ii.  3, 10,  iii.  4, 12,  vi.  13-lfi,  vii.  4,  13. 

h  i.  l()-ir.,  ii.  4,  5.  '  iv.,  v.,  vii.  7-'2().  k  ji.  7. 

'iii.  U.  "vi.  0,  7.         "Is.  ii.  18.  »v.  9,  lo. 

pv.  U-1.3.  <ivii.  8,  9.  'Ib.  18,  19. 

•  Not  i.  C,  vi.  13.  but  i.  14,  li.  3,  5,  iii.  G,  12. 

«ii.  12,  iv.  1.3. 

»  Therefore,  i.  6,  vi.  13,  vii.  7 ;  tlien,  iii.  7,  vii.  10 ;  hut, 
lil.  8,  iv.  1,  4,  12,  V.  2,  VI.  16;  /or,  iv.  5;  notwithstanrl- 
inrj,  vii.  13.  »  iv.  1,  v.  2  {1  Heb.),  add  vii.  7. 

>iv.  9.  iv.  3.  [2Hob.] 


MICAH. 


11 


givcthec  up  uulil  the  iimr,  &c.  i.e.  because  He 
has  these  good  things  in  store  for  thee,  He 
will  give  thee  up,  until  the  time  comes. 

With  this  great  simplicity  Micah  unites 
great  vividness  and  energy.  Thus  in  pre- 
dicting punishment,  lie  uses  the  form  of  com- 
mand, bidding  them,  as  it  were,  execute  it  on 
themselves^;  Arise,  depart :  as,  in  the  Gi-eat 
Day,  our  Lord  shall  say,  Depart,  ye  cursed. 
And  since  God  does  in  us  or  bj'  us  what  He 
commands  to  be  done,  he  uses  the  imjaerative 
to  Zion,  alike  as  to  her  victories  over  God's 
enemies  ^,  or  her  state  of  anxious  fear ". 

To  that  same  vividness  belong  his  rapid 
changes  of  person  or  gender ;  his  sudden 
questions*;  his  unmarked  dialogues.  The 
changes  of  person  and  gender  occur  in  all 
Hebrew  poetry ;  all  have  their  emphasis. 
He  addresses  the  people  or  place  as  a  whole 
(/e?;i.),  then  all  the  individuals  in  her®;  or 
turns  away  and  speaks  of  it*^ ;  or  contrariwise, 
having  spoken  of  the  whole  in  the  third  per- 
son, he  turns  round  and  drives  the  warning- 
home  to  individuals  ^.  The  variations  in  the 
last  verse  of  ch.  vi.  are  unexampled  for 
rapidity  even  in  Hebrew. 

And  yet  the  flow  of  his  words  is  smooth 
and  measured.  Without  departing  from  the 
conciseness  of  Hebrew  poetry,  his  cadence,  for 
the  most  part,  is  of  the  more  prolonged  sort, 
as  far  as  any  can  be  called  prolonged,  when  all 
is  so  concise.  In  some  8  verses,  out  of  104,  he 
is  markedly  brief,  where  conciseness  corres- 
ponds with  his  subject,  as  in  an  abrupt  ap- 
peal as  to  their  sins'",  or  an  energetic  an- 
nouncement of  judgment'  or  of  mercy'',  or 
in  that  remarkable  prophecy  of  both  •,  how 
God  would,  in  mercy,  cut  off  all  grounds  of 
human  trust.  P]lse,  whereas  in  Nahura  and 
Habakkuk,  not  quite  |,  and  in  the  eleven 
last  Chapters  of  Hosea  much  less  than  A,  of 

»  ii.  10,  add  i.  11, 13,  iv.  10.  >>  iv.  13. 

0  V.  1.  (iv.  14  Heb.) 

«  i.  5,  ii.  7,  iii.  1,  iv.  9,  vi.  3,  6, 10, 11,  vii.  18. 

•  i.  11.  twice. 

*i.  2.  twice ;  in  i.  13.  he  returns  to  the  2d  pers. 

5  ii.  3.  h  iii.  10  (5  words),  vi.  11  (6  words). 

'  V.  8,  and  vii.  13,  (7  words). 

■=  vii.  11  (7  words),  vii.  Id  (5  words). 

1  V.  13  Heb.  (.5  words),  v.  10  (6  words),  v.  11  (7  word.s). 
■"  Out  of  the  157  verses  in  Hosea's  11  last  chapters, 

111  contain  fewer  than  14  words  each,  46  only  14 
words  or  upwards ;  out  of  46,  of  which  the  book  of 
Nahum  consists  (excluding  the  title)  14  only  have 
more  than  13  words  ;  out  of  5-5  of  Habakkuk,  17  onlj"^ 
have  more  than  13. 

■>  In  Micah,  48  out  of  104;  in  Joel,  30  out  of  72;  in 
Obadiah,  10  out  of  21. 

"There  is  less  difference  between  a  verse  of  14 
words,  distributed  43,  43  and  one  of  11,  distributed 
32,  42,  than  in  a  verse  whose  10  words  were  dis- 
tributed 32,32  or  323,2. 

p  The  following  summary  of  these  lesser  divisions, 
which  are  mostly  marked  by  the  Hebrew  accents, 
may  perhaps  give  some  little  idea  of  the  rhythm. 
Only  the  degree  of  subdivision  must  often  be  a 
matter  of  opinion  or  taste  or  ear.  Thus,  of  5  words 
which  grammatically  belong  together,  one  might 
think  that  the  cadence  separated  them  into  3  and 
2;  another  might  take  them  altogether.  But  this 
is  a  matter  of  detail  only;  the  principle  is  unmis- 


the  verses  contain  moru  than  lo  words'",  in 
Micah  above  f  (as,  in  Joel,  nearly  f )  exceed 
that  niunber ".  The  verses  are  "also  distri- 
buted in  that  ever-varying  cadence,  whereliy, 
in  Hebrew  poetry,  portions  of  their  short 
sentences  being  grouped  together,  the  har- 
mony of  the  whole  is  produced  by  the  varied 
disi^ositions  of  these  lesser  groups  of  2,  3,  4, 
and  but  rarely  5  words;  scarcely  any  two 
verses  exactly  corresponding,  but  all  being 
united  by  the  blending  of  similar  cadences. 
In  Micah,  as  in  all  Hebrew  poetry,  tlie  com- 
bination of  3  words  is  the  most  frequent,  and 
this,  sometimes  by  itself,  sometimes  in  union 
with  the  number  4,  making  the  sacred  num- 
ber 7 ;  or,  with  2,  making  a  number  which 
we  find  in  the  tabernacle,  but  which  dwells 
more  in  the  hearts  of  the  disciples  of  the 
Crucified.  The  same  exact  rhythm  seldom 
recurs,  and  that,  naturally,  chiefly  in  the 
shorter  verses,  the  longer  admitting  or  re- 
quiring more  combinations.  Wherever  also 
there  is  more  than  one  pause  in  the  verse,  a 
further  and  very  considerable  variety  of 
rhythm  may  be  produced,  even  when  the  sev- 
eral clauses  of  two  verses  contain  the  same 
number  of  words  in  the  same  order.  The 
difference  of  cadence  is  far  more  influenced 
by  the  place,  wliere  the  verse  is  divided,  than 
by  the  exact  niunber  of  words  contained  in  it. 
The  rhetorical  ibrce  of  the  distribution  of  the 
Avords  into  the  several  clauses  depends  mainly 
upon  the  place  of  the  Athnach  or  semi- 
colon ".  The  same  exact  rhythm,  (in  which 
both  the  same  number  of  words  occur  in  the 
verse,  and  the  vei-se  is  divided  in  the  same 
place)  recurs  only  seven  times  in  Micah,  in 
verses  capable  of  a  variation.  The  other 
four  cases  of  repetition  occur  in  short  verses 
which  have  one  division  only  p  according  to  the 
place  where  the  main  division  of  the  verse  falls. 

takable.  Again,  words  which  have  been  artificially 
joined  togetlier  in  Hebrew  by  the  Makkeph,  I  have 
considered  .as  2  words,  if  each  had  a  di.stinct  idea. 
Thus  PiH,  when  the  mere  sign  of  the  object,  I  have 
not  counted ;  when  it  is  the  preposition,  "  with,"  I 
have  counted  it.  In  the  following  list,  the  verses 
are  ranged  according  to  the  number  of  the  words 
contained  in  each  verse,  beginning  with  the  high- 
est. The  numbers  on  the  right  hand  indicate  the 
lesser  divisions  into  which  each  verse  may  be  dis- 
tributed. The  comma  in  each  set  of  numbers 
marks  the  place  of  the  Athnach  or  semicolon.  The 
Roman  numerals  indicate  how  often  any  cadence 
is  repeated. 

Number  of  Words  in  Each  Lesser  Division. 
Words. 
24         333422,43  432,3264 
22         46,534  14333,44 
21         221,423232  4433,34 
20         23333,33  333,3134  3333,44  4333,322 
19         344,44  34,2253  32,4424 
18         43,3233  342,423  3232,44 
17         444,32  34,33,22  3,4343  2223,.332 
16         222,433  3433,3  33,4222  44,44 
15         32,325  3333,3  432,33  43,233  43,323  (ii)  134,133 

4.3  332  322.3  32 
14         33,53  (ii)    34,34    23122,22    43,43    432,32    333,23 

,33,323    43,52    332,33    13,334    43,34    22,3313 

2222,33  2222,51 


12 


IXTROIHTTIOX  TO 


His  description  of  the  destruction  of  the 
cities  or  villages  of  Judah  corresponds  in 
vividness  to  Isiiiah's  ideal  march  of  Senna- 
cherib'*. The  flame  of  war  spreads  from 
place  to  place ;  but  Micah  relieves  the  same- 
ness of  the  description  of  misery  l)y  every 
variety  which  language  allows.  lie  speaks 
of  them  in  his  own  person  ■",  or  to  them  ;  he 
describes  the  calamity  in  past '  or  in  I'uture  ', 
or  by  use  of  the  imperative ".  The  verbal 
allusions  are  crowded  togetlier  in  a  way  un- 
exampled elsewhere.  Moderns  have  spoken 
of  them,  as  not  after  tlieir  taste,  or  have 
apologized  for  them.  The  mighty  Prophet, 
who  wrought  a  repentance  greater  than  his 
great  contemporary  Isaiah,  knew  well  what 
would  impress  tlie  people  to  whom  he  spoke. 
The  Hebrew  names  had  definite  meanings. 

13  43,3.3  3,442   .332,32   1322,.".  222,.322   432,4  43,.33 

322,42 
12         32,322   422,22    143,22    224,4  23,34    .^3,22    24,24 

43,23 
11         32,33  42,32  (ii)  33,32  23,33  (ii)   24,32   33,23  (ii) 

4322  22,43  32,42 
10         5,r>  a3,4  32,32  (ii)  32.3,2   32,2;$  (ii)   22,33  2222,2 

43,3 
9         43,2  4,32  3,.33  42,3  22,32  .33,3 
8  132,2  33,2 

7         4,3  (ii)  .3,  4  (ii)  3,22 
«;         3,3  (ii)  22,2 
a        3,2  (ii) 

To  facilitate  comparison,  I  subjoin  a  like  analysis 
of  the  other  propiiets  mentionecf. 

HOSEA. 

Eleven  last  chapters, 
22  422253,4  3244,54 
21  4433,34  5,242224 
20  32,33324  33.33,44 
19  4343,32  3423,-34 
18  4,4a34  332,2.332  2232,423  44,3223 
17    4:j,3322  3332,33  23,4323  3223,223  333,323  3323,43 

3442,4 
2323,24  32,3422  233,323  21214,24  3223,33  3232,33 

33,2.53  42,4:}3 
15    344,4  2323,23  3332,4  (ii)  223,242  333,33 

14  43,43  44,3:i  5,432  44,42  43,232  324,32  422,42 
.33,2222  :J3,4'1  3224,3  33,53  4,442  32,333  14,- 
33:J 

33,43  (iii)  .34,42  43,33  (ii)  4,333  4,54  34,33  323.32 

223,3.3  22,2,34  33,34 
4,44  432,21  33,33  (ii)  222,222  32,34  42,42  222,33 

223,32  4.3,122  43,23  43,32  32,43 
24,32  32.3,3  32,33  233,12  33,23  42,23  132,14  32,- 

42  32,33  .33,32  4,43  23,222 
4:j,3(ii)  33,4  (ii)  3,34  ,3232  (ii)  44,2  24,4  222,22 

4,.33  :}3,22  322,3 
,5,13  25,2  3,33  (ii)  33,3  (iii)  232,2  2,322  32,22  (ii) 

32,4  22,23  22,32  (ii)  4,32  13,32  2,34  5,4  24,3 
32,3(11)  23,3  (iv)  2222  224  (ii) 
13,3  (iii)  4,3  (iii)  3,4  (ii)  2,23  22,3  2,.32  23,2  31,3 

33,1  14,2 
4,2  (ii)  3,3  (iii)  13,2  (ii) 
3,2  (vii)  2111  113 

JOEU 
334,3534 
322,144.332 
.3544,223 
423,4423 
5422,422  3.3.35,43 
16,42313  34,34.33 
224  443 

22,4433  33,435 

.3:J32,42  245,33  353,33  1422,36 
334,42  2242,0  44,44 

22-233,3  2432,22  22222,32  344,4  23,2323  333,  33 
34,,35 


13 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 
7 

6 
5 

25 
24 
23 
22 
21 
20 
19 
18 
17 
Ifi 
15 


We  can  well  imagine  how,  as  name  after 
name  passed  from  the  Prophet's  mouth,  con- 
nected with  some  note  of  woe,  all  around 
awaited  anxiously,  to  know  upon  what  place 
the  fire  of  the  Prophet's  word  would  next 
fall ;  and  as  at  last  it  had  fallen  upon  little 
and  mighty  round  aljout  Jerusalem,  the 
names  of  the  places  would  ring  in  their  ears 
as  heralds  of  tlie  coming  woe ;  they  would  be 
like  so  many  monuments,  inscribed  before- 
hand with  the  titles  of  departed  greatness, 
reminding  Jerusalem  itself  of  its  portion  of 
the  prophecy,  that  "  evil  should  come  from  the 
Lord  unto  the  gate  of  Jerusalem. 

Wonderful  must  have  Ijcen  his  lightning- 
flash  of  indignation,  as,  when  the  false  pro- 
phet or  the  people  had  forbidden  God's  word 
to  be   spoken,  he  burst  upon  them,  •'^  Thou, 


24 
20 
19 
18 
17 
15 

14 
13 
12 
11 
10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

<1  Is.  X 
■9,  10, 
'  i.  12. 


53,33  3.34,4  3fi,23  1432,4  3332,3 
34,,33  3,55  33,34 

44,4  34,23  2222,4  5,34  24,33  43,32  32,223 
22,322  (ii)   223,22   2222,3  (ii)  32,33  3,224  32,42 
222,5  4,.331  44,3  223,22  2222,3 

32.32  222,22  22,42  231,4 
32,22  (iii)  2,43  5,22 
3,23  22,22  4,22 

133  3,4  (ii)  3,22  22,3 
3,3  (iv) 

Obadiah. 
4333,323 
4323,43 

3.332,133  34,344  4252^2 
4242,32 
5434  32422,3 
3.34,23 
43,43 

332,23  42,34  4232,2 
35,22 

32.33  42,32 
43,3 

3,33 
4,3  32,2 
32 

Nahum. 
32232,72 
2.3.33,35  3233,44 
.32,337 

34,2322  23,42131 
323,43  .33,522  22222,32  14123,4 
44,33  (ii)  32221,13  3,2234  2.34,32 
42,223  33.32,2  323,32 

33,33  32,34  322,32  ai)  414,3  42,222  222,222 
43,4  32,222  22,313  42,32  23.24  322,22 
42,13  12,223  3,223  32,32 
32,22  (ii)  23,22 
23,3  (ii)  24,2  22,22 
22,21 

1.3.2  31,2 
3,2 

Habakkuk. 
44  4444 
4334.33 
333,1423 
43,2,54  3.332,43 
45,35  422,2232  ,54,44  .333,53 
.34,44  332,322  33,234  34,233  43,44  13143,3  3333,3 

.•«3,42 
43,322  3.32,33  X\M 
32,422  33,4.i  23,44 
323,22  (ii)  3.3,.33(ii) 
222,32  32,42  32,.Xi  322,4  42,14 

322.3  3,34  4,:$3 

33,3  (ii)  4,5  24,3  42,3  2.3,4 
311,3  22,4  .3  32 


3,4  (ii)  4,3  (li) 
3,3  [iv] 
28-32. 
11,  12. 


'  i.  8, 10.  see  note. 
«8.  « 11, 1.3,  ir.. 

7li.  7. 


MICAH. 


13 


called  house  of  Jacob,  shortened  is  God's  Spirit  f 
Or  these  His  doings  ?  And  then  follow  the 
plaintive  descriptions  of  the  wrongs  done  to 
the  poor,  the  peaceful  ^,  the  mothei-s  of  his 
people  and  their  little  ones.  And  then 
again  the  instantaneous  dismissal  ",  Arise  and 
depart.  But,  therewith,  wonderful  also  is  his 
tenderness.  Burning  as  are  his  denuncia- 
tions against  the  oppressions  of  the  rich  *", 
(words  less  vehement  will  not  pierce  hearts 
of  stone)  there  is  an  under-current  of  tender- 
ness. His  rebukes  evince  not  indignation 
only  against  sin,  but  a  tender  .sympathy  with 
the  sufferers.  °  He  is  afflicted  in  the  afflic- 
tions which  he  has  to  denounce.  He  yearns 
for  his  people  •* ;  nay,  until  our  Lord's  Com- 
ing, there  is  scarcely  an  expression  of  such 
yearning  longing :  he  hungers  and  thirets  for 
their  good  ^. 

God's  individual  care  of  His  people,  and 
of  each  soul  in  it,  had,  since  David's  time ' 
and  even  since  Jacob «,  been  likened  to  the 
care  of  the  shepherd  for  each  single  sheep. 
The  Psalm  of  Asaph ''  must  have  familiar- 
izetl  the  jjeople  to  the  image,  as  relating  to 
themselves  as  a  whole,  and  David's  deep 
Psalm  had  unite<.lit  with  Cjod's  tender  care  of 
His  own  in,  and  over,  death.  Yet  the  predomi- 
nance of  this  image  in  Micah  is  a  part  of 
the  tenderness  of  the  Prophet.  He  adopts 
it,  as  expressing,  more  than  any  other  natural 
image,  the  helplessness  of  the  creature,  the 
tender  individual  care  of  the  Creator.  He 
forestalls  our  Lord's  words,  /  am  tlie  good 
shepherd,  in  his  description  of  the  Messiah, 
gathering  the  remiumt  of  Israel  together,  as  the 
sheep  of  Bozrah ' ;  His  people  are  as  a  flock, 
lame  and  despised '',  whom  God  would  assem- 
ble; His  royal  seat,  the  tower  of  thejlock^ ;  the 
Kuler  of  Israel  should  stand  unresting,  and 
feed  them  "" ;  those  whom  He  should  employ 
against  the  enemies  of  His  people,  are  shep- 
herds °,  under  Him,  the  true  shepherd.  He 
sums  up  his  prayer  for  his  people  to  God  as 
their  Shepherd";  Feed  Thy  people  with  Thy 
rod,  the  flock  of  Thine  heritage. 

Directly,  he  was  a  Prophet  for  Judah  only. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  book,  he  condemns 
the  idolatries  of  both  capitals,  as  the  central 
sin  of  the  two  kingdoms.  The  destruction 
of  Samaria  he  pronounces  at  once,  as  future, 
absolutely  certain,  abiding?.  There  he 
leaves  her,  declares  her  wound  incurable,  and 
passes  forthwith  to  Judah,  to  whom,  he  says, 
that  wound  should  pass,  whom  that  same 
enemy  should  reach  i.  Thereafter,  he  men- 
tions incidentally  the  infection  of  Israel's  sin 


.  8,  9.  » 10. 

b  ii.  1,  2,  iii.  1-3,  9-11,  vi.  10-12,  vii.  2,  3. 
« i.  8,  9,  ii.  1,  2,  vii.  5,  6.  d  i.  8-10, 16,  iv.  9, 10. 

•vii.  1.  'Ps.  xxiii.       gGen.  xlix.  24. 

■i  Ps.  Ixxiv.  1,  Ixxviii.  62,  Ixxix.  13,  Ixxx.  1. 
Ui.  12.       kiv.e.       «Ib.  8.      ■nv.4.[Eng.3Heb.] 
"lb.  5.[4Heb.]  » vii.  14. 

pL6,7.  4i.9.  »i.l3.  »i.o. 


spreading  to  Judah  ■■.  Else,  after  that  first 
sentence  on  Samaria,  the  names  of  Jacob 
(which  he  had  given  to  the  ten  tribes^)  and 
Israel  are  appropriated  to  the  kingdom  of 
Judah  ' :  Judah  is  mentioned  no  more,  only 
her  capital "  ;  even  her  kings  are  called  the 
kings  of  Israel  *.  The  ten  tribes  are  only  in- 
cluded in  the  general  restoration  of  the 
whole  y.  The  future  remnant  of  the  two 
tribes,  to  be  restored  after  the  captivity  of 
Babylon,  are  called  by  themselves  the  rem- 
nant of  Jacob  ''■ :  the  Messiah  to  be  born  at 
Bethlehem  is  foreU.ld  H6  the  ruler  in  Israel^: 
the  ten  tribes  are  called  the  remnant  of  His 
brethren,  vfho  were  to  7-eturn  to  the  children  of 
Israel^,  i.e.  Judah. 

This  the  more  illustrates  the  genuineness 
of  the  inscription.  A  later  hand  would  have 
been  unlikely  to  have  mentioned  either  Sa- 
maria or  those  earlier  kings  of  Judah.  Each 
part  of  the  title  corresponds  to  something  in 
the  prophecy ;  the  name  3Iicah  is  alluded  to 
at  its  close  ;  his  birthplace,  the  Morasthite,  at 
its  beginning  ;  the  indications  of  those  earlier 
reigns  lie  there,  although  not  on  its  surface '-. 
The  mention  of  the  two  capitals,  followed  by 
the  immediate  sentence  on  Samaria,  and  theii 
by  the  fuller  expansion  of  the  sins  and  pun- 
ishment of  Jerusalem,  culminating  in  its 
sentence  ^,  in  Micah,  corresponds  to  the  brief 
mention  of  the  punishment  of  Judah  in 
Amos  the  Prophet  of  Israel,  and  then  the 
fuller  expansion  of  the  sins  and  punishments 
of  Israel.  Further,  the  capitals,  as  the  foun- 
tains of  idolatry,  are  the  primary  object  nf 
God's  displeasure.  They  are  both  specially 
denounced  in  the  course  of  the  prophecy ; 
their  special  overthrow  is  foretold*.  The 
title  corresponds  with  the  contents  of  the 
prophecy,  yet  the  objections  of  modern  critics 
shew  that  the  correspondence  does  not  lie  on 
the  surface. 

The  taunt  of  the  false  priest  Amaziah  ^  to 
Amos  may  in  itself  suggest  that  prophets  at 
Jerusalem  did  prophesy  against  Samaria. 
Amaziah,  anyhow,  thought  it  natural  that 
they  should.  Both  Isaiah  and  Micah,  while 
exercising  their  office  at  Jerusalem,  had  re- 
gard also  to  Samaria.  Divided  as  Israel  and 
Judah  were,  Israel  was  not  yet  cut  off.  Is- 
rael and  Judah  were  still,  together,  the  one 
people  of  God.  The  prophets  in  each  had  a 
care  for  the  other. 

Micah  joins  himself  on  to  the  men  of  God 
before  him,  as  Isaiah  at  the  time,  and  Jere- 
miah, Habakkuk,  Zephaniah,  Ezekiel,  sub- 
sequently, emiDloyed  words  or   thoughts  of 


*^  Jacob,  ii.  7,  iii.  1,  8,  9;  hrael,  i.  14,  15,  iii.  1,  8,  9,  v. 
1,  .3,  vi.  2. 
"  See  ab.  p.  6.  » i.  14. 

J  Jacob,  all  of  thee,  ii.  12 ;  the  remnant  of  Israel,  ib. 
'  V.  7,  8,  [8,  9  Heb.l  •  v.  2.  (1  Heb.) 

i>  lb.  3.  (2  Heb.)  •  See  ab.  p.  &, 

■1  iii.  12. 
•  i.  6, 9, 12,  iii.  10-12,  iv.  10.         'See  vol.  i.  p.  321. 


n 


MICAH. 


Mii-ah  8.  Micah  alludes  to  the  liistorv,  the  laws, 
the  promises,  the  threatenings  of  the  Penta- 
teuoli ;  and  that  in  such  wise,  that  it  is  plain 
that  lie  had,  not  traditional  laws  or  traditional 
history,  but  the  Pentateuch  itself  before  him ''. 
Nor  were  those  books  before  himself  only.  His 
book  implies  not  an  acquaintance  only,  but  a 
familiar  acquaintance  with  it  on  the  part  of 
the  people.  The  title,  tlte  land  of  yimrod ', 
the  home  of  boudaye  ",  for  Egypt,  the  allusions 
to  the  miraculous  deliverance  from  Egypt ', 
the  history  of  Balaam  ;  the  whole  summary 
of  the  mercies  of  God  from  the  Exodus  to 
Gilgal",  the  faithfulness  pledged  to  Abra- 
ham and  Jacob  ",  would  be  unintelligible 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  Pentateuch. 
Even  single  expressions  are  taken  from  the 
Pentateuch  °.  Especially,  the  whole  sixth 
chapter  is  grounded  upon  it.  Thence  is  the 
appeal  to  inanimate  nature  to  hear  the  con- 
troversy ;  thence  the  mercies  alleged  on 
God's  part ;  the  offerings  on  man's  part  to 
atone  to  God  (except  the  one  dreadful  super- 
stition of  Ahaz)  are  from  the  law;  the  an- 
swer on  God's  part  is  almost  verbally  from 
the  law;  the  sins  upbraided  are  sins  forbid- 
den in  the  law ;  the  penalties  pronounced  are 
also  tiiose  of  the  law.  There  are  two  allu- 
sions also  to  the  history  of  Joshua  p,  to  Da- 
vid's elegy  over  Saul  and  Jonatlian  •>,  and,  as 
before  said,  to  the  history  of  Micaiah  son  of 
Imlah  in  the  book  of  Kings.  Single  expres- 
sions are  also  taken  from  the  Psalms  "■  and 
the  Proverbs  ^  In  the  descriptions  of  the 
peace  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ',  he  appears 
purposely  to  have  reversed  God's  description 
of  the  animosity  of  the  nations  against  God's 
people  ".  He  has  also  two  characteristic  ex- 
pressions of  Amos.  Perhaps,  in  the  image 
of  the  darkness  which  should  come  on  the 
false  prophets  ",  he  applied  anew  the  image 

8 See  Caspar!  Mielia,  44!»-455. 

^  See  at  length,  in  Caspari,  pp.  420-7,  and  below  on 
tlie  places.  '  v.  G,  (5  Ileb.)  from  Gen.  x.  8-12. 

kvi.  4,  comp.  Dent.  vii.  8,  xiii.  5,  Ex.  xiii.  3,  14, 
XX.  2.  Else  only  in  Josh.  xxiv.  17,  and  Judg.  vi.  8, 
also  from  the  Pent.  Casp. 

1  See  on  ii.  1,3,  vi.  4,  vii.  15.  »  See  on  vi.  4,  5. 

n  See  on  vii.  30. 

•As  nh^  ii.  13, rhyn  vi.  4, -ish  rhw ib. -•iDVf 
ma'?  viL  14,  p«  'Sn?  vii.  17  casp. 


of  Amos,  adding  the  ideas  of  spiritual  dark- 
ness and  perplexity  to  that  of  calamity. 

The  light  and  shadows  of  the  prophetic  lite 
fell  deeply  on  the  soul  of  Micah.  The  cap- 
tivity of  Judah  too  had  been  foretold  before 
him.  Moses  had  foretold  the  end  from  the 
beginning,  had  set  before  theiu  the  captivity 
and  the  dispersion,  as  a  punishment  which 
the  sins  of  the  people  would  certainly  bring 
upon  them.  Hosea  presupposed  it-  ;  Amos 
foretold  that  Jerusalem,  like  the  cities  of  its 
heathen  enemies,  should  be  burned  with 
fire  ^.  Micah  had  to  declare  its  lasting  deso- 
lation*. Even  when  God  wrought  repent- 
ance through  him,  he  knew  that  it  was  but 
for  a  time ;  for  lie  foresaw  and  foretold  that 
the  deliverance  would  be,  not  in  Jerusa- 
lem, but  at  Babylon  **,  in  captivity.  His  pro- 
phecy sank  so  deep,  that,  above  a  century 
afterward,  just  when  it  was  about  to  have  its 
fulfillment,  it  was  the  propliecy  which  wa.s 
remembered.  But  the  sufierings  of  time 
disappeared  in  the  light  of  eternal  truth. 
Above  seven  centuries  rolled  by,  and  Micah 
re-appears  as  the  herald,  not  now  of  sorrow 
but  of  salvation.  ^Vise  men  from  afar,  in 
the  nobility  of  their  simple  belief,  a.sked» 
Where  is  he  that  i.s  bojii  King  of  the  Jeivs ?  A 
king,  jealous  for  his  temporal  empire,  gath- 
ered all  those  learned  in  Holy  Scripture,  and 
echoed  the  question.  The  answer  was  given, 
unhesitatingly,  as  a  well-known  truth  of  God, 
in  the  words  of  Micah.  For  thus  it  is  ivritteit. 
in  the  Prophet.  Glorious  peerage  of  the  two 
contemporary  j)rophots  of  J  udah.  Ei'e  Jesus 
was  born,  the  Angel  announced  the  birth  of 
the  Virgin's  Son,  Ooa  uith  us,  in  the  word;} 
of  Isaiah.  When  He  was  l)orn,  He  wa.i 
pointed  out  as  the  Oljject  of  worship  to  the 
first  converts  from  the  heathen,  on  the  au- 
thority of  God,  through  Micah. 

pSee  on  ii.  4,  vi.  .5.  i  i.  lo. 

'Casp.  428-30;  see  on  ii.  1,  iii.  2,  3,  vii.  2,  7,  8,  lo. 
•Casp.  430-2;  see  on  vi.  9, 11. 
*iv.  3,  Joel  iii.  10. 

"K'n  T\y\  r\;r  'J  a.  2,  Am.  v.  13,  and  fyaT\  ii.  «, 
11,  Am.  vii.  16.  Casp.  44.3. 
»  Mic.  iii.  6,  Am.  viii.  0. 

ySee  on  Hos.  vi.  11.  vol.  i.  pp.  69,  7(i.         'ii.  5. 
» iii.  12.  »iv.  10. 


MIOAH. 


Before  CHAPTER    I. 

CHRIST 

_£l£iI5±iI26:_  1  Micah  sheweth  the  wrath  of 
God  against  Jacob  for  idola- 
try. 10  He  exhorteth  to 
mourning. 

npHE  word  of  the  Lord 

•Jer.26.18.  that   came  to  *  Micah 

the  Morasthite  in  the  days 

'  of  Jotham,  Ahaz,   and 


Chap.  I.  Ver.  1.  The  word  of  the  Lord 
tlmt  came  to  Micah — which  he  saw.  No  two  of 
the  prophets  authenticate  their  prophecy  in 
exactly  the  same  way.  They,  one  and  all, 
have  the  same  simple  statement  to  make, 
that  this  which  they  say  is  from  God,  and 
through  them.  A  later  hand,  had  it  added 
the  titles,  would  have  formed  all  upon  one 
model.  The  title  was  an  essential  part  of  the 
prophetic  book,  as  indicating  to  the  people 
afterward,  that  it  was  not  written  after  the 
event.  It  was  a  witness,  not  to  the  prophet 
whose  name  it  bears,  but  to  God.  The  pro- 
phet bare  witness  to  God,  that  what  he  de- 
livered came  from  Him.  The  event  bare 
witness  to  the  prophet,  that  he  said  this 
truly,  in  that  he  knew  what  God  alone  could 
know, — futurity.  Micah  blends  in  one  the 
facts,  that  he  related  in  words  given  him  by 
God,  what  he  had  seen  spread  before  him  in 
prophetic  vision.  His  prophecy  was,  in  one, 
the  Word  of  the  Lord  which  came  to  him,  and  a 
sight  which  he  saw. 

Micah  omits  all  mention  of  his  father.  His 
great  pi'edecessor  was  known  as  Micaiah  son 
of  Lnlah.  Micah,  a  villager,  would  be  known 
only  by  the  name  of  his  native  \dllage.  So 
Nahum  names  himself  the  Ellcoahite  ;  Jonah 
is  related  to  be  a  native  of  Gath-hepher  ;  Eli- 
jah, the  Tishbite,  a  sojourner  in  the  despised 
(Jilead ' ;  Elisha,  of  Abelmeholah  ;  Jeremiah, 
of  Anathoth ;  forerunners  of  Him,  and 
taught  by  His  Spirit  Who  willed  to  be  born 
at  Bethlehem,  and,  since  this,  although  too 
little  to  be  counted  among  the  thousands  ofjudah, 
was  yet  a  royal  city  and  was  to  be  the  birth- 
place of  the  Christ,  w^as  known  only  as  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  the  Nazarene.  No  prophet  speaks 
of  himself,  or  is  spoken  of,  as  born  at  Jeru- 
salem, the  holy  city.  They  speak  of  themselves 
with  titles  of  lowliness,  not  of  greatness. 

*  1  Kgs  xvii.  1. 

*  In  the  two  passages  quoted  for  the  contrary,  Jer. 
viii.  16,  Ezek.  xii.  19,  the  context  shews  that  |n5< 

is  and  can  only  be,  land,  not,  earth,  .ler.  The  snort- 
ing of  his  horses  is  heard  from  Dan,  and  theycaine  and 
devoured  the  land  and  the  fullness  thereof;  where  the 
land  to  which  they  came  could  plainly  be  Judea 


Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah, 
'' which  he  saw  concerning 
Samaria  and  Jerusalem. 

2  t  Hear,  all  ye  people ; 
"hearken,  O  earth,  and 
t  all  that  therein  is ;  and 
let  the  Lord  God  ^  be  wit- 
ness against  you,  the  Lord 
from  *  his  holy  temple. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cii-.  758-726. 

•>  Amos  1. 1. 
t  Heb.  Hear,  i/« 

people,  all  oj 

them. 
'  Deut.  32. 1. 

Is.  1.  L'. 

t  Heb.  the  full- 
ness thereof. 

aPs.  50.  7. 
Mai.  3.  5. 

'Ps.  11.4. 
Jonah  2.  7. 
Hab.  2.  20. 


Micah  dates  his  prophetic  office  from  kings 
uf  J  udah  only,  as  the  only  kings  of  the  line 
appointed  by  God.  Kings  of  Israel  are 
mentioned  in  addition,  only  by  prophets  of 
Israel.  He  names  Samaria  first,  because,  its 
iniquity  being  most  nearly  fnll,  its  punish- 
ment was  the  nearest. 

2.  Hear,  all  ye  people,  lit.  hear,  ye  peoples,  all 
of  them  Some  140,  or  150  years  had  flowed 
by,  since  Micaiah,  son  of  Imlah,  had  closed 
his  prophecy  in  these  words.  And  now  they 
burst  out  anew.  From  age  to  age  the  word 
of  God  holds  its  course,  ever  receiving  new' 
fullillments,  never  dying  out,  until  the  end 
shall  come.  Tlie  signal  fulfillment  of  the  pro- 
phecy, tp  which  the  ibrmer  Micaiah  had  called 
attention  in  these  words,  was  an  earnest  of  the 
fulfillment  of  this  present  message  of  God. 

Hearken,  0  earth,  and  all  that  thereiti  is.  The 
peoples  or  nations  are  never  Judah  and  Israel 
only:  the  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof  is  the 
well-known  title  of  the  whole  earth  ''  and  all 
its  inhabitants.  Moses  ^  Asaph  *,  Isaiah  °,  call 
heaven  and  earth  as  witnesses  against  God's 
people.  Jeremiah*',  as  Micah  here,  summons 
the  nations  and  the  earth.  The  contest  between 
good  and  evil,  sin  and  holiness,  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  Satan,  everwhere, 
but  most  chiefly  where  God's  Presence  is 
nearest,  is  a  spectacle  to  the  world,  to  angels  and 
to  men ''.  The  nations  are  witnesses  of  God 
against  His  own  people,  so  that  these  should 
not  say,  that  it  was  for  want  of  faithfulness 
or  justice  or  power  ^,  but  in  His  righteous 
judgment,  that  He  cast  off  whom  He  had 
chosen.  So  shall  the  Day  of  Judgment  reveal 
His  righteousness^.  Hearken,  0  earth.  The 
lifeless  earth  '*  trembles  at  the  Presence  of  God, 
and  so  reproaches  the  dullness  of  man.  By  it 
he  summons  man  to  listen  with  great  rever- 
ence to  the  Voice  of  God. 


only.  In  Ezekiel  it  is  not  even  the  land,  but  her 
land.  Say  unto  the  people  of  the  land  ;  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God  of  the  land  of  Israel,— that  her  land  may  be 
desolate  from  all  the  fullness  thereof. 

3  Deut.  xxxii.  1.        <  Ps.  1.  7.       5  i.  2.       «  vi.  19. 

^  1  Cor.  iv.  9. 

8  Ex.  xxxii.  12,  Num.  xiv.  16,  Josh.  vii.  8,  9. 

9  Rom.  ii.  5.  i*>Ps.  exiv.  7,  \o\ii.  o. 

15 


16 


MICAH. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  758-726. 

»l9.  26.  21. 
isPs.  115.  3. 


3  For,  behold,  'the 
.Lord  cometh  forth  out  of 
his  *  place,  and  will  come 


And  let  the  Lord  God  be  witness  against  you. 
Not  in  words,  but  in  deeds  ye  shall  know, 
tliat  I  speak  not  of  myself  but  God  in  me, 
when,  what  I  declare,  He  shall  by  His  Pres- 
ence fulfill.  But  the  nations  are  appealed  to, 
not  merel}'  because  the  judgments  of  God  on 
Israel  should  be  made  known  to  them  by  the 
Prophets.  He  had  not  yet  spoken  of  Israel 
or  Judah,  whereas  he  had  spoken  to  the 
nations ;  hear,  ye  peoples.  It  seems  then  most 
likely  that  here  too  he  is  speaking  to  them. 
Every  judgment  is  an  earnest,  a  forerunner, 
a  part,  of  the  final  judgment  and  an  ensample 
of  its  principles.  It  is  but  "the  last  great 
link  in  the  chain,"  which  unites  God's  deal- 
ings in  time  with  eternity.  God's  judgments 
on  one  imply  a  judgment  on  all.  His  judg- 
ments in  time  imply  a  Judgment  beyond 
time.  Each  sinner  feels  in  his  own  heart  a 
response  to  God's  visible  judgments  on 
another.  Each  sinful  nation  may  read  its  own 
doom  in  the  sentence  on  each  other  nation. 
God  judges  each  according  to  his  own  meas- 
ure of  light  and  grace,  accepted  or  refused. 
The  Heathen  shall  be  judged  by  the  law  writ- 
ten in  their  heart  ^ ;  the  Jew,  by  the  law  of 
Moses  and  the  light  of  the  prophets ;  Chris- 
tians, by  the  law  of  Christ.  The  ivord,  Christ 
saith  ^,  that  I  have  spoken,  the  same  shall  judge 
him  at  the  last  Day.  God  Himself  foretold, 
that  the  heathen  should  know  the  ground  of 
His  judgments  against  His  peopled  All 
tuitions  shall  say,  wherefore  hath  the  Lord 
ilone  thus  unto  this  land?  What  meaneth  the 
heat  of  this  great  anger  f  Then  men  shall  say^ 
Beca,use  they  have  forsaken  the  covenant  of  the 
Lord  God  of  their  fathers  which  He  made  with 
them,  when  He  brought  them  forth  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  &c.  But  in  that  the  heathen  knew 
why  God  so  punished  His  people,  they  came 
.so  far  to  know  the  mind  of  God  ;  and  God, 
Who  at  no  time  *  left  Himself  williout  witness, 
lx)re  fresh  witness  to  them,  and,  so  far  as 
tiiey  neglected  it,  against  them.  A  Jew, 
wherever  he  is  seen  throughout  the  world, 
is  a  witness  to  the  world  of  God's  judgments 
against  sin. 

"  *  Oirist,  the  faithful  Witness,  shall  wit- 
ness against  those  who  do  ill, /or  tliose  who  do 
well." 

The  Lord  from  His  holy  temple.  Either  that 
at  Jerusalem,  where  God  shewed  and  revealed 
Himself,  or  Heaven  of  which  it  was  the 
image.  As  David  says  ®,  The  Lord  is  in  His 
holy  temple  ;  the  Lord's  throne  is  in  heaven  ;  and 


» Rom.  11. 12-16. 
sDeut.  xxix.24, 6. 
«P.«.  xi.  4. 


» S.John  xli. «. 
<.\cts  xlv.  17.         »Diou. 
7  Ps.  xviii.  9. 


down,    and    tread    upon    chrYst 
the  "high   places   of   the    cir.  758-726. 

. ,  >>  Deut  32.  13. 

earth.  433.29. 

Amos  4. 13. 


contrasts  His  dwelling  in  heaven  and  His 
coming  down  upon  earth.  ^  He  bowed  tfie 
h^^avens  also  and  came  down  ;  and  Isaiah,  in 
like  words*.  Behold,  the  Lord  cometh  out  of  His 
place  to  punish  the  inhabitants  of  tfie  earth  for 
their  iniquity. 

3,  For,  behold,  the  Lord  cometh  forth,  i.  e.  (as 
we  now  say,)  is  coming  forth.  Each  day  of 
judgment,  and  tlie  last ^Iso,  are  ever  drawing 
nigh,  noiselessly  as  the  nightfall,  but  unceas- 
ingly. Out  of  His  Place.  "^God  is  hidden 
from  us,  except  when  He  sheweth  Himself 
by  His  Wisdom  or  Power  of  Justice  or  Grace, 
as  Isaiah  saith  ^°,  Verily,  Thou  art  a  God  Who 
hidest  Thyself."  He  seemeth  to  be  absent, 
when  He  doth  not  visibly  work  either  in  the 
heart  within,  or  in  judgments  without ;  to  the 
ungodly  and  unbelieving  He  is  absent  ",  far 
above  out  of  their  sight,  when  He  does  not 
avenge  their  scoffs,  their  sins,  their  irrever- 
ence. Again  He  seemeth  to  go  forth,  when 
His  Power  is  felt.  '""Whence  it  is  said  ^^, 
Bow  Thy  heavens,  0  Lord,  and  come  douii; 
and  the  Lord  saith  of  Sodom  ^*,  /  will  go  doivn 
now  and  see,  ivhether  they  have  done  altogether 
according  to  the  cry  of  it,  uhich  is  come  unto  Me. 
Or,  the  Place  of  the  Infinite  God  is  God  Him- 
self. For  the  Infinite  snstaineth  Itself,  nor 
doth  anything  out  of  Itself  contain  It.  God 
dweUeth  also  iV;  light  unapproachable  ".  When 
then  Almighty  God  doth  not  manifest  Him- 
self, He  abideth,  as  it  were,  in  His  own  Place. 
When  He  manifests  His  Power  or  Wisdom  or 
Justice  by  their  effects,  He  is  said  to  go  forth 
out  of  His  Place,  i.  e.  out  of  His  hiddenness. 
Again,  since  the  Nature  of  God  is  Goodness, 
it  is  proper  and  co-natural  to  Him,  to  be  pro- 
pitious, have  mercy  and  spare.  In  this  way, 
the  Place  of  God  is  His  mercy.  ^Vhen  then 
He  pas.seth  from  the  sweetness  of  pity  to  the 
rigor  of  equity,  and,  on  account  of  our  sins, 
sheweth  Himself  severe  (which  is,  as  it  were, 
alien  from  Him)  He  goeth  forth  out  of  Hix 
Place."  "i^For  He  Who  is  gentle  and 
gracious,  and  Whose  Nature  it  is  to  have 
mercy,  is  constrained,  on  your  account,  to 
take  the  seeming  of  hardness,  which  is  not 
His." 

He  comes  invisibly  now,  in  that  it  is  He 
Who  punislieth,  through  whatever  power  or 
will  of  man  He  uscth  ;  He  shews  forth  His 
Holiness  through  the  punishment  of  unholi- 
ness.  But  the  words,  which  are  image-lan- 
guage now,  shall  be  most  exactly  fullifled  in 
the  end,  wlien,  in  the  Person  of  our  Lord,  Ho 


8  xxvi.  21. 
"  Fs.  X.  6. 
laGon.  xviii.  21, 


»Dlou.  Wxlv.  li 

ups.  cxliv.  6,  Is.  Ixiv.  1. 
>M  Tim.  vi.  IG.        »9.  Jer. 


CHAPTEE  I. 


17 


CHR°/sT       "^  -^^^  '*^®  mountains 
cir.  758-726.    ghall  be  molten  under  him, 

Ps.97.^'5^'        and   the  valleys  shall  be 

la.  64. 1, 2,  3.  Amos  9.  5.  Hab.  3.  6, 10. 


shall  come  visibly  to  judge  the  world.  "  ^  In 
the  Day  of  J  udgment,  Christ  shall  come  down, 
according  to  that  Nature  which  He  took, 
from  His  Place,  the  highest  heavens,  and 
shall  cast  down  the  proud  things  of  this 
world." 

And  will  come  down  ;  not  by  change  of  place, 
or  in  Himself,  but  as  felt  in  the  punishment 
of  sin ;  and  tread  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
earth;  to  bring  down  the  pride  of  those  ^  who 
"  ^  being  lifted  up  in  their  own  conceit  and 
lofty,  sinning  through  pride  and  proud 
through  sin,  were  yet  created  out  of  earth. 
For  *  why  is  earth  and  ashes  proud  f  "  What 
seems  mightiest  and  most  firm,  is  unto  God 
less  than  is  to  man  the  dust  under  his  feet. 
The  high  places  were  also  the  special  scenes 
of  an  unceasing  idolatry.  "  God  treadeth  in 
the  good  and  humble,  in  that  He  dwelleth, 
walketh,  feasteth  in  their  hearts  ^  But  He 
treadeth  upon  the  proud  and  the  evil,  in  that 
He  casteth  them  down,  despiseth,  condemneth 
them." 

4.  And  the  mountains  shall  be  molten  under 
Him.  It  has  been  thought  that  this  is 
imitgery,  taken  from  volcanic  eruptions^; 
but,  although  there  is  a  very  remarkable  vol- 
canic district  just  outside  of  Gilead '',  it  is 
not  thought  to  have  been  active  at  times  so 
late  as  these  ;  nor  were  the  people  to  whom 
the  words  were  said,  familiar  with  it.  Fire, 
the  real  agent  at  the  end  of  the  world,  is, 
meanwhile,  the  symbol  of  God's  anger,  as 
being  the  most  terrible  of  His  instruments  of 
destruction:  whence  God  revealed  Himself  as 
a  consuming  fire  ®,  and,  at  this  same  time  said 
by  Isaiah  ®  ;  For  behold,  the  Lord  will  come  with 
fire — to  render  His  anger  with  fury,  and  His  re- 
buke with  flames  of  fire. 

And  the  valleys  shall  be  cleft  as  ivax  before  the 
fire.  It  seems  natural  that  the  mountains 
should  be  cleft ;  but  the  valleys '°,   so  low 

1 S.  Jer.  Theoph.  2  See  Am.  iv.  13,  Job  ix.  8. 

»  Rup.  *  Ecelus.  X.  9. 

6  2  Cor.  vi.  16,  Rev.  iii.  20.        «  Henderson  here. 

'  See  vol.  i.  p.  425.  s  Deut.  iv.  24. 

B  Ixvi.  15. 

10  Hence  some  MSS.  mentioned  in  De  Rossi's  cod. 
519,  have  (as  a  conjecture)  mj?3Jni  "the  hills." 

"  Sanch.  ^-See  Ps.  xevii.  5. 

13  See  S.  Hil.  in  Ps.  Ivii.  3  4.  DDO  is  used,  as  to 
natural  objects,  only  of  such  melting  whereby  the 
substance  is  wasted,  as  of  manna  (Ex.  xvi.  21),  wax 
(Ps.  Ixviii.  3,  &c.),  or  the  body  through  disease  (1 
Sam.  XXV.  37) ;  then,  morally,  chiefly  of  fear. 

i*See  Ges.  Thes.  sub  v.  from  the  Punic,  !\ronum. 
Phoen.  p.  418.  "There  are  many  waterfalls  in 
Lebanon,  one  very  near  and  to  the  N.  of  the  Damas- 
cus road.  I  have  also  seen  one  in  Anti-libanus  on 
the  river  Barada,  a  little  above  Abil.  The  stream, 
named  Sheba,  which  springs  from  the  perpetual 
snows  of  Mount  Hermon  is  extremely  rapid  and 
has  a  very  steep  fall  to  the  Hasbeia  which  it  joins 


cleft,  as  wax  before  the  fire, 

and  as  the  waters  that  are . 

poured  down  f  a  steep  place,  t  Heb.  a  descent. 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  758-726. 


already  !  This  speaks  of  a  yet  deeper  disso- 
lution ;  of  lower  depths  beyond  our  sight  or 
knowledge,  into  the  very  heart  of  the 
earth.  "  "  This  should  they  fear,  who  will 
to  be  so  low  ;  who,  so  far  from  lifting  them- 
selves to  heavenly  things,  pour  out  their 
afi'ections  on  things  of  earth,  meditate  on  and 
love  earthly  things,  and  forgetful  of  the 
heavenly,  choose  to  fix  their  eyes  on  earth. 
These  the  wide  gaping  of  the  earth  which 
they  loved,  shall  swallow  :  to  them  the  cleft 
valleys  shall  open  an  everlasting  sepulchre, 
and,  having  received  them,  shall  never  part 
with  them." 

Highest  and  lowest,  first  and  last,  shall 
perish  before  Him.  The  pride  of  the  highest, 
kings  and  princes,  priests  and  judges,  shall 
sink  and  melt  away  beneath  the  weight  and 
Majesty  of  His  glory ;  the  hardness  of  the 
lowest,  which  would  not  open  itself  to  Him, 
shall  be  cleft  in  twain  before  Him. 

As  wax  before  the  fire  ^^,  melting  away  be- 
fore Him  by  Whom  they  were  not  softened, 
vanishing  into  nothingness.  Metals  melt, 
changing  their  form  only  ;  wax,  so  as  to  cease 
to  be  1^. 

As  the  waters  poured  down  (as  a  stream  or 
cataract,  so  the  word  means ")  a  steep  place. 
Down  to  the  very  edge,  it  is  borne  along,  one 
strong,  smooth,  unbroken  current ;  then,  at 
once,  it  seems  to  gather  its  strength,  for  one 
great  effort.  But  to  what  end  ?  To  fall,  with 
the  greater  force,  headlong,  scattered  in  spray, 
foam  and  froth ;  dissipated,  at  times,  into 
vapor,  or  reeling  in  giddy  eddies,  never  to 
return.  In  Judaea,  where  the  autumn  rains 
set  in  with  great  vehemence^*,  the  waters 
must  have  been  often  seen  pouring  in  their 
little  tumultuous  brooklets  down  the  moun- 
tain side  ^®,  hastening  to  disappear,  and  dis- 
appearing the  faster,  the  more  vehemently 
they  rolled  along  ^^.    Both    images  exhibit 

in  Merj-el-Huloh.  The  Jordan  is  a  continual  cataract 
between  el-Huleh  and  the  Lake  of  Gennesareth  ;" 
(Rev.  G.  Williams,  MS.  letter)  "a  fall  of  600  feet  in 
about  10  miles.  On  the  Western  bank,  high  above 
the  rocky  bed  of  the  torrent,  the  water  was  running 
rapidly  down  the  steep  incline  toward  the  river, 
which  could  hardly  be  less  than  150  feet  below  us.' 
(Id.  Col.  Church  Chron.  18G0.  Jan.  p.  30.).  Porter 
describes  the  fall  of  the  river  Adonis  (Five  years, 
ii.  295.)  From  the  height  at  which  the  streams  rise 
in  the  Lebanon  chain,  there  must  be  many  greater 
or  lesser  falls. 

15  Hence  the  Hebrew  name  Dtyj,  "  heavy  rain," 
for  which  we  have  no  one  word,  is  used  of  the 
autumn  and  winter  rain,  Cant.  ii.  11. 

1*1  have  seen  this  effect  for  above  half  an  hour 
(15  miles)  on  the  mountain  country  near  the  lakes 
in  a  thunderstorm. 

1' "  The  decrease  of  the  waters  ^swollen  by  the 
rains  in  the  mountains)  is  usually  as  rapid  as  their 
rise."    BurckliaiJt,  Syria,  p.  161. 


18 


MICAH. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  758-726. 


5  For  the  transgression 
of  Jacob  is  all  this,  and 
for  the  sini  of  the  house  of 
Israel.  What  is  the  trans- 
gression  of  Jacob?  is  it 


the  inward  emptiness  of  sinners,  man's  utter 
helplessness  before  God.  Tliey  need  no  out- 
ward impulse  to  their  destruction.  "  ^  Wax 
endureth  not  the  nearness  of  the  tire,  and  the 
waters  are  carried  headlong.  So  all  of  the 
ungoilly,  when  the  Lord  cometii,  shall  be 
dissolved  and  disappear."  At  the  end  of  the 
world,  they  shall  be  gathered  into  bundles, 
and  cast  away. 

5.  For  (he  transgression  of  Jacob  is  aU  this. 
Not  for  any  change  of  purpose  in  God ;  nor, 
again,  as  the  effect  of  man  s  lust  of  conquest. 
None  could  have  any  power  against  God's 
people,  unless  it  had  been  given  him  by  God. 
Those  mighty  Monarchies  of  old  existed  but 
as  God's  instruments,  especially  toward  Ilis 
own  people.  God  said  at  this  time  of  Assy- 
ria, ^^.ssAiir,  rod  of  Mine  anger,  and  the  staff  in 
his  hind  is  Mine  indignation  ;  and '',  Now  have 
I  brought  it  to  pass,  that  thou  shonld^'A  be  to  lay 
ivruste  defended  cities  into  ndnons  heaps.  Each 
scourge  of  God  chastised  just  those  nations, 
which  God  willed  him  to  chasten  ;  but  the 
especial  object  for  which  each  was  raised  up 
was  his  mission  against  that  people,  in  whom 
Gol  most  shewed  His  mercies  and  His  judg- 
ments. *  /  wdl  send  him  agalnnt  an  ungodly 
nation  and  against  the  people  of  Mi/  wrath  will  I 
give  him  a  charge.  Jacob  and  Israel,  in  this 
place,  comprise  alike  the  ten  tribes  and  the 
two.  They  still  bare  the  name  of  their 
father,  who,  wrestling  with  the  Angel,  became 
a  prince  with  God,  Whom  they  forgat.  The 
name  of  Jacob  then,  a.s  of  Christian  now, 
stamped  as  deserters,  those  who  did  not  tlie 
deeds  of  their  father.  What,  [ruther  Who^] 
is  the  tramgression  of  Jacob  f  Who  is  its  cause  '! 
In  whom  does  it  lie  ?  Is  it  not  Samaria  f 
The  metropolis  must,  in  its  own  nature,  be 
tlie  source  of  good  or  evil  to  the  land.  It  is 
thj  heart  whose  pulses  beat  throughout  the 
wh  lie  system.  As  the  seat  of  jiower,  the  res- 
idence of  justice  or  injustice,  the  place  of 
counsel,  the  concentration  of  wealtli,  which 
all  the  most  inlluentiil  of  the  land  visit  for 
tlieir  several  occasions,  its  manners  penetrate 
in  a  degree  the  utmost  corners  of  the  land. 
Corrupted,  it  becomes  a  focus  of  corruption. 
Tiie  Ijlood  passes  through  it,  not  to  be  puri- 
fied, but  to  be  diseased.  Samaria,  being 
founded  on  apostasy,  owing  its  being  to  rebel- 
lion against  God,  the  home  of  that  policy 

» 8.  Jer.     «  Ih.  x.  r,.     »  lb.  xxxvii.  20.     ■•  lb.  x.  0. 

*'0  always  relates  t"  a  personal  object,  and  appa- 
rent ereeptions  may  l)e  reduced  to  tliis.  So  AE. 
Kim.  Tanch.  Poc. 


not  Samaria?  and  what 
are  the  high  places  of  Ju- . 
dah  ?  are  they  not  Jerusa- 
lem?         .     . 

6  Tii«¥^im  I  will  make 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  758-726. 


which  set  up  a  rival  system  of  worship  to 
His,  forbidden  by  Him,  became  a  fountain  of 
evil,  whence  the  stream  of  ungodliness  over- 
flowed the  land.  It  became  the  imperson- 
ation of  the  people's  sin,  "  the  heart  and  the 
head  of  the  i)ody  of  sin." 

And  what  [lit.  117(0*]  are  the  high  places 
oj  Judah  f  are  they  not  Jerusalem  f  Jerusalem 
God  had  formed  to  be  a  centre  of  unity  in 
holiness ;  thither  the  tribes  of  the  Lord  were  to 
go  up  to  the  testimony  of  Israel ;  there  wan  the 
unceasing  worship  of  Gf)d,  the  morning  and 
evening  sacritice  ;  the  Feasts,  the  memorials 
of  past  miraculous  mercies,  the  foreshadow- 
ings  of  redemption.  But  there  too  Satan 
placed  his  throne.  Ahaz  brought  thither 
that  most  hateful  idolatry,  the  burning  chil- 
dren to  Moloch  in  the  vaUey  of  the  son  of  Ilin- 
nom^.  There,  ''he  made  him  altars  in  every 
corner  of  Jerusalem.  Thence,  he  extended  the 
idolatry  to  all  Judah.  ^  And  in  every  several 
city  of  Judah  he  made  high  places  to  burn  incense 
unto  other  gods,  and  provofced  to  anger  the  Lord 
God  of  his  fathers.  Hezekiah,  in  his  reforma- 
tion, with  all  Israel,  ^  went  out  to  the  cities  of 
Judah,  and  brake  the  images  in  pieces  and 
hewed  down  the  statues  of  Ashcrah,  and  threw 
down  the  high  places  and  the  altars  out  of  all 
Judah  and  Benjamin,  as  much  as  out  of  Eph- 
raim  and  Munasseh.  Nay,  by  a  perverse 
interchange,  Ahaz  took  the  brazen  altar,  con- 
secrated to  God,  for  his  own  divinations,  and 
assigned  to  the  worship  of  God  the  altar 
copied  from  the  idol-altar  at  Dam.Hscus,  whose 
fashion  pleased  his  taste '".  Since  God  and 
mammon  cannot  be  served  together,  Jerusalem 
was  become  one  great  idol  temple,  in  which 
Judah  brought  its  sin  into  the  very  face  of 
God  and  of  His  Worship.  The  Holy  City 
had  itself  become  sin,  and  the  fountain  of 
unholincss.  The  one  temple  of  Ciod  was  the 
single  protest  against  the  id()latries  which 
encompassed  and  besieged  it ;  the  incense 
went  up  to  God,  morning  and  evening,  from 
it ;  from  every  head  of  every  street  of  the 
city  ",  and  (since  .Vhaz  had  lirought  in  the 
worship  of  Baalim  ",  and  the  rites  of  idol- 
atry continued  the  same,)  fnmi  the  roofs  of  all 
their  //o)(.sv,s '^,  went  up  the  inreiLie  to  liwd ;  a 
worship  which,  denying  the  Unity,  denied  the 
Being  of  ( Jod. 

6.  Therefore  [Ut.  And]  I  will  make  Samaria 

«2Chr.  xxviii.3.  '  Ih.  24.  8  lb.  26. 

i>Ih.  xxxi.  1.  10  2  Kings  xvl.  lO-Hi, 

n  Kzek.  xvl.  :U,  2  Chr.  xxviii.  24.  "  }l>.  'i. 

18  Jer.  xxxii.  2'.t. 


CH.A.PTEK  I. 


19 


c  H  R^i  s  T  Samaria "  as  an  heap  of  the 
cir.  758-726.  field,  and  as  j^lantings  of  a 
k  2  Kings  19. 25.  viiiejard :  and  I  will  pour 


ch.  3.  12. 


» Ezek.  13. 14. 


down  the  stones  thereof 
into  the  valley,  and  I  will 
'  discover  the  foundations 
thereof. 


as  an  heap  of  the  field,  and  as  plantings  of  a  vine- 
yard. "  ^  The  order,  of  the  sin  was  the  order 
of  the  punishment."  Samaria's  sins  \vere  the 
earliest,  the  most  obstinate,  the  most  un- 
brSKen,  bound  up  with  its  being  as  a  state. 
On  it  tlien  GodVjudgments  should  tirst  fall. 
It  was  a  croivn~qjpricle  ^,  resting  on  the  head  of 
the  rich  iKdleys,  out  of  which  it  rose.  Its  soil 
is  still  rich  *.  "  The  whole  is  now  cultivated 
in  terraces*,"  "to  the  summits*."  Prob- 
ably, since  the  sides  of  hills,  open  to  the  sun, 
were  chosen  for  vineyards,  it  liad  been  a  vine- 
yard, before  Shemer  sold  it  toOmri®.  What 
it  had  been,  that  it  Avas  again  to  be.  Its 
inhabitants  cast  fortli,  its  houses  and  gorgeous 
palaces  were  to  become  heaps  of  stones,  gath- 
ered out '  to  make  way  for  cultivation,  or  to 
become  the  I'ences  of  the  vegetation,  which 
should  succeed  to  man.  There  is  scarce  a 
sadder  natural  sight  than  the  fragments  of 
human  habitation,  tokens  of  man's  labor  or 
his  luxury,  amid  the  rich  beauty  of  nature 
when  man  himself  is  gone.  For  they  are 
tracks  of  sin  and  punishment,  man's  rebellion 
and  God's  jujigment,  man's  unworthiness  of 
the  good  natural  gifts  of  TJwT.  A  century  or 
two  ago,  travelers  "^  speak  of  the  ground 
[the  site  of  Samaria]  as  strewed  with  masses 
of  ruins."  Now  these  too  are  gone.  "  ^  The 
stones  of  the  temples  and  palaces  of  Samaria 
have  been  carei'ully  removed  from  the  rich 
soil,  tlirown  together  in  heaps,  built  up  in 
the  rude  walls  of  terraces,  and  rolled  down 
into  the  valley  below."  "^  About  midway 
of  the  ascent,  the  hill  is  surrounded  by  a  nar- 
row terrace  of  woodland  like  a  belt.  Higher 
up  too  are  the  marks  of  slighter  terraces, 
once  occui^ied  perhaps  by  tlie  streets  of  the 
ancient  city."  Terrace-cultivation  has  suc- 
ceeded to  the  terraced  streets  once  thronged 
by  the  busy,  luxurious,  sinful,  population. 

And  I  mil  pour  down  the  stones  thereof  into 
the  valley,  of  which  it  was  the  crest,  and  which 
it  now  proudly  surveyed.  God  Himself 
would  cause  it  to  be  poured  down  ( he  uses 
the  word  which  he  had  just  used  of  the 
vehemence  of  the  cataract  ^°').  "  "  The  whole 
face  of  this  part  of  the  hill  suggests  the  idea 

'  S.  Jer.  *  Is.  xxviii.  1. 

8  Porter,  Hdbook,  p.  345.  ■*  lb.  344. 

6  Rob.  ii.  304.  307.      « 1  Kings  xvi.  24.      '  Is.  v.  2. 
*"Cotovic'us  in  the  16th,  and  Von  Troilo  in  the 
17th  century ."    Rob.  ii.  ZOl.  note  1. 


7  And  all  the  graven    ,,  M'>i'%  „. 

o  CHRIST 

images  thereof  shall  be  _£ilii£?il!2i_ 

beaten  to  pieces,  and  all 

the  •" hires   thereof  shall  "Hoa. 2. 5,12. 

be  burned   with  the  fire, 

and  all   the   idols  thereof 

will  I  lay  desolate :  for  she 


that  the  buildings  of  the  ancient  city  had 
been  thrown  down  from  the  brow  of  the  hill. 
Ascending  to  the  top,  we  went  round  the 
whole  summit,  and  found  marks  of  the  same 
process  everywhere." 

And  I  will  discover  the  foundations  thereof. 
The  desolation  is  entire ;  not  one  stone  left 
upon  another.  Yet  the  very  words  of  threat- 
ening contain  hope.  It  was  to  be  not  a  heap 
only,  but  the  plantings  of  a  vineyard.  The 
heaps  betoken  ruin  ;  the  vineyard,  fruitfulness 
cared  for  by  God.  Destroyed,  as  what  it  was, 
and  turned  vipside  down,  as  a  vineyard  by 
the  share,  it  should  become  again  what  God 
made  it  and  willed  it  to  be.  It  should  again 
become  a  rich  valley,  but  in  outward  desola- 
tion. Its  splendid  palaces,  its  idol  temples, 
its  houses  of  joy,  should  be  but  lieaps  and 
ruins,  which  are  cleared  away  out  of  a  vine- 
yard, as  only  choking  it.  It  was  built  in 
rebellion  and  schism,  loose  and  not  held 
together,  like  a  heap  of  stones,  having  no 
cement  of  love,  rent  and  torn  in  itself,  having 
been  torn  both  from  God  and  His  worship. 
It  could  be  remade  only  by  being  wholly 
unmade.  Then  should  they  who  believed  be 
branches  grafted  in  Him  Who  said,  ^'^I  am  the 
Vine,  ye  are  the  branches. 

7.  And  all  the  graven  images  thereof  shcdl  be 
beaten  to  pieces.  Its  idols  in  whom  she  trusts, 
so  far  from  protecting  her,  shall  themselves 
go  into  captivity,  broken  up  for  the  gold  and 
silver  whereof  they  were  made.  The  ware^ 
of  the  Assyrians  being  religious  wars  '^,  the 
idolatry  of  Assyria  destroyed  the  idolatry 
and  idols  of  Israel. 

And  all  the  hires  thereof  shall  be  burned  with 
fire.  All  forsaking  of  God  being  spiritual 
fornication  from  Him  Who  made  His  crea- 
tures for  Himself,  the  hires  are  all  which 
man  would  gain  by  that  desertion  of  his  God, 
employed  in  man's  intercourse  with  his  idols, 
whether  as  bribing  his  idols  to  give  him 
what  are  the  gifts  of  God,  or  a.s  himself 
bribed  by  them.  For  there  is  no  pure  ser- 
vice, save  that  of  the  love  of  God.  God 
alone  can  be  loved  purely,  for  Himself;  ofi'er- 
ings  to  Him  Alone  are  the  creature's  pure 

»  Rob.  ii.  304.  1"  ver.  4. 

u  Narrative  of  Scottish  Mission,  pp.  293,  4.  in  Hen- 
derson. 
12  S.  John  XV.  .3. 
isSee  below  Intvud.  to  >'aliuia. 


20 


MICAH. 


2a-^>^^ 


^4^^ 


^. 


Before 
CHRIST 
clr.  768-726. 


gathered  it  of  the  hire  of 
an  harlot  and  they  shall 
return  to  the  hire  of  an 
harlot. 


homage  to  the  Creator,  going  out  of  itself,  not 
looking  back  to  itself,  not  seeking  itself,  but 
stretching  forth  to  Him  and  seeking  Him  for 
Himself.  Whatever  man  gives  to  or  hopes  from 
his  idols,  man  himself  is  alike  his  object  in  botli. 
The  Aire  then  is,  alike  what  he  gives  to  his  idols, 
the  gold  whereof  he  nuilces  his  Baal ',  the  oflerings 
which  the  heathen  used  to  lay  up  in  their 
temples,  and  what,  as  he  thought,  he  him- 
self received  back.  For  he  gave  only  earthly 
things,  in  order  to  receive  back  things  of 
earth.  He  hired  their  service  to  him,  and 
his  earthly  gains  were  his  hire.  It  is  a 
strong  mockery  in  the  mouth  of  God,  that 
they  had  these  things  from  their  idols.  He 
speaks  to  them  after  their  thougiits.  Yet  it 
is  true  that,  although  God  overrules  all, 
man  does  receive  from  Satan  ^,  the  god  of  this 
vorkl^,  all  which  he  gains  amiss.     It  is  the 

J)rice  for  which  he  sells  his  soul  and  profanes 
limself.  Yet  herein  were  the  heathen  more 
religious  than  the  Christian  worldling. 
The  heathen  did  otier  an  ignorant  service  to 
they  knew  not  what.  Our  idolatry  of  mam- 
mon, as  being  less  abstract,  is  more  evident 
eelf-worship,  a  more  visible  ignoring  and  so 
a  more  open  dethroning  of  God,  a  worship  of 
a  material  prosperity,  of  which  we  seem  our- 
selves to  be  the  authors,  and  to  which  we 
habitually  immolate  the  souls  of  men,  so 
habitually  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  con- 
scious of  it. 

And  all  the  idols  thereof  ivill  I  lay  desolate,  lit. 
make  a  desolation.  They,  now  thronged  by 
their  worshipers,  should  be  deserted  ;  their 
place  and  temple,  a  waste.  He  tlirice  repeats 
<Ul ;  tdl  her  graven  images,  cdl  her  hires,  all  her 
idols ;  (dl  should  be  destroyed.  He  subjoins 
a  threefold  destruction  which  should  over- 
take them  ;  so  that,  while  the  Assyrian  broke 
and  carried  off  the  more  precious,  or  burned 
what  could  be  burned,  and,  what  could  not 
be  burned,  nor  was  worth  transporting,  should 
be  left  desolate,  all  should  come  to  an  end. 
He  sets  the  whole  the  more  vividly  before 
the  mind,  exhibiting  to  us  so  many  separate 
pictures  of  the  motle  of  destruction. 

For  from  the  hire  of  a  harlot  she  gathered 
tliem,  aiul  to  the  hire  of  a  harlot  they  shall  return. 
"*The  wealth  and  manifold  provision  which 
(aa  she  thought)  were  gained  by  fornication 


>8ee  Hos.  if.  8.  vol.  i.  p.  32.  ^S.  Matt.  iv.  n. 

«2C..r.  iv.  4.  «S.  Jer.  5  Rom.  i.  23. 

•Hesiod. 'E.  K.  'H.  364.  L. 
'  Piml.ir  Isthm.  vil.  C7,  8.  L.  »  Herod,  i.  199. 

»vi.  4;i.  logtrabo,  .\vi.  1.  20. 


8  Therefor^  "  I^wiil  wailj,c  h  rTI  t 
and  howl,  °I(>'lf^  go  Jfrip    gir-  768-726. 
ped  and  naked:   •"!  will    "/b. '4.' 
make   a   wailing   like  the    •^it^m.-iJi.A 

P  Job  30.  29.  Ps.  102.  6. 


-vM 


with  her  idols,  shall  go  to  another  harlot, 
Nineveh ;  so  that,  as  they  went  a  whoring  in 
their  own  land,  they  should  go  to  another 
land  of  idols  and  fornication,  the  Assyrians." 
They  ^  turned  their  glory  into  shame,  changing 
the  glory  of  the  incoiTuptible  God  into  an  image 
made  like  unto  corruptible  man;  and  so  it 
should  turn  to  them  into  shame.  It  sprung 
out  of  their  shame,  and  should  turn  to  it 
again.  "  111  got,  ill  spent."  Evil  gain,  cursed 
in  its  origin,  has  the  curse  of  God  upon  it, 
and  makes  its  gainer  a  curse,  and  ends  ac- 
cursedly. "  Make  not  ill  gains,"  says  even  a 
Heathen®,  "ill  gains  are  equal  to  losses;" 
and  another ',  "  Unlawful  sweetness  a  most 
bitter  end  awaiteth." 

Probably,  the  most  literal  sense  is  not  to 
be  excluded.  The  degrading  idolatrous  cus- 
tom, related  of  Babylon  and  Cyprus",  still 
continued  among  the  Babylonians  at  the  date 
of  the  book  of  Baruch  '•',  and  to  the  Christian 
era '".  S.  Augustine  speaks  of  it  as  having 
existed  ^'  among  the  Phoenicians,  and  Theo- 
doret  '^  says  that  it  was  still  practiced  by 
some  in  Syria.  The  existence  of  the  idola- 
trous custom  is  presupposed  by  the  prohibi- 
tion by  Moses " ;  and,  in  the  time  of  Hosea 
self-desecration  was  an  idolatrous  rite  in 
Israel  ".  In  the  day  of  Judgment,  when  the 
foundation  of  those  who  build  their  house 
upon  the  sand,  shall  be  laid  bare,  the  riches 
which  they  gained  unlawfully  shall  be 
burned  up  ;  all  the  idols,  which  they  set  up 
instead  of  God,  "^*the  vain  thoughts,  and 
useless  fancies,  and  hurtful  forms  and  images 
which  they  picture  in  their  mind,  defiling  it, 
and  hindering  it  from  the  steadfast  contem- 
plation of  divine  things,  will  be  punished. 
They  were  the  hire  of  the  soul  which  went 
astray  from  God,  and  they  who  conceived 
them  will,  with  them,  become  the  prey 
again  of  that  infernal  host  which  is  unceas- 
ingly turned  from  God." 

8.  Tlierefore  I  will  \_ivonld ''']  wail  [properly 
beat ",  i.  e.  on  the  breast],  ami  howl.  Let  me 
alone,"  he  would  say,  "  that  I  may  vent  my 
sorrow  in  all  ways  of  expressing  sorrow,  beat- 
ing on  the  breast  and  wailing,  using  all  acts 
and  sounds  of  grief."  It  is  as  we  would  say, 
"  Let  me  mourn  on,"  a  mourning  inexhaust- 
ible, becaase  the  woe  too  and  the  cause  of 


"  dahfttit.  <lc  Civ.  Dei  iii.  10.        "  on  this  place, 
's  Uciit.  x.xiii.  18.  "See  on  Hos.  iv.  14,  p.  31. 

>6  Dion.  ,    , 

i«  He  thrloo  repeats  the  optative  n7*Tt<1  mSDK 


noVw. 


»'10D 


CHAPTEE  1. 


21 


CHR°IST    ^r*go^^s>  ^^^  mourning  as 

cir.  758-726.     the  f  OWls. 

iH eh. daughters        r\    t:\  hi  i  • 

of  the  owl  9  Jbor    1 1  her   wound  is 

11  Or,  she  is  •  i   i  /•         o  -j.  • 

grievously  sick  in  CUT  able;      for     "^it  IS 

of  her  rvounds.        4  2  Kings  18. 13.    Is.  1.  6,  7,  8., 


grief  was  unceasing.  The  Prophet  becomes 
in  words,  probably  in  acts  too,  an  image  of 
his  people,  doing  as  they  should  do  hereafter. 
He  mourns,  because  and  as  they  would  have 
to  mourn,  bearing  chastisement,  bereft  of  all 
outward  comeliness,  an  example  also  of  re- 
pentance, since  what  he  did  were  the  chief 
outward  tokens  of  mourning. 

I  will  [womW]  go  stripped  [despoiled^^  and 
naked.  He  explains  the  acts,  that  they 
represented  no  mere  voluntary  mourning. 
Kot  only  would  he,  representing  them,  go 
bared  of  all  gannents  of  beauty,  as  we  say 
"  half-naked  ^ "  but  despoiled  also,  the  proper 
term  of  those  plundered  and  stripped  by  an 
enemy.  He  speaks  of  his  doing,  what  we 
know  that  Isaiah  did,  by  God's  command, 
representing  in  act  what  his  people  should 
thereafter  do.  "  ^  Wouldest  thou  that  I  should 
weep,  thou  must  thyself  grieve  the  first." 
Micah  doubtless  went  about,  not  speaking 
only  of  grief,  but  grieving,  in  the  habit  of 
one  mourning  and  bereft  of  all.  He  pro- 
longs in  these  words  the  voice  of  wailing, 
choosing  unwonted  forms  of  words,  to  carry 
on  the  sound  of  grief*. 

I  will  make  a  wailing  like  the  dragons  \_jach- 
als^^  and  mourning  as  the  owls  ^ostriches ^^. 
The  cry  of  both,  as  heard  at  night,  is  very 
piteous.  Both  are  dolefid  creatures,  dwelling 
in  desert  and  lonely  places.  "The^  jackals 
make  a  lamentable  howling  noise,  so  that 
travelers  unacquainted  with  them  would 
think  that  a  company  of  people,  women  or 
children,   were    howling,  one    to    another." 

1  Barefoot  is  expressed  in  Hebrew  by  fiPT.  Since 

then  Mioah  does  not  use  the  received  term  for  hare- 
foot,  and  does  use  the  word  expressing  "stripped," 
''  despoiled,"  the  E.  V.  is  doubtless  right,  agreeing 
with  the  Latin  against  the  LXX.  and  Syr. 

2 See  on  Amos  ii.  16.  p.  178.  n.  6.  Seneca  says: 
"  Some  things,  though  not  [exactly]  true,  are  com- 
prised under  the  same  word,  for  their  likeness.  So 
we  call  illiterate,  one  not  altogether  uninstructed, 
but  who  has  not  been  advanced  to  higher  knowledge. 
So  he  who  has  seen  one  inhabited  and  in  rags,  says 
that  he  had  seen  one  '  naked.' "  de  benef.  v.  13. 
Sanch. 

3  Hor.  A.  P.  102,  3. 

*SS''K^  and  riD^'N  carry  on  the  sound  of 
riT^'J^.    Sb'ty,  the  textual  reading,  is  doubtless 

right,  although  without  example;  riDv'X  has  anal- 
ogy with  other  words,  but,  common  as  the  word  is, 
stands  alone  in  the  word  itself.  Each  bears  out 
the  other. 

6  The  ?ri,  which  occurs  only  in  the  plui'al  D' JHi 
is  distinct  from  the  V^TS,  plur.  DTjn,  although 
they  touch  on  each  other,  in  that  rjH  sing,  is 
written  D'jn,  E«ek.xxix.  3, and  the  poetic  plur.  d' 


come   unto   Judah ;  he   is    ^,  ^^yCW  t 
come    unto    the    gate    of   <^'r-  758-726. 
my  people,  even  to   Jeru- 
salem, 


"  Its  howl,"  says  an  Arabic  natural  histor- 
ian •*,  "  is  like  the  crying  of  an  infant."  "  We 
heard  them,"  says  another ',  "  through  the 
night,  wandering  around  the  villages,  with  a 
continual,  prolonged,  mournful  cry."  The 
ostrich,  forsaking  its  young '",  is  an  image  of 
bereavement.  "  ^^  As  the  ostrich  forgets  her 
eggs  and  leaves  them  as  though  they  were  not 
her's,  to  be  trampled  by  the  feet  of  wild 
beasts,  so  too  shall  I  go  childless,  spoiled  and 
naked."  Its  screech  is  spoken  of  by  travel- 
ers as  "  ^^  fearful,  affrighting."  "  '*  Dur- 
ing the  lonesome  part  of  the  night  they 
often  make  a  doleful  and  piteous  noise.  I 
have  often  heard  them  groan,  as  if  they  were 
in  the  greatest  agonies." 

"  ^*  I  will  grieve  from  the  heart  over  those 
who  perish,  mourning  for  the  hardness  of  the 
ungodly,  as  the  Apostle  had  ^°  great  heaviness 
and  continual  sorroiv  in  his  heart  for  his  breth- 
ren, the  impenitent  and  unbelieving  Jews. 
Again  he  saitli  '^,  ivho  is  weak  and  I  am  not 
weak?  Wlio  is  offended,  and  I  burn  notf  For 
by  how  much  the  soul  is  nobler  than  the 
body,  and  by  how  much  eternal  damnation  is 
heavier  than  any  temporal  punishment,  so 
much  more  vehemently  should  we  grieve 
and  weep  for  the  peril  and  perpetual  damna- 
tion of  souls,  than  for  bodily  sickness  or  any 
temporal  evil." 

9.  For  her  [Samaria's]  wound'^'',  [lit.  her 
wounds,  or  strokes,  (the  word  is  used  especially 
of  those  inflicted  by  God  '*,)  each,  one  by 
one,]  is  incurable.  The  idiom  is  used  of 
inflictions    on    the    body-  politic ^^    or   the 

\r\,  ViPt  occurs  in  the  text.  Lam.  iv.  3.  The  Syr. 
(and  Chaldee,  properly)  and  Tanehum  oftentimes 
render  it  "jackal."  Pococke  first,  of  moderns, 
brought  out  this  meaning.    See  his  note  here. 

6 The  rUJ?'  r\3  "female  ostrich"  (the  DOnH 
probably  being  the  male  ostrich)  may  be  so  called 
from  ?j;\  (Syr. glutton,li]i.e  its  Arabic  name  na'am) 
or  from  its  shrill  cry,  njJT. 

'  Pococke,  who  had  heard  them  in  Syria,  Ac. 

8  Demiri,  in  Bochart,  iii.  12.  T.  iii.  p.  181.  ed.  Leipz. 
"  It  howls  by  night  only."  Id. 

soiearius,  Itin.  Mosc.  et  Pers.  iv.  17.  Boch.  lb. 
p.  183. 

lojobxxxix.  16.  "S.  Jer. 

12  Sandys'  Travels,  L.  ii.  fin. 

13  Shaw,  Travels,  T.  ii.  p.  349.  "  Dion. 
i6Rom.  ix.  1.                                     16  2  Cor.  xi.  29. 

17  The  construction  of  the  E.  V.  is  beyond  ques- 
tion preferable  that  of  the  E.  M.  It  is  the  common 
emphatic  idiom,  in  which  the  plural  subject  and 
singular  predicate  are  joined  to  express,  that  the 
thing  asserted  is  true  not  only  of  all  generally  but 
of  eaeh  individually. 

i«  Lev.  xxvi.  21,  Nu.  xi.  33,  Deut.  xxviii.  59,  61,  Ac. 

IP  Nah.  iii.  ult.  Jer.  xxx.  12, 16. 


22 


MICAH. 


r.  .^"iT^  T        10  •T  '  Declare  ve  if  not 
cir.  758-726.    at  Gath,  wccp  yc  not  at  all : 

»2  Sam.  1.  2JLK 


mind  \  for  which  there  is  no  remedy.  The 
ivoHnds  were  very  sick,  or  incurable,  not  in 
themselves  or  on  God's  part,  but  on  Israel's. 
The  day  of  grace  passes  away  at  last,  when  man 
has  so  steeled  himself  against  grace,  as  to  be 
morally  dead,  having  deadened  himself  to  all 
capacity  of  repentance. 

For  it  is  come  unto  {_quite  up  to  ^  Judah  ;  he, 
[the  enemy,]  is  come  [lit.  hath  reached, 
touched,]  to  [quite  up  to^]  the  gate  of  my  peo- 
ple, even  to  \_qaite  up  to^"]  Jerusalem.  "^The 
same  sin,  yea,  the  same  punishment  for  sin, 
which  overthrew  Samaria,  shall  even  come 
unto,  quite  up  to  Judah.  Then  the  Prophet 
suddenly  changes  the  gender,  and,  as  Scrip- 
ture so  often  does,  speaks  of  the  one  agent, 
the  centre  and  impersonation  of  the  coming 
evil,  as  sweeping  on  over  Judah,  quite  up  to 
the  gate  of  his  people,  quite  up  to  Jerusakm. 
He  does  not  say  here,  whether  Jerusalem 
would  be  taken  * ;  and  so,  it  seems  likely 
that  he  speaks  of  a  calamity  short  of  ex- 
cision. Of  Israel's  wounds  only  he  here  says, 
that  they  are  incurable ;  he  describes  the 
wasting  of  even  lesser  places  near  or  beyond 
Jerusalem,  the  flight  of  their  inhabitants. 
Of  the  capital  itself  he  is  silent,  except  that 
the  enemy  reached,  touched,  struck  against  it, 
quite  up  to  it.  Probably,  then,  he  is  here  de- 
scribing the  first  visitation  of  God,  when 
^Sennacherib  came  up  against  all  the  fenced 
cities  of  Judah  and  tool:  them,  but  Jerusalem 
was  spared.  God's  judgments  come  step  by 
step,  leaving  time  for  repentance.  The  same 
enemy,  although  not  the  same  king,  came 
against  Jerusalem  who  had  wasted  Samaria. 
Samaria  was  probably  as  strong  as  Jerusalem. 
Hezekiah  prayed  ;  God  heard,  the  Assyrian 
army  perished  by  miracle  ;  Jerusalem  was 
respited  for  124  yeare. 

10.  Tellitnotin  Gath.  Gath  had  probably 
now  ceased  to  be ;  at  least,  to  be  of  any  ac- 
count ^     It  shows  how  David's  elegy  lived 

'  Jer.  X.  10,  XV.  1«.  rivnj  in  Nrthiim  and  Jer.  xxx. 
15.  is  exactly  equivalent  to  the  lyiJX  in  .Micah.    In 

Jer.  xxx.  12,  ■jIDiy'?  tJ'lJX  stan<l.s  parallel  with  if. 

Isaiah  (xvii.  11)  has  iyiJS<  3KJ. 

sij;  in  each  of  the  three  places.  'S.  Jer. 

*']^  includes  the  whole  country,  7in7»;  up  to.  It 
does  not  necessarily  include  the  place,  (yui7e  up  to 
whii'h  it  reaches.  It  does  not,  probably,  2  Kings 
XTiii.  8.    See  on  .\m.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  245. 

62  Kings  xviii.  l.i. 

•See  on  Am.  vi.  2.  vol.  1.  p.  305. 

'Parallel  with  .Ashkelon. 

«P8.  XXV.  2.     oPs.  xlii.  10.    lops.  Ixxxix.  42,  50. 

"  The  conjecture  of  Reland  (Pal.  p.  5.34)  "in  Acoo 
weep  not,"  as  if  ^J2  were  for  13J^3,  is  ajrainst  the 
Hebrew  idiom,  and  one  of  the  many  abuses  of 
Hebrew  parallcli'jm,  as  if  Hebrew  writers  were  tied 
down  to  exactness  of  parallelism,  and  because  the 
Prophet  mentions  the  name  of  a  city  in  two  clauses, 


in  the  house  of  ||Aphrah 
■  roll  thyself  in  the  dust. 

II  That  is,  dust. 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  758-72ti. 

•Jer.  6.  2ti. 


in  the  hearts  of  Judah,  that  his  words  are 
used  as  a  proverb,  ( just  as  we  do  now,  in 
whose  ears  it  is  yearly  read  i,  when,  as  with 
us,  its  original  application  was  probably  lost. 
True,  Gath,  reduced  itself,  might  rejoice  the 
more  maliciously  over  the  suHierings  of  Ju- 
dah. But  David  mentions  it  as  a  chief  seat . 
of  Philistine  strength';  now  its  strength 
was  gone. 

The  blaspheming  of  the  enemies  of  God 
is  the  sorest  part  of  His  chastisements. 
Whence  David  prays",  let  not  mine  enemies  ex- 
ult  over  me  ;  and  the  sons  of  Korah,  ^With  a 
su'ord  in  my  bones,  mine  enemies  reproach  me, 
u'hile  they  say  daily  unto  me,  where  is  thy  God  T 
and  Ethan  '"  ;  Thou  hast  made  all  Aw  enemies  to 
rejoice.  Runcmber,  Lord,  the  reproach  of  Thy 
servant — whereuith  Th  ine  enemies  have  reproached, 
0  Lord,  ivheremth  they  have  reproached  the 
footsteps  of  Thine  anointed.  It  is  hard  to 
part  with  home,  with  country,  to  see  all  de- 
solate, which  one  ever  loved.  But  far,  far 
above  all,  is  it,  if,  in  the  disgrace  and  deso- 
lation, God's  honor  seems  to  be  injured.  The 
Jewish  people  was  then  God's  only  home  on 
earth.  If  it  could  be  extinguished,  who  re- 
mained to  honor  Him  ?  Victories  over  them 
seemed  to  their  heathen  neighbors  to  be  vic- 
tories over  Him.  He  seemed  to  be  dishon- 
ored without,  because  they  had  first  dishon- 
ored Him  within.  Sore  is  it  to  the  Christian, 
to  see  God's  cause  hindered.  His  kingdom 
narrowed,  the  p]mpire  of  Infidelity  advanced. 
Sorer  in  one  way,  because  he  knows  the 
price  of  souls,  for  whom  Jesus  died.  But 
the  world  is  now  the  Church's  home.  *'  The 
holy  Church  tliroughout  all  the  world  doth 
acknowledge  Thee !  "  Then,  it  was  girt  in 
within  a  few  miles  of  territory,  and  sad  in- 
deed it  must  have  been  to  the  I'rophet,  to  see 
this  too  hemmed  in.  Tell  it  not  in  Ga(h,  to 
the  sons  of  those  who,  of  old,  defied  (iod. 

Weep  not  at  all  [lit.  xcecping ",  ueep  not], 

he  must  in  the  third.  The  Prophet  never  would 
have  used  one  of  the  commonest  idioms  in  Hebrew, 
the  emphatic  use  of  the  Inf.  Abs.  with  the  finite 
verb,  unless  he  had  meant  it  to  be  tniderstood,  as 
any  one  must  understand  the  three  Hebrew  words, 

133n  ?H  )D2.  The  sacred  writers  wrote  to  be 
understood.  It  is  contrary  to  all  principles  of  lan- 
guage, not  to  take  a  plain  idiom  in  its  plain  sense. 
The  Verss.  Vulp.  .\q.  Symm.  so  render  it.  The 
LXX.  (from  a  reading  in  which,  oi  'EvoKfiV  or  oi  ei- 
"A^fiM.  Reland  made  his  oi  iv  'Ax<u)  is  full  of  blun- 
ders.   They  ren<ler  also  O^H  as  if  it  were  1J3P, 

ai'oiKofo/oii'iTe;  JT33,  'i  oikov  ;  rT^Si'/  Kara  ykXura. 
The  ^»  is  but  seldom  omitted  in  Hebrew.  (Of  the 
instances  given  by  Gesenius,  p.  97C,  j2  for  7j,0  is 
the  Chaldce  name  of  the  idol;  'J  for  'jO,  uncer- 
tain, at  most;  1D^  for  10>'S  (Ps.  xxvii.  8)  wrong. 
There  remains  then  in,  Hebrew,  only  the  single 


CHAPTER  T. 


23 


C  H  R*!  I  T  1  ^   ^^^  y^  ^^^'^y '  1 1  ^^^0^ 

cir.  758-726.    f  inhabitant  of  Saphir, 

II  Or,  thou  that     i         •         ,  i       »     i  i      i 

dwetiest  fairly,  haviiig  thy   shame  naked  : 
r^ss.' '"  "  ' "   tlie  inhabitant  of  ||  Zaanan 

t  Is.  20.  4.  &  47.  2,  .3.  Jer.  13.  22.  Nah.  3.  5. 

II  Or,  the  country  of  flocks. 


Weeping  is  the  stillest  expression  of  grief. 
We  speak  of  "  weeping  in  silence."  Yet  this 
also  was  too  visible  a  token  of  grief.  Their 
weeping  would  be  the  joy  and  laughter  of 
God's  enemies. 

In  the  house  of  Aphrah,  [probably,  In  Beth- 
leaphrah]  roll  thyself  in  the  dust  [better,  as  the 
text,  /  roll  myself  in  dust '].  The  Prophet 
chose  unusual  names,  such  as  would  associate 
themselves  with  the  meanings  which  he 
wished  to  convey,  so  that  thenceforth  the 
name  itself  might  recall  the  prophecy.  As 
if  we  were  to  say,  "  In  Ashe  I  roll  myself  in 
ashes." — There  was  an  Aphrah  near  Jerusa- 
lem'^. It  is  more  likely  that  Micah  should 
refer  to  this,  than  to  the  Ophrah  in  Benja- 
min ■'.  lie  shewed  them,  in  his  own  person, 
how  they  should  mourn,  retired  out  of  sight 
and  hidden,  as  it  were,  in  the  dust.  "  *  What- 
ever grief  your  heart  may  have,  let  your 
iace  have  no  tears ;  go  not  forth,  but,  in  the 
house  of  dust,  sprinkle  thyself  with  the  ashes 
of  its  ruins." 

All  the  places  thenceforth  spoken  of  were  in 
Judah,  whose  sorrow  and  desolation  are  re- 
peated in  all.  It  is  one  varied  history  of  sor- 
row. Tlie  names  of  her  cities,  whether  in 
themselves  called  from  some  gifts  of  God,  as 
Shajjhir,  [beautifid;  we  have  jPatVford,  Fcdr- 
lield,  FairhvxrM,  Paw-light,)  or  contrariwise 
from  some  defect,  Maroth,  Bitterness  (probably 
from  brackish  water)  Achzib,  lyijig,  (doubt- 
less from  a  winter-torrent  which  in  summer 
failed)  suggest,  either  in  contrast  or  by  them- 

pronunciation  of  Amos  Hpt^J  for  H^'ptyj  viii.  8. 

See  ab.  p.  210.  Rohinson  observes,  "  The  Semitic 
lottery;  m  partienlar,  so  unpronounceable  byotlier 
nations,  lias  a  remarkable  tenacity.  Of  the  %'ery 
many  Hebrew  names,  containing  tliis  letter,  which 
still  survive  in  Arabic,  our  lists  exhibit  only  two  or 
three  in  which  it  has  been  dropped ;  and  perhaps 
none  in  which  it  has  been  exchanged  for  another 
letter."  (i.  2.'55.  n.  2.)  His  only  instances  are  Jib 
for  Gibeon  (where  the  whole"  svllable  has  been 
dropped)  i.  450:  Jelbon  for  Gilboa' (ii.  316) ;  Yafa  for 
Yaphia  Josh.  xix.  12,  (doubtful)  ii.  342 ;  and  Endor 
(which  I  doubt)  ii..3fi0.  Anyhow  they  are  but  three 
names,  in  which,  in  the  transfer  into  another 
though  cognate  language,  ^  has  been  dropped  at 
the  end,  and  one  at  the  beginning  of  a  word,  none 
in  the  middle.  In  fact  also  Acco  (Acre)  was  proba- 
bly never  in  the  possession  of  Israel.  It  is  only 
mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  to  say  that 
A.sherdid  not  drive  out  its  itihahitants  (Judg.  i.  31). 
This  interpretation  which  has  become  popular,  1) 
violates  the  Hebrew  idiom;  2)  implies  a  very 
irnprobable  omission  of  a  "tenacious  letter;"  3)  is 
historically  unnatural,  in  that  the  Prophet  would 
thus  forbid  Judah  to  weep  in  a  city  where  there 
were  none  even  of  Israel.    Yet  of  late,  it  has  been 


came   not   forth    in   the  ^^^i^J"?,^ 

mourning   of  [[  Beth-ezel ;  c'^.  758-726. 

he  shall  receive  of  you  his  n  or,  o  place 

I        1  •  near. 

standing:. 


selves,  some  note  of  evil  and  woe.  It  is  Ju- 
dah's  history  in  all,  given  in  different  traits  ; 
her  ^'  beauty "  turned  into  shame  ;  herself 
free  neither  to  go  forth  nor  to  "  abide ; " 
looking  for  good  and  finding  evil ;  the  strong 
(Lachisli)  strong  only  to  flee ;  like  a  brook 
that  I'ails  and  deceives ;  her  inheritance 
(Mareshah)  inherited  ;  herself,  taking  refuge 
in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth,  yet  even 
there  found,  and  bereft  of  her  glory.  Whence, 
in  the  end,  without  naming  Judah,  the  Pro- 
phet sums  up  her  sorrows  with  one  call  to 
mourning. 

11.  Pass  ye  aicay  [lit.  Pass  thou  (fem.)  atvay 
to  or  for  yourselves^,  disregarded  by  God  and 
despised  by  man]  pass  the  bounds  of  your 
land  into  captivity,  thou  inhabitant  of  Sha- 
phir,  having  thy  shame  naked,  [better,  in  naked- 
ness, and  sA«wie®].  Shaphir  [/atV]  was  a 
village  in  Judah,  between  Eleutheropolis  and 
Ashkelon'.  There  are  still,  in  the  Shephe- 
kih,  two  villages  called  Sawatir*.  It,  once 
fair,  should  now  go  forth  in  the  disgrace  and 
dishonor  with  which  captives  were  led  away. 

The  inhabitants  of  Zaanan  came  not  forth. 
Zaanan  {aboundinc/ in  flocks)  was  probably  the 
same  as  Zenan  of  Judah,  which  lay  in  the 
Shephelah  **.  It,  which  formerly  went  forth  ^^ 
in  pastoral  gladness  'with  the  multitude  of  its 
flocks,  shall  now  shrink  into  itself  for  fear. 

The  mourning  of  Beth-Ezel  [lit.  house  of 
root,  firmly  rooted]  shall  take  from  you  its 
standing ".  It  too  cannot  help  itself,  much 
less  be   a  stay  to  others.     They   who  have 

followed  by  Hitz.  Maur.  Umbreit,  Ewald,  thought 
probable  by  Gesenius  and  Winei*,  and  adopted  even 
by  Dr.  Henderson.    , 

'1  The  Kethib  'J1{y  7i3nn  is,  as  usual,  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  correction,  the  Kri,  ''Wl2r\T\. 

-  R.  Tanchum  of  Jerusalem,  here. 

3  Josh,  xviii.  23, 1  Sara,  xiii  17.  , 

•tS.  Jer.  Rup.  ^021  n^j;. 

6  The  construction,  nt^i  IT'IJ/',  is  like  T\)iy 
piy  meekness,  righteousness,  Ps.  xlv.  5.  Pi\if2  is  the 

qualitv,  shame.  ''  Onom. 

8Scholz,  Reisen,  p.  255.  Robinson,  ii.  34,  says, 
"  There  are  three  villages  of  this  name  near  each 
other."  "  There  is  yet  a  village  Suaphir,  two  hours 
S.  E.  of  Ashdod."  Sc'hwai'tz  (of  Jerusalem)  Das  Heil. 
Land,  p.  87.  "a  Sapheria  one  hour  N.  W.  of  Lod." 
[Lvdda]  (lb.  p.  105.) 

0  Josh.  XV.  27,  coll.  .33.  "There  is  a  village  Zana- 
bra,  1.  hour  S.  E.  of  Moresha."    Schwartz,  74. 

lojXi*,  whence  nXV,  is  itself  probably  con- 
nected with  J<V\  , 

"  I  have  preferred  the  division  of  the  Syr.  and 
Vulg.  because,  if  joined  as  in  the  E.  V.  the  last 
clau'se  has  no  definite  subject,  and  there  is  no  allu- 
sion to  the  meaning  of  Beth  haezel. 


24 


MICAH. 


chr7st        ^2  For  the  inhabitant  of 

cir.  750.      ivfaroth  ||  waited  carefully 

I  Ot,w<u grieved,  for  good :  but  °  evil  came 

down  from  the  Lord  unto 

the  gate  of  Jerusalem. 

13  O  thou  inhabitant  of 


been  wont  to  go  fortli  in  fullness,  shall  not 
go  forth  then,  and  they  who  abide,  strong 
thougli  they  be,  siiall  not  furnish  an  abiding 
phice.  Neither  in  going  out  nor  in  remain- 
ing, shall  anything  be  secure  then. 

12.  For  the  infuibitant  of  Maroth  [billeriu.<ii\ 
vxiited  carefulhj  for  good.  She  waited  care/idly ' 
for  the  good  which  God  gives,  not  for  tiie 
Good  which  God  is.  She  looked,  longed  for, 
good,  as  men  do;  but  therewith  her  longing 
ended.  She  longed  for  it,  amid  her  own 
evil,  which  brought  God's  judgments  upon 
her.  Maroth  is  mentioned  here  only  in  Holy 
Scripture,  and  has  not  been  identified.  It 
t<x)  was  probably  selected  for  its  meaning. 
The  inhabitant  of  bitternesses,  she,  to  whom  bitter- 
nesses, or,  it  may  be,  rebellions  ^,  were  as  the 
home  in  which  she  dwelt,  which  ever  encir- 
cled her,  in  which  she  reposed,  wherein  she 
spent  her  life,  waited  for  good  !  Strange  con- 
tradiction! yet  a  contradiction,  which  the 
whole  un-Christian  world  is  continually  en- 
acting ;  nay,  from  which  Christians  have 
often  to  be  awakened,  to  look  for  good  to 
themselves,  nay,  to  pray  for  temporal  good, 
while  living  in  bitternesses,  bitter  Avays,  dis- 
pleasing to  God.  The  words  are  calculated 
to  be  a  religious  proverb.  "  Living  in  sin," 
as  we  say,  dwelling  in  blttei-neaaes,  she  looked  for 

?ood  !  Bitternesses  !  for  it  is  ^  an  evil  thing  and 
itter,  that  thou  hast  forsaken  the  Lord  thy  God, 
ami  thai  Mijfear  is  not  in  thee. 

But  [For]  evil  came  down  from  the  Lord  unto 
the  gate  of  Jerusalem.  It  came,  like  the  brim- 
stone and  fire  which  God  rained  upon  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  but  as  yet  to  the  gate  of  Jeru- 
salem, not  upon  itself.  "*Evil  came  down 
upon  tliem  from  the  Lord,  i.e.  /was  grieved, 
/  chitsteue  1,  /  brought  the  Assyrian  upon 
them,  and  from  My  anger  came  this  affliction 

'  Sin  is  used  in  tho  sense  of  SlT,  Gen.  viii.  10, 
ftmi  in  Uif.  Jiid.  iii.  2."),  in  Pil.  Job  xxvi.  15,  and  in 
liitli|>al.  Ps.  .xxxvii.  7.    Here  too  it  has  the  con- 

Htruption  of  in'  with  7,  as  it  has  in  Job  xxvi,  and 
as  it  ha.s  not  in  the  sense  of  the  E.  M.  "  was  grieved." 

Htif  h  an  idiom  a.s  31^3/  7in,  "  to  be  in  pain  for 
(lost)  Rood,"  dons  nf)t  ofciir  in  Jli'brow,  and  would 
be  equivocal,  since  tlic  idiom  is  used  for  "lon>;od 

for  (expocti'd)  good."  7in  also,  "grieved,"  occurs 
only  Jcr.  v.  :i.  UHed  of  the  "writhing"  of  the 
birth-pangs,  it  is  joined  with  no  preposition;  in  the 

sense  "  feared,"  it  Is  joined  only  with  tho  'J3  7O, 
to,  '33*3.  "f  the  object  of  fear. 

*D''iTlO  from  n^O  occurs  Jcr.  1.21. 

»Jer.  li.  19.  *H.Cyr.  .      ».3-ll. 

•  from  tho  Arab.    The  bilitteral  root  "17  aoems  to 


*  Lachish,  bind  the  chariot 
to  the  swift  beast:  she  is. 
the  beginning  of  the  sin  to 
the  daughter  of  Zion :  for 
the  transgressions  of  Israel 
were  found  in  thee. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  750. 

*2  Kings  18. 
14, 17. 


upon  them.  But  it  was  removed.  My  Hand 
prevailing  and  marvelously  rescuing  those 
wlio  worshiped  My  Majesty.  For  the  trouble 
shall  come  to  the  gate.  But  we  know  that 
Eabshakeh,  with  many  horsemen,  came  to 
Jerusalem  and  ail-but  touched  the  gates. 
But  he  took  it  not.  For  in  one  night  the 
As.syrian  was  consumed."  The  two /o?''s  are 
seemingly  co-ordinate,  and  assign  the  reasons 
of  the  foreannounced  evils*,  on  man's  part 
and  on  God's.  On  man's,  in  that  he  looked  for 
what  could  not  so  come,  good :  on  God's,  in 
tiiat  evil,  which  alone  could  be  looked  for, 
which,  amid  man's  evil,  could  alone  be  good 
for  man,  came  from  Him.  Losing  tlie  true 
Good,  man  lost  all  other  good,  and  dwelling 
in  the  bitterness  of  sin  and  provocation,  he 
dwelt  indeed  in  bitterness  of  trouble. 

0  thou  inhabitant  of  Lachish,  bind  the  chariot 
to  the  swift  beast  [s^eerf.]  Lachish  was  always 
a  strong  city,  as  its  name  probably  denoted, 
(probably  "  compact  ^")  It  was  one  of  the 
royal  cities  of  the  Amorites,  and  its  king  one 
of  the  five,  who  went  out  to  battle  with 
Joshua '.  It  lay  in  the  low  country,  Shep- 
helah,  of  Judah  **,  between  Adoraim  and 
Azekah",  7  Roman  miles  S.  of  Eleuther- 
opolis  '•*,  and  so,  probably,  close  to  the  hill- 
country,  although  on  the  plain;  partaking 
Ijerhaps  of  the  advantages  of  both.  Reho- 
joam  fortified  it.  Amaziah  fled  to  it  from 
the  conspiracy  at  Jerusalem  ",  as  a  place  of 
strength.  It,  witii  Azckah,  alone  remained, 
when  Nebucha<lnezzar  had  taken  the  rest, 
just  before  tlie  capture  of  Jerusalem". 
\Vhen  Sennacherib  took  all  the  defenced  cities 
of  Judah,  it  seems  to  have  been  his  la.st  and 
proudest  conquest,  for  irom  it  he  sent  his 
contemptuous  message  to  Hczekiah  ".  The 
whole  power  of  the  great  king  seems  to  have 

have  been  an  onomato-poet.  In  Arabic  the  sense 
of  "striking"  occurs  in  I^S,  VdS,  ^oS,  DdS, 
pS,  NdS,  n^S,  njS,  luS.  Thence  tlie  idea  of 
parts  "  impinging  on  one  another,"  "  cleaving  clo-^e 
to,"  in  toS,  r\:)S.  noS,  [Krlplng,  oS,]  'IlS; 
"cleavingclose  together,""  compact,"  in  1J7,  loS, 
"Xyi.  Those  senses  account  for  nil  the  Arabic 
words,  beginning  with  "jl.  The  only  Hebrew  roots, 
80  beginning,  are  ^jl,  took,  and  lyO/. 

'  Josh.  X.  3.        •  lb.  XV.  A3.  39.        •  2  Chr.  xl.  9. 

'«Onom.  u  2  Kgs  xiv.  19. 

"  Jer.  xxxlv.  7.  >*  I.s.  xxxvi.  i,  2. 


CHAPTER  I. 


25 


c  H  r7s  t  ^"^  Therefore  shalt  thou 

cir.  750.  ygive  presents   ||to  More- 

y2Sam.  8. 2.  i     ,■,        ,■,          ,■,        i 

2  Kings  18.  sheth-gath  :     the    houses 

14,15,16.  II  Or, /or. 


been  called  forth  to  take  this  stronghold. 
The  Assyrian  bas-reliefs,  the  record  of  the 
conquests  of  Sennacherib,  if  (as  the  accom- 
panying inscription  is  deciphered),  they  rep- 
resent the  taking  of  Lachish,  exhibit  it  as 
"^a  city  of  great  extent  and  importance,  de- 
fended by  double  walls  with  battlements  and 
towers,  and  by  fortified  out-works.  In  no  other 
sculptures  were  so  many  armed  warriors 
drawn  up  in  array  against  a  besieged  city. 
Against  the  fortifications  had  been  thrown  up 
as  many  as  ten  banks  or  mounts  compactly 
built, — and  seven  battering-rams  had  already 
been  rolled  up  against  the  walls."  Its  situa- 
tion, on  the  extremity  probably  of  the  plain, 
fitted  it  for  a  d^pot  of  cavalry.  The  swift 
ste.eds  ^,  to  which  it  was  bidden  to  bind  the 
chariot,  are  mentioned  as  part  of  the  magnifi- 
cence of  Solomon,  as  distinct  from  his  ordi- 
nary horses  ^.  They  were  used  by  the  posts 
of  the  king  of  Persia  *.  They  were  doubt- 
less part  of  the  strength  of  the  kings  of 
Judah,  the  cavalry  in  which  their  statesmen 
trusted,  instead  of  God.  Now,  its  swift 
horses  in  which  it  prided  itself  should  avail 
but  to  flee.  Probably,  it  is  an  ideal  picture. 
Lachish  is  bidden  to  bind  its  chariots  to 
horses  of  the  utmost  speed,  which  should 
carry  them  far  away,  if  their  strength  were 
equal  to  their  swiftness.  It  had  great  need  ; 
for  it  was  subjected  under  Sennacherib  to  the 
consequences  of  Assyrian  conquest.  If  the 
Assyrian  accounts  relate  to  its  capture,  im- 
palement and  flaying  alive  ^  were  among  the 
tortures  of  the  captive-people ;  and  awfully 
did  Sennacherib,  in  his  pride,  avenge  the 
sins  against  God  Whom  he  disbelieved.  / 
She  is  the  beginning  of  the  sin  to  the  daughter 
of  Zion.  " "  She  was  at  the  gate  through 
which  the  transgressions  of  Israel  flooded 
Judah."  How  she  came  first  to  apostatise 
and  to  be  the  infectress  of  Judah,  Scripture 
does  not  tell  us '.  She  scarcely  bordered  on 
Philistia ;  Jerusalem  lay  between  her  and 
Israel.  But  the  course  of  sin  follows  no 
geographical  lines.  It  was  the  greater  sin 
to  Lachish  that  she,  locally  so  far  removed 

1  Layard,  Nin.  and  Bab.  p.  149. 

2  The  tyZ)T  was  undoubtedly  a  swift  horse,  proba- 
bly from  its  rapid  striking  of  the  earth.  (Ar.ab.) 
The  word  is  used  of  riding  horses  in  Syr.  Chald. 
Talm.  Nasor.  see  Ges.  "  liorses  of  good  breed  and 
young,"  R.  Jonah  in  Kim.  lb. 

i  1  Kgs  iv.  28.  Eng.  (v.  8.  Heb.) 

■t  Esther  viii.  10, 14. 

6  Layard,  lb.  and  150. 

6  S.  Jer. 

'  Rosenm.  and  others  from  him,  by  mistake, 
attribute  it  to  a  supposed  situation  of  Lachish, 
"lying  on  the  frontier  of"  Israel;  whereas  it  was 


of    1 1 '  A  c  h  z  i  b    shall     be 


Before 
CHRIST 

a    lie    to  the    kings    of      c'f-  ^so. 

T         ,  II  That  is,  a  lie. 

Israel.  «Josh.  15. 44. 


from  Israel's  sin,  was  the  first  to  import  into 
Judah  the  idolatries  of  Israel.  Scripture 
does  not  say,  what  seduced  Lachish  herself, 
whether  the  pride  of  military  strength,  or 
her  importance,  or  commercial  intercourse, 
for  her  swift  steeds,  with  Egypt,  the  common 
parent  of  Israel's  and  her  sin.  Scripture 
does  not  give  the  genealogy  of  her  sin,  but 
stamps  her  as  the  heresiarch  of  Judah. 
We  know  the  fact  from  this  place  only,  that 
she,  apparently  so  removed  from  the  occasion 
of  sin,  became,  like  the  propagators  of  heresy, 
the  authoress  of  evil,  the  cause  of  countless 
loss  of  souls.  Beginning  of  sin  to — ,  what  a 
world  of  evil  lies  in  the  three*  words  ! 

14.  Therefore  shcdt  thou  give  [bridal^  presents 
to  Moresheth  Gath.  Therefore !  since  Judah 
had  so  become  a  partaker  of  Israel's  sins,  she 
had  broken  the  covenant,  whereby  God  had 
given  her  the  land  of  the  Heathen,  and  she 
should  part  with  it  to  aliens.  The  bridal 
presents,  lit.  the  dis)nissals,  were  the  dowry" 
with  which  the  father  sent  away  ^°  his  daugh- 
ter, to  belong  to  another,  her  lord "  or  hus- 
band, never  more  to  return.  Moresheth,  [lit. 
inheritance, '\  the  inheritance  which  God  gave  her, 
was  to  be  parted  with  ;  she  was  to  be  laden  ^^ 
with  gifts  to  the  enemy.  Judali  should  part 
with  her,  and  her  own  treasure  also. 

The  houses  of  Achzib  shall  be  a  lie.  Achzib, 
so  called  probably  from  a  ivinter  brook  (achzab) 
was  to  become  what  its  name  imported,  a  re- 
source which  should  fail  just  in  the  time  of 
need,  as  the  winter  brooks  in  the  drought  of 
summer.  ^^  Wilt  Thou  be  unto  me  as  a  failing 
brook;  wafers  which  are  not  suref  This  Achzib, 
which  is  recounted  between  Keilah  and 
Mareshah  ^*,  was  probably  one  of  the  oldest 
towns  of  Palestine,  being  mentioned  in  the 
history  of  the  Patriarch  Judah  ^^.  After  hav- 
ing survived  about  1000  years,  it  should,  in 
time  of  need,  fail.  The  kings  of  Israel  are 
here  the  kings  of  Judah.  When  this  prophecy 
was  to  be  accomplished,  the  ten  tribes  would 
have  ceased  to  have  any  political  existence, 
the  remnant  in  their  own  land  would  have 
no  head  to  look  to,  except  the  line  of  David, 

part  of  the  chain  of  fortified  cities  furthest  removed 
from  Israel  on  the  S.  W.  sS  nKCOH  ri'tyX"^. 

91  Kgs  ix.  16.  lojud.  xii.  9.  "SjTJ. 

i^nj  ntyilO  Sj;  DTIlSty  nt.  "brldal  presents 
on  Moresheth  Gath."  Kitzig  thinks  that  in  HiyilO 
there  is  an  allusion  to  PiyiJ^O,  "espoused;"  but 
this  would  be  a  pontradiotory  image,  since  the 
bridal-presents  were  given  in  espousing,  not  to  one 
already  espoused,  and  they  were  to  be  given  not  to 
Gath  but  to  the  invader. 

13  Jer.  XV.  18.  "  Josh.  xv.  44. 

15  in  the  unlengthened  form  3'TD  Gen.  xxxviii.  5, 


26 


MTPAH. 


rHR^^T        ^'"^  ^^^    ^^^^    ^    bring 

oir.  TV.      an    heir    unto     thee,    O 

\ott'he%t'ru of inhahitant    of    'Mare- 

iZe'jlT''      shah:    II  he    shall    come 


wliose  good  kings  had  a  care  for  them. 
Micah  then,  having  prophesied  the  utter  de- 
struction of  Samaria,  speaUs  in  accordance 
with  the  state  of  things  which  he  foresaw  and 
foretold '. 

15.  Yet  ii'iU  I  brine/  an  heir  Ithe  heir^,  him 
whom  Ciod  luid  appointed  to  be  (be  heir,  Sen- 
nacherib] Hiilo  thee,  0  inhabitant  of  Mareshah. 
Mareshah,  (as  the  original  form  of  its  name 
denotes^,)  lay  on  the  summit  of  a  liill.  "  Its 
ruins  only  were  still  Seen,"  in  the  time  of 
Eusebius  and  S.  Jerome,  "  in  the  second  mile 
from  EleutheropolisV  "^Foundations  still 
remain  on  the  south-eastern  part  of  the  re- 
markable Tell,  south  of  Beth-Jibrin."  Keho- 
boam  fortified  it  also®.  Zerah  the  ^Ethiopian 
had  come  to''  it,  probably  to  besiege  it,  when 
Asa  met  him,  and  God  smote  the  Ethiopians 
before  him,  in  the  vaUey  of  Zephathah  thereat, 
in  the  wars  of  the  Maecal)ees,  it  was  in  the 
liands  of  the  Edomites".  Its  capture  and 
that  of  Adora  are  mentioned  *  as  tiie  last  act 
of  the  war,  before  the  Edomitcs  submitted  to 
John  Ilyrcanus,  and  were  incorporated  in 
Israel.  It  was  a  powerful  city  '",  when  the 
Parthians  took  it.  As  Micah  writes  the  name, 
it  looked  nearer  to  the  word  "inheritance"." 
Mareshah  {inheritance)  shall  yet  have  the  heir 
of  God's  appointment,  the  enemy.  It  shall 
not  inherit  the  land,  as  promised  to  the  faith- 
ful, but  shall  itself  be  inherited,  its  people 
(lispossesseil.  While  it,  (and  so  also  the  soul 
now)  held  fast  to  God,  they  were  the  heritage 
of  the  Lord,  by  His  gifts  ami  grace;  when,  of 
their  own  free-will,  those,  once  Clod's  herit- 
age, become  slaves  of  sin,  tiiey  passed  and 
still  pass,  against  their  will,  into  the  posses- 
sion of  another  m:uster,  the  Assyrian  or  Satan. 

He  [i.  e.  the  heir,  the  enemy]  shall  come 
unto  AdnHam,  the  (/lory  of  Israel^' ;  i.  e.  he  who 
shall  dispossess  Mareshah,  shall  come  quite  unto 
Adullam,  where,  as  in  a  place  of  safety,  the 

illory  of  Israel,  all  in  which  siie  gloried,  should 
)e  laid  up.  Adullam  was  a  very  ancient 
city,  being  mentioned  in  the  history  of  the 


'  See  ah.  Introd.  p.  5 


*  Onom. 


unto  "Adullam  the  glory  ^hrTst 

of  Israel.  ^'■•-  •^^"-  _ 

16  Make  thee  "bald,  <:jobi.'2o.' '' 

and  poll  thee  for  thy  ''deli-  &  22. 12. 

*  Lam.  4.  5.  Jer.  7.  29.  &  IG.  0.  &  47.  5.  A  48.  37. 


j)atriarch  Judah",  a  royal  city'*.  It  too 
lay  in  the  Shephelah'*;  it  was  said  to  be 
]()'*  or  12"  mdcs  East  of  Eleutiieropolis; 


•TltyKTO  (fri>m  l?N^)  Jos.  xv.  4-1.  «()nom. 

'  Hob.  ii.  t)7,  H.      «2('hr.  xi.  8.      '  III.  xiv.  >i.  nqq. 

8. Jos.  Ant.  xii.  8. 11.    »I1..  xiii.  9.  1.    »«  lb.  xiv.  l:i.9. 

"nt?T3  like  Hiy^lO.  In  the  Chron.  it  is  .Mpelled 
lis  in  Mil-nil. 

'*Tlie  Enn.  Mure,  has,  in  the  same  general  sense, 
viifo  Adullam  Hhall  come  the  glory  of  Israel. 

'»Qon.  xxxviii.  I.  12.  20.  "  Jos.  xii.  1.5. 

"  lb.  XV.  .v..      i«  Ens.      "  9.  Jer.      i«  2  Chr.  xl.  7. 


but  for  this,  there  seems  to  be  scarcely  place 
in  the  Shephelah.  It  was  one  of  the  15 
cities  fortitietl  by  Kehoboam  "* ;  one  of  the  16 
towns,  in  wliicli  (with  their  dependent  vil- 
lages) Judah  settled  after  the  caj)tivity  '".  It 
contained  the  whole  army  of  Judas  Mac- 
cabaMis  *.  Like  Lachish,  it  had  probably  the 
double  advantages  of  the  neighborhood  of 
the  hills  and  of  the  plain,  seated  perhaps  at 
the  roots  of  the  hills,  since  near  it  doubtless 
was  tlie  large  cave  of  Adullam  named  from  it. 
The  line  of  caves,  lit  for  human  habitation, 
which  extended  from  Eleutiieropolis  to 
Petra'^*,  began  Westward  of  it.  "^^The 
valley  wliicli  runs  up  from  Eleutheropolis 
Eastward,  is  full  of  large  caves;  some  would 
hold  tliousands  of  men.  They  are  very  ex- 
tensive, and  some  of  them  had  evidently  been 
inhaldted."  "  '^^  The  outer  chamber  of  one 
cavern  was  270  feet  long  by  12()  wide  ;  and 
behind  this  were  recesses  and  galleries, 
probably  loading  to  other  chandlers  Avhich 
we  could  not  explore.  The  massive  roof  was 
supported  by  misshapel  pieces  of  the  native 
limestone  left  for  that  purpose,  and  at  some 
places  was  domed  quite  through  to  the  sur- 
face, admitting  botli  light  and  air  by  the 
roof"  The  name  of  Adullam  suggested  the 
memory  of  that  cave,  the  refuge  of  tiie  Patri- 
arch David,  tl\e  lirst  of  their  line  of  kings,  in 
extreme  isolation  and  peril  of  his  life. 
Thither,  the  refuge  now  of  the  remaining 
(jlori/  of  Israel,  its  wealth,  its  trust,  its  boast, — 
the  foe  should  come.  And  so  there  only  re- 
mained one  common  dirge  for  all. 

16.  3Iulce  tliee  bald,  poll  [lit.  sA^ar--']  thee 
for  thy  delimte  children.  Some  special  ways 
of  cutting  the  hair  were  forbidden  to  the 
Israelites,  as  being  idolatrous  customs,  such 
a.s  the  rounding  the  iuur  in  front,  cutting  it 
away  from  the  temples'*,  or  between  the 
eyes^''.  All  shearing  of  the  hair  was  not  for- 
bidilen'-";  indeed  to  the  Xazarite  it  was  com - 
manileil,  at  tiie  close  of  his  vow.  The  re- 
moval of  that  ciiief  ornament  of  the  counte- 
nance wasa  natural  expression  of  grief,  which 
revolts  at  all  (lersonal  appearance.  It  l>c- 
longed,  not  to  idolatry,  but  to  nature '^^.     Thy 

i"  Neh.  xi.  .31).  *  >ra''c.  xii.  ;W. 

«  see  S.  JcT.  ab.  p.  2.T'i. 

«Rev.  O.  Williams,  MS.  letter. 

«see  on  Am.  viii.  10.  vol.  i.  p.  .327. 

«  Lev.  xix.  27.  anainst  Arab  idolatry.  See  Herod, 
iji.  8.  2*  DiMit.  xiv.  1.  «>as  Hitzift  says. 

«Soe  Job  i.  20,  oarl.v  Greece,  (\\.  2:i,  4r.,  I3."i  sqq. 
Ali^esti.s  429.  non-Ruvptian  nations,  (Herod,  ii.  300 
Persians,  (lb.  ix.  24.)8eytliians,  (lb.  iv.  71.)  Thessa- 
Hans,  Macedonians  (Plut.  Pelop.  34.) 


CHAPTER  I. 


cHR°isT    cate  children  ;  enlarge  thy 
^■r-  "50-      baldness  as  the  eagle ;  for 


delicate  children.  The  change  was  the  more 
bitter  for  those  tended  and  brought  up  deli- 
cately. Moses  from  the  first  spake  of  special 
miseries  which  should  fall  on  the  tender  and 
very  delicate.  Enlarge  thy  baldness ;  outdo  in 
grief  what  others  do ;  for  the  cause  of  thy 
grief  is  more  than  that  of  others.  The  point 
of  comparison  in  the  Eagle  might  either  be 
the  actual  baldness  of  the  head,  or  its  moult- 
ing. If  it  were  the  baldness  of  the  head,  the 
word  translated  eagle  ^,  although  mostly  used 
of  the  Eagle  itself,  might  here  comprehend 
the  Vulture'^.  For  entire  baldness  is  so 
marked  a  feature  in  the  vulture,  whereas  the 
"bald-headed  Eagle"  Avas  probably  not  a  bird 
of  Palestine  *.  On  the  other  hand,  David, 
who  lived  so  long  among  the  rocks  of  Pales- 
tine, and  Isaiah  seem  to  have  known  of  eflects 

1  The  etymology,  (Arab,  nasara  "  tore  with  the 
beak,")  belongs  rather  to  the  eagle  with  its  sharp, 
than  to  the  vulture  with  its  long,  piercing  beak. 
(The  Kamoos,  Freytag's  authority  for  rendering 
nasr  vulture,  only  says  "a  bird,"  adding  that  it  is 
the  name  of  "the  constellation,"  i.e.  Aquila.  In 
Ulug  Begh  Tab.  Stell.  49,  50.  the  okab  and  the  nasr 
both  occur  as  names  of  the  constellation.  Kazwini 
in  Ideler  [Sternkunde  p.  385]  says  that  the  'okab  is 
three  stars  of  the  form  of  the  flying  nasr.)  Leo  .4fr. 
[Descr.  Afr.  i.x.  56.]  says  that  "the  largest  species  of 
eagle  is  called  Nesir."  2)  Unless  nesherhe  the  golden 
Eagle,  there  is  no  Hebrew  name  for  it,  whereas  it 
is  still  a  bird  of  Palestine,  and  smaller  eagles  are 
mentioned  in  the  same  verse.  Lev.  xi.  13 ;  viz.  the 
ossifrage,  D1i3,  and  the  black  eagle,  iT'jr^'*,  so  called 
from  its  strength,  like  the  Valeria,  of  which  Pliny 
says,  "the  melanffitos  or  Valeria,  least  in  size, 
remarkable  for  strength,  blackish  in  color."  x.  3. 
The  same  list  of  unclean  birds  contains  also  the 
culture,  rri,  Deut.  xiv.  13,  (as  it  must  be,  being  a 
gregarious  bird.  Is.  xxxiv.  15.)  in  its  different 
species ;  (Deut.  ib.)  the  gier-engle,  (i.  e.  Geyer)  [vul- 
ture] eagle,  gypaetos,  or  vultur  percnopterus,  (Has- 
selquist,  Forskal,  Shaw,  Bruce  in  Savigny  p.  77.) 
partaking  of  the  character  of  both,  (DHI  Lev.  xi. 
18.  Deut.  xiv.  17.)  together  with  the  falcon  (HNT 
Lev.  xi.  14.)  and  hawk,  with  its  subordinate  species, 

(inyO^  VJ)  Lev.  xi.  18.  Deut.  xiv.  15. 

2  In  this  case,  nesher,  being  a  name  taken  from  a 
quality  common  to  birds  of  prey,  might  at  once  be 
a  generic  term,  corresponding  to  the  modern  term, 
(aves)  rapaces,  and  might  also  designate  what  all 
account  the  king  of  birds.  Its  Greek  name  deros 
is  doubtless  the  Hebrew,  Q^^\  (Bochart  ii.  2.  p.  170.) 
a  generic  name  for  birds  of  prey.  The  Gypaetos 
forms  a  link  between  the  vulture  and  the  eagle. 
Seeing  the  prey  afar,  lofty  flight  out  of  human 
sight,  strength  of  pinion,"  building  nests  in  the 
rocks,  attributed  in  H.  Scr.  to  the  nesher,  belong 
also  to  the  vulture.  The  feeding  on  dead  bodies 
belongs  especially  to  the  vulture,  although  affirmed 
of  eagles  also  if  the  body  be  not  decayed.  The 
Arabic  nasr  seems  to  comprise  the  vulture  also. 
See  in  Boch.  ii.  27.  T.  iii.  p.  79  sqq.  Leipz.  Savigny 
says,  "Nisr  is  a  generic  name  which  has  always 
been  translated  Aquila,  but  now  the  people  and 
;\rabic  naturalists  use  it  to  designate  the  great  vul- 
ture." (Descr.  de  FEg.  i.  73.)  and  of  'Okab,  "'Okab 
is  a  generic  name,  but  it  becomes  specific  for  the 
small  black  eagle  which,  properly  speaking,  is  the 
'Okab."    (Ib.  85.) 

3 "The  only  'bald-headed  Eagle'  is  an  American 


they  are  gone  into  captivity 
from  thee. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  750. 


of  moulting  upon  the  Eagle  in  producing, 
(although  in  a  less  degree  than  in  other 
birds,)  a  temporary  diminution  of  strength, 
which  have  not  in  modern  times  been  com- 
monly observed.  For  David  says  *,  Thou  shall 
renew,  like  the  eagle,  thy  youth,  whicli  speaks  of 
fresh  strength  after  temporary  weakness ;  and 
Isaiah  ^,  They  that  trust  in  the  Lord  iihall  put 
forth^  fresh  strength  ;  they  shall  put  forth  pinion- 
feathers  '  like  eagles,  comparing  the  fi'esh 
strength  which  should  succeed  to  that  which 
was  gone,  to  the  eagle's  recovering  its  strong 
pinion-feathers.  Bochart  however  says  un- 
hesitatingly, "  *  At  the  beginning  of  spring, 
the  rapacious  birds  are  subject  to  shedding  of 
their  feathers  which  we  call  moulting."  If 
this  be  so,  the  comparison  is  yet  more  vivid, 
For  the  baldness  of  the  vulture  belongs  to 

rather  than  an  European  species.  Though  it  is  not 
exclusively  of  the  new  world,  it  is  yet  rarely  seen 
in  the  old',  and  then  chiefly  in  the  Northern  lati- 
tudes." Dr.  Rolleston,  MS.  letter,  who  kindly 
guided  me  to  the  modern  authorities  quoted 
above.  *  Ps.  ciii.  5.  ^  xl.  31. 

'HD  13' /n%  'l/H  to  succeed  to  (as  in  Arab, 
whence  Chaliph)  is  used  of  the  fresh  shoots  of 
grass,  (Ps.  xe.  5,  6.)  of  the  stump  of  a  felled  tree,  put- 
ting forth  fresh  suckers.  Job  xiv.  7.  then,  causa- 
tively,  oi  the  putting  forth  fresh  strength,  in  contrast 
with  the  exhaustion  and  utter  stumblin^^  of  the 
young  and  strong.  In  Arab.  conj.  iv.  one  of  its  many 
special  meanings  is  "  put  forth  fresh  feathers  "  after 
moulting. 

^  Bochart  ii.  1.  T.  ii.  p.  745.  So  the  LXX  Tirtpo<i>vi)- 
<Tov(n.v.     S.  Jer.  assument  pennas.     So  also  Syr. 

Saad.  iphyn  is  used  of  bi-inging  flesh  on  the 
bones,  (Ez.  xxxvii.  G.)  putting  on  the  figures  of 
Cherubim  on  the  veil,  (2  Chr.  iii.  14.)  gold  on  a 
shield,  (1  Kgs  x.  17.)  dress,  2  Sam.  i.  24.  Am.  viii.  1(». 
The  E.  V.  (lit.  "they  shall  ascend  a  pinion  [i.  e.  with 
a  pinion]  like  eagles,")  would  not  be  too  Dold,  but 
for  the  correspondence  of  Ps.  ciii.  5.  The  word 
"13K,  rendered  ivings  E.  V.,  is,  in  Ezek.  xvii.  3,  dis- 
tinguished from  the  iving  itself  and  the  plumage ;  as 
is  m3X  Job  xxxix.  13.  In  Ps.  Ixviii.  14.  nn^K 
must  be  the  pinion-feathers,  not  the  pinions ;  and 
so  mDX  in  Ps.  xci.  4.  In  Job  xxxix.  26,  the  de- 
nom.  "^DX'  might  mean  the  same,  (Boch.  Ib.)  the 
first  hemistich  describing  the  acouiring  the  new 
feathers,  the  2d  the  emigration  of  the  hawks.  The 
radical  meaning  of  TDK  is  strength. 

8  Bochart,  Hieroz.  ii.  1.  p.  744,  5.  The  Kamoos 
quotes,  among  the  10  characteristics  of  the  Anook, 
(the  Rachma,  Heb.  DITI),  "It  flies  in  the  time  of 
shedding  its  feathers  and  is  not  imperilled  in  its 
young  plumage,  &c."  Boch.  ii.  26.  T.  iii.  p.  57.  De- 
metrius Const,  in  his  'UpaKO(io4>.  gives  remedies  for 
making  fresh  feathers  put  forth  fast,  (c.  17.)  and 
grow  quick,  (c.  18.)  and  against  diseases  in  moulting, 
(e.  32.)  showing  that  birds  of  prey  are  liable  to  the 
same  law  as  other  birds.  (See  Button,  Hist.  Nat.  i. 
44,  5.  69,  70.)  Cuvier  says,  "In  certain  states  of 
moulting,  you  see  in  the  plumage  [of  the  roj-al 
eagle]  the  white  at  the  base  of  the  feathers.  It  is 
then  called  Falco  Canadensis."  (R6gne  Animal.) 
To  this  Grev  adds,  that  the  names  Melanaetos  and 
Mogilnik  (iii  Gmelin)  only  describe  it  when  moult- 
ing. (Cuvier  Anim.  Kingd.  vi.  33.)  So  then  the 
change  at  moulting  is  so  great,  that  the  royal  eagle, 
when  moulting,  has  been  thought  to  be  four  differ- 
ent species. 


2."^ 


MKAIf. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


CHAPTER  II. 

1  Ar/ainst  oppression.  4  A  lam- 
entation. 7  A  reproof  of  in- 
justice and  idolatry,  12  A 
promise  of  restoring  Jacob. 


its  matured  strength,  and  could  only  be  an 
external  likeness.  The  moulting  of  the  ej^le 
involves  some  degree  of  weakness,  with  which 
he  compares  Judah's  mournful  and  weak  con- 
dition amid  the  loss  of  their  children,  gone 
into  captivity '. 

Thus  closes  the  first  general  portion  of  the 
prophecy.  The  people  had  cast  aside  its 
own  Glory,  God  ;  now  its  sons,  its  pride  and 
its  trust,  shall  go  away  from  it. 

"  *  The  eagle,  laying  aside  its  old  feathers 
and  taking  new,  is  a  symbol  of  penitence  and 
of  tiie  penitents  who  lay  aside  their  former 
evil  habits,  and  become  other  and  new  men. 
True,  but  rare  form  of  penitence ! "  S. 
Gregory  the  Great  thus  applies  this  to  the 
siege  of  Rome  by  the  Lombards.  "  ^  That 
happened  to  her  which  we  know  to  have 
been  foretold  of  Judea  by  the  Prophet,  en- 
large thy  baldness  like  the  eagle.  For  baldness 
befalls  man  in  the  head  only,  but  the  eagle 
in  its  whole  body  ;  for,  when  it  is  very  old, 
its  feathers  and  pinions  fall  from  all  its  body. 
She  lost  her  feathers,  who  lost  her  people. 
Her  pinions  too  fell  out,  with  which  she  was 
wunt  to  fly  to  the  prey ;  for  all  her  mighty 
men,  through  whom  she  plundered  others, 
perished.  But  this  which  we  speak  of,  the 
l)reakingto  pieces  of  the  city  of  Rome,  we 
know  has  been  done  in  all  the  cities  of  the 
world.  Some  were  desolate<l  by  pestilence, 
otliei-s  devoured  by  the  sword,  others  racked 
by  famine,  others  swallowed  by  earthquakes. 
Despise  we  them  with  our  whole  heart,  at 
least,  when  lirought  to  nought ;  at  least  with 
the  end  of  tlie  world,  let  us  end  our  eager- 
ness  after  tlie  world.  Follow  we,  wherein 
we  «in,  the  deeils  of  the  good."  One  whose 
commentaries  S.  Jerome  had  read,  thus  ap- 
plies tliis  verse  to  the  wliole  human  race. 
"  ()  soul  of  man  !  O  city,  once  the  mother  of 
saints,  which  wast  formerly  in  Paradise,  and 
difist  enjoy  the  deliglits  of  difiierent  trees,  and 
wast  adorned  most  beautifully,  now  being 
cast  down  from  thy  place  aloft,  and  brouglit 
down  unto  I'laliybm,  and  come  into  a  place  of 
captivity,  and  liaviiig  lost  thy  glory,  make 
thee  bald  and  take  the  haldt  of  a  penitent ; 
and  thou  wlio  didst  lly  aloft  like  an  eagle, 
mourn  tiiy  .sons,  thy  o(I>pring,  whicli  from 
thee  is  led  captive." 

'  In  GrtH'k  alno  tlio  Iosh  of  wenlth  by  pillage  is 
compiirpd  to  moiiltinK,  not  in  Ari.stopn.  Av.  284-r). 
onlv,  hut  in  PhiloHtratus,  "he  moults  a.s  to  the 
wealth,"  p.  27.3. 

»  Lap.  « in  Ezek.  Hom.  18,  fin.  L. 

♦Dion.  i-Kup.  Kib. 


W 


TOE  to  them  » that  de-    ^  ^«{<Ys  t 
vise  i  n  i  q  u  i  t  y,  and  __£illl?2i_ 


''work  evil  upon  their    •Hos. 7. 6. 
beds !  when  the  morning  is 
light,  they  practise  it,  be- 


Chap.  II.  The  Prophet  had  declared  that 
evil  should  come  down  on  Samaria  and  Je- 
rusalem for  their  sins.  He  had  pronounced 
them  sinners  against  God  ;  he  now  speaks  of 
their  hard  unlovingness  toward  man,  as  our 
Blessed  Lord  in  the  Gospel  speaks  of  sins 
against  Himself  in  His  members,  as  the 
ground  of  the  condemnation  of  the  wicked. 
The  time  of  warning  is  past.  He  speaks  as 
in  the  person  of  the  Judge,  declaring  the 
righteous  judgments  of  God,  pronouncing 
sentence  on  the  hardened,  but  blessing  on 
those  who  follow  Christ.  The  sins  thus  vi.s- 
ited  were  done  with  a  high  hand  ;  first,  with 
forethought : 

L  Woe,  all  woe,  woe  from  God;  "*the 
woe  of  temporal  captivity ;  and,  unless  ye  re- 
pent, the  woe  of  eternal  damnation,  hangeth 
over  you."  Woe  to  thein  that  devise  iniquity. 
They  devise  it,  "  *  they  are  not  led  into  it  by 
others,  but  invent  it  out  of  their  own  hearts." 
They  plot  and  forecast  and  fulfill  it  even  in 
tiiought,  before  it  comes  to  act.  And  work 
evil  upon  their  beds.  Thoughts  and  imagina- 
tions of  evil  are  works  of  the  soul  ®.  Upon 
their  beds'',  which  ought  to  be  the  place  of 
holy  thought,  and  of  communing  with  their 
own  hearts  and  with  God".  Stillness  must 
be  filled  with  thought,  good  or  bad;  if  not 
with  good,  then  with  bad.  The  chamber,  if  not 
the  sanctuary  of  holy  thoughts,  is  filled  with 
unholy  purposes  and  imaginations.  Man's 
last  and  first  thoughts,  if  not  of  good,  are  es- 
pecially of  vanity  and  evil.  The  Psalmist 
says  ",  Lord,  have  I  not  remembered  Thee  in  my 
bed,  and  thougJU  npon  Thee  xrhen  I  ivas  ivaking  ? 
These  men  thought  of  sin  on  their  bed,  and 
did  it  on  waking.  M^hen  the  morning  is  light, 
lit.  in  the  light  of  the  morning,  i.  e.  instantly, 
shamelessly,  not  shrinking  from  the  light  of 
day,  not  ignorantly,  but  knowingly,  deliber- 
ately, in  full  light.  Nor  again  through  in- 
firmity, but  in  the  wantonness  of  might,  bc- 
can.se  it  is  in  the  }W\ver  of  their  hand  '",  as,  of  old, 
God  said  ",  Thin  they  begin  to  do,  and  now  noth- 
ing will  be  restrained  from  them  which  they  have 
imagined  to  do.  "'*  Impiously  mighty,  and 
mighty  in  impiety." 

'*  ."^ee  the  need  of  the  daily  prayer,  "  Vouch- 
safe, O  Lord,  to  keep  us  this  day  without 
sin  ; "  and  "  Almighty  God,  Who  iiast  brought 

•Ps.  Iviii.  2.  '.See  Ps.  .xxxvi.  4. 

8  1b.  iv.  4.  »lxiii.  c. 

><>Tliis  plira.xe  can  have  no  other  meaning,  Gen. 
xxxi.  2!l.  Prov.  iii.  iJ7 ;  nor  the  corresponding  phrase 
witii  the  negative,  Deut.  xxviii.  32.  Neh.  v.  5. 

n  Gen.  xi.  U.  "  Rup.  "  from  lap. 


CHAPTER  II. 


29 


■^  Before" 
CHRIST 

cir-  730.      their  hand 


cause  "  it  is  in  the  power  of 


•Gen.  31.  29 
*  Isai.  5.  8. 


2  And  they  covet*  fields, 
and  take  them  by  violence ; 
and  houses,  and  take  them 
1  Or,  defraud,     away  :  SO  they  1 1  oppress  a 


us  to  the  beginning  of  this  day,  defend  us  in 
the  same  by  Thy  mighty  power,  that  we  may 
fall  into  no  sin,  &c."  The  illusions  of  the 
night,  if  such  be  permitted,  have  no  power 
against  the  prayer  of  the  morning. 

2.  And  they  covet  fields  and  take  them 
by  violence,  [rend  them  away"]  and  houses,  and 
take  them  away.  Still,  first  they  sin  in  heart, 
then  in  act.  And  yet,  with  them,  to  covet 
and  to  rob,  to  desire  and  to  take,  are  the 
same.  They  were  prompt,  instantaneous, 
without  a  scruple,  in  violence.  So  soon  as 
they  coveted,  they  took  ^.  Desired,  acquired  ! 
Coveted,  robbed  !  "  They  saw,  they  coveted, 
they  took,"  had  been  their  past  history.  They 
did  violence,  not  to  one  only,  but,  touched 
with  no  mercy,  to  whole  families,  their  little 
ones  also ;  they  oppressed  a  man  and  his  house. 
They  spoiled  not  goods  only,  but  life,  a  man 
and  his  inheritance  ;  destroying  him  by  false 
accusations  or  violence  and  so  seizing  upon 
his  inheritance^.  Thus  Ahab  first  coveted 
Naboth's  vineyard,  then,  through  Jezebel, 
slew  him ;  and  "  ^  they  who  devoured  widow's 
houses,  did  at  the  last  plot  by  night  against 
Him  of  Whom  they  said,  Come,  let  us  kill  Him, 
and  the  inheritance  shall  he  our's  ;  and  in  the 
morning,  they  practiced  it,  leading  Him  away 
to  Pilate."  *  Who  of  us  desires  not  the 
villas  of  this  world,  forgetful  of  the  posses- 
sions of  Paradise  ?  You  see  men  join  field 
to  field,  and  fence  to  fence.  "Whole  places 
sufllice  not  to  the  tiny  frame  of  one  man." 
"  ^  Such  is  the  fire  of  concupiscence,  raging 
within,  that,  as  those  seized  by  burning 
fevers  cannot  rest,  no  bed  suffices  them,  so  no 
houses  or  fields  content  these.  Yet  no  more 
than  seven  feet  of  earth  will  suflice  them 
soon.  ®  Death  only  owns,  how  small  the 
frame  of  man." 

3.  Such  had  been  their  habitual  doings. 
They  had  done  all  this,  he  says,  as  one  con- 
tinuous act,  up  to  tiiat  time.  They  were 
habitually  devisers  of  iniquity,  doers  of  eviV. 
It  was  ever-renewed.  By  night  they  sinned 
in  heart  and  thought ;  by  day,  in  act.  And 
so  he  speaks  of  it  in  the  present.  They  do 
it  *.  But,  although  renewed  in  fresh  acts,  it 
was  one  unbroken  course  of  acting.     And  so 

1  The  force  of  iSlJI  HOn. 

*  Comp.  the  woes,  Is.  v.  7.  on  oppression ;  8  covetous- 
uess. 

sTheoph.  ■'S.  Jer.  ^  Rjb. 

♦  Juv,  Sat.x.  172,  3.  ?;?1  'S;'£),  ;iS  '^B^H. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


man  and  his  house,  even  a 
man  and  his  heritage. 

3  Therefore   thus  saith 
the  Lord ;  Behold,  against 
^  this  family  do  I  devise  an     '  Jer.  8.  s. 
evil,  from  which   ye  shall 


he  also  uses  the  form,  in  which  the  Hebrews 
spoke  of  uninterrupted  habits,  They  have  cov- 
eted, they  have  robbed,  they  have  taken '.  Now 
came  God's  part. 

Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  since  they  op- 
press whole  families,  behold  I  will  set  Myself 
against  this  yfhole  family  ^'^•,  since  they  devise 
iniquity,  behold  I  too.  Myself,  by  Myself,  in 
My  own  Person,  am  devising.  Very  awful 
is  it,  that  Almighty  God  sets  His  own  Infin- 
ite Wisdom  against  the  devices  of  man  and 
employs  it  fittingly  to  punish.  "  I  am  devis- 
ing no  common  punishment,  but  one  to  bow 
them  down  without  escape ;  an  evil  from  which 
— He  turns  suddenly  to  them,  ye  shall  not  re- 
move your  necks,  neither  shall  ye  go  haughtily. " 
"  *  Pride  then  was  the  source  of  that  bound- 
less covetousness,"  since  it  was  pride  which 
was  to  be  bowed  down  in  punishment.  The 
punishment  is  proportioned  to  the  .sin.  They 
had  done  all  this  in  pride  ;  they  should  have 
the  liberty  and  self-will  wherein  they  had 
wantoned,  tamed  or  taken  from  them.  Like 
animals  with  a  heavy  yoke  upon  them,  they 
should  live  in  disgraced  slavery.  The  ten 
tribes  were  never  able  to  idthdrav:  their  necks 
from  the  yoke.  From  the  two  tribes  God  re- 
moved it  after  the  70  years.  But  the  same 
sins  against  the  love  of  God  and  man  brought 
on  the  same  punishment.  Our  Lord  again 
spake  the  woe  against  their  covetousness  ". 
It  still  shut  them  out  from  the  service  of  God, 
or  from  receiving  Him,  their  Redeemer. 
They  still  spoiled  the  goods  ^^  of  their  breth- 
ren. In  the  last  dreadful  siege,  "  '^  there 
were  insatiable  longings  for  plunder,  search- 
ing-out of  the  houses  of  the  rich  ;  murder  of 
men  and  insults  of  women  were  enacted  as 
sports ;  they  drank  down  what  they  had 
spoiled,  with  blood."  And  so  the  prophecy 
was  for  the  third  time  fulfilled.  They  who 
withdraw  from  Christ's  easy  yoke  of  obedi- 
ence shall  not  remove  from  tlie  yoke  of  pun- 
ishment ;  they  who,  through  pride,  will  not 
bow  down  tiieir  necks,  but  make  them  stiff, 
shall  be  bent  low,  that  they  c/o  not  upright  or 
haughtily  any  more.  "  The  Lord  alone  shall  be 
exalted  in  that  Day.  For  it  is  an  evil  time. 
Perhaps  he  gives  a  more  special  meaning  to 

"miyj,".  'ixtyj  iSn  non. 

10  as  in  Am.  ili.  1.  vol.  i.  p.  270. 
"  S.  Luke  xvi.  13,  14.  xi.  39.  S.  Matt,  xxiii.  14,  23, 
25.  S.  Mark  xil.  40. 

12  Heb.  X.  34. 

13  Jos.  B.  J.  iv.  9. 10.  add  v.  1.  "  Is.  ii.  11. 


30 


MICAH. 


CHR*i'sT    °^^   remove    your    necks; 
cir.  730.      neither  shall  ye  go  haught- 
'  for  this  time  is  evil. 


f  Amos  5.  13.         ily 
Eph.  5.  IC. 


4  ^lu   that    day  shall 
one  «take   up    a    parable 

" ::  aunt.  i.  ii.  .  i    h  i  x 

t  Hii>.  uith  a     against  you,  and  °  lament 

Inineiitation  of    ,        .   .  i    i    r-   i     i  a. 

lamtntationa.    J  With  a  doleiul  lamenta- 


fllab.  2.  ti. 
;  Sum.  1.  17. 


tion,  and  say,  We  be  utter-    ^  h  r"i  s  t 
ly   spoiled:    'he  hath     ^ cir.  730. 


the  words  of  Amos\  that  a  time  of  moral  evil 
will  be,  or  will  end  in,  a  time,  full  oievil,  i.  e. 
of  sorest  calamity. 

4.  In  that  day  shali  one  take  up  a  parable 
u'jaimt  you.  The  maslud  or  likeness  may,  in 
itself,  be  any  speech  in  which  one  thing  is 
likened  to  another  ;  1)  "ligured  speech,  "  2) 
•'  proverb,"  and,  since  such  proverbs  were 
often  sharp  sayings  against  others,  3)  "  taunt- 
ing figurative  speech."  But  of  the  person 
himself  it  is  always  said,  he  is  made,  becomes  a 
proverb  K  To  take  up  or  utter  such  a  speech 
against  one,  is,  elsewhere,  followed  by  the 
speech  itself;  ■*  Thou  shall  take  up  this  par(d>le 
against  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  say,  &c.  *  Shall 
not  (dl  these  take  up  a  parable  against  him,  and 
say,  &c.  Although  then  the  name  of  the 
.Jews  has  passed  into  a  proverb  of  reproach  *, 
this  is  not  contained  here.  The  parable  here 
must  be  the  same  as  the  doleful  lamentation,  or 
dirge,  which  follows.  No  mockery  is  more 
rutting  or  fiendish,  than  to  repeat  in  jest 
words  by  which  one  bemoans  himself,  'the 
dirge  which  Israel  should  use  of  themselves 
in  sorrow,  the  enemy  shall  take  up  in  de- 
rision, as  Satan  does  doubtless  the  self-con- 
demnation of  the  damned.  "  *  Men  do  any 
evil,  undergo  any  peril,  to  avoid  shame, 
f io<l  brings  before  us  that  deepest  and  eternal 
shame,"  the  shame  and  everlasting  contempt,  in 
presence  of  Himself  and  angels  and  devils 
and  the  good  ',  tliat  we  may  avoid  shame  by 
avoiding  evil. 

And  Inmrntwith  a  doleful  lamentation.  The 
words  in  Hebrew  are  varied  inllections  of  a 
word  imitating  the  sounds  of  woe.  It  is  the 
voice  of  woe  in  all  languages,  because  tiie 
voice  of  nature.  Shall  ivatl  a  wail  of  iron''.  It 
is  the  funeral  dirge  over  the  dead",  or  of  the 
living  doomed  to  die'";  it  is  sometimes  tiie 

1  V.  Vi. 

»  Dent,  xxviii.  :i7.  1  Kings  ix.  7.  2  Clir.  vii.  20.  Ps. 
xliv.  I'l.  Ixix.  12.  .)<T.  xxiv.  0.  Ezek.  xiv.J^. 

X  N.  xiv.  4.  ■•  llah.  ii.  fi.  &  .Icr.  I.  c. 

«Kih.  'Pm.  lii.  r,,  T,  Ih.  Ixvi.  2i. 

»nT\}  'nj  nnj  from  tho  .soumis,  'in  pi^"^''"! 

in  in  Am  V.  l(i.  'n  Ezel<.  ii.  in.  nn,  i-  q-  nnX  Ezek. 

XXX.  2. 

»  J.-r.  xxxi.  1.5.  "'  Ez.  xxxii.  18. 

u  Am.  V.  10.  Jcr.  ix.  17,  It. 
"  1  Sam.  vii.  2.  Jor.  ix.  18. 

» n- jvx  Furst ».  V.  »  n^Din  id. 

'*  Thorn  in  no  7)|pa  for  »oparatinK  iTnj  in  the 
»ens«',  "it  has  tioen,"  like  "tuit  Ilium."  By  itself 
n'nj  would  rather  lie,  "it  fame  to  pass.'"  noX 
ulso,  which  fulluW!',  txpluius  wliut  the  jjiuvorb  and 


changed  the  portion  of  my  i  ch.  1. 15. 
people :   how   hath   he  re- 
moved it  from  me !  1 1  turn- 
ing away  he  hath  divided 
our  fields. 


Or,  instead  of 
restoring. 


measured  mourning  of  those  employed  to  call 
forth  sorrow ",  or  mourning  generally  ''^ 
Among  such  elegies,  are  still  Zion-songs  '^, 
(elegies  over  the  ruin  of  Zion,)  and  mourn- 
ings for  the  dead  '*.  The  word  woe  is  thrice  '' 
repeated  in  Hebrew,  in  dilierent  forms,  ac- 
cording to  that  solemn  way,  in  which  the 
extremest  good  or  evil  is  spoken  of;  the 
threefold  blessing,  morning  and  evening, 
with  the  thrice-repeated  name  of  God  '*, 
impressing  upon  them  the  mystery  which 
developed  itself,  as  the  Divinity  of  the 
Messiah  and  the  personal  agency  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  were  unfolded  to  them.  The  dirge 
which  follows  is  purposely  in  abrupt  brief 
words,  as  those  in  trouble  speak,  with  scarce 
breath  for  utterance.  First,  in  two  words, 
with  perhaps  a  softened  inflection ",  they 
express  the  utterness  of  their  desolation. 
Then,  in  a  threefold  sentence,  each  clause 
consisting  of  three  short  words,  they  say  what 
God  had  done,  but  name  Him  not,  because 
they  are  angry  with  Him.  God's  chastise- 
ments irritate  those  whom  they  do  not 
subdue  ^*. 

The  portion  of  my  people  He  changeth ; 

How  removeth  He  (it)  a.s  to  me  ! 

To  a  rebel  '*  our  fields  He  divideth. 
They  act  the  patriot.  They,  the  rich,  mourn 
over  "  the  portion  of  my  peonle  "  (they  say) 
which  they  had  themselves  aespoiled  :  they 
speak,  (as  men  do,)  as  if  things  were  what 
they  ought  to  be :  they  hold  to  the  theory 
and  ignore  the  facts.  As  if,  because  God  had 
divided  it  to  His  people,  therefore  it  so  re- 
mained !  as  if,  because  the  poor  were  in 
theory  and  by  Goil's  law  provided  for,  they 
were  so  in  fact !  Tiien  they  are  enraged  at 
God's  dealings.  He  removeth  the  portion  as 
to  me ;    and  to  whom  giveth  He  our  fields  ? 

dirge  is,  as  in  Isaiah  and  Hahakkuk.  The  sinjtle 
word  n'nj,  aetum  est,  is  no  dirge.  The  feminine 
and  maseuline  together  make  tip  a  whole  as  in  Is. 
iii.  1;  or  it  might  stand  as  a  superlative,  as  in  the 
Eng.  Aliirg. 

'« .\'iim.  vi.  24-20. 

"  Oliyj  nniy  The  ^  for  the  1  repeating  the 
soun<l  1)0. 

"".■^MO  all.  on  Am.  vi.  10.  p.  207. 

'"nDDIiy, "baiMvsliding,  oeeuraJer.  xxxi.  22. and, 
of  Ammon,  xlix.  4.    This  rendering  is  favored  by 

the  contrast  between  the  '7  and  the  Salts';,  and 

gives  an  adoipiate  meaning  to  the  7  in  the  331JJ'7; 
whereas,  as  purl  oi"  tli  ■  imiuiiivi',  it  is  superfluous, 
and  iinu>urtl  us  suporlluous, 


CHAPTER  II. 


31 


..  T^^i^r""!  a.        5  Therefore   thou   shalt 
cir.  730.      have  none  that  shall  *  east 

k  Deut.  32.  8,  9. 


I'o  a  rebel !  the  Assyrian,  or  the  Clialdee. 
They  had  deprived  the  poor  of  their  portimi 
of  the  Lord's  land^.  And  now  they  marvel 
that  God  resumes  the  possession  of  His  own, 
and  requires  li'om  them,  not  the  fourfold''^ 
only  of  their  spoil,  hut  His  whole  heritage. 
Well  might  Assyrian  or  Ohaldee,  as  they  did, 
jeer  at  the  word,  renegade.  They  had  not  for- 
saken their  gods ; — but  Israel,  what  was  its 
whole  history  but  a  turning  back  ?  ^  Hath  a 
imtion  changed  their  gods,  which  yet  are  no  gods? 
But  My  people  have  changed  their  glory  for  that 
which  doth  not  profit. 

Such  was  the  meaning  in  their  lips.     The 
word  divideth  had  tlie  more  bitterness,  because 
it  was  the  reversal  of  that  first  division  at  the 
entrance  into  Canaan.     Tlien,  with  the  use  of 
this  same  word  *,  the  division  of  the  land  of 
the  heathen  was  appointed  to  them.   Ezekiel, 
in  his  great  symbolic  vision,  afterward  pro- 
phesied the  restoration  of  Israel,  with  the 
use  of  this  same  term".     Joel  spoke  of  the 
parting  of  tlieir  land,  under  this  same  term, 
as  a  sin  of  the  heathen «.     Now,  they  say, 
God  divideth  our  fields,  not  to  us,  but  to  the 
Heathen,  whose  lands  He  gave  us.     It  wa,s  a 
ciiange  of  act :  in  impenitence,  they  think  it 
a  change  of  purpose  or  will.     But  what  lies  j 
in  tlial,  ive  be  -utterly  despoiled  f  Despoiled  of  j 
everything;    of   what   they    felt,    temporal  ] 
things;    and   of  what    they    did    not    feel, 
spiritual   things.      Despoiled  of  the  land  of 
promise,  the  good  things  of  this  life,  but  also 
of  the  Presence  of  God  in  His  Temple,  the 
grace  of  the  Lord,  the  image  of  God  and 
everlasting  glory.     Their  portion  was  changed, 
as  to  themselves  and   with   others.      As  to 
themselves,   riches,    honor,    pleasure,    their 
own  land,  were  changed  into  want,  disgrace, 
suifering,  captivity ;  and  yet  more  bitter  was 
it  to  see  others  gain  what  they  by  their  own 
fault  had  forfeited.     As  time  went  on,  and 
their  transgression  deepened,  the  exchange  of 
the  portion  of  that  former  people  of  God  be- 
came more  complete.     The  casting-ofFof  the 
Jews  was   the   grafting-in  of  the  Gentiles. 
'  Seeing  ye  judge  yourselves   unworthy  of  ever- 
lasting' life,  lo  !  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles.     And  so 
they  who  were  ^  no  people,  became  the  people 
of    God,   and   they   who   were   His    people, 
became,  for  the  time,  ^not  My  people:  and^" 
the  adoption  of  sons,  and  the  glory,  and  the  cove- 
nants, and  the  lawgiving,  and  the  service  of  God, 
and  the  promises,  came  to  us  Gentiles,  since  to 

1  See  on  Hos.  ix.  3.  voi.  i.  p.  88. 
8  Ex.  xxii.  1.  2  Sam.  xii.  6.  S.  Luke  xix.  8. 
8Jer.  ii.  11.  ...  „ 

*Num.  xxvi.  53,  55,  6.  Josh.  xiii.  7.  xiv.  5.  xvni.  2, 
6.  10.  xix.  51.         '■>  xlvii.  21.         « iv.  2.  [ili.  .S.  Eng.] 
"  .-Vets  xiii.  40.  »  Rom.  x.  19.  »  Ha=.  i.  'i. 


a  cord  by  lot  in  the  congre-    ^  h  R^y  x 
gation  of  the  Lord.  __2ilLH!:_ 


us   Christ  Himself  our   God  blessed  for  ever 
came,  and  made  us  His. 

How  hath  He  removed.  The  words  do  not 
say  what  He  removed.  They  thought  of 
His  gifts,  the  words  include  Himself".  They 
say  How !  in  amazement.  The  change  is 
so  great  and  bitter,  it  cannot  be  said.  Time, 
yea  eternity  cannot  utter  it.  He  hath  divided 
our  fields.  The  land  was  but  the  outward 
symbol  of  the  inward  heritage.  Unjust 
gain,  kept  back,  is  restored  with  usury ;  '^  it 
taketh  away  the  life  of  the  owners  thereof  The 
vineyard  whereof  the  Jews  said,  the  inheri- 
tance shall  be  ours,  was  taken  from  them  and 
given  to  others,  even  to  Christians.  So  now 
is  that  awful  change  begun,  when  Christians, 
leaving  God,  their  only  unchanging  Good, 
turn  to  earthly  vanities,  and,  for  the  grace  of 
God  which  He  withdraws,  have  these  only 
for  their  fleeting  portion,  until  it  shall  be 
finally  exchanged  in  the  Day  of  Judgment. 
1*  Son,  reinember  that  thou  in  thjlifetimereceivedst 
thy  good  things,  and  likewise  Lazarus  evil  things; 
but  nmu  he  is  comforted  and  thou  art  tormented. 

Israel  defended  himself  in  impenitence  and 
self-righteousness.  He  was  already  the 
Pharisee.  The  doom  of  such  was  hopeless. 
The  prophet  breaks  in  with  a  renewed, 
Therefore.  He  had  already  prophesied  that 
they  should  lose  the  lands  which  they  had 
unjustly  gotten,  the  land  which  they  had 
profaned.  He  had  described  it  in  their  own 
impenitent  words.  Now  on  the  impenitence 
he  pronounces  the  judgment  which  im- 
penitence entails,  that  tliey  should  not  be 
restored 

5.  Therefore  thou  shall  have  none  that  shall 
cast  a  cord  by  lot  in  the  congregation  of  the  Lord. 
Thou,  in  the  first  instance,  is  the  impenitent 
Jew  of  that  day.  God  had  promised  by 
Hosea  '*  to  restore  Judah  ;  shortly  after,  the 
Prophet  himself  foretells  it^^  Now  he  fore- 
warns these  and  such  as  these,  that  they 
would  have  no  portion  in  it.  They  had  ^^ 
neither  part  nor  lot  in  this  mutter.  They,  the 
not-Israel  then,  were  the  images  and  en- 
samples  of  the  not-Israel  afterward,  those 
who  seem  to  be  God's  people  and  are  not ; 
members  of  the  body,  not  of  the  soul  of  the 
Church  ;  who  have  a  sort  of  faith,  but  have 
not  love.  Such  was  afterward  the  Israel 
after  the  flesh,  which  was  broken  off,  while  the 
true  Israel  was  restored,  passing  out  of  them- 
selves into  Christ.    Such,  at  the  end,  shall  be 

10  Rom.  ix.  4,  5.  .... 

11  t^'D''  is  mostly  transitive;  it  was  intransitive  ii. 
3,  and  is  so  (if  not  Kal)  Prov.  xvii.  13.  . 

12  Prov.  i.  19.  "  S.  Luke  xvi.  2a. 
1*  See  on  Hos.  v.  11.  vol.  i.  p.  00. 

!6ii.i2,  19  Acts  vui.  21. 


32 


MICAH. 


6  lit 'Prophesy  ye  not, 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  730.       gay  fJiey  to  them  that  proph- 


'  "n'ot  ^"C^    esy :  they  shall  not  prophe 


tZ&op,<tc.8y  to  them,  that  they  shall 
not  take  shame. 

7  ^0  thou  that  art 


Ezek.  21.  2, 
1  l.-ai.  30.  10. 
Amos  2. 12. 
&  7. 16. 


those,  who,  being  admitted  by  Christ  into 
their  portion,  remmnce  the  world  in  word  not 
in  deed.  Such  shall  have  "  ^  no  portion  lor 
ever  in  the  congregation  of  the  Lord.  For  ^ 
iwthing  defiled  shall  enter  there,  nor  ichalsoever 
worketh  abominalion  or  a  lie,  but  they  which  are 
%vritten  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life." 

The  ground  of  their  condemnation  is  their 
resistance  to  light  and  known  truth.  These 
not  only'  entered  not  in,  themselves,  but, 
being  hinderers  of  God's  word,  them  that  were 
entering  in,  they  hindered. 

6.  Prophesy  'ye  not,  say  they  to  them  that 
prophesy  ;  they  shall  not  prophesy  to  them,  that 
they  shall  not  take  shame.  The  words  are  very 
emphatic  in  Hebrew,  from  their  briefness, 
Prophesy  not ;  they  shall  indeed  prophesy ;  they 
slwdl  not  prophesy  to  these;  shame  shall  not 
depart  *.  The  people,  the  false  prophets,  the 
politicians,  forbade  God  and  Alicah  to  pro- 
phesy ;  Prophesy  not.  God,  by  Micah,  recites 
their  prohibition  to  themselves,  and  fore- 
warns them  of  the  consequences. 

Prophesy  ye  not,  lit.  drop  not.  Araaziah 
and  the  God-opposing  party  had  already 
given  an  ungfMlly  meaning  to  the  word  *. "  Drop 
not,"  "distill  not,"  thus  unceasingly,  these 
same  words,  ever  warning,  ever  telling  of 
*  lamentation  and  monrning  and  woe  ;  prophesy- 
ing not  good  concerning  us,  but  evil''.  So  their 
descendants  commandrxl  the  Apostles'*  not  to 
speak  at  all  or  to  teach  in  the  Name  of  Jesus. 
®  Did  we  not  straitbj  command  yon,  that  ye 
should  not  teach  in  this  Name?  ^°  'IVivi  man 
reaseth  not  to  speak  blasphemous  words  against 
this  holy  place  and  the  law.  God  answers ; 
They  shall  certauily  prophesy.  The  Hel)rew 
word  is  emphatic  '  .  The  Prophets  hail  their 
commission  from  God,  and  Ilim  they  must 
obey,  whether  Israel  "*  uvukl  hear  or  wliether 
they  wo'dd  forbear.  So  must  Micali  and 
Isaiah  '*  now,  or  Jeremiah  '*,  Ezekiel,  and 
the  rest  afterward.  They  shall  not  prophesy 
to  these.  He  does  not  say  only,  They  shall  not 
prophesy  to  them,  but,  to  these;  i.e.  they  shall 
prophesy  to  others  who  would  receive  their 
words:  God's  word  would  not  be  stayed; 
they  who  would  hearken  shall  never  be  de- 

>  riib.  «  Uev.  xxl.  27.  »  8.  Luke  xi.  52. 

«Foc.  gives  tills  distribution  of  the  words  from 
Abiilwalld  V.  t\Qy 

'See  on  Am.  vii.  Ifi.  vol.  i.  p.  322. 
«  Ezek.  II.  10.  '  1  Kings  xxli.  18. 

"  Arts  iv.  IS.  V.  -10.  »  lb.  V.  2ft.         "O  lb.  vl.  13. 

"Mfl'D'.        '»  Kzek.  li.  r>.  7.       '3xxviii.0-l'1.22. 


named  the  house  of  Jacob,    ^  h  rTs  t 
is  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  __£i£ii52^_ 
II straitened?  are  these  his II Or. s^ior^cned f 
doings?  do  not  my  words 
do  good  to  him  that  walk- 

eth  t  uprightly  ?  t  Heb.  upright  t 


prived  of  their  portion  ;  but  to  these  who  de- 
spise, they  shall  not  prophesy.  It  shall  be  all 
one,  as  though  they  did  not  prophesy  ;  the 
soft  rain  shall  not  bedew  them.  The  barn- 
floor  shall  be  dry,  while  the  fleece  is  nioi.st'*. 
So  God  says  by  Isaiah '® ;  I  will  also  comnmnd  the 
clouds  that  they  rain  no  rain  upon  it.  The  dew 
of  God's  word  shall  be  transferred  to  others. 
But  so  shame  [lit.  shames  ",  manifold  shame,] 
shall  not  depart,  but  shall  rest  upon  them  for 
ever.  God  would  have  turned  away  the 
shame  from  them  ;  but  they,  despising  His 
warnings,  drew  it  to  themselves.  It  was  the 
natural  fruit  of  their  doings  ;  it  was  in  its 
natural  home  with  them.  God  spake  to 
them,  that  they  might  be  freed  from  it. 
They  silenced  His  Prophets ;  deafened  them- 
selves to  His  words  ;  so  it  departed  not.  So 
our  Lord  says  ^®,  Now  ye  say,  we  see  ;  therefore 
your  sin  reirudneth ;  and  S.John  Baptist'", 
I'he  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.  It  hath  not 
now  first  to  come.  It  is  not  some  new  thing 
to  be  avoided,  turned  aside.  The  sinner  has 
but  to  remain  as  he  is ;  the  shame  encom- 
passeth  him  already ;  and  only  departeth  not. 
The  wrath  of  God  is  already  upon  him,  and 
abideth  on  him. 

7.  0  thou  that  art  named  the  house  of  Jacob  ; 
as  Isaiah  says  ^,  Hear  ye  this,  0  house  of  Jacob, 
which  are  called  by  the  name  of  Isrcwl — which 
make  mention  of  the  God  of  Israel,  not  in  truth, 
nor  in  righteousness.  For  they  ccdl  themselves  of 
the  holy  city,  and  stay  themselves  upon  the  God  of 
Israel.  They  boasted  of  what  convicted 
them  of  faithlessness.  They  relied  on  lieing 
what  in  spirit  they  had  ceased  to  be,  what  in 
deeds  they  denied,  children  of  a  believing 
forefatlier.  It  is  the  same  temper  which  we 
see  more  at  large  in  their  descendants;  '■"  We 
be  Abraham's  seed  and  wrre  never  in  bondage  to 
any  man ;  how  saycst  Thou,  ye  shall  be  made 
frcef  '"Abraham  is  our  Father.  It  is  the  same 
whiih  S.  John  Baptist  and  our  Lord  and  S. 
Paul  rc])roved.  '^'^  Think  not  to  say  xrithin 
yourselves,  we  have  Abraham  to  our  father.  '■"  //' 
ye  were  AbrahamUs  children,  yr  would  do  the 
works  of  Abraham.  Now  ye  seek  to  kill  M<\  a 
Man  lliat  hath  told  you  the  truth — I'his  did  not 

» 1.  7. 17.  xxvi.  lO-lS.  «  Judg.  vi.  ,37. 

>«  Is.  V.  6. 

"  PIoSd  as  nii^lC'i   omnlgente  salutes,  mani- 
>ld  salvation. 


fol 

)»3.  John  lx.41 
«  9.  John  viil.  33. 
S3S.  Matt.  ill.  9. 


>»Ib.  iil.3ti. 


soxlviii.  1. 
!SIb.  39. 

-<S.  John  viil.  3't,  40, 


CHAPTEE  II 


S3 


CHRIST       ^  Even  t  of  late  my  peo- 
cir.  730.  _  pie  is  risen  up  as  an  enemy : 


\Blh%fer'^"^-je  pull  off  the  robs  f  with 

against  a  garment. 


Abraham.  ^  He  is  not  a  Jew  which  is  one  out- 
wardly, neither  is  that  circumcision  which  is  out- 
ward in  the  flesh. — Behold  thou  art  called  a  Jew, 
and  restest  in  the  laio  and  inakest  thy  boast  of 
Ood,  and  knowest  His  Will  and  approvest  the 
things  that  are  more  excellent — &c.  Tlie  Pi'o- 
phet  answei-s  the  unexpressed  objections  of 
those  who  forbade  to  prophesy  evil.  "  Such 
could  not  be  of  God,"  these  said ;  "  for  God 
was  pledged  by  His  promises  to  the  house  of 
Jacob.  It  would  imply  change  in  God,  if  He 
were  to  cast  of!"  those  whom  He  had  chosen." 
Micah  answers ;  "  not  God  is  changed,  but 
you."  God's  promise  was  to  Jacob,  not  to 
those  who  were  but  named  Jacob,  who  called 
themselves  after  the  name  of  their  father, 
but  did  not  his  deeds.  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
tvas  not  straitened  '■',  so  that  He  was  less  long- 
suffering  than  heretofore.  These,  which  He 
threatened  and  of  which  they  complained, 
were  not  His  doings,  not  what  He  of  His  own 
Nature  did,  not  what  He  loved  to  do,  not 
His,  as  the  Author  or  Cause  of  them,  but 
theirs.  God  is  Good,  but  to  those  who  can 
receive  good,  the  upright  in  heart*.  Ood  is 
only  Loving  unto  Israel.  He  is  all  Love ; 
nothing  but  *  Love  :  all  His  ways  are  Love  ; 
but  it  follows,  unto  whai  Israel,  the  true 
Israel,  the  pure  of  heart.  ^  All  the  paths  of  the 
Lord  are  mercy  and  truth  ;  but  to  whom  ?  unto 
such  as  keep  His  covenant  and  His  testimonies. 
^  The  mercy  of  the  Lord  is  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting  ;  but  (mto  them  that  fear  Him.  But, 
they  becoming  evil,  His  good  became  to  them 
evil.  Light,  wholesome  and  gladdening  to  the 
healthful,  hurts  weak  eyes.  That  which  is 
straight  cannot  suit  or  fit  with  the  crooked. 
Amend  your  crookedness,  and  God's  ways 
will  be  straight  to  you.  Do  not  My  ivords  do 
good  f  He  doth  speak  ^  good^  words  and  comfort- 
able words.  They  are  not  only  good,  but  do 
good.    ^  His  word  is  with  power.    Still  it  is 

1  Rom.  li.  17-28. 

^ni1  "^Ifp.  (as  in  part  Zech.  xi.  8,)  as  opposed  to 

D1DK  1"1><  (Ex.  xxxiv.  6.  &.C.  longanimis,  longsuf- 

fering,)  and  i.  q.  D'SX  1}f  p  Prov.  xx.  17,  eoll.  29. 

8  Ps.  Ixxiii.  1.  *  The  force  of  "^X. 

5  Ps.  XXV.  10.  6  Ps.  ciii.  17.  S.  Luke  i.  50. 

7  Zech.  i.  13.        8  s.  Luke  iv.  32.         »  Jer.  vi.  14. 

10  Rom.  xi.  22. 

"  h^lOnX  is  i.  q.  blOnX,  in  Is.  xxx.  3.3. 

12  8.  Jer. 

i^DOIp',  in  Isaiah  (xliv.  26.  Iviii.  12.  Ixi.  4.)  transi- 
tive, but  only  of  the  raising  up,  rebuilding  of  ruins. 
The  use  of  DDIp  actively  in  that  one  sense  is  no 

ground  for  taking  it  so,  where  the  idea  is  different. 
To  raise  up  an  adversary  is  exprasseii  by  D'pn 

o 


the  garment  from   them    chrTst 
that  pass  by  securely  as  __£i£i23a__ 
men  averse  from  war. 


with  those  who  ivalk  uprightly;  whether 
those  who  forsake  not,  or  those  who  return 
to,  the  way  of  righteousness.  God  Cattereth 
not,  deceiveth  not,  promiseth  not  what  He 
will  not  do.  He  cannot*  speak  peace  where 
there  is  no  peace.  As  He  saith,  ^''Behold  the 
goodness  and  severity  of  God;  on  them  which 
fell,  severity,  but  toward  thee,  goodness,  if  thou 
continue  in  His  goodness.  God  Himself  could 
not  make  a  heaven  for  the  proud  or  envious. 
Heaven  would  be  to  them  a  hell. 

8.  Even  of  late  [lit.  yesterday  ".]  "  i^  He 
imputeth  not  past  sins,  but  those  recent  and, 
as  it  were,  of  yesterday."  3Iy  people  is  risen 
up  vehemently  ^^.  God  uijbraideth  them  ten- 
derly by  the  title,  Mine  own  people,  as  S.  John 
complaineth  '*,  He  came  unto  His  own,  and  His 
own  received  Him  Jiot.  God  became  not  their 
enemy,  but  they  arose  as  one  man, — is  risen 
up,  the  whole  of  it,  as  His.  In  Him  they 
might  have  had  peace  and  joy  and  assured 
gladness,  but  they  arose  in  rebellion  against 
Him,  requiting  Him  evil  for  good,  (as  bad 
Christians  do  to  Christ,)  and  broucht  war 
upon  their  own  heads.  This  they  did  by 
their  sins  against  their  brethren.  Casting  off 
the  love  of  man,  they  alienated  themselves 
from  the  love  of  God. 

Ye  pxdl  off  [strip  off  violently  ^*]  the  robe  with 
the  garment,  lit.  over  against  the  cloak.  The 
salmah  '*"  is  the  large  enveloping  cloak,  which 
was  worn  loosely  over  the  other  'dress,  and 
served  by  night  for  a  covering  ".  Eder  ^*, 
translated  robe,  is  probably  not  any  one  gar- 
ment, but  the  remaining  dress,  the  comely, 
becoming  ^',  array  of  the  person.  These  they 
stripped  violently  off  from  persons,  peaceable, 
unofiending,  ofl'  their  guard,  passing  by  se- 
curely, men  averse  from  war'^'*  and  strife.  These 
they  stripped  of  their  raiment  by  day,  leav- 
ing them  half-naked,  and  of  their  covering 
for  the  night.    So  making  war  against  God's 

Mic.  V.  4.  Am.  vi.  14. 1  Kings  xi.  14.  and  so  raising 
up  evil  also. 
iM.  11. 

16  pjotyan.    This  is  intensive,  as  in  Arabic. 

iTloSiy  here  and  Ex.  xxii.  8.  i.  q.  nSotJ",  else- 
where. 

17  Deut.  xxii.  17. 

18  "\1X  occurs  here  only.  There  is  no  ground  to 
identify  it  with  the  well-known  n-»-\X  It  is  not 
likely  that  the  common  trarment  should  have  been 
called,  this  once,  by  a  different  name ;  nor  that  the 
jTni^,  a  wide  eufolding  garment,  (see  on  Jonah  iii. 
6.  vol.  i.  p.  416,)  should  have    been  worn  together 

with  the  noSjy. 

19 This  meaning  seems  to  lie  in  thcToot;  eomp. 
<TTo\)7,  array,  apparel,  dres.«. 

20  2W  is  doubtless  an  adjective  form,  distinct 
from  the  participle  '31^,  (Is.  lix.  20)  like  mO  J«r- 
ii.  21. 


34 


MIC  AH. 


9  The    II  women  of  my 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  730.       people   hiive    ye   cast  out 


II  Or,  wives. 


from  their  pleasant  houses ; 
from   their   children  hav^e 


peaceful  people,  they,  as  it  were,  made  war 
against  God. 

9.  The  uomen  of  my  people  have  ye  cast  out 
from  their  pleiisanl  hou.<e«,  [lit.//-om  her  pkasant 
'houj<e,']  each  from  her  liome.  These  were 
probably  the  widows  of  those  whom  they  had 
btripped.  Since  the  houses  were  their's, 
ihey  were  widows;  and  so  their  spoilers  were 
at  war  with  tliose  whom  God  had  committed 
to  their  special  love,  whom  He  hatl  declared 
the  objects  of  His  own  tender  care,  the  widows 
and  the  Jatherlc-ni.  The  widows  they  drove 
rehenuntly  forth  ^,  as  having  no  portion  in  the 
iniieritance  which  God  had  given  them,  as 
<iod  had  driven  out  their  enemies  before 
them,  e-dch  from  her  plea.->:aid  house,  the  home 
where  she  had  lived  with  her  husband  and 
children  in  delight  and  joy. 

From  [o/T]  their  [young'^']  children  have  ye 
taken  uuxiy  My  c/lory.  Primarily,  the  glory, 
comeliness,  was  the  fitting  apparel  which  God 
hiid  given  them  -^  and  laid  upon  them  *,  and 
wliich  tliese oppressors  stripped  q^'from  them. 
But  it  includes  all  the  gifts  of  God,  where- 
witii  God  would  array  them.  Instead  of  the 
holy  home  of  parental  care,  the  children 
grew  up  in  want  and  neglect,  away  from  all 
tlie  ordinances  of  God,  it  may  be,  in  a  strange 
land.  For  ever.  They  never  repented,  never 
made  restitution ;  but  so  they  incurred  tlie 
special  woe  >jf  tliose  wlio  ill-used  tlie  unpro- 
tected, the  widow,  and  the  fatherless.  The 
words  for  ever  anticipate  the  punishment. 
The  punishment  is  according  to  the  sin. 
They  never  ceased  tlieir  oppression.  They, 
with  the  generation  who  should  come  after 
tliem,  should  be  deprived  of  God's  ylory,  and 
c;ist  out  of  His  land  forever. 

10.  Arise  ye  and  depart.  Go  your  way,  a.s 
being  cast  out  of  God's  care  and  land.  It 
matters  not  whither  they  went.  For  this  is 
not  your  rest.  As  ye  have  done,  so  shall  it  be 
done  unto  you.  As  ye  c;ist  out  the  widow 
and  the  fatherless,  so  shall  ye  be  cast  out ;  as 

'  ptynjn  is  doubly  intensive,  as  the  intensive 
form  with  the  emphatic  J.  It  is  the  word  used  of 
•  iod's  driving  out  the  nations  before  Israel,  (E.\. 
•Iiid.  Ac.)  or  of  man  being  driven  out  of  Paradise, 
('Jen.  iii.  -^4,)  Hapar  boing  cast  out.  (Gen.  xxi.  10.) 
'I'hf  word  itself,  by  its  roiiuh  sound,  expresses  the 
more  of  harshness;  and  that  as  opposed  to  .soft- 
ness, ri'JUi'n.  This  is  the  same  word  as  that  ren- 
dered delicate,  1.  10. 

»as  Ho8.  ii.  II.  "JJT  I.  H.  Mi.li. 

«  Ez.  xvi.  U.  Id.  f.  Rev.  xiii.  10. 

•  Deut.  xli.  9.  lu.  add  1  Kings  viii.  .'ifi. 

'nnUOn  Sn,  ihr  .^ame  word.  'n'JH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


ye  taken   away  my  glory 
for  ever. 

10  Arise  ye,  and  depart ; 
for  this  w  not  your  ""  rest :    "Deut.  12.  9 


ye  gave  no  rest  to  those  averse  from  war,  so 
shall  ye  have  none.  ^  He  thai  leadeth  into 
captivity  shall  go  into  captivity  ;  he  that  killeth 
irith  the  su-ord  must  be  killed  with  the  sword. 
The  land  was  given  to  them  as  a  temporary 
rest,  a  symbol  and  earnest  of  the  everlasting 
rest  to  the  obedient.  So  Moses  spake*,  ye 
are  not  as  yet  come  to  the  rest '  and  the  inheri- 
tance which  the  Lord  your  God  giveth  you.  But 
when  ye  go  over  Jordan,  and  dwell  in  the  land 
which  the  Lord  your  God  giveth  you  to  inherit, 
ami  when  He  giveth  you  rest^from  your  eno/iiV-s 
round  (d>out,  so  that  ye  dwell  in  safety,  <frc.  And 
Joshua  ",  Remenxber  the  word  which  Moses  com- 
nutnded  you,  saying,  The  Lord  your  God  giveth 
you  rest  '*•.  But  the  Psiilmist  had  warned 
them,  that,  if  they  hardened  their  hearts  like 
their  forefathers,  they  too  would  not  enter  into 
His  rest  ". 

Because  it  is  polluted  [lit.  because  of  its  pollu- 
tioii^^']  by  idolatry,  by  violence,  by  unclean- 
ness.  So  Moses  (using  the  same  word)  says, 
the  land  is  defiled  '^  by  the  alx)minations  of  the 
heathen  ;  and  warns  them,  tluU  the  land  spue 
you  not  out,  when  you  defile  it,  as  it  spued  out  the 
nations  which  were  before  you.  Kzekiel  speaks 
of  that  defilement ",  as  the  ground  why  God 
expelled  Israel  '*.  It  shall  destroy  you,  even 
with  a  .''Ore  [lit.  .'iliarp'\  destruction^^.  It  is  a 
sore  tiling  to  abuse  tlie  creatures  of  God  to 
sin,  and  it  is  unfit  that  we  should  use  what 
we  have  abused.  Hence  Holy  Scripture 
speaks,  as  though  even  the  inanimate  crea- 
tion took  part  with  Go<l,  inade  subject  to  van- 
ity, not  willingly,  and  could  not  endure  those 
who  employed  it  against  His  Will. 

The  words,  Arise,  depart  ye,  for  this  is  not 
yuur  rest,  became  a  sort  of  sacred  proverli, 
spoken  anew  to  the  soul,  whenever  it  would 
find  rest  out  of  God.  "  "  We  are  bidden  to 
think  of  no  rest  for  ourselves  in  any  things 
of  the  world  ;  but,  as  it  were,  arising  from  the 
dead,  to  stretch  upwards,  and  walk  after  the 
Lord  our  God,  and  say.  My  soul  cleaveth  luird 

«i.  13.  >»n'JO. 

"  Ps.  xcv.   11.    comp.    "innUoS    Ps.  cxxsii.  8. 

-rnuD  14. 

12  as  painted  in  most  accurate  copies,  without 
Metheg.  's  KOtOn  Lev.  xviii.  27.  D3XOt33  'i»- 

'<  Ezek.  xxxvi.  17. 

"  Ezek.  xxxvi.  18.  add  .ler.  ii.  7.      , 

•"This  is  the  common  rendering  of  13n.  Others, 
with  Sal.  B.  Mel.  have  understood  it  of  travail-pains, 
(Cant.  viii.  .5.  Ps.  vii.  1.1.)  but  this  would  have  the 
opposite  sense  of  bringing  forth,  re-birth,  not  of 
election.  (See  Is.  Ixvi.  8.)  The  .sharp  bitter  pang 
would  express  the  pains  of  travail,  not  its  fruitless- 
ness  or  that  they  were  cast  out  any  whither.  Fruit- 
lessness  of  travail-pangs  is  expressed,  if  intended, 
(as  in  Is.  xxvi.  18.)  "8.  Jer. 


CHAPTER  II. 


35 


CHR^fsT    because  it  is  "polluted^ 
cir.  730.      shall  destroy  you,  even  with 


» Lev.  18. 25, 28.  a  sore  destruction. 

I  Or!"  w^a/l  K^ith       1 1  If  a  man  1 1 "  walking 

?,' /^^S.""^   in  the  spirit  and  falsehood 

.  Ezek.  13. 3.      ^^  Yie,  saying,  I  will  proph- 


after  Thee.  This  if  we  neglect,  and  will  not 
hear  Him  Who  saith,  Aivake  thou  that  steepest, 
unci  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Chrid  shall  give 
tkee  light,  we  shall  indeed  slumber,  but  shall 
be  deceived  and  sliall  not  find  rest;  for 
where  Christ  enlighteneth  not  the  risen 
soul,  what  seemeth  to  be  rest,  is  trouble." 
All  rest  is  wearisome  whicli  is  not  in  Thee,  O 
our  God. 

11.  If  a  man  walking  in  the  spirit  and  false- 
hood, lit.  in  spirit  [not  Mij  Spirit]  and  false- 
hood, i.  e.  in  a  lying  spirit ;  such  as  they, 
whose  woe  Ezekiel  pronounces  ^,  Woe  unto  the 
foolish  prophets  who  walk  after  their  own  spirit 
and  what  they  kive  not  seen  '^;  prophets  out  of 
their  own  hmrts,  who  *  prophesied  a  vision  of 
falsehood,  and  a  destruction  and  nothingness  * ; 
prophesid  falsehood  ;  yea,  prophets  of  the  deceit  of 
their  hearts.    These,  like  the  true  prophets, 
imdked  in  spirit;  as  Isaiah  speaks  of  walking  in 
■righteousness  ^,  and  Solomon  of  one  walking  in 
thefroivardness  of  the  mouth  •*.    Their  habitual 
convei-se  was  in  a  spirit,  but  of  falseliood.    If 
such  an  one  do  lie,  saying,  I  tvill  prophesy  unto 
thee  of  wine  and  strong  drink.  Man's  conscience 
must  needs   have   some    plea    in    speaking 
falsely  of  God.     The  false  prophets  had  to 
please  the  rich  men,  to  embolden  them  in 
their  self-indulgence,  to  tell  them  that  God 
would  not  punish.     They  doubtless  spoke  of 
God's  temporal  promises  to  His  people,  the 
landfloicing  with  milk  and  honey.  His  promises 
of  abundant  harvest  and  vintage,  and  assured 
them,  that  God  would  not  withdraw  these, 
that  He  was  not  so  precise  about  His  law. 
Micah  tells  them  in  plain  words,  what  it  all 
came  to ;  it  was  a  prophesying  of  tdne  and 
strong  drink. 

He  shall  even  be  the  prophet  of  this  people,  lit. 
and  shcdl  he  bedewing  this  people.  He  uses  the 
same  words,  which  scorners  of  Israel  and 
Judah  employed  in  forbidding  to  prophesy. 
They  said,,  drop  not ;  forbidding  God's  word 
as  a  wearisome  dropping.  It  wore  away  their 
patience,  not  their  hearts  of  stone.  He  tells 
them,  ivho  might  speak  to  them  without 
wearying,  of  lohose  words  they  would  never 
tire, 'u7)o   might  do  habitually^  what  they 


esy  unto  thee  of  wine  and 
of>ti:Qng  drink;  he  shall 
even  be^fe^ophet  of  this 
people. 

12  ^p  I  will  surely  as- 
semble, O  Jacob,  all  of 


1  Ezek.  xiii.  3. 

ajer.  xiv.  14,  Tpty  n?n,  as 


2Ib.  2. 17. 

ltc  -ipiyi  nn. 


4 lb.  xxiii.  20.    add   "Ip-^    D"X2J   xxvii.  10,  11, 

16.  or  nptj'^  JcT.  xxix.  9.  ipiy  nnSn  "K3J  H'. 

x.xiii.32.1  ,  I 

5xxxiii.  15.  nmv  "7:1. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


vch.  4.  G,  7. 


forbade  to  God, — one  who,  in  the  Name  of 
God,  set  them  at  ease  in  their  sensual  indul- 
gences.    This  is  the  secret  of  the  success  of 
everything  opposed  to  God  and  Christ.  Man 
wants  a  God.     God  has  made  it  a  necessity  of 
our  nature  to  crave  after  Him.     Spiritual, 
like  natural,  hunger,  debarred  from  or  loath- 
ing wholesome  food,  must  be  stilled,  stifled, 
with  what  will  appease  its  gnawings.     Our 
natural  intellect  longs  for  Him  ;  for  it  cannot 
understand  itself  without   Him.     Our  rest- 
lessness longs  for  Him ;  to  rest  upon.     Our 
helplessness  longs  for  Him,  to  escape  from 
the  unbearable  pressure  of  our  unknown  fu- 
turity.   Our  imagination  craves  for  Him ;  for, 
being  made  for  the   Infinite,   it  cannot  be 
content  with   the  finite.     Aching  afJections 
long  for  Him  ;  for  no  creature  can  soothe  them. 
Our  dissatisfied  conscience  longs  for  Him,  to 
teach  it  and  make  it  one  with  itself.     But 
man  does  not  want  to  be  responsible,  nor  to 
owe  duty  ;  still  less  to  be  liable  to  penalties 
for    disobeying.      The    Christian,     not    the 
natural    man,  longs    that    his  whole    being 
should    tend   to   God.       The    natural  man 
wishes    to   be    well-rid    of   what  sets    him 
ill   at   ease,   not   to  belong  to  God.      And 
the  horrible  subtlety   of  false  teaching,  in 
each  age  or  country,  is  to  meet  its  own  favo- 
rite requirements,  without  calling  for  self- 
sacrifice  or  self-oblation,  to  give  it  a  god, 
such  as  it  would  have,  such  as  might  content 
it.     "  *  The  people  willeth  to  be  deceived,  be 
j  it  deceived,"  is  a  true  proverb.     Men  turn 
au-ay  their  ears  from  the  truth »  which  they 
dislike  ;  and  so  are  turned  unto  fables  which 
they  like.     They  who  receive  not  the  love  of  tlie 
trutjt, — believe  a  lie  ^°.     If  men  uiU  mt  retain 
I   God  in  their  knowledge,  God  giveth  them  over  to 
an  undistinguishing  mind  ".    They  who  would 
not  receive  our  Lord,  coming  in  His  Father's 
Name,  have  ever  since,  as  He  said,  received 
them   ivho   came  in  their  oimi'^''.    Men  teach 
their  teachers  how  they  wish  to  be  mistaught, 
and  receive  the  echo  of  their  wishes  as  the 
Voice  of  God. 

12.  I  will  surely  assemble,  0  Ja£ob,  all  of  theej 
I  will  surely  gather  the  remnant  of  Israel.  God's 

"^HD  T\Wp^  "iSin  Pr.  vi.  12.  elsewhere  with  3 

7  The  force  of  r]'DD  DTI. 

8  Populus  vult  decipi,  deeipiatur. 


'»2  Tim.  iv.  4 
1"  2  Thesis,  ii.  11.  1 
u  Rom.  i.  28. 


!■■!  8.  John  V.  43. 


36 


MICAHL 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 

4  Jer.  31. 10. 


thee ;  I  will  surely  gather 
the  remnant  of  Israel;  I 
will  put  them  together  "^  as 
the  sheep  of  Bozrah,  as  the 


mercy  on  the  penitent  and  believing  being 
the  end  of  all  His  threatenings,  the  mention 
of  it  often  bursts  in  abruptly.  Christ  is  ever 
the  Hope  as  the  End  of  prophecy,  ever 
before  tlie  Prophets'  mind.  The  eartliquake 
and  tire  precede  the  still  small  voice  of  peace 
in  Him.  What  seems  then  sudden  to  us,  is 
connected  in  truth.  The  Prophet  had  said  *, 
where  was  not  their  rest  and  hoAV  they  should 
be  cast  forth ;  he  saith  at  once  how  they 
should  be  gathered  to  their  everla-sting  rest. 
He  had  said,  what  promises  of  the  false  pro- 
phets would  not  be  fulfilled  '\  But,  despair 
being  the  most  deadly  enemy  of  the  soul,  he 
does  not  take  away  their  false  hopes,  without 
shewing  them  the  true  mercies  in  store  for 
them.  "  *  Think  not,"  he  would  say,  "  that  I 
am  only  a  prophet  of  ill.  The  captivity 
foretold  will  indeed  now  come,  and  God's 
mercies  will  also  come,  altliough  not  in  the 
way,  which  these  speak  of."  The  false 
prophets  spoke  of  worldly  abundance 
ministering  to  sensuality,  and  of  unbroken 
Ht'curity.  He  tells  of  Ood's  mercies,  but 
after  chastisement,  to  the  rcninant  of  Israel. 
lUit  the  restoration  is  complete,  far  beyond 
their  then  condition.  Pie  had  foretold  the 
desolation  of  Samaria*,  the  captivity  of  Ju- 
(lah  ^ ;  he  foretells  the  restorati(m  of  all  Jacob, 
as  one.     The  images  are  partly  taken  (as  is 

I  lie  Prophet's  wont,)  from  that  first  deliver- 
ance from  Egypt  ••.  IVien,  as  the  image  of 
tiie  future  growth  under  persecution,  God 
nmltiplied  His  peoide  exceedingly';  then 
°  the  Lord  vent  before  then  by  day  in  a  pillar  of 

II  cloud  to  lead  themthe  way  ;  then  Gocl  broiujlit 
ihem  up '  oiU  of  the  house  of  bondat/e '".  But 
tlieir  future  prison-house  was  to  be  no  land 
of  Goshen.  It  was  to  be  a  captivity  and  a 
dispersion  at  once,  as  Hosea  had  already  fore- 
told ".  Sf>  he  speaks  of  them  emphatically  ^^, 
as  a  great  throng,  asseinbli ny  I  uill  assemble, 
<)  Jacob,  (Ul  of  tliee  ;  jialheriny  I  will  gather  the 
rriiiiuiiU  of  Israid.  The  word,  which  is  used 
oflhe  gathering  of  a  flock  or  its  lambs'",  be- 


'  ver.  10.  2ver.  U.  ''S.  Jcr. 

*i.  fi.  »i.  Ifi.  ii.  4.        •  HciiKst.  (Christ,  i.  4'.»!). 

1  Ex.  i.  12.  »  lb.  xiii.  :.'l. 

♦Ex.  iii.  8,17.  Lev.  .xi.  I''.  Tin-  people  ucnt  up. 
Kx.  xiii.  18.  ad<l.  xii.  :w.  i.  in. 

'"See  below,  vi.  4. 

•1  .See  on  llos.  vi.  11.  vul.  i.  \>.  'o.  ix.  17.  p.  '.i7. 

"t]DNK  'JDK.  ]'2^K  )Op-     "''  '^'-  "•  ■<'''•  ^l- 

'<  Dent.  XXX.  .1,  4.  Htf  Nell.  i.  11. 

liSeo  below,  iv.  tl.  Ph.  cvi.  47.  ovii.  ;).  Js.  xi.  l'.'. 
xliii.  6.  liv.  7.  Ivi.  8.  Zeph.  iii.  l!),  20.  Jer.  xxiil.  3. 
xxix.  14.  xxxi.  8,  10.  xxxii.  37.  Ezek.  xi.  17.  xx.34, 
41.  xxviil.  2r>.  xxxiv.  l:i.  xxxvii.  21.  xxxviii. «.  xxxix. 
•J7.  Z--.li.  X.  10. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


flock  in  the  midst  of  their 

fold :  '  they   shall   make 

great   noise  by   reason  of  'Ezek. so. 37 

the  multitude  of  men. 


came,  from  Hoses'  prophecy'*,  a  received 
word  of  the  gathering  of  Israel  from  the  dis- 
persion of  the  captivity  '^.  The  return  of  the 
Jews  from  Babylon  wa.s  but  a  faint  shadow  of 
the  fulfillment.  For,  ample  as  were  the  terras 
of  the  decrees  of  Cyrus  '^  and  Arta.xerxes  ", 
and  widely  as  that  of  Cyrus  was  diftused'®, 
the  restoration  was  es.sentially  that  of  Judah, 
i.  e.  Judah,  Benjamin  and  Levi'*:  the  towns, 
whose  inhabitants  returned,  were  those  of 
Judah  and  Benjamin  '^° ;  the  towns,  to  which 
they  returned,  were  of  the  two  tribes.  It  was 
not  a  gathering  of  all  Jacob;  and  of  the  three 
tribes  who  returned,  there  were  but  few  gath- 
ered, and  they  had  not  even  an  earthly  king, 
nor  any  visible  Presence  of  God.  The  words 
began  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  many '^^  tens  of 
thousands  who  believed  at  our  Lord's  first 
Coming;  and  all  Jacob,  that  is,  all  who  were 
Israelites  indeed,  the  remnant  according  to  the 
election  of  yrnce'-^,  were  gathered  within  the 
one  fold  of  the  Church,  under  One  Shepherd. 
It  shall  be  fully  fulfilled,  when,  in  the  end, 
thefidlness  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  in,  and  all 
Israel  shall  be  saved'^^.  All  Jacob  is  the  same 
as  the  remnant  of  Israel,  the  true  Israel  which 
remains  when  the  false  severed  itself  oft';  all 
the  seed-corn,  when  the  chaflf  was  winnowed 
away.  So  then,  whereas  they  were  now  scat- 
tered, then,  God  saith,  I  uill  put  them  toyttlter 
[in  one  fold]  as  the  sheep  of  Bozrah,  which 
abounded  in  sheep '*,  and  was  also  a  strong 
city  of  P^dom  ^^ ;  denoting  how  believers 
should  be  fenced  within  the  Church,  as  by  a 
strong  wall,  against  whicji  the  powei^sofdaik- 
ness  should  not  prevail,  and  the  wolf  should 
howl  around  the  fold,  yet  be  unable  to  enter 
it,  and  Edom  and  the  heathen  should  be- 
come part  of  the  inheritance  of  Christ'-*.  As 
n  Jlocf:  in  th^i  midst  of  their  fold,  at  i-ost,  "'"  like 
sheep,  still  and  subject  to  their  shepherd's 
voice.  So  shall  these,  having  one  faith  and 
One  Spirit,  in  meekness  and  simplicity,  obey 
the  one  rule  of  truth.  Nor  shall  it  be  a 
small  number;"  f<>r  the  place  where  they 

"i  K/.r.  1.  2-4.  17  vii.  i;i.  i«  lb.  i.  i. 

'*  lb.  i.  5.  ii.  1.  iv.  1.  X.  7,  0.  Joseplnis,  who  alone 
mentions  that  Ezra  sent  a  ropy  of  .\rtftxerxes' 
letter  to  liirn,  "toiill  those  of  his  natiim  who  were 
in  Meiliu,"  and  thiil  "  many  of  tlieni,  takinii  their 
properly,  came  to  BaViylon,"  loniiiiitf  for  the  return 
to  Jerii.salem,"  adds,  "  but  the  whole  people  of 
Israelites  [i.e.  tlie  >tre»t  mass]  remained  wher« 
tliey  were."      Ant.  xi  A.  2. 

'-■"  K/.V.  ii.  Nell.  vii.  !"  iivpiaSti  .\ots  xxi.  2< . 

«  Rom.  xi.  5.  *•  lb.  xi.  2r  -.i, 

-*  I-s.  xxxiv,  6. 

-'.See  on  Am.  i.  12.  vd.  i.  p.  25i 

wSc'o  on  Am.  ix.  12.  rol.  i.  p.  ;{.17.  -^  liup. 


CHAPTER  IT. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


18  The  breaker  is  come 
up  before  them :  they  have 


shall  be  gathered  shall  be  too  narrow  to  con- 
tain them,  as  is  said  in  Isaiah  ;  Give  place  to 
me,  that  I  may  divell  ^ 

They  shall  make  great  noise  (it  is  the  same 
word  as  our  hum,  "the  hum  of  men,")  by 
reason  of  the  multitude  of  men.  He  explains  his 
image,  as  does  Ezekiel  '^,  And  ye  are  My  flock, 
the  flock  of  My  pasture ;  men  are  ye;  I,  your 
God,  saiih  tJie  Lord  God :  and,  ^  As  a  flock  of 
holy  things,  as  the  flock  of  Jerusalem  in  her  sol- 
emn feasts;  so  shall  the  waste  cities  be  full  of  a 
flock  of  men,  and  tJiey  shall  know  that  I  am  the 
Lwd.  So  many  shall  they  be,  that  "  through- 
out the  whole  world  they  shall  make  a  great 
and  public  sound  in  praising  God,  filling- 
Heaven  and  the  green  jjastures  of  Paradise 
with  a  mighty  hum  of  praise  ;  "  as  St.  John 
saw  *a  great  multitude  which  no  man  could  num- 
ber, "  *  with  one  united  voice  praising  the 
Good  Shepherd,  "Who  smoothed  for  them  all 
rugged  places,  and  evened  them  by  His  Own 
Steps,  Himself  the  Guide  of  their  way  and 
the  Gate  of  Paradise,  as  He  saith,  I  am  the 
Door;  through  Whom,  bursting  through  and 
going  before,  being  also  the  Door  of  the  way, 
the  flock  of  believers  shall  break  through  It. 
But  this  Shepherd  is  their  Lord  and  King." 
Not  their  King  only,  but  the  Lord  God ; 
so  that  this,  too,  bears  witness  that  Christ  is 
God. 

13.  The  Breaker  is  come  up  (gone  up)  before 
them;  they  have  broken  up,  {broken  through^) 
and  have  passed  the  gate,  and  have  gone  forth. 
The  image  is  not  of  conquest,  but  of  deliver- 
ance. They  break  through,  not  to  enter  in  but 
to  pass  through  the  gate  and  go  forth.  The  wall 
of  the  city  is  ordinarily  broken  through,  in 
order  to  make  an  entrance '',  or  to  secure  to 
a  conqueror  th6  joower  of  entering  in  *  at 
any  time,  or  by  age  and  decay  ®.  But  here 
the  object  is  expressed,  to  go  forth.  Plainly 
then  they  were  confined  before,  as  in  a  prison  ; 
and  the  gate  of  the  prison  was  burst  open,  to 
set  them  free.  It  is  then  the  same  image  as 
when  God  says  by  Isaiah  ^°  ;  I  will  say  to  the 
Xorth,  give  up  ;  and  to  the  South,  Hold  not  back, 
or'',  Go  ye  forth  of  Babylon,  Say  ye,  the  Lord 


1  xlix.  20.  2  xxxiv.  31.  3  ib.  xxxvi.  .38. 

<  Rev.  vii.  9.  ^  Rup. 

•'VIS  is  to  break  through,  SiS,  enemies  surround- 
ing one,  2  Sam.  v.  20.  1  Chr.  xiv.  11.  break  in  pieces 
so  as  to  scatter,  Ps.  Ix.  3.  break  through  or  down  a 
wall,  (see  references  in  30, 31,  .33.)  and  with  2,  "burst 
upon,"  of  God's  inflictions,  Ex.  xix.  22,  24.  2  Sam. 
VI.  8.  Ps.  cvi.  29.  1  Chr.  xiii.  11.  xv.  1.3. 

'  Ps.  Ixxx.  13.  Ixxxix.  41.  Is.  v.  5.  Neh.  ii.  13. 

sProv.  XXV.  28.  2  Kgs  xiv.  13.  2  Chr.  xxv.  23. 
xxvi.  6. 

9  2  Chr.  xxxii.  5.         »o  xliii.  6.       "  Ib.  xlviii.  20. 

12  lii.  11, 12.  IKVn,  as  here  1>«}f ' ;  and  DD' Jfl'^nih'n 
corresponding  to  D3'Ji37  117^'. 


broken  up,  aud  have  passed 
through  the  gate,  and  are . 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  730. 


hath  redeemed  His  servant  Jacob  ;  or,  with  the 
same  reminiscence  of  God's  visible  leading 
of  His  people  out  of  Egypt,  '^  Depart  ye,  de- 
part ye;  for  ye  shall  not  go  out  with  haste,  nor 
yet  by  flight,  for  the  Lord  Godshcdl  go  before  you, 
and  the  God  of  Israel  ■will  be  your  reward  ;  or 
as  Ilosea  describes  their  restoration  ^^ ;  Then 
shall  the  children  of  Judah  and  the  children  of 
Israel  be  gathered  together  and  appoint  themselves 
one  Head,  and  they  shall  go  up  out  of  the  land  '*. 
Elsewhere,  in  Isaiah,  the  spiritual  meaning 
of  the  deliverance  from  the  prison  is  more 
distinctly  brought  out,  as  the  work  of  our 
Redeemer  '^.  /  unll  give  Thee  for  a  covemint  of 
the  people,  for  a  light  of  the  Gentiles,  to  open  the 
bliiul  eyes,  to  bring  out  the  prisoners  from  the 
prison,  than  that  sit  in  darkness  out  of  the  pris- 
on-house ;  and  '•*,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is 
up07i  Me,  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  Me 
to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  open- 
ing of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound. 

From  this  passage,  the  "  Breaker-through  " 
was  one  of  the  titles  of  the  Christ,  known  to 
the  Jews'^,  as  One  Who  should  be  '"^'frora 
below  and  from  above"  also;  and  from  it 
they  believed  that  " '"  captives  should  come 
up  from  Gehenna,  and  the  Shechinah,"  or 
the  Presence  of  God,  "  at  their  head."  "  ^^  He 
then,  Who  shall  break  the  way,  the  King  and 
Lord  Who  shall  go  up  before  them,  shall  be 
the  Good  Shepherd,  Who  puts  them  together 
in  the  fold.  And  this  He  doth  when,  as  He 
saith,  ^'  He  putteth  forth  His  oim  sheep,  ami  He 
goeth  before  them,  ami  the  sheep  foUow  Him,  for 
they  know  His  Voice.  How  doth  He  go  be- 
fore them  but  by  suffering  for  them,  leaving 
them  an  example  of  suflering,  and  opening 
the  entrance  of  Paradise  ?  The  Good  Shep- 
herd goeth  up  to  the  Cross,  ^^a?id  is  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  laying  doivn  His  Life  for  His 
sheep,  to  draw  all  men  unto  Him.  He  qoeth  up, 
trampling  on  death  by  His  resurrection;  He 
goeth  up  above  the  heaven  of  heavens,  and 
sitteth  on  the  Right  Hand  of  the  Father, 
opening  the  way  before  them,  so  that  the 
flock,  in  their  lowliness,  may  arrive  where 
the  Shepherd  went  before  in  His  l^Iajesty. 

13  i.  11.  (ii.  2.  Heb.) 

"  VlXn  to  1^^  in  reference  to  Egj-pt,  (see  on 
Hos.  i.  11.  vol.  i.  p.  26)  as  here  Pl^^. 

15  Is.  xlii.  6,  7. 

16  Is.  Ixi.  1.  "  Huls.  Theol.  Jud.  pp.  143, 144. 

18  R.  Mos.  Haddars.  in  Mart.  Pug.  Fid.  p.  432.  It  ia 
interpreted  of  the  Messiah  in  the  Bereshith  Rabba, 
g  48.  f.  47.  2.  (Schottg.  de  Mess.  p.  61.)  the  Echa  Rab- 
bathi,  f.  60.  2,  (Ib.  p.  69.)  the  Pesikta  Rabbathi,  f.  6(i. 
1,  (Ib.  p.  135.)  and  the  Midrash  Mishle,  ad  c.  vi.  1. 
(Ib.  ad  loo.  p.  212.)  So  also  Jonathan,  Rashi,  Tan- 
chum,  Abarbanel  m  Poc. 

19  Quoted  by  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  art.  G,  note  y. 

20  Rup.  21  s.  John  X.  4.  ^  lb.  15.  xll.  32. 


38 


MICAH. 


cir.  7*».      king  shall  pass  before  them, 


•  Hos.  3.  5. 


And  when  He  thus  breaketh  through  and 
openeth  the  road,  they  also  break  through  and 
pass  through  the  mte  (aid  go  out  by  it,  by  that 
Gate,  namely,  whereof  the  Psalmist  saith ', 
Tills  is  the  Gate  of  the  Lord  ;  the  righteous  shall 
enter  into  It.  What  other  is  this  Gate  than 
that  same  Passion  of  Christ,  beside  which 
there  is  no  gate,  no  way  whereby  any  can 
•nter  into  life?  Through  that  open  portal, 
A'hich  tlie  lance  of  the  soldier  made  in  His 
?ide  when  cnioilied,  and  there  cnme  thereout 
Blood  and  Wati'j;  they  shall  pass  and  go  through, 
•ven  as  the  children  of  Israel  passed  through 
Ihe  Ked  Sea,  which  divided  before  them, 
R'hen  Pharaoh,  his  chariots  and  horsemen, 
ivere  drowned."  "'  ■'  He  will  be  in  their 
heai-ts,  and  M'ill  teach  and  lend  them ;  He 
h'ill  shew  them  the  way  of  Salvation,  ^guid- 
ing their  feet  into  the  way  of  praee,  and  they 
shall  pass  through  the  strait  and  narrow  gate 
which  leadeth  unto  life ;  of  which  it  is  writ- 
ten*. Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait  gate;  because 
Htrait  w  the  gate  and.  narrow  is  the  way  ivhieh 
leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it. 
And  tlieir  King  shall  pass  before  them,  as  He 
did,  of  old,  in  tlie  figure  of  the  cloud,  of  which 
Moses  said  *,  If  Thy  Presence  go  not,  carry  us 
iiot  up  hence;  and  wherein  shall  it  be  known 
that  1  have  found  grace  in  Thy  sight,  land  Thy 
people,  is  if  not  in  that  Thou  goest  up  with  ^ls  ? 
and  as  He  then  did  when  lie  passed  out  of 
this  world  to  the  Father.  And  the  Lord  on 
(that  is,  at)  the  head  of  them,  as  of  His  army. 
""  For  the  Lord  is  His  Name,  and  He  is  the 
Heafl,  they  the  members;  He  the  King, 
they  the  people;  He  the  Shepherd,  they  the 
sheep  of  His  pasture.  And  of  this  passing 
through  He  spake ',  By  Me  if  any  innn  enter 
in,  liesluill  be  sarrd,  and  shall  go  in  and  nut  and 
find  pasture.  For  a  man  enterrth  in,  when, 
receiving  the  faith,  he  becomes  a  sheep  of 
this  Shepherd,  and  goethont,  when  he  closeth 
this  present  life,  and  then  findeth  the  pastures 
of  unfading,  everlasting  life ;""'' passing 
from  this  pilgrimage  to  his  home,  from  faith 
to  sight,  from  labor  to  reward"  Again,  as 
describing  the  Christian's  life  here,  it  speaks 
of  progress.  '"*  Whoso  shall  have  entered 
in,  must  not  remain  in  the  state  wlicrein  he 
entered,  Ijut  nuist  go  forth  into  the  pasture  ; 
so  that,  in  entering  in  should  be  the  begin- 
ning, in  going  forth  and  finding  pa.'iture,  the 
j)erfecling  of  graces.  He  who  entereth  in,  is 
contained  within  tlie  bounds  of  the  world  ;  he 
who  goeth  forth,  goes,  as  it  were,  beyond  all 

»  Ps.  cxviii.  20.  'Dion.  ''.•^.  Luko  i.  "!". 

*3.  Matt.  vll.  13, 14.  «  E.T.  xxxiil.  15, 16. 

•Rup.  'S.  Johnx.  9. 

»  9.  Jer.  •  Ps.  xxiil.  1.  'o  Is.  xl v.  2. 

"lb.  II.  10.         nilj.  xlv.  2.  3.  i»2Tini.  11.  3. 


'  and  the  Lord  on  the  head    ^.  h  rTs  t 
of  them. 


t  Is.  52.  12. 


created  things,  and,  counting  as  nothing  all 
things  seen,  shall  fiiid  pa.'sture  above  the  Heav- 
ens, and  shall  feed  upon  the  Word  of  God, 
and  say  ^,  2'he  Lord  is  my  Shepherd,  (and  feed- 
eth  me,) /can  lack  nothing.  But  this  going 
forth  can  only  be  through  Christ ;  as  it  fol- 
loweth,  and  the  Lord  at  the  head  of  them." 
Nor,  again,  is  this  in  itself  ea.sy,  or  done  for 
us  without  any  effort  of  our  own.  All  is  of 
Christ.  The  words  express  the  closeness  of 
the  relation  between  the  Head  and  the  mem- 
bers ;  and  what  He,  our  King  and  Lord, 
doth,  they  do,  because  He  Who  did  it  for 
them,  doth  it  in  them.  The  same  words 
are  used  of  both,  shewing  that  what  they  do, 
they  do  by  virtue  of  His  Might,  treading  in 
His  steps,  walking  where  He  has  made  the 
way  plain,  and  by  His  Spirit.  "What  they 
do,  they  do,  as  belonging  to  Him.  He  break- 
eth through,  or,  rather,  in  all  is  the  Breaker- 
through.  They,  having  broken  through,  pas.'i 
on,  because  He  passeth  before  them.  He  will 
'"  break  in  pieces  tlie  gates  of  6ro.ss,  and  cut  in 
sunder  the  bars  of  iron.  He  breaketh  through 
wliatever  would  hold  us  back  or  oppose  us, 
all  might  of  sin  and  deatli  and  Satan,  as 
Moses  opened  the  Red  Sea,  for '^  o  way  for  the 
ran'iomed  to  pass  over ;  and  so  He  saith,  '■'  / 
will  go  before  thee,  I  will  break  in  pieces  the  gates 
of  brass,  and  cut  in  sunder  the  bars  of  iron,  and 
I  ivill  give  thee  the  treasures  of  darkness,  and  hid- 
den riches  of  secret  places.  So  then  Christians, 
following  Him,  the  Captain  of  their  salvation, 
strengthened  by  J  lis  grace,  must  burst  the 
bars  of  the  Hesh  and  of  the  world,  the  chains 
and  bonds  of  evil  pa.ssions  and  habits,  force 
tliemselves  through  the  narrow  way  and  nar- 
row gate,  do  violence  to  themselves,  "  endure 
hardness,  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
title  of  our  Lord,  the  Breaker-through  '*,  and 
the  saying,  they  break  through,  together  ex- 
press the  same  as  the  New  Testament  doth 
in  regard  to  our  being  partakers  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ.  ^^  Joint  heirs  with  Chri.Ht,'U' 
so  be  tlud  we  suffer  tvith  Him,  that  we  may  be 
also  glorified  together.  '*  If  we  be  dead  with  Him, 
we  shall  al.fo  live  with  Him  ;  if  ive  suffer,  we  shaU 
also  reign  ivith  Him.  ^^  Fora.tmuch  then  as 
Christ  hath  suffered  for  us  in  the  flesh — ann  your- 
selves  likewise  ivith  the  same  mind. 

The  words  may  include  also  the  removal 
of  the  souls  of  the  just,  wlio  liad  believed  in 
Christ  before  His  Coming,  into  Heaven  after 
His  Resurrection,  and  will  be  fully  completed 
when,  in  tlie  end,  He  shall  cause  His  faithful 

"  V*13.  It  is  from  the  same  word  as  Pharer, 
Judah's  son,  whose  birth  was  typical.  Gen.  xxxviii. 
29.  »  Rom.  Till.  IT. 

>«2Tim.  ii.  11,12.  i"  1  Pf-t.  iv.  1. 


CHAPTER  III. 


10 


^T^^i'V'^m  CHAPTER  III. 

CHRIST 

-  "'''•  "^^"^  1  TJie  cruelty  of  the  prince.^.  5 
The  falsehood  of  the  prophets. 
8  TJie  security  of  them  both. 

A  ND  I  said,  Hear,  I  pray 

you,  O  heads  of  Jacob, 

and  ye  princes  of  the  house 

»jer. 5. 4, 5.       of  Israel;  ^Is  it  not  for 

you  to  know  judgment? 

2  Who  hate  the  good, 
and   love  the    evil;    who 


servants,  in  body  and  soul,  to  enter  into  the 
joy  of  their  Lord. 

Chap.  III.  ver.  1.  And  I  said.  God's  love 
for  us  is  the  great  incitement,  constrainer, 
vivifier  of  His  creature's  love.  Micah  had 
just  spoken  of  God's  love  of  Israel ;  how  He 
would  gather  them  into  one  fold  under  One 
Shepherd,  guard  them,  lead  them,  remove 
all  difficulties  before  them,  be  Himself  their 
Head  and  enable  them  to  follow  Him.  He 
turns  then  to  them.  These  are  God's  doings ; 
this,  God  has  in  store  for  you  hereafter. 
Even  when  mercy  itself  shall  require  chas- 
tisement. He  doth  not  cast  off  forever.  The 
desolation  is  but  the  forerunner  of  future 
mercy.  What  then  do  ye  ?  The  Prophet 
appeals  to  them,  class  by  class.  There  was 
one  general  corruption  of  every  order  of  men, 
through  whom  Judah  could  be  preserved, 
princes  ^,  prophets  '^,  priests  *.  The  salt  had 
lost  its  savor;  trherewith  could  it  be  seasoned? 
whereby  could  the  decaying  mass  of  the 
people  be  kept  from  entire  corruption? 

Hear,  I  pray  you,  0  heads  of  Jacob,  and  ye 
princes  of  the  house  of  Israel.  He  arraigns 
them  by  the  same  name,  under  which  He 
had  first  promised  mercy.  He  had  first 
promised  mercy  to  all  Jacob  and  the  remnant 
of  Israel.  So  now  he  upraids  the  heads  of 
Jacob,  and  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Isi-ael,  lest 
they  should  deceive  themselves.  At  the 
same  time  he  recalls  them  to  the  deeds  of 
their  father,  Judah  had  succeeded  to  the 
birthright,  forfeited  by  Reuben,  Simeon  and 
Levi ;  and  in  Judah  all  the  promises  of  the 
Messiah  were  laid  up.  But  he  was  not  like 
the  three  great  Patriarchs,  the  father  of  the 
faithful,  or  the  meek  Isaac,  or  the  much- 
tried  Jacob.  The  name  then  had  not  the 
reminiscences,  or  force  of  appeal,  contained 
in  the  titles,  seed  of  Abraham,  or  Isaac,  or 
Israel. 

Is  it  not  for  you  to  know  judgment  f    It  is  a 

M-4.  «5-7  8 11. 

^y^p  fro"!  TViiif  "cut,  decide,"  whence  Cadhi. 

*  The  word  is  the  same,  Is.  i.  10. 


pluck  off  their  skin  from    ^^rTst 
off  them,  and   their   flesh       '^•■'•-  '^"- 
from  off  their  bones  ; 

3  Who  also  "eat  the  bps.  14.  4. 
flesh  of  my  people,  and 
flay  their  skin  from  ofl* 
them ;  and  they  break 
their  bones,  and  chop  them 
in  pieces,  as  for  the  pot, 
and  "as  flesh  within  the  0 Ezek.  11. 3, 7. 
caldron. 


great  increase  of  guilt,  when  persons  neglect 
or  pervert  what  it  is  their  special  duty  and 
office  to  guard ;  as  when  teachers  corrupt 
doctrine,  or  preachers  give  in  to  a  low  stand- 
ard of  morals,  or  judges  pervert  judgment. 
The  princes  here  spoken  of  are  so  named 
from  judging,  "  deciding  * "  causes.  They  are 
the  same  as  the  rulers,  whom  Isaiah  at  the 
same  time  upbraids,  as  being,  from  tlieir  sins, 
rulers  of  Sodom'^,  whose  ^ hands  were  full  of 
blood.  They  wlio  do  not  right,  in  time  cease, 
in  great  measure,  to  know  it.  As  God  with- 
draws His  grace,  the  mind  is  darkened  and 
can  no  longer  see  it.  So  it  is  said  of  Eli's 
sons,  they^  were  sons  of  Belial,  they  knew 
not  the  Lord;  and,  ^  Into  a  malicious  soul  Wis- 
dom shall  not  enter,  nor  dwell  in  a  body  that  is 
subject  unto  sin.  Such  "  '  attain  not  to  know 
the  judgments  of  God  which  are  a  great  deep  : 
and  the  depth  of  His  justice  the  evil  mind 
findeth  not."  But  if  men  will  not  know  judg- 
ment by  doing  it,  they  shall  by  suffering  it. 

2.  Who  hate  the  good  and  love  the  evil;  i.  e. 
they  hate,  for  its  own  sake,  that  which  is  good, 
and  love  that  which  is  evil.  The  Prophet  is 
not  here  speaking  of  their  hating  good  men, 
or  loving  evil  men,  but  of  their  hating  goodness 
and  loving  wickedness  ^°.  "  "  It  is  sin  not  to 
love  good ;  what  guilt  to  hate  it !  it  is  faulty, 
not  to  flee  from  evil,  what  ungodliness  to  love 
it ! "  Man,  at  first,  loves  and  admires  tlie 
good,  even  while  he  doth  it  not ;  he  hates 
the  evil,  even  while  he  does  it,  or  as  soon  as 
he  has  done  it.  But  man  cannot  bear  to  be 
at  strife  with  his  conscience,  and  so  he  ends 
it,  by  excusing  himself  and  telling  lies  to 
himself.  And  then,  he  hates  the  truth  or 
good  with  a  bitter  hatred,  because  it  disturbs 
the  darkness  of  the  false  peace  with  wliich 
he  would  envelop  himself.  At  first,  men 
love  only  the  pleasure  connected  with  the 
evil ;  then  they  make  whom  they  can,  evil, 
because  goodness  is  a  reproach  to  them :  in 

« lb.  15.  ''  1  Sam.  ii.  12. 

8Wisd.l.  4.  »S.  J«r. 

1 10  This  appears  from  the  Kethib  Tfy"), 


40 


MICAH. 


chr'ist       "^  '^^^^^  '^^^^^  '^®y  "^ 
cir.  710.      unto  the  Lord,  but  he  will 


4  Ps.  18. 41.  not   hear   them  :    he   will 

Is.  1.15.   '  even   hide   his   face  from 

Ezek.  8. 18.  ,                    ,           .                   . 

zech.  7. 13.  them  at  that  time,  as  they 


the  end,  they  love  evil  for  its  own  sake^ 
Heathen  morality  too  distinguished  between 
the  incontinent  and  the  unprincipled'^,  the 
man  who  sinned  under  force  of  temptation, 
and  the  man  who  had  lost  tlie  sense  of  right 
and  wrong.  "'^  Every  one  that  doeth  evil,  hateth 
the  light.  Whoso  longeth  for  things  unlawful, 
hateth  the  righteousness  which  rebuketh  and 
punisheth  V 

Who  pluck  off  their  akin  from  off  them,  and 
their  Jlesh  from  off  their  hones.  He  had  de- 
scribed the  Good  Shepherd  ;  now,  in  contrast, 
he  describes  those  who  ought  to  be  "  shep- 
lierds  of  the  people,"  to  feed,  guard,  direct 
them,  but  who  were  their  butchers  ;  who  did 
not  shear  them,  but  flayed  them  ;  who  fed  on 
tliem,  not  fed  them.  He  heaps  up  their 
guilt,  act  by  act.  First  they  flay,  i.  e.  take 
away  their  outer  goods ;  then  they  break 
their  bones  in  pieces,  the  most  solid  parts,  on 
which  the  whole  frame  of  their  body  depends, 
to  get  at  the  very  marrow  of  their  life,  and 
.so  feed  themselves  upon  them.  And  not 
unlike,  though  still  more  fearfully,  do  they 
sin,  who  first  remove  the  skin,  as  it  were,  or 
outward  tender  fences  of  God's  graces ;  (such 
as  is  modesty,  in  regard  to  inward  purity ; 
outward  demeanor,  of  inward  virtue ;  out- 
ward forms,  of  inward  devotion ;)  and  so  break 
the  strong  bones  of  the  sterner  virtues,  which 
hold  the  whole  soul  together ;  and  with  them 
the  whole  flesh,  or  softer  graces,  becomes  one 
shapeless  mass,  shred  to  pieces  and  con- 
sumed. So  Ezekiel  says*;  Woe  to  the  shep- 
herds of  Israel  that  do  feed  themselves;  shoidd 
not  the  shepherds  feed  tlie  flock  f  Ye  eat  the  fat 
and  ye  clothe  you  with  the  wool,  ye  k-iU  than  that 
are  fed,  ye  feed  not  the  flock.  The  diseased  have 
ye  not  strengthened,  &c. 

4.  Then  shall  they  cry  unto  the  Lord,  Then. 
The  Prophet  looks  on  to  the  Day  of  the  Lord, 
which  is  ever  before  his  mind.  So  the 
Psalmist,  speaking  of  a  time  or  place  not 
expressed,  says,  ®  There  rvere  they  in  great  fear. 
He  sees  it,  points  to  it,  as  seeing  what  those 
to  whom  he  sjMikc,  saw  not,  and  the  more 
awfully,  because  he  saw,  with  super-human 
anil  so  with  certain  vision,  what  was  hid  from 
their  eyes.  The  then  was  not  then,  in  the  time 
if  grace,  but  when  the  Day  of  grace  should  be 
over,  and  the  Day  of  Judgment  should  be 

» Rom.  1.  .32. 

•The  axpaTijf  and  oKdAcurrot  of  Aristotle. 
»9.  John  iii.  20.    ♦  Dion.     »  xxxiv.  2-4.  add  5-10. 
•Pa.  llii.6.   'xi.ll.   «P8.  xviii.4l.   'Prov.  xxi.  13. 
» ii.  13.  »  See  on  Hos.  v.  C.  vol.  i.  p.  68. 


have  behaved   themselves  chrTst 
ill  in  their  doings.  <=''••  "^"- 

5  ^Thus  saith  the 

Lord    *  concerning    the  •  i;.  oc.  lo,  ii. 

»  Ezelv.  13.  10. 

prophets   that  make   my      *22. 25. 


come.  So  of  that  day,  when  judgment  should 
set  in,  God  says  in  Jeremiali ',  Behold  I  icill 
bring  evil  upon  them  which  they  sludl  not  be  able 
to  go  forth  of,  and  they  iviU  o-y  unto  Me,  and  I 
will  not  hearken  unto  them.  And  David  ^,  They 
cried  and  there  was  none  to  save  ;  unto  the  Lord, 
and  He  answered  them  not.  And  Solomon  ®  ; 
Whoso  stoppeth  his  ears  at  the  cry  of  the  poor,  he 
shall  cry  himself  and  sluill  not  be  heard.  And 
St.  James '",  He  shall  have  judgment  wiihout 
mercy,  that  hath  shewed  no  mercy.  The  prayer 
is  never  too  late,  until  judgment  comes "  ; 
the  day  of  grace  is  over,  when  the  time  of 
judgment  has  arrived.  "  They  shall  cry 
unto  the  Lord,  and  shall  not  be  heard, 
because  they  too  did  not  hear  those  who 
asked  them,  and  the  Lord  shall  turn  His 
Face  from  them,  because  they  too  turned 
their  face  from  those  who  prayed  them." 

He  will  even  hide  His  Face.  He  will  not 
look  in  mercy  on  those  who  would  not  receive 
His  look  of  grace.  Your  sins.  He  says  by 
Isaiah,  have  hid  His  face  from  you,  that  He 
heareth  not.  O  what  will  that  turning  away 
of  the  P'ace  be,  on  which  hangs  eternity  ! 

As.  There  is  a  proportion  between  the  sin 
and  the  punishment  ^*  As  I  have  done,  so 
God  hath  requited  me.  They  have  behaved  them- 
selves ill  in  their  doings,  lit.  have  made  their 
deeds  evil.  The  word  rendered  doings  is 
almost  always  used  in  a  bad  sense,  7niqhty 
deecb,  and  so  deeds  with  a  high  hand.  Not 
ignorantly  or  negligently,  nor  through  human 
frailty,  but  with  set  purpose  they  applied 
themselves,  not  to  amend  but  to  corrupt  their 
doings,  and  make  them  worse.  God  called 
to  them  by  all  His  prophets,  make  good  your 
doings^^ ;  and  they,  reversing  it,  used  diligence 
to  make  tlieir  doings  evil.  "  ^*  All  this  they 
shall  suflTer,  because  they  were  not  rulers,  but 
tyrants ;  not  Prefects,  but  lions ;  not  masters 
of  disciples,  but  wolves  of  sheep  ;  and  they 
sated  themselves  with  flesh  and  were  fattened, 
and,  as  sacrifices  for  the  slaughter,  were  made 
ready  for  the  punishment  of  the  Lord.  Thus  far 
against  evil  rulers;  then  he  turns  to  the  false 
prophets  and  evil  teachers,  who  by  flatteries 
subvert  the  people  of  Go<l,  promising  them 
the  knowledge  of  His  word." 

6.  The  prophets  that  mrJce  My  people  err,  flat- 
tering them   in  their  sins  and  rebellions, 

wjudg.  i.  7.  "Ab  the  Jews  speak  'measure  for 
measure '."    Poc.  from  Abarb. 

"Jer.  XXXV.  15.  DD'SSj^D  ID'D'H;  here,  IJ^IH 


CHAPTER  III. 


41 


CHRIST    People  err,  that  'bite  with 
'^^^-  '^^Q-       their  teeth,  and  cry,  Peace ; 


'ch.  2. 11.         and  *he  that  putteth  not 
g Ezek.  13. 18, 10.  into   their   mouths,  they 
even  prepare  war  against 
•■Is. 8  20,22.      him: 

Ezek.  13.  23. 

zech.13.4.  6  "Therefore    night 

flieb.froma        ,     „    ,  ,     , 

vision.  shall  06   uiito  you,  "ft hat 


promising  that  they  sliall  go  unpunished, 
that  God  is  not  so  strict,  will  not  put  in 
force  the  judgments  He  threatens.  So  Isaiah 
saith  ' ;  0  my  people,  they  ivhich  lead  thee,  7nis- 
leadthee;  and  ,  the  leaders  of  this  people  are  its 
misleaders,  and  they  that  are  led  of  them  are 
destroyed.  And  Jeremiah^,  The  prophets 
have  seen  for  thee  vanity  and  folly ;  and  they 
have  not  discovered  thine  iniquity  to  turn 
away  thy  captivity,  and  have  seen  for  thee 
fake  burdens  ayid  causes  of  banishment.  No 
error  is  hopeless,  save  what  is  taught  in  the 
Name  of  God. 

That  bite  ivith  their  mouths.  The  word*  is 
used  of  no  other  biting  than  the  biting  of 
serpents.  They  were  doing  real,  secret  evil 
u'hUe  they  cry,  i.  e.  proclaim  peace  ;  they  bit,  as 
serpents,  treacheroiisly,  deadlily.  They  fed, 
not  so  much  on  tlie  gifts,  for  which  they 
hired  themselves  to  ^  speak  peace  when  there 
was  710  peace,  as  on  the  souls  of  the  givers. 
So  God  says  by  Ezekiel  ^,  Will  ye  pollute  Me 
among  My  people  for  handfuls  of  barley  and  for 
pieces  of  bread,  to  slay  the  souls  that  should  not 
die,  and  to  save  the  souls  alive  that  should  not 
live,  by  your  lying  to  My  people  that  hear  your 
lies  f  Because  with  lies  ye  have  made  the  heart 
of  the  righteous  sad,  whom  I  have  not  made  sad  ; 
and  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  that  he 
should  not  return  from  his  wicked  way,  by  prom- 
ising him  life — therefore  ye  shall  see  no  more 
vanity  nor  divine  divinations.  It  was  with  a 
show  of  peace  that  Joab  slew  Abner  and 
Amasa,  and  with  a  kiss  of  peace  Judas  be- 
trayed our  Lord. 

And  he  that  putteth  not  into  their  mouth% 
they  prepare  war  against  him,  lit.  and  (i.e. 
forthwith  ;  it  was  all  one ;  bribes  refused, 
war  proclaimed,)  they  sanctify  war  against  him. 
Like  those  of  whom  Joel  prophesied  ^,  they 
proclaim  war  against  him  in  the  Name  of 
God,  by  the  authority  of  God  which  they 
had  taken  to  themselves,  speaking  in  His 
Name  Who  had  not  sent  them.  So  when 
our  Lord  fed  the  multitude,  they  would  take 

1  iii.  1 2.  2  ix.  16.  (15,  Heb.)  »  Lam.  ii.  14. 

*10}  Gen.  xlix.  17.  Num.*  xxi.  8,  9.  Prov.  xiii.  32. 

Eccl.  X.  8,  11.  Am.  v.  19.  ix.  3.  Hence  Kimchi, 
"While  they  proclaim  peace,  and  flatter  the  people, 
it  is  as  if  they  bit  it  with  the  teeth.'-'  So  A.  E.  also 
and  Tanch.  in  Poe. 


ye  shall   not  have   a  vis-    „  ^^'^".'■';,  „. 
ion ;  and  it  shall  be  dark      cir.  710. 


unto   you,   fthat  ye  shall    tHeb./rom 
not  divine;   'and  the  sun    i Amos 8%. 
shall  go  down    over    the 
prophets,  and   the  day 
shall    be    dark   over 
them. 


Him  by  force  and  make  Him  a  king ;  when 
their  hopes  were  gone  and  they  saw  that  His 
Kingdom  ivas  not  of  this  xmrld,  they  said,  Oru- 
cify  him,  crucify  Him.  Much  more  the  Phar- 
isees, who,  because  He  rebuked  their  covet- 
ousness,  their  devouring  widows'  houses,  their 
extortion  and  excess,  their  making  their  pros- 
elytes more  children  of  hell  than  themselve.s, 
said,  Thou  blasphemest.  So,  when  the  masters 
of  the  possessed  damsel  whom  St.  Paul  freed, 
^saw  that  the  hope  of  their  gains  was  gone,  they 
accused  him,  that  he  exceedingly  troubled  their 
city,  teaching  customs  not  lawful  to  be  received. 
So  Christians  were  per.secuted  by  the  Heathen 
as  "  *  hating  the  human  race,"  because  they 
would  not  partake  of  their  sins ;  as  "  ^^  athe- 
ists," because  they  worshiped  not  their  gods ; 
as  "  ^^  disloyal"  and  "public  enemies,"  because 
they  joined  not  in  unholy  festivals  ;  as  "  un- 
profitable," because  they  neglected  things  not 
profitable  but  harmful.  So  men  are  now 
called  "  illiberal,"  who  will  not  make  free 
with  the  truth  of  God  ;  "intolerant,"  who  will 
not  allow  that  all  faith  is  matter  of  opinion, 
and  that  there  is  no  certain  truth;  "  precise," 
"  censorious,"  who  will  not  connive  at  sin,  or 
allow  the  levity  which  plays,  mothlike, 
around  it  and  jests  at  it.  The  Church  and 
the  Gospel  are  against  the  world,  and  so  the 
world  which  they  condemn  must  be  against 
them  ;  and  such  is  the  force  of  truth  and 
holiness,  that  it  must  carry  on  the  war 
against  them  in  their  own  name. 

6.  Therefore  night  shall  be  unto  you,  that  ye 
shall  not  have  a  vision.  In  the  presence  of 
God's  extreme  judgments,  even  deceivers  are 
at  length  still ;  silenced  at  last  by  the  com- 
mon misery,  if  not  by  awe.  The  false  pro- 
phets had  promised  peace,  light,  brightness, 
prosperity;  the  night  of  trouble,  anguish, 
darkness,  fear,  shall  come  upon  them.  So  shall 
they  no  more  dare  to  speak  in  the  Name  of  God, 
while  He  was  by  His  judgments  speaking 
the  contrary  in  a  way  which  all  must  hear. 
They  abused  God's  gifts  and  long-suffering 

6  Ezek.  xiii.  10.  « lb.  19,  22,  23 

'  See  on  Joel  iii.  vol.  1.  p.  207. 

8  Acts  xvi.  19-21. 

»Tertullian,  Apol.  c.  10.  and  note  k.  Oxf.  Tr 
10  lb.  c.  35.  adScap.  c.  2. 
"  lb.  42,  43. 


42 


MICAH. 


,.  T^  o'Vt: -P        "i   Then   shall   the  seers 

C   xl  K  1  o   1 

cir.  710.       he  ashamed,  and  the  divi- 
ners confounded :  yea,  they 
+Heb.  upperiip.  shall  all  cover  their  f  lips ; 


against  Himself:  they  could  misinterpret 
His  long-suflering  into  favor,  and  tliey  did 
it :  their  visions  of  the  future  were  but  the 
reflections  of  the  present  and  its  continuance ; 
they  thought  that  because  God  was  enduring, 
He  was  inditferent,  and  they  took  His  govern- 
ment out  of  His  Hands,  and  said,  that  wliat 
He  appeared  to  be  now,  He  would  ever  be. 
They  had  no  other  light,  no  other  foresight. 
When  then  the  darkness  of  temporal  calam- 
ity envelopeil  them,  it  shrouded  in  one  com- 
mon darkness  of  night  all  present  brightness 
and  all  sigiit  of  the  future. 

" '  After  Caiapiiaii  had  in  heart  spoken 
falsehood  and  a  prophecy  of  blood,  although 
God  overruled  it  to  truth  which  he  meant 
not,  all  grace  of  prophecy  departed.  '^  The 
law  and  the  prophets  prophe-sieil  until  John. 
The  Sun  of  Rir/hleoiisne.'is  went  doiiyn  over  them, 
inwardly  and  outwardly,  withdrawing  the 
l)rightness  of  His  Providence  and  the  inward 
light  of  ^race."  So  Christ  Himself  fore- 
warned ;  ^  Walk  while  ye  have  the  light,  lest  dark- 
ness come  upon  i/ou.  And  so  it  hfis  remained 
ever  since.  *  The  veil  has  been  on  their  hearts. 
The  light  is  in  all  the  world,  but  they  see  it 
not ;  it  arose  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  but  they 
v'ul/c  on  still  in  darkness.  As  opposed  to  holi- 
ness, truth,  knowledge.  Divine  enlightening 
of  the  mind,  bright  gladness,  contrariwise 
darkness  is  falsehood,  sin,  error,  blindness  of 
soul,  ignorance  of  Divine  tliinirs,  and  sorrow. 
In  all  these  ways,  did  the  Sun  go  down  over 
tham,  so  that  the  darkness  weighed  heavily 
upon  them.  8o  too  the  inventors  of  heresies 
l)retend  to  see  and  to  enter  into  the  mysteries 
of  Christ,  yet  find  darkness  instead  of  light, 
lose  even  what  they  tiiink  they  .see,  fail  even 
of  what  trutii  they  seem  most  to  hold  ;  and 
tiiey  shall  be  in  night  and  darkness,  being 
east  into  outer  darkness;  ^.nnning  against  the 
hrethrcn,  and  wou/nding  the  weak  conscience  of 
those  for  whom  Chri.ft  died. 

7.  Th"]!  shall  cover  their  lips,  lit.  the  hair  of 
the  upper  lip'*.  This  was  an  action  enjoined 
on  lepers',  and  a  token  of  mourning";  a 
token  then  of  sorrow  and  uncleauness.  With 
their  lips  they  had  lied,  and  now  they  should 
cover  their  lips,  as  men  dumb  and  ashamed. 
For  there  is  no  aiisirer  of  God,  as  these  de- 
ceivers had  pretended  to  have.  When  all 
things  shall  come  contrary  to  what  they  had 

'Klip.  *S.  Matt.  xi.  13. 

»S.  John  xii.  IS.  <2  Cor.  iii.  15. 

'  I  Cor.  viii.  12.  «  Kim.  '  Lev.  xiii.  45. 

•  Ezek.  xxl V.  17,  22.  » .S.  Jor.  i"  Dion. 

"  111.  12.  i«  Ezek.  xiii.  .3. 

"The  u.se  of  HK  before  "  ni"*  onlv,  shewn  plainly 


"  for  111  ere  i<  no  answer  of    ,.  ^''i'^Vl  ■,. 

V'  rl  K  1  o  i 
God.  cir.  710. 


8  ^  But  truly  I  am  full    k  ps.  74.  n. 

f.  u       ii  •    ^j.      c       Amos  8.  11. 

01  power  by  the  spirit  01 


promised,  it  shall  be  clear  tliat  God  did  not 
send  tiiem.  And  having  plainly  no  answer 
of  God,  they  sliall  not  dare  to  feign  one  then. 
"'Then  not  even  the  devils  shall  receive 
power  to  deceive  them  by  their  craft.  The 
oracles  shall  be  dumb;  the  unclean  spirit 
sliall  not  dare  to  delude."  "  '"  All  this  is 
spoken  against  those  who,  in  the  Church  of 
Christ,  Hatter  the  rich,  or  speak  as  men- 
pleasers,  out  of  avarice,  ambition,  or  any  like 
longing  for  temporal  gof)d,  to  whom  that  of 
Isaiah  "  fitteth  ;  tlie  leaders  of  this  people  [they 
who  profess  to  lead  them  aright^  mislead  them, 
and  they  that  are  led  of  them  are  destroyed." 

8.  And  truly  I,  [lit.  contrariwise  /,]  i.e. 
whereas  they  shall  be  void  and  no  word  in 
them,  I  am.  full  of  (or  Jilled  ivith)  power  by  the 
/Spirit  of  the  Lord  and  of  judgment  and  might. 
The  false  projdiets  '^  walked  after  their  cum 
spirit.  Their  only  power  or  influence  wa.s 
from  without,  from  favoring  circumstances, 
from  adapting  themselves  to  the  great  or  to 
the  people,  going  along  with  the  tide,  and 
impelling  persons  whither  they  wished  to  go. 
Tlie  power  of  the  true  prophet  was  inherent, 
and  that  by  gift  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord^^. 
And  so,  while  adverse  circumstances  silenced 
the  false  prophets,  they  called  forth  the  more 
the  energy  of  the  true,  wlio.se  power  was  from 
Him  in  Whose  Hands  the  world  is.  The 
adverse  circumstances  to  the  ialse  prophets 
were  God's  judgments ;  to  the  true,  they  were 
man's  refractoriness,  rebellion,  oppressiveness. 
Nov)  was  the  time  of  the  false  prophets; 
now,  at  a  distance,  they  could  foretell  hardily, 
because  they  could  not  yet  be  convicted  of 
untruth.  When  trouble  came,  they  went  into 
the  inner  chamber  to  hide  "  themselves.  Micah, 
amid  the  irild  tumult  of  the  peoplc^^,  was  fear- 
less, upborne  by  Him  who  controls,  stills,  or 
looses  it,  to  do  Jlis  Sovereign  Will. 

/  am  filled  with  power.  So  our  Lord  bade 
His  Apostles'",  Tarry  ye,  until  ye  be  endued 
with  power  from  on  high  "  :  ye  shall  receive  power, 
after  that  the  Holy  Gho.'it  /.s  come  upon  you ; 
and  '"  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  three  gifts,  power,  judgment,  might,  are  the 
fruits  of  the  One  Spirit  of  God,  throngii 
Whom  the  Prophet  was  filled  with  them. 
Of  tliese,  poiver  is  always  strength  residing  in 
the  person,  whether  it  be  the  power  '*  or 
viight  of  wisdom  '■'•'of  Almighty  God  Himself, 

that  the  ohjects  of  the  verb  are  rT^l^l  t33KfD,  HD, 
and  tliat  the  HK  is  "with"  "tlirough,"  as  in  Gen. 
iv.  1.  "  1  Kk-<.  xxii.  25.  i»  Ps.  Ixv.  7. 

1"  S.  Luke  xxiv.  49.         "  Acts  i.  8.        »«  lb.  il.  4. 

»  Ex.  XV.  6.  xxxil.  11.  Num.  xiv.  17,  *c. 

*•  Job  xxxvl.  a. 


CHAPTER  III. 


43 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

I  Is.  58. 1. 


the  Lord,  and  of  judg- 
.  ment,  and  of  might,  '  to 
declare  unto  Jacob  his 
transgression,  and  to  Israel 
his  sin. 


or  poiver  which  He  imparts  ^  or  implants  ^. 
But  it  is  always  power  lodged  in  the  person, 
to  be  put  forth  by  him.  Here,  a.s  in  St.  John 
Baptist^  or  the  Apostles*,  it  is  Divine 
power,  given  through  God  the  Holy  Ghost, 
to  accomplish  that  for  which  he  was  sent,  as 
St.  Paul  wa.s  endued  with  might*,  casting 
dovm  iirmginations  and  every  high  thing  that  ex- 
alteth  itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God,  and 
bringing  into  captivity  every  thought  to  the  obedi- 
ence of  Christ.  It  is  just  that,  which  is  so 
wanting  to  human  words,  which  is  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  word  of  God,  power.  Judgment 
is,  fi'om  its  form  ^,  not  so  much  discernment 
in  the  human  being,  as  "  the  thing  judged," 
pronounced  by  God,  the  righteous  judgment 
of  God,  and  righteous  judgment  in  man  con- 
formably therewith  ^.  It  was  what,  he  goes 
on  to  say,  the  great  men  of  his  people  ab- 
horred^,  equity.  With  this  he  was  filled. 
This  was  the  substance  of  his  message,  right 
judgment  to  be  enacted  by  them,  to  which  he 
was  to  exhort  them,  or  which,  on  their  re- 
fusal, was  to  be  pronounced  upon  them  in 
the  Name  of  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  be 
executed  upon  them.  Might  is  courage  or 
boldness  to  deliver  the  message  of  God,  not 
awed  or  hindered  by  any  adversaries.  It  is 
that  holy  courage,  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks', 
that  utterance  may  be  given  unto  me,  that  I  may 
open  my  mouth  boldly,  to  make  knoivn  the  mys- 
tery of  the  gospel,  for  which  I  am  an  ambassador 
in  bonds,  tlmt  therein  I  may  speak  boldly,  as  I 
ought  to  speak.  So  too,  after  the  Apostles  had 
been  '**  straitly  threatened  that  they  should  speak 
no  more  in  the  Name  of  Jesus,  all,  having 
prayed,  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
spake  the  word  of  God  with  boldness.  "  ^^  Who- 
so is  so  strengthened  and  arrayed,  uttereth 
fiery  words,  whereby  hearers'  hearts  are 
moved  and  changed.  But  whoso  speaketh 
of  his  own  mind,  doth  good  neither  to  him- 
self nor  others." 

So  then,  of  the  three  gifts,  power  expresses 
the  Divine  might  lodged  in  him ;  judgment, 
the  substance  of  what  he  had  to  deliver; 
might  or  courage,  the  strength  to  deliver  it  in 

1  Deut.  viii.  18.  Judg.  xvi.  5.  9, 19. 

*  Deut.  viii.  17.  and  passim.  '  S.  Luke  i.  17. 

«  S.  Luke  xxiv.  49.        6  2  Cor.  x.  5.        '^I2i^]2r0. 

7  As  in  Prov.  i.  3.  Is.  i.  21.  v.  7.  «  ver.  9. 

»  Eph.  vi.  19,  20.  w  kcts  iv.  18,  31. 

11  Dion. 

"Lap.  M Ecclus.  xlviii.  1.  "Iviii.  1. 

«  vL  11,  27.  »«  S.  Matt.  iil.  7. 

"  Acts  xxiv.  25. 
i»  Ps.  xlviii.  8.  »  Rev.  xi.  5.  »  Ui.  1. 


9  Hear  this,  I  pray  you, 
ye  heads  of  the  house  of  Ja- 
cob, and  princes  of  the  house 
of  Israel,  that  abhor  judg- 
ment,and  pervert  all  equity. 


Bo  fore 

C  H  R  I  8  T 

cir.  710. 


face  of  human  power,  persecution,  ridicule, 
death. 

'•  '^  These  gifts  the  Prophets  know  are  not 
their  own,  but  are  from  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  are  by  Him  inspired  into  them.  Such 
was  the  spirit  of  Elijah,  unconquered,  ener- 
getic, fiery,  of  whom  it  is  said,  '^  Then  stood 
tip  Elias  as  fire,  and  his  word  burned  like  a 
lamp.  Such  was  Isaiah  '•*,  O-y  aloud,  spare  not, 
lift  up  thy  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  shew  My 
people  their  transgression  and  the  house  of  Jacob 
their  sins.  Such  was  Jeremiah  ^* ;  Therefwe  I 
am,  full  of  the  fury  of  the  Lord;  I  am  weary  of 
holding  in.  I  have  set  thee  for  a  trier  among 
My  people,  a  strong  fart;  and  thou  shall  know 
and  try  their  ways.  Such  was  John  Baptist, 
who  said  '^,  0  generation  of  vipers,  who  hath 
warned  you  to  flee  frmn  the  wrath  to  come  f  Such 
was  Paul,  who,  when  he  ^'  reasoned  of  temper- 
ance, righteousness  and  judgment  to  cmne,  made 
Felix  tremble,  though  unbelieving  and  un- 
godly. Such  were  the  Apostles,  who,  when 
they  had  received  the  Holy  Spirit,  '^  bi-uke, 
with  a  mighty  breath,  ships  and  kings  of 
Tarshish.  Such  will  be  Elias  and  Enoch  at 
the  end  of  the  world,  striving  against 
Anti-Christ,  of  whom  it  is  said  ^',  If  any  man 
will  hurt  them,  fire  proceedeth  out  of  their  mmith 
and  devoureth  their  enemies." 

9.  Hear  this,  I  pray  you.  The  Prophet 
discharges  upon  them  thai  judgment,  whereof, 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  he  was  fuU,  and  which 
they  abhorred;  judgment  against  their  per- 
version of  judgment.  He  rebukes  the  same 
classes  as  before  ''■^,  the  heads  and  judges,  yet 
still  more  sternly.  They  abhorred  judgment, 
he  says,  as  a  thing  loathsome  and  abominable^^, 
such  as  men  cannot  bear  even  to  look  upon  ; 
they  not  only  dealt  wrongly,  but  they  per- 
verted, distorted,  a/i  eqtiity :  "'■''that  so  there 
should  not  remain  even  some  slight  justice 
in  the  city."  All  equity;  all  of  every  sort, 
right,  rectitude,  uprightness,  straight-for- 
wardness ^^,  whatever  was  right  by  natural 
conscience  or  by  God's  law,  they  distorted, 
like  the  sophists  making  the  worse  appear 
the  better  cause.      Naked  violence  crushes 

^  D'3j^nO,  one  of  the  two  strongest  Hebrew  words 
to  express  abomination,  com  p.  n3j7in.    **S-  Jer. 

23  Frequent  a.<!  the  adj.  1tJ?%  "  right,  upright,"  is, 
the  abstract  mty  occurs  here  only  in  the  O.  T. 
The  original  force  is  "straight,"  "even,"  and  hence 
"straight-forwardness,  rectitude."  The  idea  of 
"evenness"  (which  Ges.  denies!  belonged  to  the 
root  in  early  times,  the  names  of  the  two  "  plains," 
Sharon,  and  MUhor  In  Reuben  (Deut.  UL  10.  It.  43.) 
being  formed  from  it. 


44 


MICAH. 


cir.  710.      -with  "  t  blood,  and  Jerusa- 


nEzek^'22.^27.    lem  with  iniquity. 

Hab.  2. 12.   Zeph.  3.  3.       f  Heb.  bloods. 


the  individual;  perversion  of  equity  destroys 
the  fountain-head  of  justice.  The  Prophet 
turns  from  them  in  these  words,  as  one  who 
could  not  bear  to  look  upon  their  misdeeds, 
and  who  would  not  speak  to  them ;  they  per- 
vert; buildin'i ;  her  hemh,  her  priests,  her 
prophets;  as  Elisha,  but  for  the  presence  of 
Jehoshaphat,  would  not  look  on  Jehoram, 
nor  see  him\  He  first  turns  and  speaks  of 
them,  as  one  man,  as  if  they  were  all  one  in 
evil; 

10.  They  build  np  [lit.  building,  sing."] 
Zion  ti'ith  blood.  This  may  be  taken  literally 
on  both  sides,  that,  the  rich  built  their  pal- 
aces, "  with  wealth  gotten  by  bloodshed',  by 
rapine  of  the  poor,  by  slaughter  of  the 
saints,"  as  Ezekiel  says*,  her  princes  in  the 
midst  thereof  are  like  wolves,  to  shed  blood,  to  de- 
stroy souls,  to  get  dishonest  gain.  Or  by  blood 
he  may  mean  that  they  indirectly  took  away 
life,  in  that,  tli rough  wrong  judgments,  ex- 
tortion, usury,  fraud,  oppression,  reducing 
wages  or  detaining  them,  they  took  away 
what  was  necessary  to  support  life.  So  it  is 
said  * ;  The  bread  of  the  needy  is  their  life,  he 
that  defraudeth  him  thereof  is  a  man  of  blood. 
He  that  taketh  away  his  'neighbor's  living  slayeth 
him,  and  he  that  defraudeth  the  laborer  of  his 
hire  is  a  bloodshedder.  Or  it  may  be,  that  as 
David  prayed  to  God,  ^  Build  Thou  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem,  asking  Him  thereby  to  main- 
tain or  increase  its  well-being,  so  these  men 
thought  to  promote  the  temporal  prosperity 
of  Jerusalem  by  doings  which  were  unjust, 
oppressive,  crushing  to  their  inferiors.  So 
Solomon,  in  his  degenerate  days,  made  the 
yoke  upon  his  people  and  his  service  grievous^. 
So  ambitious  monarchs  by  large  standing- 
armies  or  filling  their  exchequers  drain  the 
life-blood  of  their  people.  The  physical 
condition  and  stature  of  the  poorer  popula- 
tion in  much  of  France  was  lowered  perma- 
nently by  the  conscriptions  under  the  first 
Emperor.  In  our  wealthy  nation,  the  term 
poverty  describes  a  condition  of  other  days. 
We  have  had  to  coin  a  new  name  to  designate 
the  misery,  offspring  of  our  material  pros- 
perity. From  our  wealtliy  towns,  (a.s  from 
those  of  Flanders,)  ascends  to  heaven  against 
us  "'the  cry  of  '  pauperism'  i.e.  the  cry  of 
distres-s,  arrived  at  a  condition  of  system  and 
of  power,  anil,  by  an  unexpected  curse,  issu- 
ing from  the  very  development  of  wealth. 


'2KKsiil.  14.  «S.  Jer.  «xxii.  27. 

*  Ecclus.  xxxiv.  21,  22.  «  Pa.  li.  18. 
•1  Kgs.  xii.  4. 

'  Lacordaire,  Conferences,  T.  )i.  p.  sno. 

•  .S.  John  xi.  48.  »S.  .Matt.  xxv.  45. 


11  "The  heads   thereof   tjl^il^t;.!- 


judge  for  reward,  and  ^  the . 


priests  thereof  teach  for'Ezek. 22. 12. 

P  Jer.  G.  13.  Ho.«.  4. 18.  ch.  7.  3. 


The  political  economy  of  unbelief  has  been 
crushed  by  facts  on  all  tiie  theatres  of  human 
activity  and  industry."  Truly  we  build  up 
Zion  with  blood,  when  we  cheapen  luxuries 
and  comforts  at  the  price  of  souls,  use  Chris- 
tian toil  like  brute  strength,  tempt  men  to 
dishonesty  and  women  to  other  sin,  to  eke 
out  the  scanty  wages  which  alone  our  selfish 
thii"st  for  cheapness  allows,  heedless  of  every 
thing  save  of  our  individual  gratification,  or 
the  commercial  prosperity,  which  we  have 
made  our  god.  Most  awfully  was  Zion 
built  with  blood,  when  the  Jews  shed  the 
innocent  Blood,  that  ^the  Romans  might 
not  take  away  their  place  and  nation.  But 
since  He  has  said",  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  My  brethren,  ye  did 
it  not  unto  Me,  and,  ^^  Said,  Saul,  ichy  persecutest 
thou  Mef  when  Saul  was  persecuting  Christ's 
raembere,  then,  in  this  waste  of  lives  and  of 
souls,  we  are  not  only  wasting  the  Price  of 
His  131ood  in  ourselves  and  others,  but  are 
anew  slaying  Christ,  and  that,  from  the  self- 
same motives  as  those  who  crucified  Him. 
''  When  ye  sin  against  the  members,  ye  sin  against 
Christ:  Our  commercial  greatness  is  the  price 
of  His  Blood^'^.  In  the  judgments  on  the 
Jews,  we  may  lead  our  own  national  future  ; 
in  tlie  woe  on  those  through  whom  the  weak 
brother  perishes  for  whom  Christ  died^'^,  we,  if 
we  partake  or  connive  at  it,  may  read  our 
own. 

11.  Tlie  heads  thereof  judge  for  reward. 
Every  class  was  corrupted.  One  sin,  the  root 
of  all  einl^*,  covetousness,  entered  into  all 
they  did.  It,  not  God,  was  their  one  end, 
and  so  their  God.  Her  heads,  the  secular 
authority,  who  ^^  sat  to  judge  according  to  the 
law,  judged,  contrary  to  the  law,  for  rewards. 
They  sat  as  the  representatives  of  the  Maj- 
esty of  God,  in  Whose  Name  they  judged, 
Whose  righteous  Judgment  and  correcting 
Providence  law  exiiibits  and  executes,  and 
they  profaned  it.  To  judge  for  7'ewards  was 
in  itself  sin,  forbidden  by  the  law  '^  To  re- 
fuse justice,  unless  paid  for  it,  was  unjust, 
degrading  to  justice.  The  second  sin  fol- 
lowed hard  upon  it,  to  judge  unjustly,  ab- 
solving the  guilty,  condemning  the  innocent, 
justifying  the  oppressor,  legalizing  wrong. 

AtuI  her  priests  teach  for  hire.  The  Lord 
was  the  portion  and  inlieritance  "  of  the  priest 
He  haa  his  sustenance  assigned  him  by  God, 


io.\ctsix.  4. 

"S.  Matt,  xxvii.  6. 

"1  Tim.  vi.  10. 

'«  Ex.  xxlii.  8.  Dent.  xvl.  19. 

"  Num.  xviii.  2u.  Deut.  xviii.  2. 


"  1  Cor.  viii.  12. 
"  1  Cor.  vili.  11. 

1'  .\Ct3  xxill.  3. 


CHAPTEE  III. 


45 


c'He'^ist    ^^^^^'   ^^^   ^^^  prophets 
cir.  710.      thereof  divine  for  money : 


<  Is.  48.  2. 
Jer.  7.  4. 
Rom.  2. 17. 


yet  will  they  lean  upon 


and,  therewith,  the  duty  to  ^  put  difference  be- 
tween holy  and  unholy,  and  betiveen  dean  and 
■luwlean,  and  to  teach  all  the  statutes,  which  God 
had  commanded.  Their  lips  were  to  keep  know- 
ledge ^.  This  tlien,  which  they  were  bound 
to  give,  they  sold.  But  "  ^  whereas  it  is  said 
to  the  holy,  *  Freely  ye  havereceived,  freely  give, 
these,  producing  the  answer  of  God  upon 
tiie  receipt  of  money,  sold  the  grace  of  the 
Lord  for  a  covetous  price."  Probably  too, 
their  sin  co-operated  with  and  strengthened 
the  sin  of  the  judges.  Authorized  interpre- 
ters of  the  law,  they,  to  please  the  wealthy, 
probably  misinterpreted  the  law.  For  wicked 
judges  would  not  have  given  a  price  for  a 
righteous  interpretation  of  the  law.  The 
civil  authorities  were  entrusted  by  God  with 
power  to  execute  the  law ;  the  priests  were 
entrusted  by  Him  witli  the  knowledge  to  ex- 
pound it.  Botli  employed  in  its  perversion 
that  which  God  gave  them  for  its  mainte- 
nance, ^he  princes  obtained  by  bribery  the 
misjudg:^:  ent  of  the  priests  and  enforced  it ; 
the  priests  justified  the  injustice  of  the 
Princes.  So  Arian  Bishops,  themselves  hire- 
lings", by  false  expositions  of  Scripture, 
countenanced  Arian  Emperors  in  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  faithful.  "  ^  They  propped  up 
the  heresy  by  human  patronage  ;  "  the  Em- 
perors "  '  bestowed  on  "  them  their  "  reign  of 
irreligion."  The  Arian  Emperors  tried  to 
efface  the  Council  of  Nice  by  councils  of  Arian 
Bishops  **.  Emperors  perverted  their  power, 
the  Bishops  tlieir  knowledge.  Not  publicly 
only  but  privately  doubtless  also,  these  priests 
taught  falsely /or  hire,  lulling  the  consciences 
of  those  who  wished  to  deceive  themselves  as 
to  what  God  forbade,  and  to  obtain  from  His 
priests  answers  in  His  Name,  which  might 
explain  away  His  law  in  favor  of  laxity  or 
sin.  So  people  now  try  to  get  ill-advised  to 
do  against  God's  will  what  they  are  bent  on 
doing  ;  only  they  get  ill-advised  for  nothing. 
One  who  receives  money  for  giving  an  irre- 
sponsible opinion,  places  himself  in  proxi- 
mate peril  of  giving  the  answer  which  will 
please  those  who  pay  him.  "  ^  It  is  Simony 
to  teach  and  preach  the  doctrine  of  Christ 
and  His  Gospel,  or  to  give  answers  to  quiet 
the  conscience,  for  money.  For  the  imme- 
diate object  of  these  two  acts,  is  the  calling 
forth  of  faith,  hope,  charity,  penitence,  and 

1  Lev.  X.  10,  11.  add  Deut.  xvii.  10, 11.  xxxiii.  10. 
Hag.  ii.  11  sqq. 

2  Mai.  ii.  7.  a  S.  Jer.  •»  S.  Matt.  x.  8. 
=  S.  Ath.  ag.  Allans,  i.  8.  p.  191.  and  n.  e.  Oxf.  Tr. 
« Id.  ii.  43.  p.  341. 

'  Counc.  Arim.  g  3.  p.  77. 

sPusey's  Councils  of  tlie  Cluuxli,  p.  118-180,  Ac. 


the  Lord,  f  and  say,  Is  not    „  ^^i"/!  ^ 
the  Lord  among  us  ?  none      cir.  710. 
evil  can  come  upon  us.        t  Heb.  sayiny. 


other  supernatural  acts,  and  the  reception  of 
the  consolation  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  this 
is,  among  Christians,  their  only  value. 
Whence  they  are  accounted  things  sacred 
and  supernatural ;  for  their  immediate  end 
is  to  things  supernatural ;  and  they  are  done 
by  man,  as  he  is  an  instrument  of  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

"  1°  Thou  art  permitted,  O  Priest,  to  live^\ 
not  to  luxuriate,  from  the  altar.  ^^  The  mouth 
of  the  ox  which  treadeth  out  the  corn  is  not  muz- 
zled. Yet  the  Apostle  ^^  abused  not  the  liberty, 
but  '*  having  food  and  raiment,  was  therewith 
content;  ^*  laboring  night  and  day,  that  he  might 
not  be  chargefible  to  anybody.  And  in  his 
Epistles  he  calls  God  to  witness  that  he 
*''  lived  holily  and  without  avarice  in  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ.  He  asserts  this  too,  not  of 
himself  alone  but  of  his  disciples,  that  he  had 
sent  no  one  who  would  either  ask  or  receive 
anything  from  the  Churches '^  But  if  in 
some  Epistles  he  expresses  pleasure,  and  calls 
the  gifts  of  those  who  sent,  the  grace  '*  of  God, 
he  gathers  not  for  himself  but  for  the  ''  poor 
saints  at  Jerusalem.  But  these  poor  saints 
were  they  who  of  the  Jews  first  believed  in 
Christ,  and,  being  cast  out  by  parents,  kins- 
men, connections,  had  lost  their  possessions 
and  all  their  goods,  the  priests  of  the  temple 
and  the  people  desti-oying  them.  Let  such 
poor  receive.  But  if  on  plea  of  the  poor,  a 
few  houses  are  enriched,  and  we  eat  in  gold, 
glass  and  china,  let  us  either  with  our  wealth 
change  our  habit,  or  let  not  the  habit  of 
poverty  seek  the  riches  of  Senators.  What 
avails  the  habit  of  poverty,  while  a  whole 
crowd  of  poor  long-s  for  the  contents  of  our 
purse?  Wherefore,  for  our  sake  who  are 
such,  who  build  up  Zion  with  blood  and  Jerusa- 
lem by  iniquity,  ivho  judge  for  gifts,  give  ansivers 
for  reivards,  divine  for  money,  and  thereon, 
claiming  to  ourselves  a  fictitious  sanctity,  say. 
Evil  will  not  come  upon  us,  hear  we  the  sen- 
tence of  the  Lord  which  follows.  Sion  and 
Jerusalem  and  the  mountain  of  the  temple,  i.  e. 
the  temple  of  Christ,  shdl,  in  the  consumma- 
tion and  the  end,  when  ^^  love  shall  wax  cold 
and  the  faith  shall  be  rare  ^',  be  plowed  as  a 
field  and  become  heaps  as  the  high  places  of  a 
forest ;  so  that,  where  once  were  ample  houses 
and  countless  heaps  of  corn,  there  should 
only  be  a  poor  cottage,  keeping  up  the  show 

9  Less  de  Justit.  ii.  35.  de  Simonia  Dub.  13.  p. 
389.  L. 

10  S.  Jer.      »  1  Cor.  ix.  13.  i*  lb.  9.      "  lb.  18. 
"  1  Tim.  vi.  8.        '*  1  Thess.  ii.  6.  2  Thess.  iii.  8. 

'« 1  Thess.  ii.  10.  "  2  Cor.  xii.  17, 18. 

IS  lb.  viii.  6.  7.  »*  Rom.  xv.  20. 

•■^"S.  Matt,  x.xiv.  12.  -'  fi.  Luke  -wiii.  8. 


46 


MICAH. 


chr7st        •^■^  Therefore  shall  Zion 
cir.  710.      for  your  sake  be  '  plowed 


rjer.  26. 18.  ch.  1.  6. 


of  fruit  which  has  no  refreshment  for  the 
soul." 

The  three  pUices,  Zion,  Jerusalem,  the 
Temple,  describe  the  whole  city  in  its  poli- 
tical and  religious  aspects.  Locally,  Mount 
Zion,  which  occupies  the  South-West,  "  had 
upon  it  the  Upper  city,"  and  "  was  by  much 
the  loftier,  and  length-ways  the  straighter." 
Jerusalem,  as  contrasted  with  Zion,  repre- 
sented the  lower  city,  "  '  supported  "  on  the 
East  by  Blount  Acra^and  including  the  valley 
of  Ty"ropa?on.  South  of  Mount  Acra  and 
lower  than  it,  at  the  South  Eastern  corner  of 
the  city,  lay  Mount  Moriah  or  the  Mount  of 
the  Lord's  House,  separated  at  this  time  from 
Mount  Acra  by  a  deep  ravine,  which  was 
filled  up  by  the  Asmonaean  princes,  who 
lowered  Mount  Acra.  It  was  joined  to  the 
N.  E.  corner  of  Blount  Zion  by  the  cause- 
way of  Solomon  acrcjs-s  the  Tyropoeon.  The 
whole  city  then  in  all  its  parts  was  to  be 
desolated. 

And  her  prophets  divine  for  money.  The 
word  rendered  ^,  divine,  is  always  used  in  a 
bad  sense.  These  prophets  then  were  false 
prophets,  her  prophetn  and  not  God's,  which 
divined,  in  reality  or  appearance,  giving  the 
answer  which  their  employers,  the  rich  men, 
wanted,  as  if  it  were  an  answer  from  God. 
^  Yet  they  also  jcc/r/e  for  rewards,  who  look 
rather  totlie  earthly  than  to  the  spiritual 
good;  they  teach  for  hire,  who  seek  in  the 
first  place  the  thing's  of  tliis  world,  in- 
stead of  teaching  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  good  of  souls,  and  regarding  earthly 
tilings  in  the  second  place  only,  as  the  sup- 
jxjrt  of  life. 

And  my,  h  not  the  Lord  unumg  us?  And 
after  all  this,  not  understanding  their  sin,  as 
though  by  their  guilt  they  purchased  the 
love  of  (iod,  they  said  in  tlieir  impenitence, 
tliat  they  were  judges,  j)ropliets,  priests,  of 
<  Jod.  Tkey  do  all  this,  and  yet  lean  on  tlie 
Lord  ;  they  stjiy  and  trust,  not  in  themselves, 
but  in  God  ;  good  in  itself,  had  not  they  been 
evil !  .471^  say,  Is  not  the  Lord  among  as  f 
none  evil  can  [shall]  comf,  upon  tts.  So  Jere- 
miah says  *,  Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words  saying, 
The  lennple  of  the  Lord,  tfie  temple  of  the  Lord, 
The  temple  of  the  Lord  are  these.  "  ^  He  calletl 
them  lyin^  tvords,  as  being  ofttimes  repeated 
by  the  false  prophets,  to  entice  the  credulous 
people  to  a  false  security "  against  the 
thriatenings  fif  (rod.  As  though  (lod  c<juld 
not  forsake  His  own  people,  nor  cast  away 

'.ros.  B.  J.  V.  4. 1. 

-  In  Prov.  xvi.  10.  (quoted  as  an  exception)  it  is 
ii!*»'«l  fit"  thftt  penotratlnR  noutonesH  wliicli  is  like  a 
nife  of  divination  :  ua  wf  siiciiU  of  "divining  a  per- 
sou'.M  tlioiiglit.H,  purpoHL's,"  iku. 


as  a  field,  •  and  Jerusalem 
shall  become  heaps,and  'the 

•Ps.  79.  1.        «ch.  4.  2 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


Zion  which  He  had  chosen  for  an  habitation  for 
Himself,  nor  profane  His  own  holy  place  I 
Yet  it  was  true  that  God  uas  among  than, 
in  the  midst  of  them,  as  our  Lord  was  among 
the  Jews,  though  they  knew  Him  not.  Yet 
if  not  in  the  midst  of  His  people  so  as  to 
hallow,  God  is  in  the  midst  of  them  to 
punish.  But  what  else  do  we  than  these 
Jews  did,  if  we  lean  on  the  Apostolic  line, 
the  possession  of  Holy  Scripture,  Sacraments, 
pure  doctrine,  without  setting  ourselves  to 
gain  to  God  the  souls  of  our  Heathen  popu- 
lation ?  or  what  else  is  it  for  a  soul  to  trust  in 
having  been  made  a  member  of  Christ,  or  in 
any  gifts  of  God,  unless  it  be  bringing  forth 
fruit  nith  patience?  "*  Learn  we  too  hence, 
that  all  trust  in  the  Merits  of  Christ  is  vain, 
so  long  as  any  wilfully  persist  in  sin."  "  ^  Know 
we,  that  God  will  be  in  us  also,  if  we  have 
not  faith  alone,  nor  on  this  account  rest,  as 
it  were,  on  Him,  but  if  to  faith  tiiere  be 
added  also  the  excelling  in  good  works.  For 
faith  without  tvorh  is  dead.  But  when  with 
the  riches  of  faith  works  concur,  then  Mill 
God  indeed  be  with  us,  and  will  strengthen 
us  mightily,  and  account  us  friends,  and  glad- 
den us  as  His  true  sons,  and  free  us  from  all 
evil." 

12.  Therefore  sh(dl  Zion  for  your  sake  [/y;* 
your  sake  shall  Zion]  be  plowed  as  a  field. 
They  thought  to  be  its  builders;  they  were 
its  destroyers.  They  imagined  to  advance  or 
secure  its  temporal  prosperity  by  bloods  ; 
they  (as  men  ever  do  first  or  last,)  ruined  it. 
Zion  might  have  stood,  but  for  these  its  acute, 
far-sighted  politicians,  who  scorned  the  warn- 
ings of  the  prophets,  as  well-meant  ignor- 
ance of  the  world  or  of  the  necessities  of 
the  state.  They  taught,  perhaps  they 
thought,  that  for  Zion's  sake  they,  (act  as 
they  might,)  were  secure.  Practical  Antino- 
mians !  God  says,  that,  for  their  sake,  Zion, 
defiled  by  their  deeds,  should  be  destroyed. 
The  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  was  delayed 
by  the  repentance  under  Hezekiah.  I}id  he 
not,  the  elders  a.sk',  fear  the  Lord  and  be- 
sought the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  repented  Him  of 
the  evil  tvhich  He  had  pronounced  again.M  themf 
But  the  prophecy  remained,  like  that  of  Jo- 
nali  against  Nineveh,  and,  when  man  tmdid 
and  in  act  repented  of  his  reiientance,  it 
found  its  fulfillment. 

Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps,  [lit.  of  ruins  ^.^ 
and  the  mountain  of  the  house,  Mount  Moriah, 
on  which  the  house  of  God  stood,  as  the  high 

»  From  Dion.  *  vii.  4. 

f'."^anch. 

O.I.  H.  Mi.li. 

^  .llT.  xxvi.   111. 

Sj"^  from  rtyy,  "  distort,  i«'rvoit,sii>>vt>rt." 


CHAPTER   Iir. 


47 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


mountain  of  the  house  as 


places  of  the  forest,  lit.  as  high  places  of  a  forest. 
It  should  return  wholly  to  what  it  had  been, 
before  Abraham  oflered  up  the  typical  sacri- 
fice of  his  son,  a  wild  and  desolate  place  cov- 
ered with  tangled  thickets  ^ 

The  prophecy  had  a  first  fullillnient 
at  its  first  capture  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Jeremiah  mourns  over  it ;  ^  Because  of 
the  mountain  of  Zion  tvhich  is  desolate,  foxes 
walk  [habitually  ^]  upon  it.  Nehemiah  said, 
*  Ye  see  the  distress  that  we  are  in,  how  Jerusalem 
lieth  ivaste;  and  Sanballat  mocked  at  the 
attempts  to  rebuild  it,  as  a  thing  impossible ; 
^  Will  they  revive  the  stones  out  of  the  heaps  of 
dust,  and  these  too,  burned?  and  the  builders 
complained  ;  ®  The  strength  if  the  bearers  of 
burdens  is  decayed  [lit.  sinke'th  under  them], 
and  there  is  much  dust,  and  we  are  not  able 
to  build  the  wall.  In  the  desolation  under 
Antiochus  again  it  is  related ;  '  they  sau-  the 
sanctuary  desolate,  and  the  altar  profaned,  and 
the  gates  burned  up,  and  shrubs  growing  in  the 
courts,  as  in  a  forest  or  in  one  of  the  mountains. 
When,  by  the  shedding  of  tlie  Blood  of  the 
Lord,  they  ^filled  up  the  measure  of  their 
fathers,  and  called  the  curse  upon  themselves, 
^ His  Blood  be  upon  us  and  upon  our  chil- 
dren, destruction  came  upon  them  to  the  utter- 
most. With  the  exception  of  three  towers, 
left  to  exliibit  the  greatness  of  Roman 
prowess  in  destroying  such  and  so  strong  a 
city,  they  *' '°  so  levelled  to  the  ground  the 
wliole  circuit  of  the  city,  that  to  a  stranger  it 
pi'esented  no  token  of  ever  having  been  in- 
habited." He  "  effaced  the  rest  of  the  city," 
says  the  Jewish  historian,  himself  an  eye- 
witness ".  The  elder  Pliny  soon  after,  A. 
D.  77,  speaks  of  it,  as  a  city  which  had  been 

'Lain.  V.  l,s.        soSh. 


iGen.  xxii.  13.  "]3D. 

••Neh.  ii.  17. 

>  lb.  10.  [iv.  4.  HeVi.] 


the  high  places  of  the  forest. 


Befo/e 

CH  RIST 

cir.  710. 


5  lb.  iv.  L'.  [iii.  U.  Heb.] 
'  1  Mace.  iv.  38. 

8  S.  Matt,  xxiii.  32. "  » lb.  xxvii.  25. 

10  Joseph.  B.  J.  vii.  1. 1.  "  lb.  vi.  9. 1. 

12  Nat.  Hist.  V.  14. 

1* Pliny  says  of  Engedi,  "Below  these  was  the 
town  Engadda,  second  only  to  Jerusalem  in  fertility 
and  palrn-groves,  now  a  second  funeral  pile."  [bus- 
tumj  N.  H.  V.  18.  See  at  length  in  Deyling  de  .^lise 
Capit.  Orig.  in  his  Obss.  sacr.  v.  436-490.  and  on  the 
whole  subject  Lightfoot,  Chronieon  de  Excidio  urb. 
Hieros.  0pp.  ii.  136  sqq.  Tillemont,  Hist.  d.  Emp.  T. 
i.  Ruine  des  Juifs ;  T.  ii.  R6voltes  des  Juifs ;  Mnnter, 
d.  Jud.  Krieg  unt.  Traj.  u.  Hadr.  (translatev  m  Dr. 
Robinson's  Bibl.  Sacr.  T.  iii.  1st  series)  vvh^.  'low- 
ever,  gives  too  much  weight  to  very  late  authoriucs. 
Jost,  Gesch.  d.  Juden,  B.  xii. 

1*  Ep.  129.  ad  Dard.  fin. 

15  The  Talmud  speaks  of  R.  Jose  (who  lived  before 
Hadrian)  "  praying  in  one  of  the  ruins  of  Jerusa- 
lem," but  only  when  on  a. journey.  Berachoth,  f.  3. 
The  context  implies  that  they  were  utter  ruins. 

isGittiu,  f.  56.  Jost,  iii.  184.  Anhang,  p.  165. 

"  Maecoth,  fin.  i8  Josephus'  numbers. 

i»  Jos.  B.  J.  vii.  5.  2.  20  Die  Ixix.  14. 

-1  "  The  tenth  legion  and  some  troops  of  horse 
and  companies  of  foot."    (Jos.  lb.  vii.  1.  2.)    The 


and  was  not.  "  '^  Where  was  Jerusalem,  far 
the  most  renowned  city,  not  of  Judaea  only, 
but  of  the  East,"  "  "  a  funeral  pile."  With 
this  corresponds  S.  Jerome's  statement, 
"  ^*  relics  of  the  city  remained  for  fifty  years 
until  the  Emperor  Hadrian."  Still  it  was  in 
utter  ruins  ^^.  The  toleration  of  the  Jewish 
school  at  Jamnia  ^®  the  more  illustrates  the 
desolation  of  Jerusalem  where  there  was 
none.  The  Talmud"  relates  how  R.  Akiba 
smiled  when  others  wept  at  seeing  a  fox  com- 
ing out  of  the  Holy  of  holies.  This  prophecy 
of  Micah  being  fulfilled,  he  looked  the  more 
for  the  prophecy  of  good  things  to  come, 
connected  therewith.  Not  Jerusalem  only, 
but  well-nigh  all  Judaea  was  desolated  by 
that  war,  in  which  a  million  and  a  half  per- 
ished ^*,  beside  all  who  were  sold  as  slaves. 
"  Their  country  to  wliich  you  would  expell 
them,  is  destroyed,  and  there  is  no  place  to 
receive  them,"  was  Titus'  e.xpostulation  ^®  to 
the  Antiochenes,  who  desired  to  be  rid  of  the 
Jews  their  fellow-citizens.  A  heathen  histo- 
rian relates  how,  before  the  destruction  by 
Hadrian,  "  -"  many  wolves  and  hyaenas  entered 
their  cities  howling."  Titus  however  having 
left  above  6000  '^^  Roman  soldiers  on  the  sjiot, 
a  civil  population  was  required  to  minister  to 
their  wants.  The  Christians  who,  following 
our  Lord's  warning,  had  fled  to  Pella  ^'^,  re- 
turned to  Jenisalem  ^^,  and  continued 
there  until  the  second  destniction  by  Had- 
rian, under  fifteen  successive  Bishops^*. 
Some  few  Jews  had  been  left  there '•'^ ; 
some  very  probably  returned,  .since  we 
hear  of  no  prohibition  from  the  Romans, 
until  after  tlie  fanatic  revolt  under  Bar- 
cocheba.     But  the    fact  that  when   toward 

legion  was  6000  men;  the  troop,  64;  the  com- 
pany, lOO. 

22Eus.  H.  E.  iii.  5. 

23  S.  Epiph.  de  Men.s.  c.  15.  p.  171. 

24Eus.  H.  E.  iv.  5.  "from  written  documents." 

25josephu.=-  makes  Eleazar  say  in  the  siege  of 
Masada,  "  Jerusalem  has  ix:on  plucked  up  by  the 
roots,  and  the  only  memorial  of  it  remaining  is  the 
camp  of  those  who  took  it,  still  ccated  on  its 
remains.  Hapless  ciders  sit  fay  tho  dust  of  the 
temple,  and  a  few  v.o-non  preserver;  by  the  enemy 
for  the  foulest  insolence."  ?>.  J.  vii.  8.  The  state- 
ment of  S.  Epiphanius  (cic  Mens.  15.  p.  170.)  "in 
that  part  of  Zion  v/hich  survived  after  the  desola- 
tion, thpre  were  both  parts  ol  dwellings  around  Zion 
itself  and  seven  synagogues  which  alone  stood  in 
Zion  as  cabins,  one  of  which  survived  till  the  time 
of  Bishop  Maximus  and  the  Emperor  Oonstantine,  as 
a  hut  in  a  vineyard,"  is  remarkably  confirmed  by  the 
independent  Latin  statement  of  the  Bonrdeaux  pil- 
grim. "  Within  the  wall  of  Zion  appears  the  place 
where  David  had  his  p.alace ;  and  of  seven  syna- 
gogues, which  were  there,  one  only  has  remained, 
the  rest  are  ploughed  and  sowed."  Itin.  Hieros.  p.592, 
ed.  Wess.  Optatus  also  mentions  the  7  synagogues, 
(iii  2.  Edd.  before  Dupin,  and  all  M8S.  but  one.  See 
p  .53.)  Before  the  destruction  there  are  said  tx> 
have  been  480.  E<?lm  Rabbathi,f.  .32.  col.  2.  t.  71.  col.  4. 


48 


MICAH. 


the  olose  of  Trajan's  reign  they  burst  out 
simultaneously,  in  one  wild  frenzy  ^  upon 
the  surrounding  Heathen,  all  along  the  coast 
of  Africa,  Libya,  Cyrene,  Egypt,  the  Thebais, 
Mesopotamia,"  Cyprus''',  there  was  no  insur- 
rection in  Judfea,  implies  that  there  were  no 
great  numbers  of  Jews  there.  Judsea,  afore- 
time the  centre  of  rebellion,  contributed  | 
nothing '  to  that  wide  natiftnal  insurrection, 
in  which  the  carnage  was  so  terrible,  as 
though  it  had  been  one  convulsive  effort  of 
the  Jews  to  root  out  their  enemies*.  Even 
in  the  subsequent  war  under  Hadrian,  Oro- 
sius  speaks  of  them,  as  "*  laying  waste  the 
province  of  Palestine,  once  their  <nvn,"  as 
though  they  had  gained  possession  of  it  from 
without,  not  by  insurrection  within  it.  The 
Jews  assert  that  in  the  time  of  Joshua  Ben 
Cliananiah  (under  Trajan)  "  the  kingdom  of 
wickedness  decreed  that  the  temple  should 
be  rebuilt "."  If  this  was  so,  the  massacres 
toward  the  end  of  Trajan's  reign  altered  the 
policy  of  the  tlmpire.  Apparently  the 
Emperors  attempted  to  extinguish  the  Jew- 
ish, as,  at  other  times,  the  Christian  faith. 
A  heathen  Autlior  mentions  the  prohibition 
of  circumcision '.  The  Jerusalem  Talmud  ^ 
speaks  of  many  who  for  fear  became  uneircmn- 
ciscd,  and  renewed  the  symbol  of  their  faith 

1  sub  uno  tempore,  quasi  rabie  efFerati.  Oros.  L. 
vii.  B.  P.  vi.  4.37.  "  as  if  rekindled  by  some  dreadful 
seditious  spirit."    Eus.  H.  E.  iv.  2. 

2 Oros.  Did  mentions  Cyrene,  Egypt^  Cyprus;  to 
those  Eusebius  adds  Mesopotamia;  also  in  S.  Jer. 
Cliron.  A.  D.  117. 

3  Abulfaraj  (A.  D.  1270.)  mentions  an  invasion  of  Ju- 
djBa  by  one  whom  the  Egyptian  Jews  made  their 
king;  and  whom  "the  Roman  armies  sought  and 
slew  with  some  ten  thousands  of  .Jews  everywhere." 
(Hist.  Ar.  p.  120.  Chron.  Syr.  p.  50.)  He  is  too  late  to 
be  an  authority;  but  his  account  equally  implies 
that  there  was  no  rebellion  in  Judaea. 

*  Dio  speaks  of  their  destroying  220,000  Romans 
and  Greeks  in  Cyrene;  committing  much  the  same 
horrors  in  Egypt;  destroying  24<J,iHX)  in  Cyprus. 
Ixviii.  32.  The  Jews,  ascribing  this  to  Barcochelia, 
say  that  they  destroyed  "  in  Africa  a  great  multi- 
tude of  Romans  and  Greeks  like  the  sand  on  the 
sea-shore  innumerable,"  and  in  Egypt  more  than 
2(Hi,(XX)  men ;  and  in  Cypr.is,  so  as  to  leave  none. 
Zemach  David,  f.  27.  1.  in  Eisenmenger,  Entd.  Jud. 
ii.  05.5.  (The  coincidence  is  remarkable,  but  the 
statement  is  too  late  to  have  any  independent 
value.)  Orosius  says  that  "  Libya  was  so  desolated 
through  the  slaughter  of  its  peasants,  that,  had  not 
Hadrian  re-colonized  it,  it  wouirt  have  remamed 
empty."  1.  c. 

'I.  c.  Sulpicius  Severus  in  like  way  speaks  of  the 
Jews  "wishing  to  rebel,  essaying  to  plunder  Syria 
and  Palestine."  ii.  4.  •  Bercshilh  Rabba.  c.  64. 

'  Spartian  ITadrian,  c.  H.  It  was  repealed  by  An- 
tonine.    See  Munter,  §20. 

*Yebammoth,  f  9.  1.  and  R.  Nissim.  (See  in 
Lightfoot,  Chron.  0pp.  ii.  u:i.)  Berachoth  f.  16. 2.  in 
Jost  B.  xii.  Anhang  n.  21. 

»R.  Nissim  in  Lightfoot,  1.  <\ 

10  Jost  xii.  !».  p.  228. 

"  Eus.  H.  E.  IV.  6.  Zernacli  David,  f.  27.  in  Eisen- 
menger, Entd.  Jud.  ii.  054.  "  He  was  called  Bar 
Cocheba,  because  he  interpreted, as  said  of  himself, 
a  star  shall  arise  out  of  Jacob,  dc.  (Num.  xxiv.  17.) 
Shalshalet  hakkabbaia  (in  De  Voisin  on  .Martini, 
Pug.  Fid.  p.  206.)    Sanhedrin,  Chelek.  (.Mart.  p.  320.) 

""And  R.  Akibah  himself,  when  he  saw  him, 
fftld  of  him,  This  is  the  king  Messiah,  na  It  is  in  the 


"  *  when  Bar  Cozibah  got  the  better,  so  as  to 
reign  2i  years  among^  them."  The  Jews 
add,  that  the  prohibition  extended  to  the 
keeping  of  the  sabbath  and  the  reading  of 
the  law  ^".  Hadrian's  city,  JEMa,  was  doubt- 
less intended,  not  only  for  a  strong  position, 
but  also  to  efface  the  memory  of  Jerusalem 
by  the  Eoman  and  Heathen  city  which  was 
to  replace  it.  Christians,  when  persecuted, 
suffered ;  Jews  rebelled.  The  recognition  of 
Barcocheba,  who  gave  himself  out  as  the 
Messiah  ",  by  Akibah  ^'^  and  "  all  the  wise 
[Jews]  of  his  generation","  made  the  war 
national.  Palestine  was  the  chief  seat  of  the 
war,  but  not  its  source.  The  Jews  through- 
out the  Roman  world  were  in  arms  against 
their  conquerors";  and  the  number  of 
fortresses  and  villages  which  they  got  pos- 
session of,  and  which  were  destroyed  by  the 
Romans''',  shews  that  their  successes  were 
far  beyond  Judaea.  Their  measures  in  Judaea 
attest  the  desolate  condition  of  the  country. 
They  fortified,  not  towns,  but  "'®the  advan- 
tageous positions  of  the  country,  strengthened 
them  with  mines  and  walls,  that,  if  defeated, 
they  miglit  have  places  of  refuge,  and  com- 
munication among  themselves  underground 
unperceived."  For  two  years,  (as  appears 
from  the  coins  struck  by  Barcocheba  ",)  they 

Echa  Rabbathi  on  the  verse  Lam.  ii.  2."  (lb.)  "  He 
applied  Hagg.  ii.  6,  7.  to  him"  (quoting  v.  7.  "I will 
bring  the  desire  of  the  nations  to  Jerusalem.'"^  Sanh. 
Chelek  in  Mart.  "See  more  of  him  Wolf,  Bibi.  Hebr. 
i.  n.  1801.  R.  Bechai  said,  God  revealed  to  him 
things  unknown  to  Moses.  (lb.)  See  also  Midrash 
Cant,  in  Mart.  p.  320.  Bartolocei,  Bibl.  Rabb.  p. 
274. 

wMaimon.  Yad  Chazaka,  Sanhedrin,  c.  11.  in 
Mart.  p.  873.  "  R.  Akiba  and  all  the  wise  of  his 
generation  thought  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  until 
he  was  slain  in  his  iniquities,  and  it  was  known  that 
he  was  not."  This  was  doubtless  the  ground  of 
their  death,  mentioned  in  the  Avoda  Zara.  See  p. 
128  sag.  F.  C.  Ewald,  trans. 

H"The  Romans  made  no  account  of  them  at 
first,  but  when  all  Judsea  was  moved  and  all  the 
Jews  throughout  the  world  were  set  in  commotion 
and  conspired  and  publicly  and  privately  inflicted 
much  evil  on  the  Romans,  and  many  foreigners 
helped  them  in  hope  of  gain,  and  the  whole  world 
was  shaken,  Hadrian  sent  his  best  general  against 
them."  Dio  Cass.  Ixix.  13. 

i*",50  fortresses  of  much  account  and  985  very 
well-known  villages."  Dio  C.  (almost  a  contempo- 
rary) lb.  14.  i«  lb.  12. 

1'  De  Saulcy,  Numismatique  Judaique,  p.  156-70. 
The  coins  bear  the  inscription  "the  1st  year  of  the 
redemption  of  Jerusalem,"  "the  first"  and  "second 
year  or  the  freedom  of  Jerusalem."  Two  of  them 
are  cast  upon  coins  of  Trajan  and  Vespasian.  lb.  p. 
102.  The  Ahb6  Barth616mi  (.\pp.  to  Bayer  Num. 
Hebr.  Sam.  Vind.  L.  iii.  p.  ix.-xi.)  mentions  four  of 
Trajan's  recast  by  Barcocheba.  Bayer  mentions 
coins  or  the  3d  "and  4th  year,  but  anonymous. 
(Num.  Hebr.  Sam.  p.  171.)  De  Saulcy  supposes 
these  to  belong  to  the  revolt  against  Vespasian,  (p. 
153,4.)  The  title  and  the  name  "Simon"  which 
probanlv  Barcocheba  took,  wore  doubtless  intended 
to  recall  the  memorv  of  the  Maccabees.  The  Jeru- 
salem Talmud  speaks  of  money  with  the  impress 
of  Ben  Coziba,  ("son  of  a  lie"  as  the  Jews  changed 
his  name.)  Lightfoot,  0pp.  ii.  143.  Mr.  Vaux,  keeper 
of  the  coins,  British  Museum,  tells  me  that  these 
coins  (of  which  some  are  In  the  British  Museum) 
are  certainly  genuine.    See  also  Madden,  p.  161-182. 


CHAPTER  HI. 


49 


had  possession  of  Jerusalem.  It  was  essential 
to  his  claim  to  be  a  temporal  Messiah.  They 
proposed, at  least, to  "rebuild  their  temple^" 
and  restore  their  polity."  But  they  could 
not  fortify  Jerusalem.  Its  siege  is  just 
named '' ;  but  the  one  place  which  obstinately 
resisted  the  Romans  was  a  strong  city  near 
Jerusalem  '\  known  before  only  as  a  deeply 
indented  mountain  tract,  Bether*.  Prob- 
ably, it  was  one  of  the  strong  positions, 
fortified  in  haste,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war°. 

The  Jews  fulfilled  our  Lord's  words®, 
Iain  come  in  My  Fathei^s  Name  and  ye  receive 
Me  not ;  if  another  shall  coine  in  his  own  name, 
him  ye  will  receive.  Their  first  destruction 
was  the  punishment  of  their  Deicide,  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus,  the  Christ ;  their 
second  they  brought  upon  themselves  by 
accepting  a  false  Christ,  a  robber'  and  jug- 
gler ^  "580,000  are  said  to  have  perished 
in  battle  V' besides  "  an  incalculable  number 
by  famine  and  fire,  so  that  all  Juda?a  was 
made  well-nigh  a  desert."  The  Jews  say  that 
"  ^^  no  olives  remained  in  Palestine."  Hadrian 
"  ^^  destroyed  it,"  making  it  "  ^'^  an  utter  deso- 
lation" and  "eflTacing  all  remains  of  it." 
"  We  read  ^^,"  says  St.  Jerome  ^*,  "  the  expe- 
dition of  JElius  Hadrianus  against  the  Jews, 
who  so  destroyed  Jerusalem  and  its  walls,  as, 
from  the  fragments  and  ashes  of  the  city  to 
build  a  city,  named  from  himself,  iClia."  At 
this  time '"  there  appears  to  have  been  a  for- 
mal act,  whereby  the  Romans  marked  the 
legal  annihilation  of  cities ;  an  act  esteemed,  at 
this  time,  one  of  most  extreme  severity  ^^ 
When  a  city  was  to  be  built,  its  compass  was 
marked  with  a  plough ;  the  Romans,  where 
they  willed  to  unmake  a  city,  did,  on  rare 
occasions,     turn     up     its     soil    with     the 

1 S.  Chrys.  adv.  Jud.  v.  10.  He  does  not  apparently 
mean  that  they  actually  began  it. 

2Eus.  Dem.  Ev.  ii.  38.  vi.  18.  The  Samaritan 
Chronicle  (c.  47.  ed.  Juynboll)  gives  an  account  of  a 
siege  by  Adrian  in  which  it  mixes  up  fables  and 
facts  belonging  to  the  siege  of  Titus,  (which  it 
omits,)  but  I  do  not  see  any  traces  of  traditional 
fact. 

3  Eus.  H.  E.  iv.  6. 

4  The  Rev.  G.  Williams,  (Holy  City,  i.  209-13,)  has 
at  onoe  identified  Bether  with  the  name,  the  moun- 
tains of  Bether,  (Cant.  ii.  17,)  and  ruins,  "khirbet  el 
yehud,"  (ruins  of  the  Jews)  near  the  village  still 
called  Bittir  near  Jerusalem.  (See  Robinson's  or 
Kiepert's  map.)  There  are  traces  both  of  fortifica- 
tions and  excavations,  such  as  Dio  speaks  of. 
Bether  as  well  as  Bithron  beyond  Jordan  (2  Sam.  ii. 
29.)  had  their  name  from  deep  incisiom.  (See  the 
use  of  -\r\l,  n^:3,  iri3,  Gen.  xv.  10.) 

6  Dio  Cass.  Ixix.  12. 

*  S.  John  V.  43. 

T"  given  to  murder  and  robbery."  Eus.  H.  E.  iv. 
6.    See  Blaimonides  above,  n.  13. 

8S.  Jer.  Apol.  2.  c.  Ruf  §31.  He  pretended  to 
breathe  fire,  a  trick  ascribed  by  Florus  iii.  19  to 
Eunus,  author  of  the  servile  war  in  Sicily.  Val- 
lars 

» Dio  I.e. 

lOTalm.  Jesus.  Pea  7  in  Lightfoot,  1.  c. 

^lAppian  de  reb.  Syr.  50.  "Jerusalem,  which 
Ptolemv  king  of  Egvpt  fir.^t  destroved :  then,  when 


plough.  Hence  the  saying,  "  "  A  city  with 
a  plough  is  built,  with  a  plough  over- 
thrown." The  city  so  ploughed  forfeited 
all  civil  rights^*;  it  was  counted  to  have 
ceased  to  be.  The  symbolical  act  under 
Hadrian  appears  to  have  been  directed 
against  both  the  civil  and  religious  existence 
of  their  city,  since  the  revolts  of  the  Jews 
were  mixed  up  with  their  religious  hopes. 
The  Jews  relate  that  both  the  city  generally, 
and  the  Temple,  were  ploughed.  The 
ploughing  of  the  city  was  the  last  of  those 
mournful  memories,  which  made  the  month 
Ab  a  time  of  sorrow.  But  the  ploughing  of 
the  temple  is  also  especially  recorded.  S. 
Jerome  says,  "  ^'  In  this  [the  5th  Month]  was 
the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  burnt  and  destroyed, 
both  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  many  years 
afterward  by  Titus  and  Vespasian ;  the  city 
Bether,  whither  thousands  of  Jews  had  fled, 
was  taken  ;  the  Temple  was  ploughed,  as  an 
insult  to  the  conquered  race,  by  Titus  Annius 
Rufus."  The  Gemara  says, "  ''■^  When  Turnus, 
[or  it  may  be  "  when  Tyrant]  Rufus  ploughed 
the  porch,"  [of  the  temple.]  P^-haps 
Hadrian  meant  thus  to  declare  the  desecra- 
tion of  the  site  of  the  Temple,  and  so  to  make 
way  for  the  further  desecration  by  his  temple 
of  Jupiter.  He  would  declare  the  worship 
of  God  at  an  end.  The  horrible  desecration 
of  placing  the  temple  of  Ashtaroth  over  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  ^'  was  probably  a  part  of  the 
same  policy,  to  make  the  Holy  City  utterly 
Heathen.  The  "  Capitoline '"  "  was  part  of 
its  new  name  in  honor  of  the  Jupiter  of  the 
Roman  Capitol.  Hadrian  intended,  not  to 
rebuild  Jerusalem,  but  to  build  a  new  city 
under  his  own  name.  ,"^^  The  city  being  thus 
bared  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  its  old  in- 
habitants having  been  utterly  destroyed,  and 

rebuilt,  Vespasian  razed  to  the  ground,  and  again 
Hadrian,  in  my  time." 

12  <3.  Chrys.  1.  c.  g  11. 

18  S.  Jerome  then  took  this  statement  from  written 
history.  "  in  Joel  i.  4. 

15  The  Mishnah  places  it  after  the  capture  of  Be- 
ther. "  On  the  9th  of  Ab.  it  was  decreed  against  our 
fathers,  that  they  should  not  enter  the  land;  and 
the  Temple  was  laid  desolate  the  first  and  second 
time ;  and  Bether  was  taken ;  and  the  city  was 
ploughed."  Taanith,  c.  5.  g  6.  Blishna  ii.  p.  382.  ed. 
Surenhus.  Rashi  regards  this  as  a  fulfillment  of 
Jer.  xxvi.  18.  and  of  this  place.  lb.  p.  383.  col.  2. 
Buxtorf  quotes  also  Yotseroth,  (Jewish  hymns,)  c. 
Comm.  f.  35.  1.  for  the  fact.    Lex.  Rabb.  p.  916. 

16  Seneca  de  clem.  i.  26.  Deyl. 

17  Isidor.  Ixxv.  1.  &c. 

18  "  If  the  usufruct  [annual  produce]  be  left  to  a 
city,  and  the  plough  be  passed  over  it,  (as  befell 
Carthage,)  it  ceases  to  be  a  city,  and  so  by  a  sort  of 
death  it  ceases  to  have  the  usufruct."  Modestinus 
in  1.  Si  usus  fruetus  Sl.ffquibus  modis  usus  fruetus 
amittatur.  L. 

18  On  Zech.  viii.  16, 17.  S.  Jerome  has  the  same  or- 
der as  the  Talmud. 

20  Taanith,  1.  c.  The  Jerusalem  Talmud  has  "the 
temple"  for  "the  porch." 

21  Eus.  Vit.  Const,  iii.  26.  Socr.  i.  17.  Soz.  li.l.  S.  Jer. 
Ep.  68,  ad  Paul.  23. 

22  Col.  ^1.  Capitol,  i.  e.  Colonia  .Elia  Capltolina. 

23  Eus.  H.  E.  IV.  6. 


50 


-MICAK. 


an  alien  race  settled  there,  the  Roman  city 
which  afterward  arose,  liaving  changed  its 
name,  is  called  vElia  in  honor  of  the  Emperor 
jElius  Hadrianus."  It  was  a  Roman  colony ', 
with  Roman  temples,  Roman  amphitheatres. 
Idolatry  was  stamped  on  its  coins  ■'.  Hadrian 
excluded  from  it,  on  the  North,  almost  the 
whole  of  Bezetha  or  the  new  city,  which 
Agrippa  had  enclosed  by  his  wall,  and,  on 
tlie  iSouth,  more  than  half  of  Mount  Zion*, 
which  was  left,  as  Micah  foretold,  to  be 
ploughed  as  a  fidd.  The  Jews  themselves 
were  prohibited  from  entering  the  Holy 
Land*,  so  that  the  heatlien  Celsus  says, 
"*they  have  neither  a  clod  nor  a  hearth  left." 
^'Elia,  then,  being  a  new  city,  Jerusalem  was 
spoken  of,  as  having  ceased  to  be.  The 
Roman  magistrates,  even  in  Palestine,  did 
not  know  the  name  ^  Cliristians  too  used  the 
name  ^Elia',  and  that,  in  solemn  documents, 
:is  tlie  Canon  of  Nice".  In  the  4tli  century 
tlie  city  was  still  called  ^Elia  by  the 
Christians^,  and,  on  the  tirst  Mohammedan 
coin  '"  in  the  7th  century,  it  still  bore  that 
name.  A  series  of  writei-s  speak  of  the  deso- 
lation' of  Jerusalem.  In  the  next  century 
Origen  addresses  a  Jew,  "  "  If  going  to  the 
eartlily  city,  Jerusalem,  thou  shalt  find  it 
overthrown,  reduced  to  dust  and  ashes,  weep 
not,  as  ye  now  do."  "  '^  From  that 
[Hadrian's]  time  until  now,  the  extremest 
desolation  having  taken  jwssession  of  the 
place,  their  once  renowned  hill  of  Zion — 
now  no  wise  diflering  from  the  rest  of  tlie 
country,  is  cultivated  by  Romans,  so  that  we 
ourselves  have  with  our  own  eyes  observed 
tlie  place  ploughed  by  oxen  and  sown  all 
over.  And  Jerusalem,  being  inhabited  by 
aliens,  has  to  this  day  the  stones  gathered 
out  of  it,  all  the  inhabitants,  in  our  own 
times  too,  gathering  up  the  stones  out  of  its 
ruins  for  their  private  or  public  and  common 
buildings.  You  may  observe  with  your  own 
eyes  the  mournful  sight,  how  the  btones  from 

1  Col.  M\.  Capitol,  i.  e.  Colonia  iElia  Capitoliua. 

2  See  Roman  coins  in  De  Saiilcy,  p.  171-187.  from 
Hadrian,  A.  D.  i:!(),  to  Hostilian,  .\.  V.  250. 

^Seo  Fierotti's  excellent  map  of  Jerunalem,  (also 
ri'fiiieeil  in  liis  ".lenisalem  explored."  n.  .3.) 

■»  Eusehius,  1.  c.  affirms  this  on  the  authority  of 
Aristo  of  Pella,  a  contemporary;  Tertullian  .«ays, 
"tlioy  are  not  permitted,  even  in  the  ri^ht  "of 
•-traiiKer.i,  to  greet  their  native  land  so  much  as 
with  the  sole  of  their  foot."  (Apol.  c.  21.  p.  45  O.xf. 
'I'r.  and  adv.  .lud.  c.  13.)  8.  Jerome  affirms  the  same, 
(on  Is.  vi.  11-1.'!.  and  on  Dan.  ix.  end.)  Celsus  ur^es 
the  fact  of  their  total  expulsion  as  a  proof  of  God's 
hrcach  of  promise;  (in  Orig.  c.  Cels.  viii.  6!).)  and 
Origen  agn'cs  as  to  the  fact.  S.  Justin  speaks  of 
their  expuliion  (as  a  nation)  after  their  defeat, 
(Dial.  c.  Uu.)  so  that,  when  he  speaks  of  Jerusalem 
only,  (.\pol.  i.  47.)  it  may  have  Iteen  that  he  spoke 
of  It  alone,  as  sufficing  for  the  prophecy  whicn  he 
was  explaining.  The  prohibition  was  siihsequently 
limited  to  Jerusalem,  with  the  well-known  conces- 
sion to  behold  it  without  entering,  one  day  in  the 
year,  to  weep.  Itin.  Hieros.  p.  .liil.  .S.  Mil.  on  Ps.  58. 
g  7.  S.  Jer.  on  Zepli.  i.  l.'>,  16,  Ac.  Both  S.  Chrysostom 
and  S.  Augustine  speak  of  the  Jews,  as  excluded 
from  Jerusalem.    "Dost  thou  for  thy  sins,  O  Jew, 


the  Temple  itself  and  from  the  Holy  of  holies 
have  been  taken  for  the  idol-temples  and 
to  build  amphitheatres."  "^^  Their  once 
holy  place  ha.s  now  come  to  such  a  state,  as  in 
no  way  to  fall  short  of  the  overthrow  of 
Sodom."  S.  Hilary,  who  had  been  banished 
into  the  East,  says,  " "  The  Royal  city  of 
David,  taken  by  the  Babylonians  and  over- 
tlirown,  held  not  its  queenly  dignity  under 
the  rule  of  its  lords ;  but,  taken  afterward  and 
burnt  by  the  Romans,  it  now  is  not."  S. 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Bishop  of  the  new  town, 
and  delivering  his  catechetical  lectures  in 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  pointed 
out  to  his  hearers  the  fulfillment  of  pro- 
phecy ;  "  ^^  The  place  [Zion]  is  now  filled 
with  gardens  of  cucumbers."  "  If  they  [the 
Jews]  plead  the  captivity,"  says  S.  Atlia- 
nasius  '*,  "  and  say  that  on  that  ground  Jeru- 
salem is  not."  "  The  whole  world,  over  which 
they  are  scattered,"  says  S.  Gregory  of 
Nazianzum '',  "  is  one  monument  of  their 
calamity,  their  worship  closed,  and  the  soil 
of  Jerusalem  itself  scarcely  known." 

It  is  apparently  part  of  the  gradual  and 
increasing  fulfillment  of  God's  word,  that 
the  ploughing  of  the  city  and  of  the  site  of 
the  Temple,  and  the  continued  cultivation  of 
so  large  a  portion  of  Zion,  are  recorded  in 
the  last  visitation  wlien  its  iniquity  was  full. 
It  still  remains  phmjhed  as  a  field.  '"''At 
the  time  I  visited  this  sacred  ground,  one  part 
of  it  supported  a  crop  of  barley,  another  was 
undergoing  the  labor  of  the  plough,  and  the 
soil,  turned  up,  consisted  of  stone  and  lime 
filled  with  earth,  such  as  is  usually  met  with 
in  the  foundations  of  ruined  cities.  It  is 
nearly  a  mile  in  circumference."  "  '''On  the 
S.  E.  Zion  slopes  down,  in  a  series  of  cul- 
tivated terraces,  sharply  though  not  abruptly, 
to  the  sites  of  the  Kings'  gardens. — Here  and 
round  to  the  S.  tlie  whole  declivities  are 
sprinkled  with  olive  trees,  which  grow- 
luxuriantly  among  the  narrow  slips  of  corn." 

remain  so  long  out  of  Jerusalem?"  8.  Chrys.  adv. 
Jud.  vi.  2.  "They  were  excluded  from  the  place 
where  they  crucihed  Christ;  now  that  place  is  full 
of  Christians  who  praise  Him  ;  it  hath  no  Jew."  S. 
Aug.  in  Ps.  Ixii.  n.  18.  "  Now  thou  seekest  a  Jew  in 
the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  findest  not."  in  Ps.  cxxiv. 
n.  X 

'•>  L.  c.  "  Eus.  de  mart.  Pal.  c.  11. 

'  "  In  the  suburbs  of  what  is  now  .lElia."  Eus.  H. 
E.  ii.  12.  add.  vi.  20.  de  mart.  Pal.  c.  11.  (Deyl.) 

8  Can.  vii. 

""From  that  [Hadrian's]  time  until  now,  it  is 
called  jElia  from  the  name  of  him  who  conciuered 
and  destroyed  it."  (S.  Chrvs.  adv.  Jud.  v.  11  T.  i.  p. 
045.)  "Wliich  is  now  ^Elia."  S.  Jcr.  Ep.  129.  ad. 
Dard.g5. 

lu  Do  .Saulcy,  p.  188. 

n  In  Jos.  Hom.  xvii.  1.  0pp.  ii.  438. 

>3  Eus.  Dem.  Ev.  viii.  8.  p.  40G. 

13  lb.  V.  23.  p.  2.5(1.  H  s.  Hil.  in  Ps.  131.  J 18. 

16  Lect.  xvi.  9.  g  18.  see  Oxf.  Tr. 

i«de  Incarn.  n.  39.  T.  i.  p.  81.  Ben. 

"Orat.  r>.  gl8.  Ben. 

'8  Richard.son'3  Travels,  p.  359.  quoted  by  Keith 
on  Prophecv,  p.  2.57. 

'•Porter,  Hilbook,  p.  92, 


CHAPTER  IV. 


51 


Before' 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1  The  glory,  3  'pecux,  8  kingdom, 
11  and  victory  of  the  church. 


Not  Christians  only,  but  Jews  also  have  seen 
herein  the  fulfillment  upon  themselves  of 
Micah's  words,  spoken  now  "26  centuries 
ago." 

IV.  1.  But  \_And'\  in  tlte  last  days  it  shall  come 
to  pass,  God's  promises,  goodness,  truth,  fail 
not.  He  withdraweth  His  Presence  from 
those  who  receive  Him  not,  only  to  give 
Himself  to  those  who  will  receive  Him. 
Mercy  is  the  sequel  and  end  of  chastisement. 
Micah  then  joins  on  this  great  prophecy  of 
future  mercy  to  the  preceding  woe,  as  its  issue 
in  the  order  of  God's  Will.  And  it  shall  be. 
He  fixes  the  mind  to  some  great  thing  which 
shall  come  to  pass ;  it  shall  be.  Then  follows, 
in  marked  reference  to  the  preceding  priva- 
tions, a  superabundance  of  mercy.  For  the 
mountain  of  the  house,  whicli  should  be  as  a 
forest  and  which  was  left  unto  them  desolate, 
there  is  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  estab- 
lished; for  the  heap  of  dust  and  the  ploughed 
field,  there  is  the  flowing-in  of  the  Gentiles ; 
for  the  night  and  darkness,  that  there  shall  be  no 
vision,  there  is  the  fullness  of  revelation ;  for 
corrupt  judgment,  teaching,  divining,  a  law 
from  God  Himself  going  forth  through  the 
world ;  for  the  building  of  Jerasalem  with 
blood,  one  universal  peace. 

In  the  last  days,  lit.  the  eiul '  of  the  days,  i.  e. 
of  those  days  which  are  in  the  thoughts  of 
the  speaker.  Politically,  there  are  many 
beginnings  and  many  endings  ;  as  many  end- 
ings as  there  are  beginnings,  since  all  human 
polity  begins,  only  to  end,  and  to  be  dis- 
placed in  its  turn  by  some  new  beginning, 
which  too  runs  its  course,  only  to  end.  Re- 
ligiously, there  are  but  two  consummations. 
All  time,  since  man  fell,  is  divided  into  two 
halves,  the  looking  forward  to  Christ  to  come 
in  humility  ;  the  looking  forward  to  His 
Coming  in  glory.  These  are  the  two  events 
on  which  man's  history  turns.  To  that 
former  people  the  whole  period  of  Christ's 
kingdom  was  one  future,  the  fullness  of  all 
their  own  shadows,  types,  sacrifices,  services, 

iGesenius  adduces,  as  the  single  instance  in 
which  Jl'inX  is  to  nnean  "sequel,"  Is.  xlvi.  10, 
where  "the  end"  answers  to  "the  beginning," 
n^inS  n'tyXT.  it  is  the  end  of  the  year,  Deut. 
xi.  12 ;  the  end  of  a  person,  Pr.  v.  4,  Ps.  xxxvii.  37 ; 
of  a  nation,  Jer.  xxxi.  17 ;  of  a  thing,  i.  e.  its  issue, 
Pr.  xxiii.  32;  "the  end  of  the  sea,"  Ps.  cxxxix.9.  The 
phrase  is  rendered  rightly  by  the  Ch.  K'DV  ^ID. 
The  ctt'  i<T\a.Tov  riav  xpovwi/  of  S.  Paul,  S.  Peter  and 
S.  Jude  is  nearly  the  translation  of  D'O'D  iTinK^. 

2  Hos.  iii.  5.  Is.  ii.  2.  .Jer.  xxiii.  20.  xxx.  24.  xlviii. 
47.  xlix.  39.  Ezek.  xxxviii.  16.  Dan.  x.  14.  Daniel 
uses  it  in  Chaldee.  (ii.  28.)  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream 
which  he  is  interpreting  ended  in  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  On  the  Jewish  agreement,  see  on  Hos. 
111.  5.  p.  25.  n.  10. 

«1  Ep.  i.  20, 


BUT  ''in  the  last  days  it    ^  Before 
shall  come  to  pass,  that      cir-  7io- 
the  mountain  of  the  house 'Ezek.  17*22,23. 


prophecies,  longings,  being.  The  end  of 
their  days  was  the  beginning  of  the  new  Day 
of  Christ :  the  coming  of  His  Day  was  neces- 
sarily the  close  of  the  former  days,  the  period 
of  the  dispensation  which  prepared  for  it. 
The  Prophets  then  by  the  words,  the  end  of 
tlie  days,  always  mean  the  times  of  the  Gos- 
pel I  The  end  of  the  days  is  tlie  close  of  all 
which  went  before,  the  last  dispensation,  after 
which  there  shall  be  no  other.  Yet  this  too 
hast  last  days  of  its  own,  which  shall  close 
God's  kingdom  of  grace  and  shall  issue  in  the 
Second  Coming  of  Christ ;  as  the  end  of  those 
former  days,  which  closed  the  times  of  "  the 
law,"  issued  in  His  First  Coming.  We  are 
then  at  once  living  in  the  last  times,  and  look- 
ing on  to  a  last  time  still  to  come.  In  the  one 
way  St.  Peter  speaks  *  of  the  last  times,  or  the 
end  of  the  times*,  in  which  Christ  tvas  mani- 
fested for  us,  in  contrast  tvith  the  foundations  of 
the  world,  before  which  He  was  foreordained.  And 
St.  Paul  contrasts  God's  *  speaking  to  the  fathers 
in  the  Prophets,  and  at  the  end  of  these  days^ 
speaking  to  us  in  the  Son;  and  of  our  Lord 
coming  '  cd  the  end,  consumvuition,  of  the  times  *, 
to  put  away  sins  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself ;  and 
says  that  the  tilings  which  befell  the  Jews 
^  were  written  for  our  admonition,  unto  whom 
the  ends  of  the  times^'^  [i.e.  of  those  of  the 
former  people  of  whom  he  had  been  speak- 
ing] are  come ;  and  St.  John  speaks  of  this  a.s 
^'  the  Iwit  time.  In  the  other  way,  they  con- 
trast the  last  days,  not  with  the  times  before 
them  but  with  their  own,  and  then  plainly  they 
are  a  last  and  distant  part  of  this  their  own 
last  time.  '-  The  Spirit  speaketh  expressly,  that  in 
the  latter  times  some  shall  depart  from  the  faith  : 
^^ In  the  last  days  perilous  times  shall  come: 
^*  There  shall  come  at  the  end  of  the  days  scoffers  : 
^^  They  told  you  thcU  there  should  be  mockers  in 
the  last  time.  The  Jews  distributed  all  time 
between  "this  world"  and  "the  coming 
world 'V'  including  under  "the  coming 
world"  the  time  of  grace  under  the  Mes- 
siah's reign,  and  the  future  glory.    To  us  the 

■*  According  to  the  reading  en-'  icxirov  riav  xpovoiv, 
preferred  by  Alter  and  Tischendorf. 
5Heb.  i.  1. 

6  en'  6<TxaTou  twi'  rifiepiov  tou'toji',  preferred  by 
Griesbach,  Matthiee,  Scholz,  Tisch. 

7  Heb.  ix.  26. 

8e7ri  o-ufTeAei'a  riov  alutvoiv,  comp.  S.  Matt.  xiii.  40. 
xxiv.  3.  *  1  fcor.  X.  11.  '"  rd  Te'Ar)  Twi'  aimvuiv, 

"  1  Ep.  ii.  18. 

12  1  Tim.  iv.  1.  ev  iiffTe'poi!   xpo"*"^* 

13  2  Tim.  iii.  1.  cc  eo-xarai?  r/iaepai?. 

1*  2  Pet.  ill.  3.  £jr'  eo-xoToi;  Twr  rj/xepur,  preferred  by 
Griesb.,  Alter,  Matthoei,  Scholz. 

15  Jude  18.  CI/  (crxdrtxi  xpovif  or  en'  ecrxdrov  ToO  xpovov, 
preferred  by  Scholz,"Tisch. 

"ntn  dSi;,'  and  X3n  dSi;'.  see  SchCttg.  do 
Messiai.  2.  4.  p.  23-27. 


52 


MICAH. 


^««°t''I'p    of  the  Lord  shall  be  es- 

cir.  710.      tablished  in  the  top  of  the 

mountains,  and  it  shall  be 


names  have  shifted,  since  this  present  world  ^ 
is  to  us  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  there  re- 
mains nothing  further  on  this  earth  to  look 
to,  beyond  what  God  has  already  given  us. 
Our  future  then,  placed  as  we  are  between 
the  two  Comings  of  our  Loi-d,  is,  of  necessity, 
beyond  tliis  world  ^. 

The  mountain  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  sJutll  be 
{^abidingly']  established.  He  does  not  say 
merely,  it  shall  be  established.  Kingdoms  may 
be  established  at  one  time,  and  then  come  to 
an  end.  He  says,  it  shall  be  a  thing  estab- 
lished ^.  His  saying  is  expanded  by  Daniel ; 
*  III  the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God  of 
heaven  set  up  a  kingdom  which  shall  not  be  de- 
stroyed for  ever,  and  it  shall  abide  for  ever.  The 
house  of  the  Lord  was  the  centre  of  His  wor- 
>\np,  the  token  of  His  Presence,  the  pledge 
of  fib  revelations  and  of  His  abiding  ac- 
ceptance, protection,  favor.  All  these  were 
to  be  increased  and  continuous.  The  image 
is  one  familiar  to  us  in  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures. People  were  said  to  go  up^  to  it,  as 
to  a  place  of  dignity.  In  the  Psalm  on  the 
carrying  of  the  Ark  thither,  the  hill  of  Gi/dia 
compared  to  the  many-topped  mountains  of 
Ra.san  •*,  (the  Hermon-pcaks  which  bound 
Hasan,)  and  so  declared  to  be  greater  than 
they,  as  being  the  object  of  God's  choice. 
The  mountain  where  God  was  worsliiped 
rose  above  the  mountains  of  idolatry.  Eze- 
kiel,  varying  the  image,  speaks  of  the  Gos- 
I)el  as  an  overshadowing  cedar ',  planted  by 
God  upon  an  high  moutitain  and  an  eminent,  in 
the  mountain  of  the  height  of  Israel,  under 
which  should  dwell  all  fowl  of  every  tving ; 
and,  in  his  vision  of  the  Temple,  he  sees  this, 
the  image  of  the  Christian  Church,  "  upon  a 
very  high  mountain.  Our  Lord  speaks  of  His 
Apostles  and  the  Church  in  them,  as  "«  city 
set  upon  a  hill  which  cannot  be  hid.  The  seat 
of  God's  woreliip  was  to  be  seen  far  and  wide  ; 
notliing  was  to  obscure  it.  It,  now  lower 
than  the  surrounding  hills,  was  then  to  be  as 
on  the  summit  of  tiiem.  Human  elevation, 
the  more  exalted  it  is,  tlie  more  unstable  is 
it.  Divine  greatness  alone  is  at  once  solid 
and  exalted.  The  new  kingdom  of  God  was 
at  once  to  be  exalted  above  the  hills,  and  estab- 
lished on  the  lop  of  the  vwuntain.'s ;  exalted,  at 
once,  above  everything  Iniman,  and  yet 
established,  strong  as  the  mountains  on  which 

>  S.  Matt.  xiii.  40.  Eph.  i.  21.  Tit.  ii.  12. 

2.S.  Mark  x.  30.  S.  Luke  xviii.  .30.  xx.  :W.  Euli.  1. 
I-.  Heb.  vi.  6.  Attention  to  this  language  of  Holy 
.Scripture  and  the  distant  future  which  it  looks  ou 
to,  Hiiould  have  saved  misbelievtTH  from  iniagininK 
that  Apostles  erroueoilsjly  expected  a  near  end  ot 
the  world. 

"jOJ  rrrr,  as  in  l  Kgs  ll.  4.-.,  ..f  the  tlir..ne  ..f 


exalted  above  the 
and  people  shall 
unto  it. 


\\\\\a  •         Before 
mils ,     CHRIST 

flow         cir-  '1»- 


it  rested,  and  unassailable,  unconquerable, 
seated  secure  aloft,  between  heaven,  whence 
it  came  and  to  which  it  tends,  and  earth,  on 
which  it  just  rests  in  the  sublime  serenity  of 
its  majesty. 

The  image  sets  forth  the  supereminence  of 
the  Lord's  House  above  all  things  earthly. 
It  does  not  define  wherein  that  greatness 
consists.  The  flt)wing  in  of  the  nations  is  a 
fruit  of  it '".  The  immediate  object  of  their 
coming  is  explained  to  be,  to  learn  to  know 
and  to  do  the  will  of  God^'.  But  the  new 
revelation  does  not  form  all  its  greatness. 
That  greatness  is  from  the  Presence  of  God, 
revealing  and  evermore  teaching  His  Will, 
ruling,  judging,  rebuking,  peacemaking^^. 
"  '^  The  mountain  of  the  Lord's  House  was  then 
exalted  above  the  hills  by  the  bodily  Presence 
of  Christ,  when  He,  in  the  Temple  built  on 
that  mountain,  spake,  preached,  worked  so 
many  miracles;  as,  on  the  same  ground, 
Haggai  saith  '*,  the  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall 
be  greater  than  the  glory  of  the  former." 
"  '*  This  mountain,  the  Church  of  Christ, 
transcends  all  laws,  schools,  doctrines,  re- 
ligions, Synagogues  of  Jews  and  Philoso- 
phers, which  seemed  to  rise  aloft  among  men, 
like  mountain-tops,  yea,  whatever  under  the 
sun  is  sublime  and  lofty,  it  will  overpass, 
trample  on,  subdue  to  itself." 

Even  Jews  ha\  e  seen  the  meaning  of  this 
figure.  Their  oldest  mystical  book  explains 
it '".  "And  it  shall  be  in  the  last  days,  when 
namely  the  Lord  shall  visit  the  daughter  of 
Jacob,  then  shall  the  mountain  of  the  house  of 
tlm  Lord  be  finnly  established,  i.  e.  the  Jerusa- 
lem which  is  above,  which  shall  stand  firmly 
in  its  place,  that  it  may  shine  by  the  light 
which  is  above.  (For  no  light  can  retain  its 
existence,  except  through  tlie  light  from 
above.)  For  in  that  time  shall  the  light 
from  above  shine  sevenfold  more  than  be- 
fore; according  to  that'^.  Moreover  the  light  of 
the  moon  sludl  be  as  the  light  of  the  sun  ;  and  tlie 
light  of  the  sun  shall  be  sevenfold,  as  the  light  of 
seven  days,  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  bimleth  up 
the  breach  of  His  people  and  healeth  the  stroke  cf 
their  wound."  Another,  of  the  dry  literal 
school,  says'",  ''It  is  well  known  that  the 
house  of  the  Temple  is  not  liiah.  The  moan- 
ing then  is,  that  its  fame  shall  go  forth  far, 
and  tliere  shall  return  to  it  from  all  quarters 

David.    "  It  is  an  expression  donotinsr  continuance 
and  perpetuity,  that  it  shall  continually  remain  on 
its  settlement."    Poc.  from  .Xliai-b. 
*  ii.  44.  ''See  on  IIos.  i.  11.  vol.  i.  p.  2t). 

•Ps.  Ixviii.  10,  17.  'xvil.  22,  23.  8x1.2. 

»H.  Matt.  V.  14.       i"iv.  1,2,     "  iv.  2.      i»iv.  3,  4. 
IS  r>ion.  i<  ii.  y.  >'  Lap.         ><>  Zohar.  f.  <i:i. 

"  Is.  XXX.  2ti.  i«.\beu  Ezra. 


CHAPTER  IV 


53 


CHR°/sT        '^  ■^"'^    many   nations 
c'r-  710-      shall  come,  and  say,  Come, 


persons  with  offerings,  so  that  it  shall  be,  as 
if  it  were  on  the  top  of  all  hills,  so  that  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  should  see  it." 

Some  'interpret  the  mountain  to  be  Christ, 
Who  is  called  the  Bock^,  on  the  confession 
of  Whom,  God-Man,  the  house  of  the  Lord,  i.  e. 
the  Church  is  built'',  the  precious  Corner- 
stone*, which  is  laid,  beside  Avhich  no  founda- 
tion can  be  laid^;  the  great  mountain,  of 
which  Daniel*  prophesied.  It  is  firmly 
established,  so  that  the  gates  of  Hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  the  Church,  being  built  thereon  ; 
exalted,  above  hills  and  ynountains,  i.  e.  above  all 
beside,  greater  or  smaller,  which  has  any 
eminence  ;  for  He  in  truth  is  '  highly  exalted 
and  hath  a  Name  above  every  name,  being  ^at 
the  Right  Hand  of  God  in  the  heavenly  places, 
far  above  all  principality  and  pcnuer  and  might 
and  dominion,  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not 
only  in  this  world  but  also  in  that  ivhieh  is  to 
come  ;  and  all  things  are  under  His  Feet.  And 
this  for  us,  in  that  He,  the  Same,  is  the  Head 
over  all  things  to  the  Church  ivhich  is  His  Body, 
the  fullness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all.  "  "  He 
is  God  and  Man,  King  and  Priest,  King  of 
kings,  and  a  Priest  abiding  for  ever.  Since 
then  His  Majesty  reacheth  to  the  Eight 
Hand  of  God,  neither  mountains  nor  hills. 
Angels  nor  holy  men,  reach  thereto ;  for  '"  to 
which  of  the  Angels  said  God  at  any  time,  Sit 
thou  on  My  Bight  Hand  ?  " 

"  "  Aloft  then  is  the  Church  of  God  raised, 
both  in  that  its  Head  is  in  heaven  and  the 
Lord  of  all,  and  that,  on  earth,  it  is  not  like 
the  Temple,  in  one  small  people,  but  '^  set  on 
a  hill  that  it  cannot  be  hid,  or  remain  unseen 
even  to  those  far  from  it.  Its  doctrine  too 
and  life  are  far  above  the  wisdom  of  this 
world,  shewing  in  them  nothing  of  earth,  but 
are  above ;  its  wisdom  is  the  knowledge  and 
love  of  God  and  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and 
its  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  in  those  who 
are  justified  in  Him  and  hallowed  by  His 
Spirit."  In  Him,  it  is  lifted  above  all 
things,  and  with  the  eyes  of  the  mind  be- 
holdeth  (as  far  as  may  be)  the  glory  of  God, 
soaring  on  high  toward  Him  Who  is  the 
Author  of  all  being,  and,  filled  with  Divine 
light,  it  owneth  Him  the  Maker  of  all. 

And  people,  [peoples,  nations,]  shall  flow  unto 
[lit.  upon]  it.      A  mighty  tide  should  set  in 

1  Tert.  c.  Jud.  i.  3.  Orig.  e.  Cels.  ii.  33.  S.  Cypr. 
Test.  ii.  18.  Euseb.  Eel.  Proph.  iv.  1.  p.  171.  ed.  Ox. 
S.  Jerome  here,  S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  D.  xviii.  30.  Ps. 
Basil  on  Is. 

-  1  Cor.  X.  4-6. 

3  8.  Matt.  xvi.  18.  see  Note  Q.  on  Tertull.  p.  402 
sqq.  Oxf.  Tr. 

*  Is.  xxviii.  16.  1  Pet.  ii.  6.  Eph.  ii.  20. 

6 1  Cor.  iii.  11. 

»  Dan.  ii.  3.5. 

I  Phil.  ii.  9.  «  Eph.  i.  20-23. 


and   let   us  go  up  to  the    chrTIt 
mountain  of  the  Lord,      ^'r.  tip. 


to  the  Gospel.  The  word  "  is  appropriated 
to  the  streaming  in  of  multitudes,  such  as  of 
old  poured  into  Babylon,  the  merchant- 
empress  of  the  world  ".  It  is  used  of  the 
distant  nations  who  should  throng  in  one 
continuous  stream  into  the  Gospel,  or  of 
Israel  streaming  together  from  the  four 
corners  of  the  world  'X  So  Isaiah  foretells  '*, 
Thy  gates  shall  be  open  continually;  they  shall 
not  be  shtd  day  nor  night ;  that  they  may  bring 
unto  thee  the  forces  of  the  Gentiles,  and  that  their 
Lings  may  be  brought.  These  were  to  flmv 
upon  it,  perhaps  so  as  to  cover  it,  expressing 
both  the  multitude  and  density  of  the  thi-ong 
of  nations,  how  full  the  Church  should  be,  as 
the  swollen  river  spreads  itself  over  the  whole 
champaign  country,  and  the  surging  flood- 
tide  climbs  up  the  face  of  the  rock  which 
bounds  it.  The  flood  once  covered  the 
highest  mountains  to  destroy  life  ;  this  flood 
should  pour  in  for  the  saving  of  life.  ""  It 
is  a  miracle,  if  waters  ascend  from  a  valley 
and  flow  to  a  mountain.  So  is  it  a  miracle 
that  earthly  nations  should  ascend  to  the 
Church,  whose  doctrine  and  life  are  lofty, 
arduous,  sublime.  This  the  grace  of  Christ 
effecteth,  mighty  and  lofty,  as  being  sent 
from  heaven.  As  then  waters,  conducted 
from  the  fountains  by  pipes  into  a  valley,  in 
that  valley  bound  up  and  rise  nearly  to  their 
original  height,  so  these  Avaters  of  heavenly 
gi'ace,  brought  down  into  valleys,  i.  e.  the 
hearts  of  men,  make  them  to  bound  up  with 
them  into  heaven  and  enter  upon  and  em- 
brace a  heavenly  life." 

2.  And  many  nations  shall  come.  Isaiah 
'^  added  the  world  all  to  Micah's  prophecy. 
So  our  Lord  said, '"  This  Gospel  of  the  kingdom 
shall  be  preached  in  all  the  \vorldfor  a  uitness 
unto  all  nations  ;  and  the  elect  are  to  be  gath- 
ered out  of  all  nations  a^id  kindreds  and  people 
and  tongues '^°.  All  nations  shall  flow  into  it. 
The  all  might  be  many  or  few.  Both 
prophets  say  that  those  all  should  be  many. 
Judah  probably  knew  already  of  many.  The 
history  of  Genesis  gave  them  a  wide-expand- 
ing knowledge  of  the  enlargement  of  man- 
kind alter  the  flood,  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
as  they  then  existed  in  their  nations.  The 
sons  of  Japhet  had  already  spread  over  the 
whole  coast  of  our   Western    sea,   and  far 

9  from  Rup.  i"  Heb.  i.  13. 

11  from  S.  Cvr. 

12  S.  Matt,  v"  14. 

i^nnj  (from  TIJ  river,  stream)  is  used  only 
figuratively. 

HJer.  Ii.  44. 

16  lb.  xxxi.  12.  It  is  used  in  these  places  only, 
and  Is.  ii.  2. 

16  Is.  Ix.  11.  add  Rev.  xxi.  25,  26. 

"  Lap.  18  Is.  ii.  2. 

19  S.  Martt.  xxiv.  14.  «"  Rev.  vii.  9. 


54 


MICAH. 


chrTIt    ^^*-^  ^°   ^^^®   house  of  the  j!  will  teach  us  of  his  ways,    chr^sx 
cir.  710.      God  of  Jacob;  and  he     and  we  will  walk  in   his.     c'r.  710. 


North;  the  Cimmerians',  or  Cwmry,  Scan- 
dinavians^, Carpathians^,  (probably  Celts,) 
Armenians*,  (including  the  kindred  Phry- 
gians,) Scythians*,  Medes,  lonians^,  jEolians', 
Iberians  ",  Cypriotes  ^,  Dardani '",  Tybarenes", 
Moschi  '■-,  and  the  Turseni  '■',  or  perhaj^  the 
Thracians.  On  tlie  East,  the  sons  of  Shem 
had  spread  in  Elam,  Asshur,  Arrapachitis  '* ; 
they  occupied  the  intervening  tract  of  Aram  ; 
in  the  N.  VV.  they  reached  to  Lydia.  South- 
ward the  sons  of  Joktan  were  in  Arabia. 
Micah's  hearers  knew  how,  of  the  sons  of 
Ham,  Cush  had  spread  far  to  the  S.  E.  and  S. 
from  Babylonia  to  ^Ethiopia ;  Egypt  they 
remembered  too  well,  and,  beyond  it,  they 
knew  of  the  far-scattered  triljes  of  the 
Libyans,  who  extended  along  the  coast  of 
Africa.  Pha^nician  trade  lilled  up  this  great 
outline.  They  tliemselves  had,  in  Solomon's 
time,  traded  with  India  ^*;  about  this  time, 
we  know  tiiat  they  were  acquainted  with  the 
furthest  East,  Cliina  '^.  Such  was  the  sight 
before  the  human  mind  of  the  Prophet ;  such 
the  extent  of  the  nations  whom  his  people 
knew  of.  Some  were  the  deadly  enemies  of 
his  people  ;  some  were  to  be  its  ccmquerors. 
He  knew  that  tiie  the  ten  tribes  were  to  be 
abidingly  waiiderern  ainonrj  the  natimis^'',  de- 
spised by  them  "* ;  "  a  people,  the  strangers  and 
sojourners  of  the  whole  world  '"."  lie  knew 
many  of  those  nations  to  be  sunk  in  idolatsy, 
viciousness;  proud,  contemptuous,  lawless; 
lie  saw  them  fixed  in  their  idolatries.  AU 
people  will  walk  every  one  in  the  name  of  his  god. 
But  he  saw  what  eye  of  man  could  not  see, 
what  the  will  of  man  could  not  accomplish, 
that  He,  whom  now  Judah  alone  partially 
worshiped,  would  turn  the  hearts  of  His 
creatures  to  Himself,  to  seek  Him,  not  in 
their  own  ways,  but  as  He  should  reveal 
Himself  at  Jerusalem.  Micah  tells  them 
•listinctly,  that  those  who  should  believe 
would  be  a  great  multitude  from  many 
vation.s.  In  like  way  Isaiah  expresses  the 
great  multitude  of  those  for  whom  Christ 
fihould  atone.   '^^  He  hare  the  sin  of  many.   ^'  By 

1  fJomcr. 

*Ashkenaz,  Scanrlinavia,  Scanzia  in  Jornandes. 
Knobel,  Volkertafel  d.  Genesis,  p.  35. 

•I  Riphath,  from  wliom  also  the  Montos  Riphsei  are 
named. 

*Togarmah.  « Magop.  s.Javan. 

'  Elishah,  AloKtlt  or  A.i\tU,  Knobel:  Elis,  Boch. 
iii.  4. 

»Turshish.  "  Taraei.o,  whence  the  Iberians."  Eus. 
(TiU'h  ad  loc.) 

»Chittim.     wDodanim.    "Tubal.    "Meshoeh. 

"Tiras,  Tyrseni,  (Tuch.)  Thracians,  Boch.  iii.  2. 
Knob. 

'<  Arphaxad,  Con.  x.  22. 

'*  As  appears  from  the  Tamul  name  for  the  pea- 
cock '3n  Tam.  tigai  1  Kgs  x.  22;  the  Sanskrit  or 
Malabar  name  for  the  ape,  nip  kapi;  (lb.  see  Oes.) 


knowledge  of  Him  shall  My  righteous  Servant 
make  many  righteous.  And  our  Lord  Himself 
says  ;  '^''  The  Son  of  man  came  to  give  His  life  a 
ransom  for  many.  '^^  This  is  my  Blood — which 
is  shed  for  many  for  the  remis.'iion  of  sins.  In 
Micah's  time  not  one  people,  scarcely  some 
poor  fragments  of  the  Jewish  people,  went 
up  to  worship  God  at  Zion,  to  call  to  remem- 
brance His  benefits,  to  learn  of  Him.  Those 
who  should  thereafter  worship  Him,  should 
be  tnany  nations. 

And  say,  exhorting  one  another,  in  fer- 
vor and  nnitual  love,  as  Andrew  exhorted 
his  brother  Simon,  and  Philip  Nathanael, 
and  the  woman  of  Samaria  those  of  her  city, 
to  come  to  Christ :  and  so  all  since,  who  have 
been  won  by  Him,  by  word  or  example,  by 
preaching  or  by  deed,  in  public  or  in  private, 
bear  along  with  them  others  to  seek  Him 
Whom  they  themselves  have  found. 

Let  us  go  up,  leaving  the  lowness  and  earth- 
liness  of  their  former  conversation,  and 
mounting  upward  on  high  where  Christ  is, 
desiring  righteousness,  and  athirst  to  know 
His  ways. 

To  the  house  qf  the  God  of  Jacob.  They 
shall  seek  Him  as  Jacob  sought  Him,  "^*who 
left  his  father's  house  and  removed  into 
another  land,  was  a  man  of  heavy  toils  and 
served  for  hire,  but  oljtained  special  help 
from  God,  and,  undistinguished  as  he  was, 
became  most  glorious.  So  too  the  Church, 
leaving  all  Heathen  wisdom,  and  having  its 
conversation  in  Heaven,  and  therefore  per- 
secuted and  enduring  many  hardships,  enjoys 
now  glory  with  God." 

Ami  He,  i.  e.  the  God  of  Jacob  of  Whom  he 
had  just  spoken,  shall  teach  ns  of  His  ivays. 
They  do  not  go  to  God,  because  they  know 
Him,  but  that  they  may  know  Him.  They 
are  drawn  by  a  mighty  ini])ul.se  toward  Him. 
Howsoever  attracted,  they  come,  not  making 
bargains  with  God,  (as  some  now  would,) 
what  they  should  be  taught,  that  He  should 
reveal  to  them  nothing  transcending  reason, 
nothing  exceeding  or    contradicting    their 

which  came  witli  the  creatures  themselves;  a 
Sanslcrit  name  for  elephant,  ihlia,  D'SrUt!?  ivory, 

lit.  "elephant's  tooth;"  (lb.)  and  n  Malabar  name 
for  a  wood,  nl  f/iim,  vnl  rju  {ka.)  See  Max  IMiiller, 
.Snience  of  languaRC,  p.'  20.5.  ed.  ."?.  Ophir  itself, 
(which  is  mentioned  in  connection  with  the.se 
things.)  Max  Miillor  identifies,  beyond  question, 
with  the  Abiria  of  Ptolemy  al>ove  Pattalene;  the 
people,  "called  by  Ilinilu  Geographers  Abh'ira  and 
''  the  Attirs  "  in  "  ^lacmurdo's  account  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Cutch."    lb. 

1'  Is.  xlix.  12.  see  Gcsenius  Thes.  p.  9-18-50. 

"  See  on  Hos.  ix.  t7.  vol.  i.  p.  07. 

IS  See  on  Hos.  viii.  8.  vol.  i.  p.  83. 

i»S.  Greg.  Naz.  Or.  22.  n.  2.  » Is.  liii.  12. 

nib.  11.  as.  Matt.  XX.  28. 

M  lb.  XX vi.  28.  add  Rom.  v.  15.  "  Theoph. 


CHAPTER  lY 


55 


/.  ^^J°i%  T    paths :  for  the  law  shall  go 
c-ii'-  TIP.      forth  of  Zion,  and  the  word 


notions  of  God ;  they  do  not  come  with  re- 
serves, that  God  should  not  take  away  Mi's  or 
that  error,  or  should  not  disclose  anything  of, 
His  incompreliensibleness.  They  come  in 
holy  simplicity,  to  learn  whatever  He  will 
condescend  to  tell  them  ;  in  holy  confidence, 
that  He,  the  Iniallible  Truth,  will  teach  them 
infallibly.  They  say,  of  His  tvays.  For  all 
learning  is  by  degrees,  and  all  which  all  crea- 
tures could  learn  in  all  eternity  falls  infi- 
nitely short  of  His  truth  and  Holiness.^  Nay, 
in  all  eternity  the  highest  creature  which  He 
has  made  and  which  He  has  admitted  most 
deeply  into  the  secrets  of  His  Wisdom  will 
be  as  infinitely  removed  as  ever  from  the  full 
knowledge  of  His  Wisdom  and  His  Love. 
For  what  is  finite,  enlarged,  expanded,  accu- 
mulated to  the  utmost  degree  possible,  re- 
mains finite  still.  It  has  no  proportion  to 
the  Infinite.  But  even  here,  ;ill  growth  in 
grace  implies  growth  in  knowledge.  The 
more  we  love  God,  the  more  Ave  know  of 
Him;  and  with  increased  knowledge  of 
Him  come  higher  perceptions  of  Avorship, 
praise,  thanksgiving,  of  tlie  character  of  faith, 
Jiope,  charity,  of  our  outward  and  iuAvard  acts 
and  relations  to  God,  the  unboundedness  of 
(iod's  loA'e  to  us  and  the  manifoldness  of  the 
ways  of  pleasing  Him,  Avhich,  in  His  love, 
He  has  given  us.  Since  then  the  Avhole 
Christian  life  is  a  groAvth  in  grace,  and  even 
St.  Paul,  ^forgetting  those  things  which  are 
behind  and  reaching  forth  to  those  which  are 
before,  pressed  toward  the  mark  for  the  high  call- 
ing of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  then  St.  Paul  too 
was  ever  learning,  in  intensity,  Avhat  he 
knew  certainly  by  revelation,  of  His  ways. 
Again,  as  each  blade  of  grass  is  said  to  difler 
from  another,  so,  and  much  more,  each  soul 
of  man  Avhich  God  has  created  for  Himself. 
No  one  ever  saw  or  could  imagine  tAvo 
human  beings,  in  Avhom  the  grace  of  God 
had  unfolded  itself  in  exactly  the  same  Avay. 
Each  saint  Avill  have  liis  distinct  beauty 
around  the  Thione.  But  then  each  Avill 
have  learnt  of  His  ways,  in  a  different  pro- 
portion or  degree.  His  greatest  saints,  yea 
His  Apostles,  have  been  pre-eminent,  the  one 
in  one  grace,  another  in  another.  St.  John 
Baptist  came  as  a  pattern  of  repentance,  and 
contempt  of  self;  St  John  the  Evangelist, 
stands  out  pre-eminent  in  deep  tender  burn- 

iPhil.  iii.  13, 14. 

-B.  Luke  i.  48.  TarreiVutns  in  Prov.  xvi.  19.  LXX. 
is,  "lowliness."  The  whole  phrase  evipXe^iev  inl 
T11V  Taireiviauiv  T^s  SouAr;?  avToO,  corresponds  more  to 
the  use  in  1  Kgs  (Sam.)  i.  11.  2  Kgs  xvi.  12.  2  Kgs 
xiv.  26.  Neh.  ix.  9.  Ps.  ix.  13.  LXX.  where  the  promi- 
nent sense  is  low  estate.    Perhaps,  as  in  'J^%  the 

two  meanings  are  blended. 
*V3"na  1J")V.        *lCor.  xii.ll.      STheoph. 


of  the  Lord  fz'om  Jerusa- 
lem. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


ing  personal  love ;  St.  Paul  in  zeal  to  spread 
the  knoAvledge  of  Christ  Crucified  ;  St.  Mary 
Magdelene  in  loving  penitence.  Even  the 
Blessed  Virgin  herself,  under  inspiration, 
seems,  in  part,  to  speak  of  her  Imdy  lou-ness^, 
as  that  which  God  specially  regarded  in  her, 
Avhen  He  made  her  the  Mother  of  God. 
Eternity  only  will  set  forth  the  fulln&ss  of  the 
two  Avords  ■*,  He  will  teach  vs  of  His  ways.  For 
eternity  Avill  shcAv,  hoAv  in  all  *  worketh  that 
one  and  the  self-same  Spirit,  dividing  to  every 
nuin  severally  as  He  will ;  and  hoAV  the  count- 
less multitude  of  the  redeemed  have  corres- 
ponded to  His  gifts  and  draAvings.  "^The 
Avay  of  the  life  to  God-Avard  is  one,  in  that 
it  looketh  to  one  end,  to  please  God  ;  but 
there  are  many  tracks  along  it,  as  there  are 
many  modes  of  life ; "  and  each  several  grace 
is  a  part  of  the  Avay  to  God. 

And  we  will  ivalk  in  Hk  paths,  "*  by  believ- 
ing, hoping,  loving,  well-doing,  and  bearing 
patiently  all  trouble."  "'For  it  sufticeth 
not  to  believe,  unless  we  act  as  He  com- 
mandeth,  and  strive  to  enter  on  His  Avays, 
the  strait  and  narrow  path  which  leadeth  unto 
life.  He  Himself  then,  Avhen  He  liad  said, 
*  Go,  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
Name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  added,  teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you."  They 
say  too,  we  vdll  walk;  i.e.  go  on  from  strength  to 
strength,  not  stand  still  after  having  labored 
for  a  Avhile  to  do  His  Will,  but  hold  on  to  all 
His  ways  and  to  Himself  "\^'ho  is  the  Way, 
until  they  appear  before  the  Lord  in  Zion. 

For  the.  law,  [lit.  law^,']  shall  go  forth  from 
Zion.  These  are  the  Prophet's  Avords,  declar- 
ing Avhy  the  nations  should  so  flock  to  Zion. 
For  he  says,  skdl  go  forth,  but  the  nations 
Avere  not  gathered  to  Zion,  until  the  Gospel 
Avas  already  gone  forth.  He  speaks  of  it  as 
laiv  simply,  not  the  JeAvish  law  as  such,  but  a 
rule  of  life  ^"  from  God.  Man's  better  nature 
is  ill  at  ease,  being  out  of  harmony  Avith  God. 
It  cannot  be  otherAvise.  Having  been  made 
in  His  likeness,  it  must  be  distressed  by  its 
unlikeness ;  having  been  made  by  Him  for 
Himself,  it  must  be  restless  Avithout  Him. 
What  thev  indistinctly  longed  for,  Avhat 
drcAV  them",  Avas  the  hope  to  be  conformed  by 
Him  to  Him.  The  sight  of  superhuman 
holiness,  life,  love,  endurance,  ever  Avon  and 

6  Dion.  ">  Rup.  «  S.  Matt,  xxviii.  end. 

9  mm,  not  nninn. 

^Tmr\  if'  alwavs  law,  not,  as  some  have  said, 
"religion,"  or  "cloctrine"  genorallj'.  It  is  used 
without  the  article,  in  this  sense,  as  rule  of  Ii|e, 
(Prov.  vi.  23.  xxviii.  4,  7,  9.  xxix.  18.)  such  as  the 
Heathen  had  not,  (Lam.  ii.  9.)  but  which  shoiild  be 
revealed  to  them,  (here,  Is.  ii.  3.  li.  4.)  The  n~lJl 
corresponds  with  the  IJ^V. 


56 


MICAH. 


c  H  rTs  t        -^  ^  ^"^  ^^®  ^^^^^^  J^^^Se 
cir.  710.      among  many  people,  and 


wins  those  without  to  the  Gospel  or  the  Church. 
Our  Lord  Himself  gives  it,  as  the  substance 
of  Prophecy  *,  that  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins  should  be  preached  m  His  Name  among  all 
nations  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  The  image 
may  be  that  of  a  stream,  issuing  forth  from 
Jerusalem'^  and  watering  the  whole  world. 
"  ^  The  law  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Avord  of 
the  Apostles,  beginning  from  Jerusalem,  as 
from  a  fountain,  ran  through  thcAvhole  world, 
watering  tiiose  who  apjiroached  with  faith." 
But  in  that  it  went  forth,  it  may  be  meant, 
that  it  left  those  from  among  whom  it  urnt 
forth,  and  "  *  Zion  was  indeed  desolate  of  the 
law  and  Jerusalem  bared  of  the  Divine 
word."  "^The  Avord  of  God  passcrf  from 
Jerusalem  to  the  Gentiles."  "  ®  For  the 
shadow  was  done  away,  and  the  types  ceased, 
and  sacrifices  were  abolished,  and  everything 
of  Moses  Avas,  in  the  letter,  brought  to  a 
close." 

He  does  not  say  here,  through  whom  God 
would  so  teach,  but  he  does  speak  of  a  direct 
teaching  of  God.  He  does  not  say  only, 
"(xod  will  give  us  a  law,"  or  "Avill  make  a 
revelation  of  Himself."  He  speaks  of  a 
Personal,  direct,  continuous  act  of  teaching 
by  God,  carried  on  upon  earth,  whether  the 
teacher  be  our  Lord's  word  spoken  once  on 
earth,  which  does  not  pcv^s  away ',  or  God  the 
Holy  Ghost,  as  teaching  in  the  Church  and 
in  the  hearts  which  receive  Him.  The  Avords 
Avhich  follow  speak  of  a  personal  reign,  as 
these  speak  of  personal  teaching. 

3.  And  He  shall  judge  among  many  people 
and  rebuke  strong  nations  afar  off.  Hitherto, 
they  had  walked  each  in  their  oivn  ways'^; 
now,  they  sought  to  be  taught  in  the  ways  of 
God.  Before,  they  had  been  lords  of  the 
world  ;  now  they  should  own  a  Judge  higher 
than  themselves.  They  Avere  no  common, 
but  mighty^  nations,  such  as  had  heretofore 
been  the  oppressors  of  Israel.  They  Avere  to 
be  many,  and  those  mighty,  nations.  He 
should  " '°  not  only  command,  but  rebuke,  not 
Aveak  or  petty  nations  only,  but  mighty,  and 
those  not  only  near  but  afar."  Mohammed 
had  moral  strength  through  Avhat  he  stole 
from  the  law  and  the  Gospel,  and  by  his 
owning  Christ  as  the  Word  of  God.  He  was 
a  heretic,  rather  than  a  heathen.  Fearful 
scourge  as  he  Avas,  and  as  his  successors  have 
been,  all  is  now  decayed,  and  no  mighty  nation 
is  left  upon  earth,  which  does  not  profess  the 
Name  of  Christ. 

'S.  Luke  xxiv.  47. 

«8ee  OD  Joel  iii.  18.  vol.  i.p.  212.  *  Thood. 

*S.  Cyr.  6  8.  Jer.  «Rup. 

T  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  35.  »  Is.  liii.  6. 

•  cay,  which  originally  signified  bound  together, 
(coll.  Arab.)  thence  used  of  the  closing  of  the  eyes, 


rebuke     strong 

afar  off;    and   they  shall 


nations    elf /It 


cir.  710. 


He  shall  rebuke  them ;  for  it  Avas  an  office 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  "  to  reprove  the  world  as  to 
its  sin,  the  7-ighteousness  of  Christ,  the  judgment 
o{  the  prince  of  this  v.'orld.  The  Gospel  con- 
quered the  AA'orld,  not  by  compromises  or 
concordants,  but  by  convicting  it.  It  alone 
could  rebuke  Avith  power ;  for  it  Avas,  like 
its  Author,  all-holy.  It  could  rebuke  Avith 
efficacy ;  for  it  Avas  the  Avord  of  Him  Who 
'\  knew  what  is  in  7nan.  It  could  rebuke  Avith 
i  aAve ;  for  it  knew  the  secrets  of  eternal  Judg- 
h  ment.  It  could  rebuke  Avinningly;  for  it 
[|  knew  ^'  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  know- 
ledge. Its  martyrs  suffered  and  rebuked  their 
judges ;  and  the  AA'orld  Avas  amazed  at  the 
imijotence  of  poAver  and  the  might  of  suffer- 
ing. It  rebuked  the  enthroned  idolatry  of 
centuries ;  it  set  in  rebellion  by  its  rebukes 
every  sinful  passion  of  man,  and  it  subdued 
them.  Tyrants,  whom  no  human  power 
could  reach,  trembled  before  its  censures. 
Then  only  is  it  powerless,  if  its  corrupted  or 
timid  or  paralyzed  ministers  forfeit  in  them- 
selA'es  the  poAver  of  rebuke. 

And  they  shall  beat  their  spears  into  plough- 
shares. "  All  things  are  made  new  in  Christ." 
As  the  inward  disquiet  of  evil  men  makes 
them  restless,  and  vents  itself  toAvard  others 
in  envy,  hatred,  maliciousness,  wrong,  so  the 
iuAvard  peace  Avhereof  He  saith,  3Iy  peace  I 
give  unto  you,  shall,  Avherever  it  reacheth, 
spread  out  abroad  and,  by  the  poAver  of  grace, 
bring  to  "  *^  all  nations  unity,  peace,  and  con- 
cord." All,  being  brought  under  the  one 
empire  of  Christ,  shall  be  in  harmony,  one 
Avith  the  other.  As  far  as  in  it  lies,  the  Gospel 
is  a  Gospel  of  peace,  and  makes  peace. 
Christians,  as  far  as  they  obey  Christ,  are  at 
peace,  both  in  themselves  and  with  one 
another.  And  this  is  Avhat  is  here  prophe- 
sied. The  peace  follows  from  His  rule. 
Where  He  judges  and  rebukes,  there  even 
the  mighty  beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares. 
The  univei-sal  peace,  amid  Avhicli  our  Lord 
Avas  born  in  the  Hesh,  the  first  which  there 
had  been  since  the  foundation  of  the  Roman 
empire,  Avas,  in  God's  Providence,  a  fruit  of 
His  kingdom.  It  Avas  no  chance  coincidence, 
since  nothing  is  by  chance.  God  Avilled  that 
they  should  be  contemporaneous.  It  Avas 
fitting  that  the  Avorld  should  be  still,  Avhcn 
its  Lord,  tiie  Prince  of  peace,  AA'as  born  in  it. 
That  outward  cessation  of  public  strife, 
though  but  for  a  brief  time,  Avas  an  image 
hoAv  His  peace  si)read  backward  as  Avell  tts 

(Is.  xxix.  10.  xxxiii.  1.").)  inohulod  the  idea  of  number. 
The  seeondiiry  idoti  of  stroncth,  (a."  we  use  "well- 
knit,")  is  so  prominent,  that  the  idea  of  number,  in 
the  verb,  only  occurs  in  Ps.  xl.  13.  Jer.  xv.  8 ;  in  tho 
adj.  Num.  xxxii.  1.  >0Rib. 

"  S.  John  xvi.  8-11.      »  Eph.  iii.  19.      '»  Litany. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


57 


^  5^^°?  o  rr    beat     their    swords     into 
cir.  710.      "plowshares,     and     their 


*Is.  2.  4.  Joels.  10. 


forward,  and  of  the  peace  which  through 
Him,  our  Peace,  was  dawning  on  the  world. 
"  '  First,  according  to  the  letter,  before  That 
Child  was  bom  to  us,  ^  on  Whose  shoulder  the 
government  is,  the  whole  world  was  full  of 
blood ;  people  fought  against  people,  kings 
against  kings,  nations  against  nations.  Lastly, 
the  Eoman  state  itself  was  torn  by  civil  wars, 
in  whose  battles  all  kingdoms  shed  blood. 
But  after  that,  at  the  time  of  the  Empire  of 
Christ,  Rome  gained  an  undivided  empire, 
the  world  was  laid  open  to  the  journeys  of 
Apostles,  and  the  gates  of  cities  were  open  to 
them,  and,  for  the  preaching  of  the  One  God, 
one  single  empire  was  formed.  It  may  too  be 
understood  as  an  image,  that,  on  receiving 
the  faith  of  Christ,  anger  and  unrestrained 
revilings  were  laid  aside,  so  that  each  putteth 
his  hand  to  the  plough  and.  looketh  not  back,  and, 
breaking  in  pieces  the  shafts  of  contumelies, 
seeketh  to  reap  spiritual  fruit,  so  that,  others 
laboring,  ive  enter  into  their  labors  ;  and  of  us 
it  is  said.  They  shall  come  with  joy,  bringing 
their  sheaves  *.  Now  no  one  fighteth  ;  for  we 
read,  *  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers;  no  one 
learneth  to  *  strive,  to  the  subverting  of  the  hear- 
ers. And  every  one  shall  rest  under  his  vine,  so 
as  to  press  out  that  ®  Wine  which  gladdeneth 
the  heart  of  man,xmdiQv  ihut '  Vine,  whereof  the 
Father  is  the  Husbandman  ;  and  under  his  fig 
tree,  gathering  the  sweet  ^fruits  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  love,  joy,  peace,  and  the  rest." 

The  fathers  had  indeed  a  joy,  which  we 
have  not,  that  wars  were  not  between  Chris- 
tians ;  for  although  "just  wars  are  lawful," 
war  cannot  be  on  both  sides  just;  very  few 
wars  have  not,  on  both  sides,  what  is  against 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  For,  except  where 
there  is  exceeding  wickedness  on  one  side,  or 
peril  of  further  evil,  the  words  of  our  Lord 
would  hold  good,  in  public  as  in  private,  ®  I 
say  unto  you,  thai  ye  resist  not  evil. 

This  prophecy  then  is  fulfilled  1)  in  the 
character  of  the  Gospel.  "  ^^  The  law  of  the 
Gospel  worketh  and  preserveth  peace.  For 
it  plucketh  up  altogether  the  roots  of  all  war, 
avarice,  ambition,  injustice,  wrath.  Then, 
it  teacheth  to  bear  injuries,  and,  so  far  from 
requiting  them,  willeth  that  Ave  be  prepared 
to  receive  fresh  wrongs.  He  saith,  "  If  any 
one  smite  thee  on  the  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the 
other  also,  &c.  ^^  I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  ene- 
mie.%  &c.     For  neither  did  the  old  law  give 


1  S.  Jer. 

8  Ps.  exxvi.  6. 
*  Ps.  civ.  15. 

9  S.  Matt.  V.  39. 
"  lb.  44-48. 


2Is.  i 
♦  S.  Matt.  V.  9.      6  2  Tim.  ii.  14. 
1 S.  John  XV.  1.    8  Gal.  v.  22. 
1"  Rib.         11  S.  Matt.  v.  39-42. 
13  Acts  iv.  32. 


spears 
hooks 


into     llpruning- 
nation    shall    not . 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

I  Or,  scythes. 


1*  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  39.  "  For  they  themselves  hate 
one  another."     "For  they  themselves  are  more 


these  counsels,  nor  did  it  explain  so  clearly 
the  precept  implied  in  them,  nor  had  it  that 
wonderful  and  most  efficacious  example  of  the 
patience  and  love  of  Christ,  nor  did  it  supply 
grace,  whereby  peace  could  be  preserved ; 
whereas  now  the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit  are 
love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  good- 
ness." 2)  The  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled 
within  and  without,  among  individuals  or 
bodies  of  men,  in  body  or  mind,  in  tem- 
per or  in  deed,  as  far  as  the  Gospel 
has  prevailed.  ''^  The  multitude  of  them 
that  believed  were  of  one  heart  arul  of  one 
mind  ;  one,  through  One  indwelling  Spirit ; 
one,  though  a  great  multitude,  through  one 
bond  of  love.  "**See  how  these  Christians 
love  one  another  ;  "  "  see  how  ready  they  are 
to  die  for  one  another,"  was,  in  the  third  cen- 
tury, a  heathen  proverb  as  to  Christian  love. 
"  '*  They  love  one  another,  almost  before  they 
know  one  another."  "  '•*  Their  first  lawgiver 
has  persuaded  them  that  they  are  all  breth- 
ren." "We  (which  prieves  you,)  "  the  Chris- 
tian answered  ",  "  so  love  one  another,  be- 
cause we  know  not  how  to  hate.  We  call 
ourselves  '  brethren '  which  you  take  ill,  as 
men  who  have  one  Father,  God,  and  are 
sharers  in  one  faith,  in  one  hope,  coheirs." 
For  centuries  too,  there  was,  for  the  most 
part,  public  peace  of  Christians  among  them-i 
selves.  Christian  soldiers  fought  only,  as 
constrained  by  the  civil  law,  or  against  Bar- 
barian invaders,  to  defend  life,  wife,  children, 
not  for  ambition,  anger,  or  pride.  Christians 
could  then  appeal,  in  fulfillment  of  the  pro- 
phecy, to  this  outward,  the  fruit  of  the  in- 
ward, peace.  "  We,"  says  an  early  martyr^**, 
"who  formerly  stained  ourselves  with  mu- 
tual slaughter,  not  only  do  not  wage  war  with 
foes,  but  even,  in  order  not  to  lie  and  deceive 
those  who  consume  us,  willingly  professing 
Christ,  meet  death."  "  From  the  coming  of 
the  Lord,"  says  another  martyr '',  "  the  New 
Testament,  reconciling  unto  peace,  and  a  life- 
giving  law,  went  forth  into  all  lands.  If  then 
another  law  and  word,  going  forth  from  Je- 
rusalem, produced  such  peace  among  the  na- 
tions which  received  it,  and  thereby  reproved 
much  people  of  want  of  wisdom,  then  it  would 
follow  that  the  prophets  spake  of  some  other. 
But  if  the  law  of  liberty,  that  is,  the  law  of  God 
preached  by  the  Apostles,  which  went  forth 
out  of  Jerusalem  to  all  the  world,  worked 

ready  to  slay  one  another,"  are  Tertullian's  state- 
ments as  to  the  contemporary  condition  of  the 
Heathen,  which  their  amazement  at  Christian  love 
rather  confirms.       i^  Minut.  Felix,  p.  81.  ed.  Ouz. 

16  Lucian,  de  morte  Peregrini,  i.  507.  ed.  Grsev. 

17  Min.  F.  p.  312,  3. 

18  9.  Justin  M.  Apol.  i.  39.  i»  S.  Iren.  iv.  34.  4. 


58 


MICAH. 


chrTst    ^^^    "P   ^    sword    against 
cir.  710.       nation,     "neither     shall 


•  Ps.  72.  7. 


such  a  transformation,  that  swords  and  spears 
of  war  He  wrought  into  plough-shares  and 
pruning-hooks,  instruments  of  peace,  and 
now  men  know  not  how  to  fight,  but,  when 
smitten,  yield  the  other  cheek,  then  the  pro- 
phets spake  of  no  other,  but  of  Him  who 
l)rought  it  to  pass."  "  Even  from  this,"  says 
TertuUian',  "you  may  know  that  Christ 
was  promised,  not  as  one  mighty  in  war,  but 
as  a  peace-bringer.  Either  deny  tliat  these 
things  were  propliesied,  since  they  are  plain 
to  see ;  or,  since  they  are  written,  deny  that 
they  are  fulfilled.  But  if  thou  mayest  deny 
neither,  thou  must  own  tliat  they  are  fulfilled 
in  Him,  of  Whom  they  are  prophesied." 
"Of  old  V'  S'lys  iSt.  Athanasius,  "  Greeks  and 
Barbarians,  being  idolaters,  warred  with  one 
another,  and  were  fierce  toward  those  akin. 
For  through  tiieir  implacable  warfare  no  one 
might  pass  land  or  sea,  unarmed.  Their 
wliole  life'  was  passed  in  arms ;  the  sword 
wa.s  to  them  for  stafl"  and  stay.  They  wor- 
shiped idols,  sacrificed  to  demons,  and  yet 
from  their  reverence  for  idols  they  could  gain 
no  help  to  correct  their  minds.  But  when 
they  passed  into  the  school  of  Christ,  then, 
of  a  truth,  pricked  in  mind,  they  wondrously 
laid  aside  their  savage  slaughters,  and  now 
think  no  more  of  things  of  war ;  for  now  all 
peace  and  friendship  are  alone  tlieir  mind's 
delight.  Who  then  did  this.  Who  blended 
in  peace  those  who  hated  one  another,  save 
the  Beloved  Son  of  the  Father,  the  common 
Saviour  of  all,  Christ  Jesus,  Who,  through 
His  love,  endured  all  things  for  our  salva- 
tion ?  For  of  old  too,  the  peace  which  should 
hold  sway  from  Him  was  projihesied,  they 
i<hnll  beat  their  nmords  into  phughahwcs.  Nor 
is  this  incredible,  since  now  tof),  the  Barba- 
rians with  innate  savageness,  while  they  yet 
sacrifice  to  their  idols,  are  mad  with  one 
another,  and  cannot  for  one  hour  part  with 
tiieir  swords.  But  when  they  have  received 
the  teaching  of  Christ,  forthwith  for  ever 
they  turn  to  husbandry  ;  and,  in  lieu  of  arm- 
ing their  hands  with  swords,  stretch  them 
out  to  prayer.  And  altogether,  instead  of 
warring  with  one  another,  tliey  arm  them- 
selves against  the  devil  and  demons,  warring 
against  them  with  modesty  and  virtue  of 
8oul.  This  is  a  token  of  the  Godhead  of  the 
Saviour.  For  what  men  could  not  learn 
among  idols,  this  they  have  learned  from 
Him.  Christ's  disciples,  having  no  war  with 
one  another,  array  themselves  against  de- 
mons by  their  life  and  deeds  of  virtue,  chase 


»adv.  Marc.  in.  21. 

•  de  Incftrn.  Verbi  Dei,  c.  r>l,  2. 

•  InPs.  xliv.  g3  T.  V.  p.  180. 


they 
more. 


learn     war     any 


Bet'or*' 
CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


them  and  mock  their  captain  the  devil,  chaste 
in  youth,  enduring  in  temptation,  strong  in 
toils,  tranquil  when  insulted,  unconcerned 
when  despoiled." 

And  yet  later,  S.  Chrysostom  says,  "  *  Be- 
fore the  Coming  of  Christ,  all  men  armed 
themselves  and  no  one  was  exempt  from  this 
service,  and  cities  fought  with  cities,  and 
everywhere  were  men  trained  to  war.  But 
now  most  of  the  world  is  in  peace  ;  all  en- 
gage in  mechanical  art  or  agriculture  or 
commerce,  and  few  are  employed  in  military 
service  for  all.  And  of  this  too  the  occasion 
would  cease,  if  we  acted  as  we  ouglit  and  did 
not  need  to  be  reminded  by  afflictions." 
"  *  After  the  Sun  of  righteousness  dawned, 
so  far  are  all  cities  and  nations  from  living 
in  such  perils,  that  they  knoAV  not  even  how 
to  take  in  hand  any  afiairs  of  war. — Or  if 
there  be  .still  any  war,  it  is  far  oft'  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  Eoman  Empire,  not  in  each 
city  and  country,  as  heretofore.  For  then,  in 
any  one  nation,  there  were  countless  se- 
ditions and  multiform  wars.  But  now  the 
whole  earth  which  the  sun  surveys  from  the 
Tigris  to  the  British  isles,  and  therewith 
Lybia  too  and  Egypt  and  Palestine,  yea,  all 
beneath  the  Roman  rule, — ye  know  how  all 
enjoy  complete  security,  and  learn  of  war 
only  by  hearsay."  S.  Cyril  ^  and  Theodoret  ^ 
carry  on  this  account  into  the  fifth  century 
after  our  Lord's  Coming.  Christians  then 
during  those  four  centuries  could  point  to  a 
present  fulfillment  of  prophecy,  when  we,  for 
our  sins,  can  only  speak  of  the  past.  *  The 
LoixVh  hand  is  not  shortened,  that  it  cannot  save  : 
neither  His  ear  heary,  that  it  cannot  hear  ;  but 
our  iniquities  have  sepai'ated  betivecn  us,  and 
our  God,  and  our  sins  hove  hid  His  Face  from 
us,  that  He  wiU  not  hear.  Those  first  Chris- 
tians could  urge  against  the  Jews  the  fulfill- 
ment of  their  prophecies  herein,  where  the 
Jews  can  now  urge  upon  us  their  seeming 
non-fulfillment ;  "  '  In  the  time  of  King  Mes- 
siah, after  the  wars  of  Gog  and  Magog,  there 
shall  be  jieace  and  tranquillity  in  all  tlie 
world,  and  the  sons  of  men  shall  have  no 
need  of  weapons,  but  these  promises  were  not 
fulfilled."  The  prophecy  is  fulfilled,  in  that 
the  Gospel  is  a  Gospel  of  peace  and  makes 
peace.  Cliristians,  as  far  as  they  obey  Christ, 
are  at  peace  both  in  themselves  and  with 
one  another.  Tlie  promises  of  God  are  per- 
fect on  His  part :  He  is  faithful  to  them.  But 
He  so  wills  to  be  freely  loved  by  His  intelli- 
gent creatures  whom  He  formed  for  Hislove^ 

« in  Is.  il.  n.  6.  T.  vi.  p.  24,  C. 

» on  Is.  li.  and  here.  'Is.  llx.  1, X 

'  R.  Isaac,  Muniin.  Fid.  i.  5.  7.  et  all. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


59 


'^^'^-  '''I"-      every  man  under  his  vine 

«i Kings. 4. 25.  and   under  his  fig  tree; 

and  none  shall  make  ihem 


that  He  does  not  force  our  free-agency.  We 
can  fall  short  of  His  promises,  if  we  will.  To 
those  only  who  will  it,  the  Gospel  brings 
peace,  stilling  the  passions,  quelling  disputes, 
banishing  contentions,  removing  errors,  calm- 
ing concupiscence,  soothing  and  repressing 
anger,  in  individuals,  nations,  the  Church  ; 
giving  oneness  of  belief,  harmony  of  soul, 
contentment  with  our  own,  love  of  others  as 
ourselves ;  so  that  whatever  is  contrary  to  this 
has  its  origin  in  something  which  is  not  of 
Christ  nor  of  His  Gospel. 

4.  But  {And)  they  shall  sit  every  man,  under 
his  vine  and  under  his  fig-tree.  Palestine  was  a 
home  of  the  vine  and  the  fig-tree.  Vine- 
yards were  a  common  property,  possessed  by 
all  but  the  very  poor',  or  even  by  them '^. 
The  land  was  *  a  land  of  bread  and  vineyards. 
The  vine  was  the  emblem  of  the  people,  in 
Psalmists  and  Pi'ophets*.  The  bunch  of 
grapes  or  the  vine-leaf  appear  as  character- 
istic emblems  on  Jewish  coins  ^,  chiefly  in 
the  times  of  their  revolts  under  Vespasian 
and  Hadrian  ^  The  fig  is  also  mentioned  as 
part  of  the  characteristic  frnitfulness  of  Pal- 
estine'.  It  too  was  an  universal  property*. 
Both  formed  natural  arbors ;  the  fig  had  its 
name  probably  from  its  length  ^,  the  vine 
from  the  arch  made  by  its  drooping  boughs '". 
Both  formed,  in  those  hot  countries,  a  grate- 
ful shade.  The  vine,  rising  with  its  single 
stem,  was  spread  over  trellis-work  or  by 
props,  so  as  to  enclose  a  considerable  space  ''. 
Even  in  Italy,  a  single  vine  shaded  a  por- 
tico ''.  In  Palestine  it  grew  by  the  walls  of  the 
house ''.  Rabbins  relate  how  their  forefathers 
sat  and  studied  under  the  fig-tree  ",  as  Na- 
thanael  was  doubtless  meditating  or  praying 
under  one,  when  Jesus,  being  God,  saw  him^". 

1  This  is  implied  in  the  laws  concerning  them,  as 
Ex.  xxiii.  11.  Lev.  xix.  10.  xxv.  3,  4.  Dent.  xx.  6,  &c. 
comp.  Num.  xvi.  14.  Deut.  vi.  11. 1  Sam.  viii.  14.  xxii. 
7.  2  Kgs.  xviii.  3Li.  Ps.  cvii.  37.  Prov.  xxxi.  16. 

-  Nan.  V.  4.  Jer.  xxxix.  10.  *  2  Kgs.  xviii.  32. 

*  Ps.  Ixxx.  8  sqq.  Is.  iii.  14.  v.  1  sgq.  xxvii.  2.  Jer. 
ii.  21,  xii.  10.  Ezek.  xv.  xvii.  5-10.  xix.  10.  Hos.  x.  1. 

5  The  bunch  of  grapes  appears  on  coins  of  Herod 
Archelaus,  Madden,  Jew,  Coinage,  p.  94,  5.  also  of 
Tiberius,  lb.  p.  144.  See  De  Saulcy,  p.  134.  140,  1. 
The  golden  vine,  given  by  Alexander  to  the  Romans 
is  mentioned  by  Strabo.  (jos.  Ant.  14,  31.)  The  vine- 
tree  stood  at  the  porch  of  the  Temple  for  receiving 
alms.  Middoth  3.  8.  in  Levy  Jiid.  MUnz.  p.  134.  Maa- 
den,  p.  210. 

«  Madden,  p.  1R2,  4,  7,  8.  170,  2,  3,  7.  180.  206,  7,  8,  9. 
See  also  De  Saulcy,  p.  160, 1,  2,  4,  5,  6,  7,  &e. 

^  Deut.  viii.  8.  8  2  Kgs  xviii.  32. 

"njXri  (its  name  still  in  the  East)  from  TXr\  i-  q- 

pa  wjSJi.q.  pj. 

"  "  We  passed  the  evening,  under  a  large  vine, 
whose  stem  was  about  IJ^  foot  in  diameter.  Its 
height  was  30  feet;  its  branches  had  to  be  propped 


afraid:  for  the   mouth   of   curTst 
the  Lord  of  hosts  hath      '^'r-  "lo- 


spoken  it. 

5  For  ®all   people  will 


•Jer.  2.11, 


It  exhibits  a  picture  of  domestic  peace,  each 
family  gathered  in  harmony  and  rest  under 
the  protection  of  God,  each  content  with  what 
they  have,  neither  coveting  another's,  nor 
disturbed  in  their  own.  Wine  is  explained  in 
Holy  Scripture  to  be  an  emblem  of  gladness, 
and  the  fig  of  sweetness  ^^.  "  "  For  exceeding 
sweet  is  the  word  of  the  Saviour,  and  it  know- 
eth  how  to  gladden  man's  heart ;  sweet  also 
and  full  of  joy  is  the  hope  of  the  future, 
wherewith  we  are  enriched  in  Christ. 

Such  had  been  Israel's  lot  in  the  peaceful 
days  of  Solomon  '*,  the  peace  of  whose  times 
had  already  been  made  the  image  of  the 
Gospel'*;  the  coming  of  the  Queen  of  the 
South  from  the  uitennost  parts  of  the  earth,  to 
hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon ''"',  had  made  lier 
kingdom  to  be  selected  as  an  emblem  of 
those  who  should  fall  down  before  Christ  and 
serve  Him  -' .  "  ^^  Such  is  that  rnost  quiet  fear- 
lessness which  the  law  of  Christ  bringeth,  as 
being  the  law  of  charity,  peace,  and  concord." 

And  none  shall  make  than  afraid.  "  ^''  Neither 
man,  nor  devil  ;  for  the  Lord  hath  given  us 
power  to  '■'*  tread  on  serpents  and  scorpions,  and 
over  all  the  power  of  the  enemy,  and  said,  noth- 
ing shall  by  any  means  hurt  you,  and  bade  us, 
^^fear  not  them  tvhieh  kill  the  body."  Witness 
the  might  which  He  gave  to  His  Apostles 
and  Martyrs. 

For  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  hath  spoken- 
it.  Tlie  Prophets  often  add  this,  when  what 
they  say,  seems,  for  its  greatness,  past  belief. 
Yet  it  will  be,  because  He  hath  spoken  it,  the. 
Lord  Who  changeth  not,  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
to  Whose  commands  all  creatures  are  subject, 
Whose  word  is  truth  witli  Whom  to  speak  is 
to  do. 

5.  For  all  people  vnll  tvalk,  every  one  in  the 

up ;  and  so  it  covered  an  arbor  more  than  50  feot 
wide  and  long.  I  remembered  Micah.  I  have  seen 
in  this  land  the  people  living  under  both  the  fig  and 
the  vine ;  the  fig  between  Jerusalem  and  Arima- 
thea;  the  vine,  here  [Beitjin.]"  Schulz.  Leit.  v.  28.5. 
in  Paulus  Reisen,  vii.  103. 

12  Plin.  N.  H.  xiv.  3.  "  Ps.  cxxviii.  3. 

!•• "  R.  Haiaand  his  disciples — others  say,  R.  Akiba, 
used  to  rise  very  early  and  sit  and  study  under  a 
fig-tree."  BereshithRabba  in  Winer  Reallex.  [wrong 
reference.] 

15  S.  John  i.  48.  , 

16  Jud.  ix.  11.  13.  "The  TO^l  is  the  fig,  distin- 
guished for  its  more  perfect  sweetness,  so  that  none 
such  can  be  founds  save  in  the  land  of  Israel." 
Maimonid.  in  Demai  c.  ii.  ^1.  in  Cels.  Hierob.  ii.  369. 
"  It  is  appropriated  to  the  lood  of  man."  Id.  de  jure 
anni  7  et  jubil.  c.  v.  §  8.  lb.  Our  Lord  made  it,  as 
well  as  the  grape,  the  figure  of  good  fruit,  which  an 
evil  nature  could  not  bear.  S.  Matt.  vii.  16.  8.  Luke 
vi.  44.  "  S.  Cyr. 

18 1  Kings  iv.  25.    w  Ps.  Ixxii.    «>  S.  Matt.  xii.  42. 
SI  Ps.  Ixxli.  10, 11.  MLap.  MTheoph. 

2*  S.  Luke  X.  19.  ^  S.  Matt.  X.  28. 


GO 


MICAH. 


Before       ^alk  eveiy  one  in  the  name 


CHRIST 


cir.  710. of  his  god,  and  Sve  will  walk 


'Zech.  10. 12. 


name  of  his  god,  and  we  will  walk  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  our  God.  Hitherto  unsteadfastness 
had  been  the  very  characteristic  sin  of  Israel. 
It  was  "  ^  constant  only  in  its  inconstancy," 
ever  '\falling  away  like  their  forefathers,  starting 
a»ide  like  a  broken  bow.  The  heathen  pei-se- 
vered  in  their  woi-ship,  because  it  was  evil  or 
had  evil  in  it,  not  checking  but  feeding  their 
pa.ssions.  Israel  did  not  persevere  in  his,  be- 
cause it  required  him  to  deny  himself  things 
unlawful.  ^  Hath  a  nation  changed  their  gods 
which  are  yet  no  gods  f  But  My  people  have 
changed  their  glory  for  that  which  doth  not  profit. 
Henceforth,  the  Prophet  professeth  for  his 
people,  the  true  Israel,  that  he  will  be  as 
steadfast  in  good,  as  the  heathen  in  evil ;  so 
our  Lord  sets  forth  *  the  children  of  this  world 
in  their  generation,  as  an  example  of  wisdom  to 
the  children  of  light. 

"  ^  They  who  are  eager  to  go  up  into  the 
mountain  of  the  Lord,  and  wish  to  learn  thor- 
oughly His  ways,  promise  a  ready  obedi- 
ence, and  receive  in  themselves  the  glories 
of  the  life  in  Christ,  and  undertake  with  their 
whole  strength  to  be  earnest  in  all  holiness. 
'  For  let  every  one,'  he  saith,  '  in  every 
country  and  city  go  the  way  himself  chooseth, 
and  pa.ss  his  life,  as  to  him  seemetli  good  ; 
but  our  care  is  Christ,  and  His  laws  we  will 
make  our  straight  path  ;  we  will  walk  along 
with  Him ;  and  that  not  for  this  life  only, 
present  or  past,  but  yet  more  for  what  is  be- 
yond.' ®  It  vi  a  faithful  saying.  For  they  who 
now  suffer  with  Him,  shall  walk  with  Him' 
forever,  and  with  Him  be  glorified,  and  with 
Him  reign.  But  they  make  Christ  their  care, 
who  prefer  nothing  to  His  love,  who  cease 
from  the  vain  distractions  of  tlie  world,  and 
seek  rather  righteousness  and  what  is  pleasing 
unto  Him,  and  to  excell  in  virtue.  .Such  an 
one  was  the  divine  Paul ;  for  he  writeth,  '  / 
am  crucified  with  Christ;  and  now  no  longer  1 
live,  but  Chi'ist  livelh  in  me  ;  and  again  *,  I  deter- 
mined not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified." 

To  vjalk  is  so  uniformly  in  Holy  Scripture 
used  of  a  person's  moral  or  religious  "  ways®" 
(as  we  say),  that  the  Propliet  here  too  is 
doubtless  speaking  of  the  opposite  religious 
ways  of  the  Heathen  and  of  the  future  people 
of  God.  The  name  was  often,  in  Hebrew,  ex- 
pressive of  the  character ;  and,  in  regard  to 

1  Rib.  sp.'i.  Ixxviii.  57.  ».Jer.  ii.  11. 

■•  S.  Luke  xvi.  8.  6S.  Cyr. 

f'  2  Tim.  ii.  11, 12.  Rom.  viii.  17.  Rev.  iii.  4. 

'Gal.  ii.  20.  siCor.  ii.  2. 

"  As  to  walk  in  Ood's  statutes,  (Ezelc.  v.  C,  7,  *c. 
and  seven  other  places)  in  Hisjudtiments,  fPs.  Ixxxix. 
HI.  Ez.  xxxvi.  27.)  in  Ilis  comniftnilments,  (2  Chr.  xvil. 
4.)  in  His  laia,  fPs.  Ixxviii.  10  &r.)  in  His  fear,  (Nch. 
V.  9.)  and,  In  tne  corresponding  place  in  Isaiah,  in 


in  the  name  of  the  Lord    chr'YIt 
our  God  for  ever  and  ever.      "'''•  '^'^^- 


God  Himself,  that  Name  which  He  vouch- 
safed to  give  to  Himself'**,  expressed  His 
Self-existence,  and,  as  a  result.  His  Un- 
changeableness  and  His  Faithfulness.  The 
names,  by  which  it  was  foretold  that  Christ 
should  be  called,  express  both  His  Deity  and 
attributes'' ;  the  human  Name,  which  He 
bare  and  vouchsafes  to  bear  yet,  was  signifi- 
cant of  His  office  for  us.  Saviour  '■^.  To  praise 
the  Name  of  the  Lord  then,  is  to  praise  Him  in 
that  character  or  relation  which  He  has  re- 
vealed to  us.  "  '''He  walketh  in  the  Name  of 
the  Lord,  who  ordereth  every  act  and  motion 
worthily  of  the  vocation  wherewith  he  Is 
called,  and,  ^*  whether  heeateth  or  drinketh,doth 
all  to  the  glory  of  God."  This  promise  hath  its 
own  reward  ;  for  it  is  for  ever  and  eva:  They 
who  tvalk  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  shall  walk  '^ 
before  Him  in  the  land  of  the  living,  for  ever  and 
ever.  Such  walk  on,  with  quickened  steps, 
lingering  not,  inttie  Name  of  the  Lord  our  God, 
i.  e.  doing  all  things  in  His  Name,  as  His 
great  Name  requires;  conformed  to  the  holi- 
ness and  all  other  qualities  which  His  Name 
expresseth.  For  ever  and  ever,  lit. /or  ever  and 
yet,  or,  more  strictly  still, /or  that  ivhich  is  hid- 
den and  yet,  which  is  the  utmost  thought  of 
eternity  we  can  come  to.  Time  indeed  has 
no  relation  to  eternity  ;  for  time,  being  God's 
creature,  is  infinite.  Still,  practically  to  us, 
our  nearest  conce))tion  of  eternity,  is  exist- 
ence, on  and  on  and  on,  an  endless,  unchang- 
ing, ever-prolonged  future,  lost  in  distance 
and  hidden  from  us,  and  then,  and  yet,  an 
ever-to-come  yet,  which  shall  never  come  to 
an  end.  Well  then  may  we  not  faint,  as 
tho'  it  were  long  to  toil  or  to  do  without  this 
1  or  that,  since  the  part  of  our  way  which  lies 
amid  toils  and  weariness  is  so  short,  and  will 
soon  be  at  an  end ;  what  lies  beyond,  in  joy, 
is  infinite  in  infinite  joy,  ever  full  and  still 
ever  a  yet  to  come. 

The  Prophet  says,  ive  ivill  walk;  "'^unit- 
ing himself  in  longing,  hope,  faith,  to  the  sons 
of  the  New  Testament,  i.  e.  Christians,  as  his 
bretliren,  re-born  by  the  grace  of  the  same 
Christ ;  "  "  "  ministers  of  the  Old,  heirs  of 
the  New  Testament,  becau.se  they  loved 
through  that  same  faitli  whereby  we 
love  ;  believing  in  the  Incarnation,  Passion, 
Resurrection  of  Clirist  yet  to  be,  as  we  be- 
lieve in  it,  having  been." 

the  light  of  the  Lord.  (Is.  ii.  5.)  sec  Ges.  Thes.  v.  iSh. 

p.  378.  and  above  on  Mir.  ii.  11.  p.  .35.  So  aeain  to 
walk  with  Ood,  (Gen.  v.  22.)  or  before  Ood,  (lb.  xvii. 
1.)  or  contrary  to  Ood.  (Lev.  xxvi.  21.) 

"'nin''  Sec  on  Hos.  xii.  5.  vol.  i.  p.  119. 

n  Is.  vii.  14.  Immannel,  i.e.  Ood  with  us;  ix.  6. 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Ac. 

J2  S.  Matt.  i.  21.  »  Theoph.  »<  1  Cor.  x.  .31. 

ii" Ps.  cxvi. 9.   i^Tir.   »'S.  Aug.  o.2Epp.  Pelag.  iii.4. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


61 


C  HR°I  S  T  ^    ^^  ^^^^  ^^J'  ^^^^^  ^^® 

cir.  710.      Lord,  « will  I  assemble  her 


eEzek. 34. 16.    that  haltcth,  ''and  I  will 
k Ps.  147.2.  "      gather  her  that  is  driven 
&37. 21. "    '    out,  and  her  that  I  have 
afflicted ; 

7  And  I  will  make  her 


6.  In  that  day,  i.  e.  in  that  day  of  Christ 
and  of  His  Gospel,  of  grace  and  salvation, 
the  last  days  of  which  he  liad  been  speaking. 
Hitherto  he  liad  prophesied  the  glory  of 
Zion,  chiefly  through  the  coming-in  of  the 
Gentiles.  Now  he  adds,  how  the  Jews  should, 
with  them,  be  gathered  by  grace  into  the  one 
fold,  in  that  long  last  day  of  the  Gospel,  at 
the  beginning,  in  the  course  of  it,  and  com- 
pletely at  the  end  ^. 

Her  that  halteth.  The  Prophet  resumes 
the  image  of  the  scattered  flock,  under  which 
he  had  before  '^  foretold  their  restoration. 
Tills  was  no  liope  of  his  own,  but  His  word 
Who  cannot  fail.  The  course  of  events,  upon 
which  he  is  entering,  would  be,  at  times,  for 
their  greatness  and  their  difficulty,  past 
human  belief.  So  he  adds  straightway,  at 
the  outset,  saith  the  Lord.  To  halt  is  used  of 
bodily  lameness  ^,  and  that,  of  a  flock,  worn 
out  by  its  wanderings  *.  It  is  used  also  of 
moral  halting  *,  such  as  had  been  a  chief  sin 
of  Israel,  serving  partly  God,  partly  Baal  ^ ; 
God,  with  a  service  of  fear,  Baal  with  a  ser- 
vice of  that  counterfeit  of  love,  sensuality. 
So  it  was  sick,  both  in  body  and  soul,  and  driven 
out '  also,  and  afflicted. 

7.  And  her  that  was  cast  off  a  strong  nation. 
The  prophecy,  that  there  should  be  a  rem- 
nant, was  depressing.  Yet  what  a  remnant 
should  it  be!  A  remnant,  which  should 
multiply  like  the  stars  of  heaven  or  the  sand 
on  the  sea-shore.  Israel  had  never  been  a 
strong  nation,  as  a  kingdom  of  this  world.  At 
its  best  estate,  under  David,  it  had  subdued 
the  petty  nations  around  it,  who  were  con- 
federated to  destroy  it.  It  had  never  com- 
peted with  the  powers  of  this  world,  East  or 
West,  Egypt  or  Nineveh,  although  God  had 
at  times  marvelously  saved  it  from  being 
swallowed  up  by  them.  Now,  the  remnant 
of  Judah,  which  itself  was  but  a  remnant  of 
the  undivided  people,  was  to  become  a  strong 
nation.  So  Isaiah  prophesied,  ^A  little  one 
shcdl  become  a  thousand,  and  a  small  one  a 
strong  nation.  Plainly  not  in  temporal  great- 
ness, both  because  human  strength  was  not, 
and  could  not  be,  its  characteristic,  and  be- 

1  Rom.  xi.  26.         ^ii.  12, 13.        agen  xxxii.  32. 

<Zeph.  iii.  19. 

'Ps.  XXXV.  15.  xxxviii.  18. 

"1  Kings  xviil.  21.    The  word  is  different  here. 

'  nm^  is  used  with  the  same  image  of  the  dis- 


that  halted  'a  remnant,       Before 
and  her  that  was  cast  far      cir.  710. 


off  a  strong  nation:   andich. 2. 12. 
the  Lord  "shall  reign  over  &  7]  i^.^'  *• 
them  in  mount  Zion  from '' &  24.' 23. 
henceforth,  even  for  ever.     EKli^^' 
8  ^  And  thou,  O  tower  ^^^-  "'•  ^^'■ 


cause  the  Prophet  had  been  speaking  of  spirit- 
ual restoration. 

'^^  Strong  are  they,  whom  neither  tortm-e 
nor  allurements  can  separate  from  the  love 
of  Christ."  "  Strong  are  they,  who  are  strong 
against  themselves."  Strong  were  they  who 
said  ^°,  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men, 
and  ",  Who  shall  separate  ns  from  the  love  of 
Christ  ?  shall  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecu- 
tion, or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or  peril,  or  sword  f 
Nay,  in  all  these  things  ive  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  Him  that  loved  us.  God  does 
not  only  restore  in  the  Gospel ;  He  multiplies 
exceedingly,  "i"'' I  will  so  clothe  her  with 
the  spirit  of  might,  that,  as  she  shall  be 
fruitful  in  number,  so  shall  she  be  glorious  in 
victories,  so  that  of  her  it  shall  be  said  ^^,  Who 
is  she  that  hoketh  forth  as  the  morning,  fair  as  the 
moon,  clear  as  the  sun,  terrible  as  an  army  with 
banners  ?  "  For,  not  to  name  those,  whose  whole 
life  is  one  warfare  against  invisible  enemies 
and  the  evil  desires  of  the  flesh,  who  shall 
count  the  martyrs  of  Christ  ?  We  know  that 
that  remnant  and  strong  nation  owe  wholly  to 
grace  all  which  they  are,  as  they  themselves 
in  the  Eevelations  give  thanks ;  "  Thou  wast 
slain  and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  Thy  Blood, 
out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people  and 
nation,  and  hast  made  us  unto  our  God  kings 
and  priests,  and  we  shall  reign  on  the  earth; 
that  same  Lord,  of  Whom  it  is  here  said. 

The  Lord  shall  reign  over  them  in  Zion  from 
henceforth  even  forever.  The  visible  kingdom 
of  God  in  Judah  was  often  obscured,  kings, 
princes,  priests,  and  false  prophets  combining 
to  encourage  one  another  in  rebellion  against 
God.  In  the  captivity  it  even  underwent 
an  almost  total  eclipse  by  the  over-shadowing 
of  earthly  power,  save  when  the  Divine  light 
flashed  forth  for  an  instant  in  the  deeds  or 
words  of  power  and  wisdom,  related  by 
Daniel.  Henceforth,  i.  e.  from  the  time,  when 
the  law  should  go  forth  out  of  Zion,  God  should, 
indeed  reign,  and  that  kingdom  should  have 
no  end. 

8.  Ami  thou,  0  toiver  of  the  flock.  "  '  Tower 
of  Ader,'  which  is  interpreted  '  tower  of  the 
flock,'  about  1000  paces  (a  mile)  from  Beth- 

persed  flock,  Zeph.  iii.  10.  Ez.  xxxiv.  4.  16.  and 

^r^nr^  Jer.  1. 17. 

six.  22.  »Gloss.  i"Aet3V.  29. 

11  Rorn.  viii.  35,  37.         '^  Rap.         la  Oaut.  vi.  10. 
i*  Rev.  V.  9, 10. 


62 


MICAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


lOT,Edar:  Gen.  35,  21. 


of  1 1  the  flock,  the  stroug 
.hold  of  the  daughter  of 


lehem,"  savs  St.  Jerome'  who  lived  there, 
"  and  foresignifying  [in  its  very  name]  by  a 
sort  of  prophecy  the  shepherds  at  the  Bii-th 
of  the  Lord."  There  Jacob  fed  liis  sheep  ^, 
and  there  (since  it  was  hard  by  Bethlehem) 
the  shepherds,  keeping  watch  over  their  flocks 
by  night,  saw  and  heard  the  Angels  singing, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  tlie  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace,  gootl  will  toward  men."  The  Jews  in- 
ferred from  this  place  that  the  Messiah 
sliould  be  revealed  there  ^. 

Stronghold  [Ophel  *]  of  the  daughter  of  Zion. 
Ophel  was  a  strong  place  in  the  South  of 
Jerusalem,  the  last  which  the  wall,  enclosing 
Zion,  reached,  before,  or  as,  it  touched  on  the 
Eastern  porch  of  the  temple ",  with  whose 
service  it  was  connected.  We  know  that, 
after  the  captivity,  the  Nethinim,  who  did 
the  laborious  service  of  the  temple,  dwelt 
there*.  It  lay  very  near  to  the  priests'  dis- 
trict '.  It  was  probably,  a  lower  acclivity, 
"swelling  out,"  (as  its  name  seems  to  mean'*,) 
from  tlie  mountain  of  the  temple.  In  tlie 
hist  war,  it  was  held  together  with  "^the 
temple,  and  the  adjoining  parts  to  no  slight 
extent,  and  the  valley  of  Kedron."  It  was 
l)urnt  ''*  l)efore  the  upper  city  was  taken.  It 
liad  been  encircled  by  a  wall  of  old ;  for 
Jothani  "  '^  built  greatly  upon  its  wall." 
Manasseh  "  '^  encircled  it,"  (probably  with  an 
outer  wall)  "and  raised  it  exceedingly,"  i.e. 
apparently  raised  artificially  the  whole  level. 

Yet,  as  a  symbol  of  all  Jerusalem,  Opliel 
is  as  remarkable,  as  the  "  tower  of  the  flock  " 
is  as  to  Bethleliem.  For  Ophel,  although 
fortified,  is  no  where  spoken  of,  as  of  any  ac- 


count ' 


Zion,  unto  thee   shall 
come,  even  the  first  domin- 


\f         Before 
^^     CHRIST 


It   is  not  even  mentioned  in   the 


ciz'cuit  of  the  walls,  at  their  dedication  under 
Nehemiah  '*,  probably  as  an  outlying,  spot. 
It  was  probably  of  moment  chiefly,  as  giving 

1  de  loc.  Hebr.  Arculf  A.  U.  G70  found  "ii  Church 
of  the  Shepherds,"  a  mile  from  Bethlehem.  Early 
trav.  in  Pal.  p.  6.  The  Migdal  Edar  is  mentioned 
also  in  the  Mass.  Shekalim  c.  7.  4.  "Of  the  herds, 
in  the  space  between  Jerusalem  and  'the  tower  of 
the  flock'  and  on  both  sides,  the  males  are  for 
burnt-offerings,  the  female  for  peace-offeringi^.  K. 
Jeliuda  says,  whatever  male  animals  are  found 
(there)  thirty  days  before  the  passover  fit  for  it,  are 
to  be  used  thereto."  in  Sepp.  Hoil.  Land.  ii.  470. 

*fJen.  XXXV.  21. 

'Ps.  Jon.  on  Gen.  xxxv.  21.  "This  is  the  plm-c, 
whpro  in  the  last  days  Messiah  shall  be  revealed."      , 

*  Ophel.  like  many  other  Hebrew  Proper  names,  I' 
did  not  lose  its  original  appellative  meaning,  and 
so  in  the  6  places,  where  it  occurs  in  the  prose 
books  keeps  the  article;  2  Chron.  xxvii. :}.  xxxiii. 
14.  .Neh.  iii.  2B,  7.  xi.  21.  and  2  Kings  v.  24.  in  which 
lust  place  it  may  very  possibly  be  a  place  in  Sama- 
ria, named  after  that  in  Jerusalem.  It  occurs  with- 
out the  art.  here  and  Is.  xxxii.  14.  and  in  Josephus, 
'0<tt\a<:.  The  E.  V.  retains  the  word  as  a  Proper 
name  In  the  historical  books,  2  Chron.  and  Neh. 

*"The  oldest  wall  was  hard  to  be  taken  on  ac- 
count of  the  ravine.",  and  the  ridge  above  them  on 


an  advantage  to  an  enemy  who  might 
occupy  it. 

Both  then  are  images  of  lowliness.  The 
lonely  Shepherd  tower,  for  Bethlehem,  the 
birthplace  of  David  ;  Ophel  for  Jerusalem, 
of  which  it  was  yet  but  an  outlying  part, 
and  deriving  its  value  probably  as  an  out- 
work of  the  temple.  Both  symbols  anticipate 
the  fuller  prophecy  of  the  littleness,  which 
shall  become  great  in  God.  Before  the  men- 
tion of  the  greatness  of  the  dominion  to  come, 
is  set  forth  the  future  poverty  to  which  it 
should  come.  In  lowliness  Christ  came,  yet 
is  indeed  a  Tower  protecting  and  defending 
the  sheep  of  His  pasture,  founded  on  earth 
in  His  Human  Nature,  reaching  to  Heaven 
in  His  Divine ;  '^  a  strong  Toner  ;  the  righteous 
runneth  into  it,  and  is  safe. 

Unto  thee  shall  it  come;  (lit.  unto  thee  shall 
it  come  '^  and  there  shall  arrive  &c.)  He  saith 
not  at  first  what  shall  come,  and  so  raises  the 
soul  to  think  of  the  greatness  of  that  which 
should  come.  The  soul  is  left  to  fill  up  what 
is  more  than  thought  can  utter.  Unto  thee, 
(lit.  quite  tip  to  thee  ".)  No  hindrances  should 
withhold  It  from  coming.  Seemingly  it  wjis 
a  great  way  oft',  and  they  in  a  very  hopeless 
state.  He  suggests  the  difficulty  even  by  his 
strength  of  assurance.  One  could  not  say,  if 
shall  come  quite  up  to  thee,  of  that  which  in  the 
way  of  nature  would  readily  come  to  any  one. 
But  amid  all  liindrances  God's  Might  makes 
its  way,  and  brings  His  gifts  and  promises  to 
their  end.  And  there  shall  arrive.  He  twice 
repeats  the  assurance,  in  equivalent  words, 
i  for  their  fuller  assurance,  '""^to  make  the 
good  tidings  the  gladder  by  repeating  and 
enforcing  them." 

The  first  or  former,  dominion.  The  word 
often  stands,  as  our  " former'","  in  contrast 

which  it  was  built.— On  the  West— turning  to  the  S. 
over  the  pool  of  Siloam,  and  then  again  bending 
Eastward  to  Solomon's  pool,  and  extending  to  a 
place  which  they  call  Oplilas,  it  was  joined  on  to  the 
Eastern  porch  of  the  temple."  Jos.  B.  J.  v.  4.  2. 

«Neh.  Iii.  2G.  xi.  21.  Mb.  iii.  28. 

*  Like  tumulus  from  tumeo.  FUrst.  It  is  used  of 
a  local  tumor  in  Arab,  and  in  Deut.  xxviii.  27. 1  Sam. 
V.  fi.  12.  vi.  4.  5.  and  of  the  swelling  of  pride.  Num. 
xiv.  44.  Hab.  ii.  4.  »by  John.  Jos.  B.  J.  v.  6.  1. 

10 Together  with  "the  archive,  .\cra,  the  Council- 
hall."  lb.  vi.  G.  '^.  after  the  destruction  of  the  temple, 
lb.  vi.  4.  5-7.    "  2  Chron.  xxvii.  3.    >3  lb.  xxxiii.  14. 

13  Josephus  calls  it,"  that  which  was  called  Ophlas." 
B.  J.  V.  4.  2.  vi.  6.  3. 

'«  Neh.  xii.  31-40.  •*  Prov.  xviii.  10. 

I'The  Mitsorethes  Seem  rightly  to  have  marked 
this  by  the  accents.  "  Tli'-  ''  ^up. 

i»So,  tho  former  time,  (Is.  viii.  23.)  deeds,  (2  Chron. 
ix.  29.  XVI.  11,  XX.  34,)  kim  (Num.  xxvi.  26,) 
Uibles,  (Ex.  xxxiv.  1.)  benejit\  (Ps.  Ixxxix.  50.)  days, 
(iJeut.  iv.  32,  X.  10.)  kings',  (Jer.  xxxiv.  bA  prophets, 
(Zech.  i.  4,  vii.  7.  12.)  temple,  (Ezr.  iii.  12.  Hagg.  11,  3 
'.I.)    See  Ges.  Thcs.  p.  1251. 


CHAPTER  IV, 


63 


c  H  R°i  s  T    ^°"  '   ^^®  kingdom  shall 
cir.  710.      come  to   the  daughter  of 
Jerusalem. 

9  Now  why  dost  thou 
cry  out  aloud  ?  '  is  there  no 
king  in  thee  ?  is  thy  coun- 
sellor perished  ?  for  "  pangs 
have  taken  thee  as  a  woman 
in  travail. 


JJer.  8. 19. 

■»  Is.  13.  8. 

&  21.  3. 

Jer.  30.  U. 

&  50.  43. 

with  the  "  later."  It  is  not  necessarily  the 
first,  strictly  ;  and  so  here,  not  the  dominion 
of  David  and  Solomon  exclusively.  Rather 
the  Prophet  is  placed  in  spirit  in  the  later 
times  when  the  kingdom  should  be  suspended, 
and  foretells  that  the  former  dominion,  i.  e, 
that  of  the  line  of  David,  should  come  to  her, 
not  in  its  temporal  greatness,  but  the  line 
itself.  So  the  Angel  said,  ^  He  shall  be  great 
and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest,  and 
the  Lord  God  shall  give  unto  Him  the  throne  of 
His  father  Daind,  and  He  shaU  reign  over  the 
honse  of  Jacob  for  ever. 

The  \_A]  kingdom  to  the  daughter  of  Jerusa- 
lem, i.  e.  a  kingdom,  which  should  not  be  of 
her,  but  which  should  come  to  her ;  not  her's 
by  right,  but  by  His  right,  Who  should  merit 
it  for  her,  and,  being  King  of  kings,  makes 
His  own,  '^  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His 
Father. 

The  Jews  themselves  seem  to  have  taken 
these  words  into  their  own  mouths,  just 
before  they  rejected  Him,  when  they  hoped 
that  He  would  be  a  king,  such  as  they  wished 
for.  **  Blessed  be  the  kingdom  of  our  father 
David  that  cometh  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord. 
And  in  a  distorted  form,  they  held  it  even 
afterward  *. 

9.  Now.  The  prophet  places  himself  in 
the  midst  of  their  deepest  sorrows,  and  out  of 
them  he  promises  comfort.  Why  dost  thou 
cry  out  aloud  f  is  there  no  King  in  thee  ?  is  thy 
Counsellor  perished^l  Is  then  all  lost,  because 
thou  hast  no  visible  king,  none  to  counsel 
thee  or  consult  for  thee  ^?  Very  remarkably 
he  speaks  of  their  King  and  Counsellor  as  one, 
as  if  to  say,  "  When  all  beside  is  gone,  there 
is  One  Who  abides.  Though  thou  be  a  cap- 
tive, God  will  not  forsake  thee.  When  thou 
hadst  no  earthly  king,  "  the  Lord  thy  God  was 
thy  King.  He  is  the  First,  and  He  is  the 
Last.  When  thou  shalt  have  no  other,  He, 
thy  King,    ceaseth  not    to    be."      " '  Thou 

1  S.  Luke  i.  32,  3.  s  Rev.  i.  6. 

8  S.  Mark  xi.  10. 

<Targ.  "  And  thou,  O  Messiah  of  Israel,  who  art 
hid  on  account  of  the  sins  of  the  congregation 
of  Israel,  to  thee  the  kingdom  will  come,"  giving 

to  Sair  the  sense  of  bsx.  (as  in  the  LXX.  Vulg. 

,\f(.  Symm.  Syr.)  and  thence  obtaining  the  sen.«e 


10  Be  in  pain,  and  la-  d^l^Hr^ 
bor  to  bring  forth,  O  cir.  710. 
daughter  of  Zion,  like  a 
woman  in  travail :  for  now 
shalt  thou  go  forth  out  of 
the  city,  and  thou  shalt 
dwell  in  the  field,  and  thou 
shalt  go  even  to  Babylon ; 
there  shalt  thou  be  de- 


shouldest  not  fear,  so  long  as  He,  Who  coun- 
selleth  for  thee,  liveth  ;  but  He  liveth  for 
ever."  Thy  Counsellor,  He,  Who  is  called 
<*  Counsellor,  Who  counselleth  for  thee. 
Who  counselleth  thee,  will,  if  thou  obey 
His    counsel,    make   birth-pangs  to  end  in 

joy- 

For  pangs  have  taken  thee,  as  a  woman  in. 
travail,  resistless,  remediless,  doubling  the 
whole  frame,  redoubled  until  the  end,  for 
which  God  sends  them,  is  accomplished,  and 
then  ceasing  in  joy.  The  truest  comfort, 
amid  all  sorrow,  is  in  owning  that  the 
travail-pains  must  be,  but  that  the  reward 
shall  be  afterward.  "'It  is  meet  to  look 
for  deliverance  from  God's  mercy,  as  cer- 
tainly as  for  punishment  from  our  guilt ;  and 
that  the  more,  since  He  who  foretold  both, 
willingly  saves,  punishes  unwillingly."  So 
the  prophets  adds. 

10.  Be  in  pain,  and  labor  to  bring  forth,  (lit. 
Writhe  and  burst  forth,)  as  if  to  say,  "thou 
must  sufler,  but  thy  suffering  and  thy  joy  shall 
be  one.  Thou  canst  not  have  the  joy  without 
the  suflering.  As  surely  as  thou  sufferest,  thou 
shalt  have  joy.  In  all  sorrow,  lose  not  faith 
and  hope,  and  "  thou  shalt  be  sorroirful,  but  thy 
sorrow  shall  be  turned  into  joy."  " '"  Good 
daughter,  be  very  patient  in  the  pangs,  bear 
up  against  your  sorrows,"  so  shall  the  birth 
be  nigh.  Yet  for  the  time  she  must  go  forth 
out  of  the  city  into  captivity.  And  thou  shcdt 
dwell  in  the  field,  houseless,  under  tents,  as 
captives  were  wont  to  be  kept,  until  all  were 
gathered  together  to  be  led  away ;  a  sore 
exchange  for  her  former  luxury,  and  in 
requital  of  their  oppression  '^ 

And  thou  shcdt  go  even  to  Babylon.  Not 
Babylon,  but  Assyria  was  the  scourge  of  God 
in  Micah's  time.  Babylon  was  scarcely 
known,  afar  country  ^^.  Yet  Micah  is  taught 
of  God  to  declare  that  thither  shall  the  two 
tribes  be  carried  captive,  although  the  ten 

"  hidden,"  in  reference  to  their  fable  that  He  was 
born  before  the  destruction  of  the  temple  and 
hidden  by  God. 

6  Comp.  Hos.  .\iii.  10.  « 1  Sam.  xii.  12. 

7  Mont.  8  Is.  ix.  6. 
«  S.  John  xvi.  20. 

WS.  Oyr.  "  .Vm.  vi.  Micali  ii.  8,  9. 

12  2  Kings  XX.  14, 


64 


MICAH. 


Before 


CHRIST    livered;   there  the  Lord 
cir.  710.      shall  redeem  thee  from  the 


hand  of  thine  enemies. 
•  Lam.  2. 16.  11  ^"ISTow   also   many 

nations    are    gathered 
against  thee,  that  say,  Let 


were  carried  captive  by  Assyria.  There^ 
shall  thou  be  delivered,  there  the  Lord  shall 
re<leeni  thee  from  the  hatuP  of  thine  enemies. 
God's  judgments,  or  purifying  trials,  or  visi- 
tation of  His  saints,  hold  their  way,  until 
tiieir  end  be  reached.  They  who  sufl'er  them 
cannot  turn  them  aside;  they  who  inflict 
them  c;mnot  add  to  them  or  detain  them. 
The  prisonhouse  is  the  place  of  deliverance 
to  Joseph  and  St.  Peter;  the  Red-sea  to 
Israel ;  the  judges  were  raised  up,  when  Israel 
was  mightily  oppressed  ;  Jabesh-Gilead  was 
delivered  when  the  seventh  day  was  come  ^ ; 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem  were  the  end  of  Sen- 
nacherib; Judah  should  have  long  been  in 
the  very  hand  and  grasp  of  Babylon,  yet 
must  its  clenched  hand  be  opened. 

11.  Now  also,  [Ami  now.}  The  prophet 
had  already  spoken  of  the  future  before  them, 
with  this  word  Now.  Then,  he  distinctly 
prophesied  the  captivity  to  Babylon.  Twice 
more  he  begins  anew ;  as  Holy  Scripture,  so 
often,  in  a  mystery,  whether  speaking  of  evil 
or  of  good,  of  deliverance  or  of  punishment, 
uses  a  threefold  form.  In  these  two,  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  enemy,  and  so  there  is  some 
uncertainty.  But  the  course  must  apparently 
be  either  backward  or  forward.  They  must 
either  be  two  nearer  futures  before  the  Cap- 
tivity, or  two  more  distant  after  it.  This 
second  gathering  might,  in  itself,  either  be 
that  of  the  Assyrian  hosts  under  Sennacherib 
out  of  all  the  nations  subject  to  him  ;  or  that 
of  the  many  potty  nations  in  the  time  of  the 
Maccabees,  wlio  took  advantage  of  the 
Syriaas'  oppression,  to  combine  to  eradicate 
the  Jews*.  If  undei-stood  of  Sennacherib, 
tlie  prophet,  having  foretold  the  entire  cap- 
tivity of  the  wiiole  people  to  Baljylon,  would 
have  prophesied  the  sudden  destruction  of  a 
nearer  enemy,  whose  miraculous  and  instan- 
taneous overtlirow  should  be  the  earnest  of 
the  destruction  of  Babylon  and  of  their 
deliverance  from  it.  This  would  suit  well 
with  the  description.  He  shall  (gather  them  as 
sficMvca  to  the  Jloor,  and  would  correspond  well 
with  the  descriptions  in  Isaiah.  On  the 
otlier  hand,  whereas  thi.<f  description  would 
suit  any  other  event,  in  which  man  gathered 
his  strength  against  God  and  was  overthrown, 

>  See  on  IIos.  ii.  10. 

»lit.   "the  liollow  of   tlie  Laud,"  and  so    "the 
gra-ip." 
a  1  Ham.  xi.  .1.  10.  11. 
*1  .Mace.  V.  1,2. 


Before 


her  be  defiled,  and  let  our    c  h  r  i  s  t 
eye  °  look  upon  Zion.  c''"-  '^^'^- 


12  But   they  know  not  "'O'^a^.12. 

•'  ch.  7.  10. 

Pthe  thoughts  of  the  Lord,  pIs.  as.  s. 

*  '        Rom.  11. 33. 

neither  undei-stand  they 
his   counsel:  for  he  shall 


the  following  words,  Arise  and  thresh,  0 
daughter  of  Zion,  &c,  fit  better  with  the  vic- 
tories of  the  Maccabees,  in  which  Israel  was 
active,  than  with  the  overthrow  of  Sen- 
nacherib, in  which  they  were  wholly  passive, 
and  God  did  all  for  them,  as  Isaiah  and 
Nahum  foretell  the  same  overthrow  *.  Then 
also,  if  the  course  of  the  description  was 
backward,  1)  the  captivity  in  Babylon,  2) 
the  destruction  of  Sennacherib,  there  is  no 
earlier  event  to  correspond  with  ^  the  smiting 
of  the  judge  of  Israel  on  the  cJieek.  The  malice 
also  of  the  nations  gathered  against  Zion 
suits  better  with  the  abiding  character  of  the 
petty  nations,  and  of  their  hereditary  envy 
against  Israel  and  its  high  claims.  To 
Nineveh  and  Babylon,  Israel  was  but  one 
little  corner  of  ground,  which- rounded  their 
territory  and  connected  them  with  Egypt. 
They  disdained  them,  even  while  they  sought 
to  subdue  them.  Micah  describes  the  exul- 
tation of  petty  gratified  rivalry. 

That  say,  let  her  be  defiled.  The  bad  have  a 
keen  eye  for  the  baitings  and  inconsistencies 
and  falls  of  God's  people,  for  which  they  are 
ever  on  the  watch.  Like  Satan,  tliey  are 
first  tempters,  then  the  accusers ;  first  dese- 
crators,  then  sanctimonious  justiciaries.  God, 
in  His  judgment,  leaves  what  has  been  in- 
wardly defiled  to  be  outwardly  profaned.  ^If 
any  mxin  defile  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God 
destroy;  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which 
temple  are  ye.  "  The  faithful  city  had  become  a 
harlot.  ^  The  land  had  become  polluted  by  its 
inhabitants.  Now  it  was  to  be  polluted 
by  the  enemy.  Its  seducers  ask  for  the 
judgment  of  God.  "It  has  become  like 
us  in  its  deeds;  let  it  no  more  be  distin- 
guished from  us  by  the  name  of  the  people 
of  God." 

And  let  our  eye  look  upon  Zion,  with  pleasure 
upon  its  desolation,  and  feed  itself  with  its 
misery.  ""'Whore  the  eye,  there  love; 
where  the  hand,  there  pain."  "  They  opened 
their  mouth  wide  against  me:  they  said.  Aha, 
Aha,  our  eye  fuith  seen.  The  world  hates  tlie 
Church  ;  Edom,  Israel ;  it  cannot  bo  satisfied 
with  beholding  its  chastisoinents'-.  Tlie 
suflerings  of  the  Martyrs  were  the  choice 
spectacle  of  the  Heathen. 

t  Is.  X.  24-34.  xlv.  24,  (i.  xvii.  12-14.  xxix.  7,  8.  Na?i. 
1. 10-13.   ''v.  1-4.  Heb.     U  Cor.  iii.  17.     «  Is.  i.  21. 

» Jer.  ill.  9.  Ps.  cvl.  3S.  Is   xxiv.  6. 
10  Proverb  in  Lap.  "  Ps  xrxv  21. 

>«Mlc.  vil.  10.  Ob.  12. 


CHAPTER  IV 


65 


cHR°i"sT    gather   them   "as   the 
cir.  710.      sheaves  into  the  floor. 


q  Is.  21. 10. 
'  Is.  41.  15, 16. 
Jer.  51.  33. 


13  ■■  Arise  and  thresh,  O 
daughter  of  Zion :  for  I 
will  make  thine  horn  iron, 
and  I  will  make  thy  hoofs 


12.  But  they  know  not  the  thoughts  of  the 
Loi'd,  neither  understand  they  His  counsel. 
The  heathen  did,  for  their  own  ends,  what 
God  willed  for  His.  The  first  step  was  the 
same ;  God  willed  that  His  people  should  be 
punished  ;  they  willed  to  punish  them.  But 
all  which  lay  beyond,  they  saw  not ;  that 
God  willed  (on  tlieir  repentance)  to  pardon 
His  own  people,  but  to  punish  themselves  for 
their  pride  ^  and  cruelty  ^.  "  ^  Almighty 
God  corrects  the  elect  through  the  reprobate, 
as  with  a  rod  ;  after  which  He  condemns  the 
reprobate  eternally,  as  when  the  son  has 
been  disciplined,  the  rod  is  cast  into  the 
fire." 

For  He  shall  gather  them  as  the  sheaves  into 
the  floor.  The  multitude  of  the  sheaves  hin- 
ders not  the  threshing;  the  multitude  of 
God's  enemies  hinders  not  their  destruc- 
tion. They  think  that  they  strengthen 
themselves,  as  they  gather  together;  God 
sees  them  but  as  ripened  and  fitted  for 
destruction,  gathered  into  one  bundle 
together,  to  perisli  together.  God  gathers 
them,  not  by  constraint  or  force,  but  by 
giving  free  scope  to  their  own  wayward  wills, 
and  overruling  these  to  His  ends. 

13.  Arise  (it  may  be,)  from  the  dust  in 
which  they  were  lying,  I  uill  make  thine  horn 
iron,  ami  I  uill  make  thy  hoofs  brass.  Thresh- 
ing in  the  East  is  partly  with  oxen,  partly 
with  wheels  of  iron,  or  with  planks  set  with 
sharp  flints  on  an  open  place  made  hard  to 
this  end.  The  Prophet  joins  another  image, 
with  this  and  represents  Judah  as  being  by 
God  endued  with  strength,  first  as  with  a 
horn  of  iron  *  to  cast  the  enemy  to  the 
ground,  and  then  with  hoofs  of  brass,  where- 
with to  trample  them  to  dust,  as  the  stubble 
and  chaflT.  And  I  will  consecrate  their  gain  unto 
the  Lord,  i.  e.  to  Myself ;  the  Lord  gathered 
them  into  the  floor  by  His  Providence  ;  the 
Lord  gave  His  people  strength  to  subdue 
them  ;  and  now,  in  His  own  Person,  He  says, 
I  will  complete  My  own  work. 

The  very  image  of  the  "  threshing  "  im- 
plies that  this  is  no  mere  destruction.  While 
the  stubble  is  6eafe(i  or  bruised  to  small  pieces, 
and  the  chaff"  is  far  more  than  the  wheat, 
and  is  carried  out  of  the  floor,  there  yet  re- 
mains the  seed-corn.  So  in  the  great  judg- 
ments of  God,  while  most  is  refuse,  there  yet 


1  Is.  X.  7. 12 
8  Dion. 


2  Zeeh.  i.  15. 19. 
*1  Kinpri;  xxii.  11. 


brass :  and  thou  shalt '  beat  ^  h  r7s  t 
in   pieces  many  people :      cir.  7io. 

'  and  I  will  consecrate  their  « Dan.  2. 44. 

gain  unto  the  Lord,  and  '&23.W" 

their  substance  unto  "the  « zeck.^4.^i4. 
Lord  of  the  whole  earth.      *  *'•  ^• 


remains  over,  what  is  severed  from  the  lost 
heap  and  wholly  consecrated  to  Him.  What- 
ever things  were  the  object  of  the  "  Cherem  ^" 
or  "  thing  devoted  to  the  Lord,"  could  not  be 
redeemed,  but  must  remain  wholly  the  Lord's. 
If  it  had  life,  it  was  to  be  put  to  death  *.  And 
so  the  use  of  the  word  here  may  the  rather 
shew,  how  those  converted  to  God,  and  who 
became  gain,  hallowed  to  Him,  were  to  pass 
through  death  to  life,  to  die  to  themselves 
that  they  might  live  to  Him  :  what  was  evil 
was  to  be  slain  in  them,  that  they  themselves 
might  live. 

The  Israelites  and  God's  dealings  with 
them  are  '  ensaniples  of  vs  upon  ivhom  the  ends 
of  the  world  are  come.  And  so  the  whole  sec- 
tion fits  wonderfully  with  the  condition  of  the 
single  soul. 

She  who  halteth  is  "  ^  the  soul,  who  would 
serve  God,  yet  not  so  as  wholly  to  give  up 
the  service  of  the  world,  whicli  it  had  in 
Baptism  renounced,  who,  after  it  had  gone 
astray  like  a  lost  sheep,  and  leen  scattered 
amid  the  manifoldness  of  eartlily  things,  was 
gathered  again  into  the  fold,  to  love  One 
only,  long  for  One  only,  give  itself  to  One," 
its  Good  Shepherd,  and  over  it  the  Lord 
reigneth  for  ever,  if,  taught  by  experience 
the  deceilfulness  of  Satan's  promises,  and 
stung  by  the  sense  of  its  own  thanklessness  and 
vilencss,  and  conscious  of  the  peril  of  self 
confidence,  it  abideth  more  closely  than 
others  with  God.  He  shall  gather  her  that  is 
driven  out,  i.  e.  '"He  shall  restore  her,  from 
whom  Lie  had,  for  the  time,  withdrawn  His 
grace,"  and  her  that  was  afflicted,  trouble  being 
God's  most  effectual  instrument,  in  recalling 
the  soul  to  Himself.  "  ^"  For  the  Lord  raiseth 
them  that  are  bowed  dmvn.  And  will  make  her 
that  halteth,  a  remnant,  placing  her  among  the 
elect  and  holy,  and  her  that  was  cast  off  strong  ; 
for  Christ  giveth  oft  to  such  souls  great  rich- 
ness of  Divine  graces,  so  that  "  ichere  sin 
abounded,  grace  should  much  more  abouwl." 
"  ®  To  it,  when  enlightened  and  puiitieii  by 
affliction  and  by  repentance,  it  is  promised, 
that  its  Lord,  the  Great  King,  shall  come  t<i 
it,  and  again  reign  in  it,  whicii  is  the  great 
bliss  of  souls  in  grace.  For  then  doth  the 
soul  really  reign,  when  it  submits  wholly  to 
Christ,  Whom  to  serve  is  to  reign,  and  so, 
under  Him,  receives  power  to  command  its 

»  Lev.  xxvii.  28.       « lb.  29.  '  1  Cor.  x.  11. 

8  Rib.      »  Dion,     w  Ps.  cxlvl.  8.     "  Rom.  T.  20. 


66 


MICAH. 


'Before    ,  CHAPTER   V. 

^Jir^\r^l  The  birth  of  Christ.    4  His 
kimjdom.     8  His  conquest. 

MOW  gather  thyself  in 

troops  O  daughter  of  ' 

wrong  desires,  and  rule  itself ; "  that  great 
and  wonderful  powt-r  which  the  Evangelist 
expresses  in  words  so  brief,  ^  To  them  gave  He 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God.  Thus  He 
vuiketh  it  strong,  so  that  ^  neither  death,  nor  life, 
nor  angels,  nor  pnncipalities,  nor  poivers,  can 
separate  it  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesits  our  Lord.  Then,  "  he  describes  the 
condition  of  the  soul  fluctuating  between  good 
and  evil,  called  one  way  by  Crod  through  in- 
ward inspiratious,  and  another  way  by  the 
enticements  and  habits  of  sin.  And,  wishing 
to  follow  Crod.  yet  not  to  be  without  its  sinful 
pleasures,  and  knowing  this  to  be  impossible, 
it  is  in  anguish  and  hesitates.  Her  the  pro- 
phet justly  rebukes,  '  whi/  thus  cry  ulmid,  as 
though  thou  must  be  led  captive  by  the 
Devil,  not  knowing  or  unable  to  extricate 
thyself?  Hast  thou  no  King,  aided  by  Whose 
power,  thdu  mayest  figiit  against  all  entice- 
ments, habit,  the  flesli?'  Paul  felt  this  and 
cried  aloud,  ^  /  see  another  law  in  my  members, 
warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  hing- 
ing me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  t.s  in, 
my  members.  0  wretched  man  that  I  am,  ivho 
shall  deliver  me  from  tite  body  of  this  death  P" 
You  see  his  grief.  But  he  despairs  not.  He 
knows  that  he  has  a  King.  I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Or  why  griev- 
est  thou,  as  if  thou  hadst  no  counsellor,  by 
whose  counsels  to  free  thee  from  these  snares  ? 
Thy  Counsellor  indeed  perished  on  the  Cross, 
but  for  thy  sake,  that  thou  mayest  live.  He 
died,  to  destroy  him  who  hath  the  power  of 
death.  But  lie  rose  the  third  day  and  is 
still  with  thee  ;  at  tlie  Right  Hand  of  the 
leather  He  still  reigns  Inunortal  forever. 
See  how  many  counsels  He  has  left  thee  in 
the  Gospel,  how  many  admonitions,  whereby 
I  liou  mayest  lead  a  happy  and  tranquil  life. 
Now  pain  seizes  thee  like  «  woman  in  travail. 
I'orsiuh  a  soul  travails,  having  conceived  in- 
spirations from  Clod,  Avhich  it  wishes  to  obey, 
but  that  the  llesh,  overcome  by  concupiscence, 
resists,  and  Si>  it  never  brings  foith,  nor  ex- 
))eriences  that  joy,  whereof  the  Lord  speak- 
eth,  *When  she  w  delivered  of  the  child,  she  re- 
memhereth  no  more  the  an(/uish,for  joy  that  a 
uutn  is  horn  into  tli£  world.  vVherofore  he  adds; 
he  in  jtain,  for  tliou  art  indeed  in  travail ; 
thou  wilt  not  cease  to  l>e  in  pain,  until  thou 
l)riiig  fortli.  Thou  will  go  forth,  iir.  "•''(iod, 
by  a  ])n)vision  of  His  trreat  mercy,  allows 
lukewarm  souls,  who  will  be  at  no  pains  to 
gain  grace,  ♦"  fail   into  foulest  sins,  in  order 

'.S.  .lohn  i.  1.:.    2  t!..|ii.  viit.  :!8,!i.    »Rom.  vii.  23.-.M. 
VM.  .John  xvi. -.'l.    6  Rib.    'Heb.  xl.  to.    Ms.  ix.ii. 


troops:  he  hath  laid  siege 
against  us :  they  shall 
"smite  the  judge  of  Israel 
with  a  rod  upon  the  cheek. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


•  Lam.  3.  30. 
Matt.  5. 39. 
&27.  30. 


that,  owning  at  last  their  misery,  they  may 
cease  to  be  lukewarm,  and  with  great  ardor 
of  soul  may  embrace  virtue.  For,  warned  by 
the  result,  they  understand  that  they  them- 
selves emboldened  the  tempter,  (for  he 
cliiefly  attacks  the  lukewarm  and  remiss,) 
and  they  become  ardent  in  the  conflict  and  in 
well-doing."  Wherefore  he  says,  thou  shcdt 
go  forth  out  of  the  city,  that  City  of  God,  where- 
of He  is  the  Builder  and  Maker  ^,  which  is 
gladdened  by  the  river  of  His  spirit ;  "  and 
it  dwells  in  the  open  field,  unprotected,  reach- 
to  be  a  prey,  in  the  broad  way  of  its  own  con- 
cupiscences, out  of  the  narrow  road  irhich  lead- 
eth  to  life,  and  goeth  even  to  Babylon,  the  city  of 
'  confusion,'  in  tumult  and  din  and  unrest, 
and  the  distractions  of  tliis  life."  Yet  even 
there  shall  it  be  delivered,  like  the  poor 
Prodigal,  who  came  to  himself  in  a  far  coun- 
try, when  worn  out  by  its  hai-d  service.  Even 
there  it  must  not  despair,  but  remember, 
with  him,  its  Father's  house,  its  former 
home,  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem.  Its  pains 
within  or  without,  whereby  it  is  brought 
back,  are  travail-pains.  Though  all  is  dark, 
it  must  not  say,  7  have  no  Counsellor.  For  its 
Redeemer's  Name  is  ^Counsellor,  "*one 
Counsellor  of  a  thousand."  "  "  Thine  Inter- 
cessor never  dies."  Out  of  the  very  depth  of 
misery  will  the  Divine  Mercy  draw  thee. 
Though  thou  seem  held  by  the  strong  hand 
of  the  enemy,  and  lie  seems  to  triumph  over 
thee  and  to  jeer  thee, '°  There,  there  so  xvouldwe 
have  it,  we  have  ilevO'ired  him,  and  hosts  of 
devils  seek  thy  utter  destruction,  and  thou 
seem  to  be  "  delivereei  over  to  them  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  flesh ;  yet  is  it  only  that  the 
spirit  may  be  saved  in  tlie  Day  of  the  Lord. 
hven  Satan,  when  he  is  tormenting  souls, 
knows  not  the  thoughts  nf  the  Lord,  nor  under- 
stands His  counsels,  how,  by  the  very  pain 
which  he  inflicts,  God  is  bidding  them,  Rise 
and  "*look  up  to  heaven  and  long  foi  heav- 
enly things  and  tram]>le  on  all  which  they 
had  hitherto  foully  .served,  honor  or  vain 
glory  or  covetousness  or  lust;"  how  He  will 
exalt  their  horn  in  the  Lord,  make  it  strong  as 
iron  that  they  should  do  alt  things  through 
Chri.'it  in  strengthening  then},  and  conquer  all 
through  the  might  of  Christ ;  how  He  should 
bruise  Satan  vnder  their  feet  .ihnrtli>,  and  they 
consecrate  wholly  to  (iod  their  whole  strength, 
every  power  of  soul  and  body  which  hitherto 
had  been  the  adversary's. 

V.  1.  Now  gather  thyseif  in  troops,  0  daughter 


'  KopIup.  vi.  6. 
>"P8.  XXXV.  26. 


»  Christmn  Yenr. 
u  1  Cor.  V.  f). 


CHAPTER  V. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


2  But  thou,  "Beth-le- 

•>  Matt.  2.  6.    John  7.  42. 


of  troops.  The  dmujhter  of  troops  is  still  tlie 
same  who  was  before  addressed,  Judah.  The 
word  is  almost  always '  used  of  "  bands  of 
men  employed  in  iri-egular,  marauding,  in- 
roads." Judah  is  entitled  daughter  of  troops, 
on  account  of  her  violence,  tlie  I'obbery  and 
bloodshed  within  lier  '^,  as  Jeremiah  says  ^,  Is 
this  house  which  is  ccdkd  by  My  Name  becmne  a 
den  of  robbers  in  your  eyesf  She  then  who 
hud  spoiled*  ^\\on\(\.  now  he  spoiled ;  she  who 
had  formed  herself  in  bands  to  lay  waste, 
shall  now  be  gathered  thick  together,  in 
small  bands  ^,  unable  to  resist  in  the  open 
field  ;  yet  in  vain  should  she  so  gather  her- 
self; for  the  enemy  was  upon  her,  in  lier  last 
retreat. 

This  description  has  obviously  no  fulfill- 
ment, except  in  the  infliction  by  the  Romans. 
For  there  was  no  event,  before  the  invasion 
by  Sennacherib  and  accordingly  in  the  pvo- 
phet'sown  time,  in  which  there  is  any  seem- 
ing fulfillment  of  it.  But  then,  the  second 
deliverance  must  be  that  by  the  Maccabees  ; 
and  this  siege,  which  lies,  in  order  of  time, 
beyond  it,  must  be  a  siege  by  the  Romans. 
With  this  it  agrees,  that  whereas,  in  the  two 
former  visitations,  God  promised,  in  the  first, 
deliverance,  in  the  second,  victory,  here  the 
Proi^het  dwells  on  the  Person  of  the  Redeem- 
er, and  foretells  that  the  strength  of  the 
Church  should  not  lie  in  any  human  means". 
Here  too  Israel  had  no  king,  but  a  judge  only. 
Then  the  "gathering  in  robber-bands"  strik- 
ingly describes  their  internal  state  in  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  although  this  was 
subsequent  to  and  consequent  upon  the  rejec- 
tion of  our  Lord,  yet  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  end  should  be  separated  from  the  begin- 
ning since  the  captui'e  by  Titus  was  but  the 
sequel  of  the  capture  by  Pompey,  the  result 
of  that  same  temper,  in  which  they  crucified 
Jesus,  because  He  would  not  be  their  earthly 
king.  It  was  the  close  of  the  organic  exist- 
ence of  the  former  people  ;  after  which  the 
remnant  from  among  them  with  the  Gentiles, 
not  Israel  after  the  flesh,  were  the  true  people 
of  God. 

He  hath  laid  siege  against  us.  The  Prophet, 
being  born  of  them,  and  for  the  great  love  he 
bore  them,  counts  himself  among  them,  as 
St.  Paul  mourns  over  his  brethren  after  the 
flesh.     They  shall  smite  the  judge  of  Israel  with  a 

1  i.e.  except  .Job  xxv.  3.  (where  it  is  used  of  the 
armies  of  God)  and  Jnh  xxix.  25.  In  Job  xix.  5.  it 
is  used  metaphorifally  of  the  "host"  of  evils  sent 
against  Job.  S.  Jerome  renders  "filia  latronis," 
and  s.iy.s  tliat  Ac|.  Syinni.  Tlieod.  and  Ed.  V.  agree 
with  that  rendering^ 

*ii.  8.  iii.  2.  &c.  Hos.  v.  lo. 

•■' Jer.  vil.  11.  eomp.  S.  Matt.  xxi.  i:;.    ■•  Is.  xxxiii.  1. 

'"nTjnn  and  inj  S^2  arctnanili'stlytobetakpn 
in  corresponding  senses.     That  of  "gathering  in 


hem  Ephratah  though  thou    ^  h  rTI  t 


rod  upon  the  cheek.  So  St.  Paul  said  to  him 
who  had  made  himself  high  priest, '  God  shall 
smite  thee,  thou  whited  milt ;  for  sittc.^t  thou  to 
judge  me  after  the  lau;  and  co'mmandest  me  to  be 
mniiten  contrary  to  the  law.  It  is  no  longer 
"the  king"  (for  they  had  said,*  We  harem 
King  but  Casar)  but  the  judge  of  Israel,  they 
who  against  Christ  and  His  Apostles  gave 
wrong  judgment.  As  they  had  smitten  con- 
trary to  the  law,  so  were  the  chief  men  smit- 
ten by  Titus,  when  the  city  was  taken.  As 
they  had  done  it,  M-as  done  unto  them.  To 
be  smitten  on  the  face,  betokens  shame;  to 
smite  with  the  rod,  betokens  destruction. 
Xow  both  shall  meet  in  one  ;  as,  in  the  Great 
Day,  the  wicked  '  shall  awake  to  shame  and  ever- 
lasting contempt,  and  shall  perish  for  ever. 

2.  But  [And]  thou,  Bethlehem  Ephratah. 
With  us,  the  chequered  events  of  time  st;md 
in  strong  contrast,  painful  or  gladdening. 
Good  seems  to  efliice  evil,  or  evil  blots  out 
the  memory  of  the  good.  God  orders  all  in 
the  continuous  course  of  His  Wisdom.  All 
lies  in  perfect  harmony  in  the  Divine  Mind. 
Each  event  is  the  sequel  of  what  went  before. 
So  hei-e  the  Prophet  joins  on,  what  to  us 
stands  in  such  contrast,  with  that  siniple. 
And.  Yet  he  describes  the  two  conditions  as 
bearing  on  one  another.  He  had  just 
spoken  of  the  judge  of  Israd  smitten  on  the 
cheek,  and,  before'",  that  Israel  had  neither 
king  nor  counsellor;  he  now  speaks  of  the 
Ruler  in  Israel,  the  Everlasting.  He  had  said, 
how  Judah  was  to  l^ecome  mere  bands  of  men  ; 
he  now  says,  ho\v  the  little  Bethlehem  was  to  be 
exalted.  He  had  said  before,  that  the  rule  of 
old  was  to  come  to  the  tower  of  the  flock,  the 
daughter  of  Jerusalem ;  now,  retaining  the 
word  '',  he  speaks  of  the  Ruler,  in  AVhom  it 
was  to  be  established.  Before  he  had  ad- 
dressed the  toiler  of  the  flock ;  now,  Bethlehem. 
But  he  has  greater  things  to  say  now,  so  he 
pauses  ''■*,  And  thou  !  People  have  admired 
the  brief  appeal  of  the  murdered  Caesar, 
"  Thou  too,  Brutus.".  The  like  energetic 
conciseness  lies  in  the  words.  And  thou .' 
Bethlehem  Ephratah.  The  name  Ephratah  is 
not  seemingly  added,  in  order  to  distinguish 
Bethlehem  from  the  Bethlehem  of  Zabulon, 
since  thatis  but  once  named''', and  Bethlehem 
here  is  marked  to  be  the  Bethlehem  Judah  '*, 
by  the  addition,  too  little  to  be  among  the  thou- 

troops"  is  the  only  l<no\vn  .sen.se  of  111 J r\n,  -'er. 
V.  7,  except  that  "of  "  malcing  incisions  in  one's 
flesh,"  which  is  obviously  irrelevant  here. 

«  V.  S-l.").        '  .'Vets  xxiii.  3.        «  St.  Jolin  xix.  I.'i. 

9  Dan.  xii.  2.  '<>  iv.  9. 

"  nStyDD  iv.  8.  ba'IO  v.  l.  Heb. 

12 As  marked  by  the  accent,  "double  Garesli." 
Casp.  !•'' Jos.  xix.  15. 

i-*  Its  name  in  Jud.  xvii.  7-n.  xix.  1,  2.  18.  Ruth  i. 
1,  2.  I  Sam.  xvii.  12. 


68 


MICAH. 


be  little  "among  the  *  thou - 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  710.  •!  Sam.  23.  23.       « Ex.  18.  26. 


snnds  of  JucUih.  He  joins  apparently  the  usual 
nume,' Bethlehem,  witli  the  old  Patriarchal, 
and  j)erhaps  poetic'  name  Ephmtah,  cither 
in  reference  and  contrast  to  that  former  birth 
of  sorrow  near  Ephratah  '^  or,  (as  is  Micali's 
wont,)  regarding  the  meaning  of  both  names. 
Both  its  names  were  derived  from  "fruitful- 
ness ;  "  "  House  of  Bread  "  and  "  fruitful- 
ness;"  and,  despite  of  centuries  of  Moham- 
medan oppression,  it  is  fertile  still  ^. 

It  had  been  rich  in  the  frnitfulness  of  this 
world ;  rich,  thrice  rich,  should  it  be  in 
spiritual  frnitfulness.  "*  Truly  is  Bethle- 
hem, '  house  of  bread,'  where  was  born  ^  the 
Bread  of  life,  whkh  canm  down  from  heaven" 
"  *  Who  with  inward  sweetness  refreshes  the 
minds  of  the  elect,"  LimjeCs  Bread,  and 
"  *  Ephratah,  frnitfulness,  whose  frnitfulness 
is  God,"  the  Seed-corn,  stored  wherein,  died 
and  brought  forth  much  fruit,  all  which  ever 
was  brought  forth  to  God  in  the  whole 
W(jrld. 

Though  thou  be  littk  among  tlie  thousnmh  of 
Jiidah,  lit.  xinall  to  be,  i.  e.  too  small  to  be  among 
iScc.  Each  tribe  wa.s  divided  into  its  thous- 
ands, probably  of  iighting  men,  each  thous- 
and having  its  own  separate  head  •*.  Bnt  tlie 
thousand  continued  to  be  a  division  of  the 
tribe,  after  Israel  wa.s  settled  in  Canaan^, 
The  thousand  of  Gideon  was  the  meanest  in 

1  Ps.  exxxii.  G.  -  Gen.jcxxv.  19.  xlviii.  7. 

3  "The  district  country  around  Bctlilchem 
abounds  in  fields,  vineyards,  liills,  valleys,  olive- 
yards,  fig-trees,  and  is"  especially  .supported  by 
wines  and  corn."  Quarosui.  Eluc-icf.  Tcrne  3.  ii.  020. 
'•  Round  the  hill  is  fruitful  garden  nnd  corn  land." 
Russegger  iii.  79.  "The  terraces,  admirably  kept, 
and  covered  with  rows  of  luxuriant  olive.s,  inter- 
mixed with  the  fig  and  vine,  sweep  in  gracefid 
curves  round  the  ridge,  regular  as  stairs."  Porter 
lldbook,  p.  20t;.  "It  IS  still  one  of  the  best-eulti- 
vati'd  and  most  fertile  parts  of  Palestine."  Rev.  G. 
Williams  in  Smith's  Gr.  and  R.  Geogr.  Add.  Volney 
ii.  2!t8.      *  in  vit.  S.  Jer.  Ep.  1U8.  de  vit.  Pauhe.  n.  10. 

5  S.  .Joh.  vi.  48,  51.  0  g.  Greg.  Horn.  8.  in  Ev. 

■  Ps.  Ixxviii.  25.  8  Num.  i.  16.  x.  4. 

"Jos.  xxii.  21.  30.  1  Sam.  x.  19.  xxiii.  23. 

"Mud.  vi.  I.'). 

"  .Vs  in  1  Chron.  xxiii.  11.  four  brothers,  not  having 
many  sons,  were  counted  as  one  "  house."    Hengst. 

'-.Ji>s.  XV.    The  LXX  interpolate  it  in  Jos.  xv.  .">9. 

"'Ens.  S.  J.r.  do  loc.  Ilebr.  "r,  miles  [in  the  Cth 
mile,  S.  Jer.]  from  .<Elia  to  the  South,  near  the  road 
which  leadeth  to  Hebron."  Itin.  Hieros.  p.  508. 
'•  From  Jerusalem,  a-"  yuii  go  to  Bethlehem,  on  the 
high  road  ai  t  mil's  i^n  tln'  right  is  the  monument 
vvh«-re  Rachel,  Jacub's  wife,  was  burii'd.  Thence  2 
miles  on  the  left  is  nelhlelnin  where  our  Lord 
•leMus  Christ  wa-i  born."  "Two  parasangs,"  (il 
miles)  Ben).  Tud  (i.  4<i.  ii.  00.)  "  (>  miles,"  Arculf, 
ilCarly  travels  in  Pal.  p.  r,.)  B.'rnanl  (lb.  ■.'O.)  Sa', 
wulf,  (lb.  44.)  "  2  hours.''  Maiuidiell.  (Ib.4.V..)  Rob- 
inson, (i.  470.)  "Tliom-'on,  The  land  ii.  .")00. 

"■van  de  Vekle  memoir  p.  Iko.  "convent  at  Beth- 
l.hcm,  2704  F.ng.  feet."  Russ. 

i".\rculf  ill  Karly  Travels  in  Palestine  p.  fi. 

'■  Ritter  Krdk.  xvi.  285.  and  Russ.  in  n.  l.V 

"Porter's  Hdliook  i.  -'"7.  "If  stands  iiiioii  an 
eniiiiencf  surrounded  by  pmall  valleys  i>r  doiires- 


sands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of 


Before  '■ 
CHRIST 


Mamtsseh  '*•.  Places  too  small  to  form  a 
thousand  by  themselves  were  united  with 
others,  to  make  up  the  number  ".  8o  lowly 
was  Bethlehem  that  it  was  not  counted 
among  the  possessions  of  Judah.  In  the 
division  under  Joshua,  it  was  wholly  omitted'*. 
From  its  situation,  Bethlehem  can  never  have 
been  a  considerable  place.  It  lay  and  lies. 
East  of  the  road  from  .Jerusalem  to  Hebron, 
at  six  miles  from  the  capital  '*.  It  was 
'"''seated  on  the  summit-level  of  the  hill 
country  of  Judsea  with  deep  gorges  descend- 
ing East  to  the  Dead  Sea  and  West  to  the 
plains  of  Philistia,"  "  2704  feet  above  the 
sea  '^."  It  lay  "  ^''  on  a  narrow  ridge,"  whose 
whole  length  was  not  above  a  mile  '®,  swell- 
ing at  each  extremity  into  a  somewhat  higher 
eminence,  with  a  slight  depression  between '\ 
"  '*  The  ridge  projects  Eastward  from  the 
central  mountain  range,  and  breaks  down  in 
abrupt  terraced  slopes  to  deep  valleys  on  the 
N.  E.  and  S."  The  West  end  too  "  '^  shelves 
gradually  down  to  the  valley."  It  was  then 
rather  calculated  to  be  an  outlying  fortress, 
guarding  the  apji roach  to  Jerusalem,  than 
for  a  considerable  city.  As  a  garrison,  it  was 
fortified  and  held  by  the  Philistines  *"  in  the 
time  of  Saul,  recovered  from  them  by  David, 
and  was  one  of  the  15  cities  '^'  fortiiled  by 
Rehoboam.   Yet  it  remained  an  unimportant 

sions,  devoted  to  the  culture  of  the  olive  and  vine." 
— "  From  this  hciglit  there  is  a  pretty  steep  slope 
on  both  the  Northaiid  Southern  sides',  particularly 
the  fdiiiier,  the  two  Wadis  or  gorges  which  form  its 
boundaries.  On  the  flanks  of  these  Wadis  are  llie 
principal  gardens,  vineyards,  and  plantations  of 
olives  and  figs.  They  unite  a  little  to  tlie  E.  of  the 
town,  and  form  what  is  called  the  Wadi-et-Taama- 
rah  from  the  village  of  Beit^Taamr,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood." Wilson,  Lands  i.  .394.  "  A  narrow  ridge, 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  valleys."  Arculf.  lb. 
"On  the  N.  the  other  side  of  the  deep,  abruptly- 
sinking,  valley,  on  the  top  of  the  hill,  lav  Bethfe- 
hem."  V.  Schubert  ii.  40-'^,  coming  from  the  south. 
"  It  stands  on  the  .slope  of  a  hill,  of  difficult  ascent, 
at  least  by  night."  Lord  Lindsay  p.  240.  "The 
first  sight  of  Bethlehem  has  something  strangely 
picturesque.  It  lies  ouite  on  a  bare  summit  in  the 
.lura  limestone  of  Palestine,  2338  Paris  feet  above 
the  sc.a.  The  summit  is  divided  by  a  shallow  .sad- 
dle-V)aek.  On  the  West  side  lies  "Bethlehem,  on 
the  East  the  great  monastery  and  Church,  like  a 
fortress  over  the  precipice,  which  falls  into  the 
deep  valley."  Russcgger  iii.  70.  "The  little  city 
of  I)avid,  f^e.ated  on  a  l^fty  hill,  shines,  like  a  bril- 
liant crown, anmiit;  the  mountains  of  Judah."  Mis- 
lin.  c.  32.  iii.  (1.  From  one  spot,  you  can  see  the 
Church  of  Bethlehem,  where  our  Saviour  was  born  ; 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  where  lie  was 
luiried;  the  ."Mount  of  ftlives  whence  He  ascended 
to  heaven."     Id.  lb. 

"(irove  ii>  Smith  Diet,  of  Bib.  "Toward  the  W. 
the  hill  is  higher  than  the  village,  and  then  sinks 
down  very  gradually  toward  Wa'di  Ahmed."  Rob. 
i.  470.  'Mo  s,,m.  xxiii.  14. 

'!'2Chron.  xi.  6.  "A  low  wall  wiiliouf  towers 
surrounds  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  overlooks  the 
vjilley."    Arculf.  p.  •>.  "scarr-ely  a  Ji  of  tui  hour." 

Bitter  p.  280. 


CIUPTEPv  V. 


69 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


thee   shall  he  come   forth  ]'  uuto    me    that    is    to    1 


>P  Beforo 

CHRIST 


place.  Its  inhabitants  are  counted  with 
those  of  the  neighboring  Netopliah,  botli 
before'  and  after ■^  the  captivity,  but  both 
together  amounted  after  tlie  captivity  to 
179^  or  188^  only.  It  still  does  not  appear 
among  the  possessions  of  Judah  *.  It  was 
called  a  city*,  but  the  name  included  even 
places  which  had  only  100  fighting  men**. 
In  our  Lord's  time  it  is  called  a  village  \  a 
city^,  or  a  strong  spot®.  The  royal  city 
would  become  a  den  of  thieves.  Christ  should 
be  born  in  a  lowly  village.  " '°  He  Who  had 
taken  the  form  of  a  servant,  chose  Bethle- 
liem  for  His  Birth,  Jerusalem  for  His 
Passion." 

St.  Matthew  relates  how  the  Chief  Priest 
and  Scribes  in  their  answer  to  Herod's  en- 
quiries, ivhere  Christ  should  be  born^^,  alleged 
this  prophecy.  They  gave  the  substance 
rather  than  the  exact  words,  and  with  one 
remarkable  variation,  art  not  the  least  among 
the  princes  of  Judah.  St.  Matthew  did  not 
correct  their  paraphrase,  because  it  does  not 
affect  the  object  for  which  they  alleged  the 
prophecy,  the  birth  of  the  Eedeemer  in 
Bethlehem.  The  sacred  writers  often  do 
not  correct  the  translations,  existing  in  their 
time,  when  the  variations  do  not  affect  the 
truth  ^^.  Both  words  are  true  here.  Micah 
speaks  of  Bethlehem,  as  it  was  in  the  sight 
of  men ;  the  chief  priests,  Avhose  words  St. 
^Matthew  approves,  speak  of  it  as  it  was  in 
the  sight  of  God,  and  as,  by  the  Birth  of 


1 1  Chron.  ii.  54.  2  Neh.  vii.  26. 

3  Ezr.  ii.  21.  2.  *  Neh.  xi.  25-30. 

5  Ruth  i.  19.  Ezr.  ii.  1.  with  21.  Neh.  vii.  6.  with  26. 

6  Am.  V.  3.  '  S.  John  vii.  42. 
8S.  Luke  ii.  4.                 ^  jos.  Ant.  v.  2.  8.  (x'^ptov) 

WS.  Leo  de  Epiph.  Serm.  1.         u  S.  Matt.  ii.  4-6. 

'2  See  on  Am.  ix.  12.  vol.  i.  p.  328.  Pococlie  has  em- 
ployed much  learning  to  make  this  passage  ver- 
tally  accord  with  the  allegation  of  it  by  the  chief 
priest  recorded  by  S.  Mattliew  (Notse  miseell.  on 
the  Porta  Mosis,  Works  i.  134-9).  He  follows  the 
eminent  authority  of  Abulwalid  (followed  by  R. 
Tanchuin  and  a  Hebr.  Arab.  Gloss.)  in  supposing 
1'J'i*,  "  little,"  to  have  had  the  opposite  sense  of 
"greatf"  and  that  it  actually  had  that  meaning  in 
.ler.  xlviii.  4.  Zech.  xiii.  ~'.  In  neither  of  those 
passages,  however,  have  Tj/i*,  l_J,'}f,  that  meaning, 
nor  do  the  cases  alleged  of  words  containing  oppo- 
site meanings  bear  out  sucli  an  one  as  this.  For 
the  two  senses,  although  ditfering  at  last,  can  be 
traced  up  to  one  common  source,  which  could  not 
be  done  as  to  Tj»y.    Thus  1)  tyip,  "holy,"  is  used 

of  idolatrous  consecrations  which  were  in  fact  hor- 
rible desecrations,  (see  on  Hos.  iv.  14.  vol.  i.  p.  52.) 
"-)  ty3 J,  "  soul,'"  is  used  of  the  "  person,"  as  we  speak 
of  "1000  souls."  Thence  the  idiom  nO  '022,  lit- 
"the  soul  of  one  dead,"  Lev.  xxi.  11.  Num.  vi.  6; 

then  in  one  idiom  lySjS  !*0p,  "  defiled  as  to  the 
dead,"  but  ty£)J  does  not  signify  one  alive  or  dead 
indifferently.    3)  l'^2,  lit.  "  bent  the  knee,"  prayed, 

jHcludes  prayers  for  evil  as  well  as  for  good,  curs- 
ing as  well  as  blessing.    4)  IDH  love,  piety,  nence 


Ciirist,  it  should  become.  "  '•'  Nothing  hin- 
dered that  Bethlehem  should  be  at  once  a 
small  village  and  the  Mother-city  of  the 
whole  earth,  as  being  the  mother  and  nurse 
of  Christ  Who  made  the  world  and  con- 
quered it."  "  "That  is  not  the  least,  which  is 
the  house  of  blessing,  and  the  receptacle  of 
Divine  grace."  "  ^^  He  saith  that  the  spot, 
although  mean  and  small,  shall  be  glorious. 
And  in  truth,"  adds  S.  Chrysoetom,  "the 
whole  world  came  together  to  see  Bethlehem, 
where,  being  born.  He  was  laid,  on  no  other 
ground  than  this  only."  "  i"  O  Bethlehem, 
little,  but  now  made  great  by  the  Lord,  He 
hath  made  thee  great.  Who,  being  great,  was 
in  thee  made  little.  What  city,  if  it  heard 
thereof,  would  not  envy  thee  that  most 
precious  Stable  and  tli£  glory  of  that  Crib  ? 
Thy  name  is  great  in  all  the  earth,  and  all 
generations  call  thee  blessed.  ^'  Glorious  things 
are  everywhere  spoken  of  thee,  thou  city  of  God. 
Everywhere  it  is  sung,  that  this  Man  is  born 
in  her,  and  the  Most  High  Himself  shall  stab- 
lish  her. 

Out  of  thee  shall  He  come  forth  to  Me  that  is 
to  be  Ruler  in  Israel  [lit.  shall  (one)  come 
forth  to  Me  to  be  Bider.]  Bethlehem  wastoo 
small  to  be  any  part  of  the  polity  of  Judah  ; 
out  of  her  was  to  come  forth  One,  Who,  in 
God's  Will,  was  to  be  its  Kuler.  The  words 
to  Me  Include  both  of  Me  and  to  Me.  Of  Me, 
i.  e.  "  ^®  by  My  Power  and  Spirit,"  as  Gabriel 
said,  ^*  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee,  and 

perhaps,  what  is  forbidden  by  natural  piety,  (Lev. 
XX.  17.)  and  a  reproach ;  (Prov.  xiv.  34.  lb.  xxv.  10.) 
unless  different  roots  have  accidentally  coalesced, 

(see  Furst  Cone.)  as  in  73ty,  to  u.se  "insight," 

hence  wisdom,  and  730  vacillate,  hence  folly, 
meet  in  one  Syriae  word;  or  our  let,  "hinder,"  is 
from  lata,  "  slow  ;"  latyan^  "  retard  ;"  Goth,  our 
let,  "allow,"  from  "  ieifni "  1.  q.  lassen.)  In  Arabic 
this  is  the  more  common  on  account  of  the  sever- 
ance of  the  different  tribes  who  spoke  it,  before 
Mohammed  united  them  into  one,  as  the  same 
word  receives  modifications  in  different  languages 
of  Europe.  The  i\ieaning,  "  great  "  also,  if  it  could 
be  obtained  for   '1''j;}f,  would  still  not  yield  the 

meaning  desifed.  For  rwnS  implie.f  a  compai-i- 
son.  It  means  little  to  he  in  the  thousands  of  Judah 
i.  e.  too  little.  If  Tj,']^  were  rendered  great,  it 
would  still  be  "  great  to  be  among  the  thousands  " 
&c.  i.  e.  too  great  to  be.  Chald.  Lxx.  Syr.  and  the 
Latin  in  S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  D.  xviii.  30.  give  another 
explanation,  it  is  little  that  thou  shouldest  he.  This 
does  not  agree  better  with  the  words  in  St.  Matthew, 
and  is  against  the  idiom.    In  this  idiom  1)  T^^'i"  is 

not  used,  but  mostly  Dj^O,  or  SpJ  Is.  xlix.  G.  or 

|£3p  2  Sam.  vii.  19.    2)  The  person  spoken  to  is 

always  expressed. 
13  S.  Greg.  Naz.  Orat.  18.  in  patr.  1 17. 
HS.  Chrys.  Quod  Christus  sit  Deus  §3.  i.  561. 
16  S.  .iVmbr.  Ep.  70.  a  11. 
10  S.  Bern.  Serm.  1  in  Vig.  Nativ.  g  4.  i.  763. 
"  Ps.  Ixxxvii.  3. .    18  Theoph.      "  3.  Luke  i.  35. 


MicAir 


chrTst    '"^■"l*^^*  i"    Isijiel;    'whose 
cir.  710.       goings   forth    have    been 

•  Gen.  ■19. 10.  Is.  9.0.    'Ps.  90.  2.  Pro.  8. 22, 23.  John  1.1. 


from  of  old,  from  fever- 
lasting. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

t  Heb.  the  days  of  eternity. 


ihe  power  of  thr  Highest  shall  overshadow  thee, 
therefore  also  ihnt  Holy  Thing  irhich  shall  be 
horn  of  thee,  shi'd  bi-  culled  the  Son  of  God.  To 
Me,  as  God  said  to  Samuel ',  /  will  send  thee 
to  Jesse  the  Belhlehemite  ;  for  I  have  provided 
Me  a  king  among  his  sons.  So  now,  one  shall 
go  forth  thence  to  Me,  to  do  My  Will,  to  My 
praise  and  glory,  to  reconcile  the  world  unto 
Me,  to  rule  and  be  Head  over  the  true  Is- 
rael, tlie  Church.  He  was  to  go  forth  out  of 
i>ethlehem,  as  his  native-place  '^ ;  as  Jere- 
miah'' says.  His  noble  shall  be  from  him,  and 
his  ruler  shall  go  forth  out  of  the  midst  of  him* ; 
and  Zechariaii '',  Out  of  him  shall  come  forth 
the  cornerstone  ;  out  of  him  the  nail,  out  of  him 
the  battlebow,  out  of  him  every  ruler  together. 
Before,  Micah  had  said  to  the  tower  of  Edar, 
Ophel  of  the  daughter  of  Zion,  the  Jirst  rule 
shall  come  to  thee;  now,  I'etaining  the  word, 
,  he  says  to  Bethlehem,  out  of  thee  shcdl  come 
one  to  be  a  ruler''.  The  judge  of  Israel  had  been 
smitten  ;  now  there  should  go  forth  out  of  the 
little  Bethlehem,  One,  not  to  be  a  judge 
only,  but  a  Ruler. 

Whose  goings  forth  have  been  from  of  old, 
from  everkisting,  lit.  from  the  days  of  eternity. 
Going  forth  is  opposed  to  going  forth  ;  -a  going 
forth  out  o/ Bethlehem,  to  a  going  forth  from 
eternity  ;  a  going  forth,  which  then  was  still  to 
come,  (tlie  Prophet  says,  shaU  go  fort'i, )  to  a 
_r/om(/ /oW/i  which  had  been  long  ago,  ""not 
from  the  world  but  from  the  beginning,  not 
in  the  days  of  time,  but  from  the  days  of  eter- 
nity. For^  in  Uie  beginning  ivas  the  Word,  and 
Ihe  Word  was  ivith  God,  ami  the  Word  ivas 
God.  The  Same  was  in  the  beginning  ivith  God. 
In  the  end  of  the  days.  He  was  to  go  forth 
from  Bethlehem ;  but,  lest  he  should  be 
thought  then  to  have  had  His  Being,  the 
Prophet  adds.  His  goings  forth  ore  from  ever- 
la.<ting."  Here  words,  denoting  eternity  and 
used  of  the  eternity  of  God,  are  united  to- 
gether to  impress  the  belief  of  the  Eternity 
of  God  the  Son.  We  have  neither  thought 
nor  words  to  conceive  eternity ;-  we  can  only 
conceive  of  time  lengthened  out  without  end. 
"'••True  eternity  is  boundless  life,  all  exist- 
ing at  once,"  or  "  "*  duration  witliout  I)egin- 
ning  and  without  end  and  without  change." 

1 1  Sam.  xvi.  1. 

« When  KV'  is  u.ied  of  actual  descent,  it  is  in 
relation  to  the  actual  parent,  to  "  go  forth  out  of  the 
womb,"  "out  of  the  loins,"  "out  of  the  bowels," 
♦•out  of  thee,"  Gen.  xlvi.  W.  Job  i.  21.  Jer.  i.  ."i.  Gen. 
XXXV.  11,  XV.  4,  xvii.  G.  2  Kings  xx.  18.  OT  'X]f' 

8  XXX.  21.       *  Nr  i3"»po  ih'iyo.        »x.  4. 

•  St^D  (V.  1.  Heb.)  refers  back  to  nSB'ODn  iv.  8. 
'Rup.  »S.  John  i.  1.2. 


The  Hebrew  names,  here  used,  express  as 
much  as  our  thoughts  can  conceive  or  our 
words  utter.  They  mean  literally, //-(wi  afore, 
(i.  e.  look  back  as  far  as  we  can,  that  from 
which  we  begin  is  still  "before,")  "from  the 
days  of  that  which  is  hidden."  True,  that  in 
eternity  there  are  no  divisions,  no  succession, 
but  one  everlasting  "  now  ; "  one,  as  God,  in 
whom  it  is,  is  One.  But  man  can  only  con- 
ceive of  Infinity  of  space  as  space  without 
bounds,  although  God  contains  space,  and  is 
not  contained  by  it ;  nor  can  we  conceive  of 
Eternity,  save  as  filled  out  by  time.  And  so 
God  speaks  ai'ter  the  manner  of  men,  and 
calls  Himself  "  the  Ancient  of  Days,  "  '^  being 
Himself  the  age  and  time  of  all  things; 
before  days  and  age  and  time,"  "  the  Begin- 
ning and  measure  of  ages  and  of  time."  The 
word,  translated  from  of  old,  is  used  else- 
wiiere'^  of  the  eternity  of  God.  '*  The  God 
of  before  is  a  title  chosen  to  express,  that  He 
is  before  all  things  which  He  made.  '^  Dweller 
of  afore  is  a  title,  formed  to  shadow  out  His 
ever-present  existence.  Conceive  any  ex- 
istence afore  all  wliich  else  you  can  conceive, 
go  back  afore  and  ctfore  that ;  stretch  out 
backward  yet  before  and  before  all  which  you 
have  conceived,  ages  afore  ages,  and  yet  afore, 
without  end, — then  and  there  God  was.  That 
afore  was  the  property  of  (iod.  Eternity  be- 
longs to  God,  not  God  to  eternity.  Any 
words  must  l)e  inadequate  to  convey  the  idea 
of  the  Infinite  to  our  finite  minds.  Probably 
the  sight  of  God,  as  He  is,  will  give  us  the 
only  possible  conception  of  eternity.  Still 
the  idea  of  time  prolonged  infinitely,  although 
we  cannot  follow  it  to  infinity,  sliadows  our 
eternal  being.  And  as  we  look  along  that 
long  vista,  our  sight  is  prolonged  and  stretched 
out  by  those  millions  upon  millions  of  years, 
ailing  which  we  can  look,  although  even  if 
each  grain  of  sand  or  dust  on  tliis  earth, 
which  are  countless,  represented  countless 
millions,  we  should  be,  at  tlie  end,  as  far 
from  reaching  to  eternity  as  at  the  beginning. 
The  days  of  eternity  are  only  an  inadequate 
expression,  because  every  conception  of  the 
hiunan  mind  must  be  so.  Equally  so  is  every 
other,  '*  From  everla.'^ting  to  everlasting  ;  "from 

9S.  Ansolm  Monol.  c.  24.  L. 
i«  Rich.  Vict,  de  Trin.  ii.  4.  L.  »  Dan.  vii.  9. 

12  Dionys.  de  Div.  Norn.  c.  10.  x.  5.     "  jjab.  i.  12. 

'<  Dnp  TlSx  Dcut.  xxxiii.  27.  So  dSij;  Sk  Gen. 
xxi. ;«.  Is.  xl.  28. 

'•'  Dip  ^ty  I's.  Iv.  20. 

"  Ch)}?  "]}?  DSi;rO  Ps.  xc.  2.  ciii.  17. 

"  dSi^'D  Ps.  xciii.  2.  and  of  Divine  Wisdom.or 
God  the  Son,  Prov.  viil.  23. 


CHAPTER    V 


71 


emrlasliiKj ;  *  to  everladiny ;  -from  the  day, 
i.e.  since  the  dny  was.  For  the  woi'd, />oh(, 
to  our  niiiid.s  implies  time,  and  lime  is  no 
measure  of  eternity.  Only  it  expresses  praj- 
existence,  an  eternal  Existence  backward  as 
well  as  forward,  the  incommunicable  attri- 
bute of  God.  lUit  words  of  Holy  Scripture 
have  their  full  meanin.o-,  unless  it  ajjpear 
from  the  passage  itself  that  they  have  not. 
In  the  passages  where  the  words,  yb/- ever,  from 
(i/oi-p,  do  not  mean  eternity,  the  subject  itself 
restrains  them.  Thus  for  ever,  looking  on- 
ward, is  used  of  time,  equal  in  duration  with 
the  being  of  whom  it  is  written,  as'',  he  nhail 
be  thy  ftermntfor  ever,  i.e.  so  long  as  he  lives 
in  the  body.  So  Avhen  it  is  said  to  the  Son*, 
llnj  throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever,  it 
speaks  of  a  kingdom  which  shall  have  no 
end.  In  like  way,  looking  backward,  ^  I  ivill 
remember  Thy  ivonders  from  old,  must  needs 
relate  to  time,  because  they  are  marvelous 
dealings  of  God  in  time.  So  again",  the 
heavens  of  old,  stand  simply  contrasted  with 
the  changes  of  man.  But '  God  of  old  is  the 
Eternal  God.  **  He  that  ahideth  of  old  is  God 
enthroned  from  everlasting  In  like  manner 
the  goings  forth  here,  opposed  to  a  going  forth 
in  time,  (emphatic  words  being  moreover 
united  together,)  are  a  going  forth  in  eter- 
nity. 

The  word,  from  of  old,  as  used  of  being,  is 
only  used  as  to  the  Being  of  God.  Here  too 
then  there  is  no  ground  to  stop  short  of  that 
meaning ;  and  so  it  declares  the  eternal 
going-forth,  or  Generation  of  the  Son.  The 
plural,  goings  forth,  may  here  be  used,  either 
as  words  of  great  majesty",  "God,"  "Lord," 
"Wisdom,"  (i.e.  Divine^)  are  plural;  or  be- 
cause the  Generation  of  the  Son  from  the 
Father  is  an  Eternal  Generation,  before  all 
time,  and  now,  though  not  in  time,  yet  in 
eternity  still.  As  then  the  prophet  saith, 
"from  the  days  of  eternity,"  although  eternity 
has  no  parts,  nor  beginning,  nor  "from,"  so  he 
may  say  goings  forth,  to  convey,  as  we  can 
receive  it,  a  continual  going-forth.  We  think 
of  Eternity  as  unending,  continual,  time ; 
and  so  he  may  have  set  forth  to  us  the  Eter- 
nal Act  of  the  Going  Forth  of  the  Son,  as 
continual  acts. 

The  Jews  understood,  as  we  do  now,  that 
Micah  foretold  that  the  Christ  was  to  be  born 
at  Bethlehem,  until  they  rejected  Him,  and 
were  pressed  by  the  argument.    Not  only  did 

'  3ty'  dSi;^^  Ps.  ix.  8.  xxix.  10. 

-  DVD  Is.  xliii.  13.  »  Ex.  xxi.  6. 

*  Ps.  xlv.  6. 

5  lb.  Ixxvii.  12.  «  lb.  Ixviii.  34. 

'  Dent,  xxxiii.  27. 

8  mp  3ty'  Ps.  Iv.  20. 

•d'hSk,  'nK,  □'B'np,  niDDn  Prov.  i.  20.  ix.  1. 

i<^  S.John  vil.  41,2. 

"  Tert.  c.  Jud.  c  13.  R.  Isaac,  Chizzuk  Emunah,  in 
Wagensell  tela  iguea  Sat.  p.  278.  tries  to  evade  it. 


the  ciiief  priests  foruially  give  the  answer, 
but,  supposing  our  Lord  to  be  of  Xazareih, 
some  who  rejected  Him,  employed  the  argu- 
ment against  Him.  ^^  Some  s<nd.  Shall  Christ 
come  out  of  (htlileef  Hath  not  the  Srrlptwe 
said,  that  Christ  conieth  of  the  seed  of  Dae  id,  and 
out  of  the  town  of  Bethlehem,  where  David  ivasf 
They  knew  of  two  distinct  things :  that  Christ 
was  1)  to  he  of  the  seed  of  David ;  and  2)  out 
of  the  town  of  Bethlehem.  Christians  urged 
them  with  the  fact,  tliat  the  prophecy  could 
be  fulfilled  in  no  other  than  in  Christ.  "  "  If 
He  is  not  yet  born,  who  is  to  go  forth  as  a 
Ruler  out  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  from  Bethle- 
hem, (for  He  must  needs  come  forth  out  of 
the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  from  Bethlehem,  but 
we  see  that  now  no  one  of  the  race  of  Israel 
has  remained  in  the  city  of  Bethlehem,  and 
thenceforth  it  has  been  interdicted 'Hhat  any 
Jew  should  remain  in  the  confines  of  that 
country) — how  then  shall  a  Ruler  be  born  from 
Judsea,  and  how  shall  he  rou>e  forth  out  of 
Bethlehem,  as  the  Divine  volumes  of  the  Pro- 
phets announce,  when  to  this  day  there  is  no 
one  whatever  left  there  of  Israel,  from  whose 
race  Christ  could  be  born  ? "  The  Jews  at 
first  met  the  argument,  by  affirming  that  the 
Messiah  was  born  at  Bethlehem  on  the  day 
of  the  destruction  of  the  temple^-*;  but  was 
hidden  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  This  being 
a  transparent  fable,  the  Jews  had  either  to 
receive  Christ,  or  to  give  up  the  belief  that 
He  was  to  be  born  at  Bethlehem.  So  they 
explained  it,  "The  Messiah  shall  go  forth 
thence,  because  he  shall  be  of  the  seed  of 
David  who  was  out  of  Bethlehem."  But 
this  would  have  been  misleading  language. 
Never  did  man  so  speak,  that  one  should  be 
born  in  a  place,  when  only  a  remote  ancestor 
had  been  born  there.  Micah  does  not  say 
merely,  that  His  family  came  out  of  Bethle- 
hem, but  that  He  Himself  should  thereafter 
come  forth  thence.  No  one  could  have  said 
of  Solomon  or  of  any  of  the  subsequent  kings 
of  Judah,  that  they  should  thereafter  come 
forth  from  Bethlehem,  any  more  than  they 
could  now  say,  'one  shall  come  forth  from 
Corsica,'  of  any  future  sovereign  of  the 
line  of  Napoleon  III.,  because  the  first 
Napoleon  was  a  Corsican ;  or  to  us,  '  one 
shall  come  out  of  Hanover,'  of  a  successor 
to  the  present  dynasty,  born  in  England, 
because  George  I.  came  from  Hanover  in 
1714. 

12  By  Hadrian.  See  ab.  on  iii.  12.  p.  76.  Roland 
p.  647,  understands  this  of  a  prohibition  to  approach 
Bethlehem  itself. 

13  See  at  length  Martini  Pugio  fidei  ii.  6.  f.  270,  from 
the  Jerusalem  Talmud  Rer.ichoth  [f.  5.]  and  the  old 
mystical  books,  Bereshith  Rabba  on  Gen.  xxx.  41, 
and  the  Echa  R.  on  Lam.  i.  16.  (These  Last  passages 
have  been  mutilated.)  See  also  Sehoettg.  T.  ii.  p. 
100.  on  Is.  Ixvi.  7.  The  fable  of  His  concealment 
occurs  in  Jonath.  on  Micah  iv.  8.  (see  ab.  p.  62,)  and 
in  Trypho  in  S.  Just.  Dial,  g  8. 


72 


MU'AII. 


3  Therefore  will  he  give  i    that  *she  which  travaileth 

hath  brought  forth:  then 


Beforp 
CHRIST 

cir.  710.       them   up,   until   the   time 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

sch.  4. 10.* 


3.  Therefore,  since  God  has  so  appointed 
both  to  punish  and  to  redeem,  He,  God,  or 
the  Ruler  "  Whose  goings  forth  have  been 
from  of  old  from  everlasting,"  Who  is  God 
with  God,  shdl  give  them  up,  i.  e.  witlidraw 
His  protection  and  the  nearness  of  His  Pres- 
ence, giving  them  up  1)  into  the  hands  of  their 
enemies.  And  indeed  the  far  greater  part 
never  returned  from  the  captivity,  but  re- 
mained, although  willingly,  in  the  enemy's 
land,  outwardly  shut  out  from  the  land  of 
the  promise  and  the  hope  of  their  fathers  ^ 
But  also,  2)  all  were,  more  than  heiore,'^  given 
up,  to  follow  their  own  ways.  God  was  less 
visibly  present  among  them.  Prophecy 
ceased  soon  after  the  return  from  the  captivity, 
and  many  tokens  of  the  nearness  of  God  and 
means  of  His  communications  with  them,  the 
Ark  and  the  Urim  and  Thummim  were  gone. 
It  w;is  a  time  of  pause  and  waiting,  wherein 
the  fullness  of  God's  gifts  was  withdrawn,  that 
they  might  look  on  to  Him  Who  was  to 
come.  Until  the  time  that  she  which  travaileth 
hnth  brought  forth,  i.  e.  until  *  the  Virgin  who 
should  conceive  and  bear  a  Son  and  call  His 
Name  Emmanuel,  God  loith  us,  shall  give  birth 
to  Him  Who  shall  save  them.  And  then 
shall  be   Redemption   and  joy   and  assured 

ijeace.  God  provides  against  the  fainting  of 
learts  in  the  long  time  before  our  Lord 
should  come. 

Then  \_And.']  There  is  no  precise  mark  of 
time  such  as  our  word  then  expresses.  He 
speaks  generally  of  what  should  be  after  the 
Birth  of  the  Redeemer.  The  remnant  of  His 
brethren  shall  return  unto  the  children  of  Israel. 
The  chiklren  of  Israel  are  the  true  Israel, 
Israelites  iwleed*;  they  who  are  such,  not  in 
name"  only,  but  indeed  and  in  truth.  His 
brethren  are  plainly  the  brethren  of  the 
Christ ;  either  because  Jesus  vouchsafed  to 

1  As  in  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  17. 

»  Acts  vii.  42.  Rom.  i.  24.  20.  28. 

«  Is.  vii.  14.  The  context  reauires,  that  the  Mother 
here  spolcen  of  should  V>e  the  Mother  of  the  Messias. 
For  tlie  Birth  is  spoken  of  before  (v.  2.)  and  his 
brethren,  vnX,  in  this  v.  can  be  no  other  than  the 
brethren  of  Him  Who  is  s.o  born.  The  evasion,  that 
it  is  only  a  figure  for  the  end  of  the  trnvrtil,  gives  an 
unmeaning  sense,  for  it  would  signify,  "  He  shall 
pive  them  up,  until  He  cease  to  give  them  up."  It 
IS  also  contrary  to  the  idiom ;  since  m  the  O.  T. 
travail  pangs  are  an  emblem  of  suffering,  not  of  the 
subsequent  joy,  and  Israel  is  spoken  of,  Doth  before 
and  after,  unfigurativelv;  "  He  shall  give  them  up" 
and  as  "the  children  oi  Israel,"  so  that  a  figurative 
mention  of  them  in  between  would  be  unsuited  to 
the  context. 

«  S.  John  i.  47.  6  Rom.  ix.  6.  Ac.         •  lb.  i.  Z. 

Mb.  ix.  5.         8Heb.  ii.  11.         » S.  Matt.  xii.  60. 

»S.  Luke  viii.  21. 

""Sj^  stands  in  its  first  meaning  of  'place,' 
where  one  thing  moves  to  another,  and  so  abides 
on  it;"  Ewald,  in  Hengst.  who  quotes  2  Chr.  xxx. 


be  born  *  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the 
flesh,  and  of  them  ''as  concerning  the  flesh 
Christ  came.  Who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever  ; 
or  as  such  as  He  makes  and  accounts  and  ^ 
is  not  ashamed  to  call,  brethren,  being  sons  of 
God  by  grace,  as  He  is  the  Son  of  God  by 
nature.  As  He  says,  ®  Whosoever  shall  do  the 
will  of  My  Father  which  is  in  Heaven,  the  same 
is  My  brother  and  sister  and  mother  ;  and,  '"  My 
brethren  are  these  who  hear  the  word  of  God  and 
do  it.  The  residue  of  these,  the  Prophet  says, 
shall  return  to,  so  as  to  be  joined  with  ",  the 
children  of  Israel;  as  Malachi  prophesies, 
^^  He  shall  bring  hack  the  heart  of  the  fathers 
to  '*  the  children,  and  the  heart  of  the  children  to 
^^  the  fathers.  In  the  first  sense,  Micali  fore- 
tells the  continual  inflow  of  the  Jews  to  that 
true  Israel  who  should  first  be  called.  All 
in  each  generation,  who  are  the  true  Israel, 
shall  be  converted,  made  one  in  Christ, 
saved.  So,  whereas,  since  Solomon,  all  had 
been  discord,  and,  at  last,  the  Jews  were  scat- 
tered abroad  everywhere,  all,  in  the  true 
Prince  of  Peace,  shall  be  one  '*.  This  has 
been  fulfilled  in  each  generation  since  our 
Lord  came,  and  shall  be  yet  further  in  the 
end,  when  they  shall  haste  and  pour  into  the 
Church,  and  so  (dl  Israel  shall  be  saved  '*. 

But  "  ^®  the  promise  of  God  was  not  only 
to  Israel  after  the  flesh,  but  to  all "  also  that 
were  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
should  call".  All  these  may  be  called  the 
remnant  of  His  brethren,  even  those  that  were, 
before,  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel 
and  afar  off,  ^^  but  now,  in  Christ  Jesus,  made  one 
witli  them ;  all,  brethren  among  themselves 
and  to  Christ  their  ruler.  "  "^  llaving  taken 
on  Him  their  nature  in  the  flesh.  He  is  not 
ashamed  to  call  them  so,  as  the  Apostle 
speaketh,  confirming  it  out  of  the  Psalm, 
where  in  the  Person  of  Christ  he  saith '",  I  will 

9,  "  when  you  return  to  (7 j,')  the  Lord,"  and  Mai.  iii. 
24.  Heb.  as  to  the  religious  meaning.  So  contrari- 
wise, "they  returned  to  (jy)  the  iniquities  of  their 

forefathers."  (Jer.  xi.  10.)  In  all  the  cases  men- 
tioned by  Furst,  (Cone.  p.  1109-11,)  the  original  idea 
"over"  remains  in  some  force;  "the  waters  re- 
turned upon  the  Eg.,"  Ex.  xiv.  2fi;  "and  they  re- 
turned unto  Pihahiroth  (encamping  there).  Num. 
xxxiii.  7 ;  "  man  would  return  to  the  dust,"  (so  as  to 
dwell  there,)  Job  xxxiv.  1.1;  "the  dog  returned  to 
his  vomit,  (taking  it  up  again,)  Prov.  xxvi.  11,  "the 
wind  rcturneth  to  its  circuits,"  (so  as  to  rest  where 
it  began,)  Eccl.  i.  G;  "My  prayer  shall  return  into 
my  bosom,"  (so  as  to  rest  there,  or,  from  God  in 
blessing  upon  himself,)  Ps.  xxxv.  13.    In  Neh.  iv.  6. 

^y'^y  y^WPi,  "return  so  as  to  be  with  us,"  the 
idiom  is  the  same  as  in  this  place.  , 

>»  Mai.  iii.  24.  Heb.  "  ^Jf, 

'« See  Hosea  i.  11.  Is.  xi.  10.  &e.      '» Rom.  xi.  26. 

w  Poc.  "  Acts  ii.  39. 

»8  Eph.  ii.  12-14.  "  Ps.  x»ii.  22. 


CIIArTER  V. 


7:\ 


r.  CT  d"/!  t    *■  the  remnant  of  his  broth- 
cir.  710.      ren  shall  return  unto  the 


h  eh.  4. 7.  children  of  Israel. 

4  ^  And  he  shall  stand 


declare  Thy  name  unto  My  brethren.  Tliere  is 
no  reason  to  take  the  name,  brethren,  here  in 
a  narrower  sense  than  so  to  conipreliend  all 
'  the  remnant  xvhmn  the  Lord  shall  call,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles.  The  word  "  brethren  "  in 
its  literal  sense  includes  both,  and,  as  to  both, 
the  words  were  fnllilled. 

4.  And  He  shall  stand.  The  Prophet  con- 
tinues to  speak  of  personal  acts  of  this  Ruler 
Who  was  to  be  born.  He  was  not  to  pass 
away,  not  to  rule  only  by  others,  but  by  Him- 
self.' To  stand  is  the  attitude  of  a  servant, 
as  Jesus,  altliou.oh  God  and  Lord  of  all,  said 
of  Himself,  ■^  He  shall  come  forth  and  serve  them  ; 
**  The  Son  of  Man  name  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister.  Hi  shall  stand  as  a  Shepherd  *, 
to  watch,  feed,  guard  them,  day  and  night; 
He  shall,  stand,  as  St.  Stephen  saw  Christ 
° standing  on  the  Right  Hand  of  God,  ""to  suc- 
cor all  those  who  suffer  for  Him."  "  '  For 
to  sit  belongs  to  one  judging ;  to  stand,  to  one 
fighting  or  helping."  He  shcdl  stand,  as  abid- 
ing, not  to  pass  from  them,  as  Plimself  saith, 
^Lo,  I  am  with  you  ahvay,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world :  and  He  shall  feed  His  flock  by  His 
Spirit,  His  Word,  His  Wisdom  and  doctrine, 
His  example  and  life  ;  yea,  by  His  own  Body 
and  Blood  ^  They  whom  He  feedeth  ^'^lack 
nothing. 

In  the  strength  of  the  Lord.  He,  Who  feed- 
eth them  with  Divine  tenderness,  shall  also 
have  Divine  might.  His  Father's  and  His 
own,  to  protect  them ;  as  He  saith,  ^^  3Lj 
sheep  hear  My  Voice,  and  I  know  them  and  they 
follow  Me,  neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them  out 
of  My  Hand.  My  Father  Which  gave  them  Me 
■is  greater  than  all,  and  no  man  is  able  to  pluck 
them  out  of  My  Father's  Hand.  I  and  My 
Father  are  One.  With  authority,  it  is  said  ^'^, 
He  commandeth  even  the  unclean  spirits  and  they 
come  out.  His  feeding  or  teaching  also  was 
^'  vdth  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes. 

In  the  Majesty  of  the  Name  of  the  Lord  His 
Ood,  as  St.  John  says  '*,  We  beheld  His  Glory,  the 
Glory  as  of  the  Only-Begotten  of  His  Father; 
and  He  saith,  ^^  All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in 

1  Jc?l  ii.  32.  2  8.  Luke  xii.  37. 

3  S.  Matt.  XX.  28.  ■*  See  Is.  Ixi.  5. 

6  .'\ets  vii.  .55.         6  Collect  for  S.  Stephen's  Day. 
'S.  Greg.  Horn.  29.  in  Evang.  n.  7. 
8  S.  Matt,  xxviii.  20.  9  S.  John  vi. 

10  Ps.  xxiii.  1.  11  S.  John  x.  27-30. 

12  S.  Luke  iv.  36.  iss.  Matt.  vii.  29. 

1*  S.  John  i.  14.  is  S.  Matt,  xxviii.  18. 

16  S.  John  xvii.  11, 12.  "  Theoph. 

1*8.  John  XX.  17.  Lipmann,  in  Nizzachon,  objects, 
that,  "as  God,  He  has  no  God;  as  Man,  He  is  not 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting,"  not  knowing,  as  a 
Jew,  the  Divine  Personality  of  our  Lord,  whence, 


and  II '  feed  in  the  strength    ^  h  rT-  t 
of  the  Lord,  in  the  majes-      cir-  'lo. 


ty   of  the   name   of  the    i'Ls!'4o"ii. 
Lord  his  God  ;  and  they     Ezek.  34. 23. 

ch.  7.  14. 


heaven  and  in  earth  ;  so  that  the  Divine  Glory 
should  shine  through  the  Majesty  of  His 
teaching,  the  power  of  His  Grace,  upholding 
His  own,  and  the  splendor  of  the  miracles 
wrought  by  Him  and  in  His  Name.  Of  the  Xame 
of  the  Lord  ;  as  He  saith  again,  ^'^  Holy  Father, 
keep  through  Thine  own  Name  those  whcmi  Thou 
hast  given  Me,  that  they  may  be  one  as  We  are. 
While  Iivas  with  them  in  the  ivorld,  I  kept  them 
in  Thy  Name.  "  "  Whoever  then  is  sent  to 
feed  His  flock  must  stand,  i.  e.  be  firm  and 
unshaken ;  feed,  not  sell,  nor  slay ;  and 
feed  in  might,  i.  e.  in  Christ."  His  God,  as 
our  Lord  Himself,  as  Man,  saith,  ^^  Unto  My 
Father,  and  your  Father,  and  to  My  God  and 
your  God.  But  that  Majesty  He  Himself 
wields,  as  no  mere  man  can ;  He  Himself  is 
invested  with  it.  "  ^^To  ordinary  kings  God 
is  strength  ^'*,  or  gives  strength  ^^ ;  men  have 
strength  in  God ;  this  Ruler  is  clad  in  the 
strength  of  the  Lord,  that  same  strength, 
which  the  Lord  hath.  Whose  is  strength.  Of 
Him,  as  Israel's  King,  the  same  is  said  as  of 
the  Lord,  as  King  of  the  whole  earth  '■''•' ;  only 
that  the  strength  of  the  Messiah  is  not  His 
own,  but  the  Lord's.  He  is  invested  with 
the  strength  of  tlie  Lord,  because  He  is  Man  ; 
as  Man,  He  can  be  invested  with  the  whole 
strength  of  the  Lord,  onlv  because  He  is  also 
God." 

And  they  shall  abide  (lit.  sit,  dwell)  in  rest 
and  security  and  unbroken  peace  under 
Christ  their  Shepherd  and  their  King; 
they  shall  not  wander  to  and  fro  as  hereto- 
fore. "^^iJe,  their  Shepherd,  shall  stand; 
they  shall  sit."  "The  word^*  is  the  more 
emphatic,  because  it  stands  so  absolutely. 
This  will  be  a  sitting  or  dwelling,  which  will 
indeed  deserve  tlie  name.  The  original 
promise,  so  often  forfeited  by  their  disobedi- 
ence should  be  perfectly  fulfilled ;  ^^  and  ye  shall 
divell  in  your  land  safely,  and  I  will  give  peace 
in  the  land,  and  ye  shall  lie  down,  and  none  shall 
make  you  afraid.  So  Amos  and  Micah  had 
before  promised'''®.  And  this  is  the  result  of 
the  greatness  of  the  promised  Ruler,  as  the 

He  being  "not  two  but  one  Christ,"  (Ath.  Creed), 
both  the  attributes  of  Hi.s  Divine  and  Human  Na- 
ture can  be  said  of  Him.  (in  Poc.)  R.  Tanchum 
owns,  that  the  Ruler  here  spoken  of  can,  for  His 
greatness,  be  no  other  than  tne  Messiah.  (lb.) 

10  Casp.       20  Ps.  xxviii.  7.  cxl.  7.      21 1  Sam.  ii.  10. 

22  Ps.  xciii.  1.  23  from  Casp.  24  32/'. 

25  Lev.  xxvi.  5,  6.  "comp.  Hos.  ii.  20.  [18  Eng.]  Is. 
xiv.  30.  xxxii.  18.  Jer.  xxiii.  8.  Ezek.  xxviii.  25,  6. 
xxxiv.  25, 28.  xxxvii.  25.  xxxviii.  8.  Zech.  xiv.  10, 11." 
Casp. 

2«  Am.  ix.  14.  Mic.  iv.  4.  Both  u.se  the  same  word 
as  here. 


MICAH. 


Before 

C  H  K  1  S  T 

cir.  710. 


k  Ps.  72.  8. 

Is.  52. 13. 

Zech.  9.  10. 

Luke  1.  32. 
'  I's.  72. 7.  Is.  0.  G.  Zech.  <J.  10, 


shall  abide :  for  now  "  shall 
he  be  great  uuto  the  ends 
of  the  earth. 

5  And  this  man  '  shall 

Luke  2.  14.  Eph.  2.  14. 


like  promise  of  the  Psalm  is  rested  on  the 
immutability  of  (twI^;  Thou  art  the  Same, 
•  nul  Thy  years  shfU  hare  no  end.  'The  children  of 
Thy  servants  shall  dweW,  and  their  seed  shall  be 
.Mdhlished  before  Thee.     For  it  follows," 

For  nou;  (in  the  time  which  Micali  saw  as 
(lid  Abraham  with  the  eye  of  faith,)  now,  in 
(•ontra.st  to  that  former  time  of  lowliness. 
His  life  shall  be  divided  between  a  life 
uf  obscurity,  and  a  life  of  never-ending 
greatness. 

Shall  He  be  great  unto  the  [i«n/ ']  ends  of  the 
rarth,  embracing  thorn  in  His  ride,  (as  David 
and  Solomon  had  foretold*,)  and  so  none 
.shall  harm  those  whom  He,  the  King  of  all 
the  earth,  shall  protect.  The  universality  of 
protection  is  derived  from  an  universality  of 
jKjwer.  To  David  God  says,  */  have  made 
thee  a  great  name,  like  the  name  of  the  great  that 
are  in  the  earth.  Of  Uzziah  it  is  said  ^,  His 
name  went  forth  far ;  for  he  ims  marveloiisly 
helped,  until  he  ivas  strong  ;  but  of  the  Messiah 
alone  it  is  said,  that  His  power  should  reach 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  as  God  prophesies 
of  Himself,  that  His  '  S'ame.  should  be  great 
among  the  Heathen.  So  Gabriel  said  to  His 
-Mother,  "  Thin,  Whom  she  •should  bear,  s?iaU 
be  great. 

5.  And  this  Man  slmll  be  the  Peace.  Thi'<, 
emphatically,  i.  e.  "This  Same,"  as  is  said  of 
Noah, "  This  same  shall  comfort  us,  or,  in  the 
song  of  Moses,  of  the  Lord, '"  This  Same  is  my 
fiod.  Of  Him  he  saith,  not  only  that  He 
brings  peace,  but  that  He  Himself"  is  that 
Peace;  as  St.  Paul  saith,  ^^ //e  is  our  Peaxx, 

1  Ps.  cii.  27,  28.  -UOE/'.  *"»^'. 

*Ps.  ii.  8.  "the  ends  of  the  earth  for  His  posses- 
sion;" Ps.  Ix.xii.  8.  "from  the  river  unto  (Ij,')  tlio 
ends  of  the  earth."    In  botli  cases  the  V'^X  'D3K 

as  here.    See  "  Daniel  the  Proph."  p.  480. 

6  2  .Sam.  vii.  9.  ^i  Chron.  xxvi.  lb.  add  lb.  8. 

'Mai.  i.  11.  14. 

"8.  Luke  i.  32.  o5to?  «<7Tai  /xc'yas, 

»Gen.  V.  29.  10  Ex.  xv.  2. 

•'Tlie  word  "this"  might  grammatically  be  taken 
ns  agreeing  with  "  peace."    "  This  [viz.  this  thing] 

shall  be  our  peace/' as  Eccl.  vi.  9,  7^71  HT  DJ,  "this 
too  is  vanity;"  Ex.  iii.  l.'>,  '"^jf  T\1,  "this  is  My 
memorial,"  i.  e.  HT  is  not  necessarily  personal. 
IJut  this  would  not  alter  the  sense.  For,  "this 
thing  is  our  peace,"  must  necessarily  refer  to  what 
)iad  been  .said,  viz.  the  greatness,  majesty,  tender 
euro  of  the  .Messiah.  It  is  most  natural  to  take 
nr— oirot,  as  a  person,  since  a  person  was  the  sub- 
ject of  the  verse  before. 

"Eph.  ii.  14.         "Is.  ix.  6.         "S.  Luke  ii.  14. 

>i  Eph.  ii.  17.  »«9.  John  xiv.  27.  "  Lap. 

'«iv.  ID. 

>»A  disbeliever  in  prophecy  writes,  "If  he  would 
quote  Micah  as  designating  Bethlehem  for  the 
birthplace  of  th*  .Messiah,  he  cannot  shut  his  eyes 


be  the  peace,  when  the  xVs- 
syrian  shall  come  into  our 
land :  and  when  he  shall 
tread  in  our  palaces,  then 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


and  Isaiah  calls  Him  "  the  Prince  of  peace, 
and  at  His  Birth  the  heavenly  host  pro- 
claimed'*^jeace  on  earth;  and  He  ^^ preached 
peace  to  you  which  were  afar  off,  and  to  them  that 
ivere  nigh;  and  on  leaving  the  world  He 
saith,  ^^ Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  Peace  I  give 
unto  you.  He  shall  be  our  Peace,  within  by 
His  Grace,  without  by  His  Protection. 
" '"  Wotildcst  thou  have  peace  with  G(kI, 
thine  own  soul,  thy  neighbor?  Go  to  ChrLst 
Who  is  our  Peace,"  and  follow  the  footsteps 
of  Christ.  "  Ask  peace  of  Him  Who  is 
Peace.  Place  Christ  in  thy  heart  and  thou 
hast  placed  Peace  there." 

When  the  A.^syrian  .s7ia//  cotne  into  our  land, 
and  when  he  sludl  tread  in  our  palaces.  Assur 
stands  for  the  most  powerful  and  deadliest 
foe,  "  ghostly  and  bodily,"  as  the  Assyrian 
then  was  of  the  people  of  God.  For  since 
this  plainly  relates  to  the  time  after  Christ's 
coming,  and,  (to  say  the  least,)  after  the  cap- 
tivity in  Babylon  and  deliverance  '*  from  it, 
which  itself  followed  the  dis.soluiion  of  the 
As.syrian  Empire,  the  Assyrians  cannot  be  the 
literal  people,  who  had  long  since  ceased  to 
be  '^  In  Isaiah  too  the  Assyrian  is  the  type 
of  Anti-Christ  and  of  Satan'''*'.  As  Christ  is 
our  Peace,  so  one  enemy  is  chosen  to  rej)re- 
sent  all  enemies  who  ^'  vex  the  Church,  whether 
the  human  agents  or  Satan  who  stirs  them  up 
and  uses  them.  "  By  the  Assyrian,"  says  St. 
Cyril,  "  he  here  means  no  longer  a  man  out 
of  Babylon,  hut  rather  marks  out  the  in- 
ventor of  sin,  Satan,  (^r  rather,  to  speak  fidly, 
the  implacable   multitude   of   devils,  which 

to  the  fact  that  the  Deliverer  to  come  from  thence 
was  to  he  a  rnntemporary  shield  against  the  .\s.sy- 
rian."  Dr.  Williams  in  Ess.  and  Rev.  p.  08.  Not 
"  contemporary,"  unless  it  he  certain  that  Psalm- 
ists and  Prophets  cannot  identify  themselves 
with  the  past  and  future  of  their  people.  The 
course  of  events  interposed  shews,  that  the  deliv- 
erance was  iwt  to  be  contemporary.  As  the  Psalm- 
ist speaking  of  the  passage  of  the  Red  ."^ea,  says, 
ttierc  did  we  rejoice  in  Him,  (Ps.  Ixvi.  ti.)  making 
himself  one  with  them;  as  Micah  himself,  speak- 
ing of  times  after  the  desolation  of  the  land,  (vii. 
13.)  .«ays,  "  He  will  turn  again.  He  will  have  com- 
passion upon  !(«;"  (lb.  vii.  19.)  nay,  as  our  Lord 
Himself  says  to  the  .\postles,  "I  am  with  yoi< 
ahvay,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,"  (S.  Matt, 
xxviii.  20.)  i.  e.  with  thom  and  their  successors  to 
the  end  of  time ;  so  Micah,  who  had  sorrowed  with 
his  people  in  tlioir  sorrows,  (i.  8.  10.)  here  rejoices 
with  them  in  a  deliverance  far  away,  after  (rod 
should  for  a  long  time  have  given  thcni  up,  v.  ;i. 
and  wliich  he  should  not  see.  "Even  L.  Bauer 
translated,  'And  if  another  .\ssur,' comparing  tin- 
passage  of  Virgil  which  Castalio  had  already 
quoted,  'Alter  erit  tum  Tinhys,  et  altera  qute  vehat 
Argo  Delectos  heroas.'  "    Hengst. 

«"  Is.  x.  and  including  Babylon  Ch.  xiv. 

«'  Acts.  xii.  1. 


CHAPTER  V. 


CHR°IST    ^^^^^  ^®  ^^^^  against  him 
c'r.  710.      seven  shepherds,  and  eight 


t  Heb.  i»'inces  of  J  principal  men. 

t  Heb.  eat  up.  6  And  they  shall  f  waste 
the  land  of  Assyria  with 
the  sword  and  the  land  of 


spiritually  ariseth  against  all  which  is  holy, 
and  fights  against  the  holy  city,  the  spiritual 
Zion,  whereof  the  Divine  Psalmist  saith, 
Glorious  things  are  spoken  of  thee,  thou  city  of 
God.  For  Christ  dwelleth  in  the  Church, 
and  maketh  it,  as  it  were,  His  own  city,  al- 
though by  His  Godhead  filling  all  things. 
This  city  of  God  then  is  a  sort  of  land  and 
country  of  the  sanctified  and  of  those  enriched 
in  spirit,  in  unity  with  God.  When  then  the 
Assyrian  shall  come  against  our  city,  i.  e. 
when  barbarous  and  hostile  powers  fight 
against  the  saints,  they  shall  not  find  it  un- 
guarded." The  enemy  may  tread  on  the  land 
and  on  its  palaces,  i.  e.  lay  low  outward  glory, 
vex  the  body  which  is  of  earth  and  the  visi- 
ble temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  he  did  St. 
Paul  by  the  thorn  in  the  flesh,  the  minister  of 
Satan  to  buffet  him,  or  Job  in  mind  body  or 
estate,  but  ^  after  that  he  has  no  more  than  he 
can  do;  he  cannot  hurt  the  soul,  because 
nothing  can  separate  its  from  the  love  of  Christ, 
and  ^  Christ  Who  is  our  Peace  is  in  us ;  and  of 
the  saint  too  it  may  be  said,  ^  The  enemy  can- 
not hurt  him.  *  Much  as  the  Church  has 
been  vexed  at  all  times  b}^  persecutions  of 
devils  and  of  tyrants,  Christ  has  ever  con- 
soled her  and  given  her  peace  in  the  persecu- 
tions themselves :  "  Who  comforteth  us  in  all 
our  tribulation,  that  we  may  be  able  to  comfort 
them  which  are  in  any  trouble,  by  the  comfort 
whereivith  we  are  comforted  of  God.  For  as  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  abound  in  us,  so  our  consola- 
tion also  aboundeth  by  Christ.  The  Apostles 
^departed  from  the  presence  of  the  council,  re- 
joicing that  they  ivere  counted  worthy  to  suffer 
shame  for  His  Name.  And  St.  Paul  writeth 
to  the  Hebrews,  '  ye  had  compassion  of  me  in 
my  bonds,  and  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  your 
goods,  knowing  that  ye  have  in  heaven  a  better 
and  more  enduring  substance. 

Then  shall  we  raise  against  him  seven  shep- 
herds and  eight  principal  men  (lit.  anointed, 
although  elsewhere  used  of  heathen  princes.) 

The  shepherds  are  manifestly  inferior,  spir- 
itual, shepherds,  acting  under  the  One  Shep- 

» S.  Luke  xii.  4.  "  Rup. 

3  Ps.  Ixxxix.  22.  ■•  Rib.  »  2  Cor.  i.  4,  5. 

SActs.  V.  41.  7x.  34. 

8  Jos.  xiii.  21,  Ps.  Ixxxiii.  12,  Ezek.  xxxii.  30. 
The  word  stands  rather  in  contrast  with  n'tJ'D 
than  as  equivalent  to  it,  since  n'tJ'O  is  always  used 
of  one,  anointed  by  God,  n'DJ,  unless  it  be  in  this 
place,  never. 

•See  Bahr  Symbolik,  ii.  107.  sqq. 


'"  IS'  imrod  1 1  in  the  entrances    ^^,  ^^'^^ii  r 
thereof:  thus  shall  he  °de-      «'«••  tip. 
liver  us  from  the  x\ssyrian,  mOen.  in.  s,  m, 
when  he  cometh  into  our  |ior,  «,,</» /(o- 

11  11  i_      A         1      own  naked 

land,  and  when  he  tread-  swords. 
eth  within  our  borders.       °  »  e  i.  71. 


herd,  by  His  authority,  and  He  in  them. 
The  princes  of  men  are  most  naturally  a  civil 
powei",  according  to  its  usage  elsewhere". 
The  seven  is  throughout  the  Old  Testament  a 
symbol  of  a  sacred  whole,  probably  of  the 
union  of  God  with  the  world  ^,  reconciled 
with  it ;  eight,  when  united  with  it,  is  some- 
thing beyond  it  ^''.  Since  then  seven  denotes 
a  great,  complete,  and  sacred  multitude,  by 
the  eight  he  would  designate  "  an  incredible 
and  almost  countless  multitude."  "  *  So  in 
defence  of  the  Churcli,  there  shall  be  raised 
up  very  many  shepherds  and  teachers  (for 
at  no  time  will  it  be  forsaken  by  Christ ;) 
yea  by  more  and  more,  countlessly,  so  that, 
however  persecutions  may  increase,  there 
shall  never  be  wanting  more  to  teach,  and 
exhort  to,  the  faith." 

6.  And  they  shall  waste,  lit.  feed  on,  and  so  eat 
up.  They  who  were  shepherds  of  their  own 
people,  should  consume  their  enemies.  Jere- 
miah uses  the  same  image.  "  The  shepherds 
with  their  flocks  shall  come  unto  her;  they  shall 
pitch  tents  against  her  round  about ;  they  shall 
feed,  each  his  spacg.  So  Joshua  and  Caleb  say, 
'^  They,  (the  inhabitants  of  Canaan,)  are  bread 
for  us.  So  it  was  said  to  St.  Peter,  '^  Arise, 
Peter,  kill  and  eat;  and  what  once  was  com- 
mon, defiled  and  unclean,  shall  turn  to  the 
nourishment  and  growth  of  the  Church,  and 
be  incorporated  into  Christ,  being  made  part 
of  His  Body. 

And  the  'land  of  Nimrod.  Babylon,  which 
should  displace  Assyria,  but  should  carry  on 
its  work  of  chastising  God's  people,  is  joined 
by  Micah,  as  by  Isaiah  ",  as  an  object  of  His 
judgment.  In  Isaiah,  they  are  the  actual 
Assyria  ^^  and  Babylon  ^*  whose  destruction  is 
foretold,  yet  so  as  to  shadow  out  rebellion 
against  God  in  its  intensest  form,  making 
itself  independent  of,  or  measuring  itself 
against,  God.  Hence,  probably,  here  alone 
in  holy  Scripture,  Babylon  is  called  the  land 
of  Nimrod,  as  indeed  he  founded  it ",  but  there- 
with was  the  author  of  the  tower  of  Babel 
also,  which  was  built  in  rebellion  against  God, 

10  See  on  Amos  i.  3.  vol.  i.  p.  284.  This  in.«tance  in 
Micah  so  far  differs  from  the  others,  that  the  t\vo 
numbers  are  not  united  with  one  substantive ;  and, 
unless  the  shepherds  and  the  princes  of  men  be  the 
same  class  of  persons,  (which  scarcely  seems  pro- 
bable,) they  have  kindred,  yet  different,  subjects. 

n  vi.  3.  12  Num.  xiv.  9.  »»  Acts  x.  13. 

"  Is.  X.  5-34,  xiii-xi".  27.  "  Is.  x.  12-15. 

10  xiv.  13-15.  1'  Gen.  X.  lo. 


Mir  All. 


c  H  r"/s  t        "^  ^"'■^  °  ^^^  remuaut.  of 
cir-  710-      Jacob  shall  be  in  the  midst 


•  ver.  3. 
Deut.  32.  2. 

"^/iio.'s.'         from   the   Lord,   as   the 


of  many  people  ^as  a  dew 


showers   upon   the  grass,    ^.  ^  |{7g  j 
that  tarrieth  not  for  man,      t'''".  tip. 
nor  waiteth  for  the  sons  of 
men. 


whence  his  own  name  was  derived'.  As- 
syria then,  and  the  world-empire  which 
should  succeed  it,  stand  as  representing  the 
God-opposed  world. 

In  the  entrances  thereof,  [lit.  in  the  gates 
thereof'K']  Tiie  shepherds  of  Israel  shall  not 
act  on  tlie  defensive  only,  but  sliall  have  vic- 
tory over  tiio  world  and  Satan,  carrying  back 
the  battle  into  his  own  dominions,  and  over- 
throwing him  there.  Satan's  malice,  so  far 
from  hurting  the  Church,  shall  turn  to  its 
good.  Wherein  he  hoped  to  waste  it,  he 
shall  be  wasted  ;  wherein  he  seemed  to  tri- 
umph, he  shall  be  foiled.  So  it  has  been 
ever  seen,  how,  under  every  persecution,  the 
Churcli  grew.  "  *  The  more  it  was  pressed 
down,  the  more  it  rose  up  and  flourished ; " 
''*  Shivering  the  assault  of  the  Pagans,  and 
strengthened  more  and  more,  not  by  resisting, 
but  by  enduring."  Yet  all,  by  whomsoever 
done,  shall  be  the  work  of  Christ  Alone, 
enduring  in  martyrs,  teaching  in  pastors, 
converting  throu<j;h  the  Apostles  of  Heathen 
nations.     Wherefore  he  adds : 

TkiLS,  \_And'\  He  shall  deliver  us  from  the 
Assyrian.  Not  they,  the  subordinate  shep- 
herds, but  He,  the  Chief  Shepherd  until  the 
last  enemy  shall  be  destroyed  and  death  shall  be 
swallowed  up  in  victory,  shall  deliver,  whetiier 
by  them  or  by  Himself  a-s  He  often  so  doth, — 
not  us  only  (the  saying  is  the  larger  because 
unlimited)  but — He  shall  deliver,  absolutely. 
Whosoever  shall  be  delivered,  He  shall  be 
their  deliverer ;  all,  whom  He  Alone  know- 
eth,  Who  Alone  *  knoiveth  them  that  are  His. 
'^Neither  is  there  scdration  in  any  other. 
'  Whoso  rjlorielh,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord. 
Every  memljer  of  Christ  has  part  in  this, 
who,  through  the  grace  of  God,  "has  power 
and  strength  to  have  victory  and  to  triumph 
against  the  devil,  the  world,  and  the  flcsli  " 
— not  he,  but  the  grace  of  God  which  is  witli 
him;  and  nuich  more,  all,  whether  Apostles 
or  Apostolic  men,  or  Pastors,  or  Bishops  and 
Overseers,  who,  by  preaching  or  teaching  or 

'Lit.  "We  will  rebel."  There  is  no  other  even 
plaiisiible  etymology. 

''The  K.  V.  has  filllowcd  the  analogy  of  the  "Cas- 
piie  pylu',"'  &c.  and  has  paraphra.sed,  "openings" 
or  "gateH"  by  "entrances,"  as  if  they  were  "the 
gates  of  the  country;"  which,  however,  belongs 
only  to  narrow  cntnmces,  such  as  Thermopylie. 
The  rendering  in  the  E.  M. "  with  their  own  driiwn 
swords,"  (from  Aq.  and  VA.  v.  A.  E.  and  Kim.)  i.s 
owing  to  a  slavish  adherence  to  parallelism, 
mn'rii),  Ac.  "dmwn  swords,"  (P.s.  Iv.  2J.)  is  fern, 
after  the  analogy  of  3ir\  itself.  The  uniform 
meaning  of  PlhS  "opening,"  "door,"  "port," 
"gate,"  is  plainly  not  to  be  deserted  in  a  single 
case.on  the  ground  of  parallelism  only.    The  fem. 


prayer,  bring  those  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  who  ^sat  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of 
death,  and  by  whom  *  God  translates  us  into 
the  kingdom  of  His  dear  Son. 

7.  And  the  remnant  of  Jacob.  Micah'",  as 
well  as  Isaiah  ",  had  prophesied,  that  a  rem- 
nant only  should  return  unto  the  Mighty  God. 
These,  though  very  many  in  themselves,  are 
yet  but  a  remnant  only  of  the  unc-on verted 
mass ;  yet  this,  *"''  the  remnant,  u-ho  shall  be 
saved,  who  believe  in  Christ,  '^  the  little  flock, 
of  whom  were  the  Apostles  and  their  dis- 
ciples, shall  be,  in  the  midst  of  many  people, 
whom  they  won  to  the  faith,  as  John  in  Asia, 
Thomas  in  India,  Peter  in  Babylon  and  Rome, 
Paul  well-nigh  in  the  whole  world,  what? 
something  to  be  readily  swallowed  up  by 
their  multitude  ?  No,  but  as  a  dew  from  the 
Lord,  as  the  shovxrs  from  the  grass,  ivhich  tarrieth 
not  for  man,  nor  vxdteth  for  the  sons  of  men, 
quickening  to  life  that,  which,  like  soon- 
witliered'*  grass,  no  human  cidtivation,  no 
human  help,  could  reach. 

In  the  Gospel  and  the  grace  of  Christ  there 
are  both,  gentleness  and  might ;  softness,  as 
the  devj,  might  as  of  a  lion.  For  "  ^  Wisdom 
reacheth  from  one  end  to  another  mightily  ; 
and  sweetly  dcilh  she  order  all  thinirs."  3'/ie  dew 
i.s,  in  Holy  Scripture,  a  symbol  of  Divine  doc- 
trine. '®  3Ly  doctrine  shall  drop  as  the  rain,  my 
speech  shall  distill  as  the  dew,  as  the  small  rain 
upon  the  tender  herb,  and  as  the  showers  upon  the 
grass.  The  dew  comes  down  from  heaven,  is 
of  heavenly  not  of  earthly  birth,  transparent, 
glistening  with  light,  reflecting  tiie  hues  of 
heaven,  gentle,  slii,dit,  weak  in  itself,  refresh- 
ing, cooling  the  strong  heats  of  the  day '\ 
consumed  itself,  yet  thereby  preserving  life, 
falling  on  the  dry  and  witiicred  grass  wherein 
all  nature  droops,  and  recalling  it  to  fresh- 
ness of  life.  And  still  more  in  those  lands, 
where  from  the  beginning  of  April  to  the 
end  of  October  '*,  the  close  of  the  latter  and 
the  beginning  of  the  early  rain,  durin^r  all  the 
hot  months  of  summer,  the  life  of  all  herb- 

aff.  also  belongs  naturally  to  the  land,  tier's,  not 
ttieir's,  i.  e.  the  people's. 
«S.  Anton,  in  S.  Athan.  vit.  ej.  c.  79. 
♦S.  Aug.  de   Ag.  Christ,  c.  12.  and  other  fathers 
quoted  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  uit.  n.  a.  Oxf.  Tr. 
»2Tim.  ii.  19.  «Actsiv.  12. 

'  2  Cor.  X.  17.         8  Ps.  cvii.  10.         »  Col.  i.  1.3. 
>o  iv.  7.  "  X.  21.  12  Rom.  ix.  27. 

'3S.  Luke  xii.  32. 

"atJ^J?.    See  Ps.  cii.  6,  12,  2  Kings  xix.  26,  Is. 
xxxvii.27.        i6\visd.  viii.  1.        '•  Deut.  xxxii.  2. 
"  Ecclus.  xviii.  16,  xliii.  22. 
18 Called  JiTN.  because  only  "perennial  '  streams 

still  flowed. 


CHAPTER  V. 


77 


Before 

CHRIST 

oir.  710. 


I  Or,  goats. 


8  ^And  the  remnant 
of  Jacob  shall  be  among 
the  Gentiles  in  the  midst 
of  many  people  as  a  lion 
among  the  beasts  of  the 
forest,  as  a  young  lion 
among  the  flocks  of  |  |sheep : 
who,   if  he  go  through, 


age  depends  upon  the  dew  alone'.  Showers'^ 
are  so  called  from  the  "multitude"  of  drops, 
slight  and  of  no  account  in  themselves,  de- 
scending noiselessly  yet  penetrating  the  more 
deeply.  So  did  the  Apostles  "^  bedew  the 
souls  of  believers  with  the  word  of  godliness 
and  enrich  them  abundantly  with  the  words 
of  the  Gospel,"  themselves  dying,  and  the 
Church  living  the  more  through  their 
death  *,  quenching  the  liery  heat  of  |>assions, 
and  watering  the  dry  and  barren  soil,  that  it 
might  bring  forth  fruits  unto  Christ.  Yet, 
they  say  ^,  the  excellency  of  the  power  ivcus  of 
God  and  not  of  us,  and  "  God  gave  the  increase. 
For  neither  was  their  doctrine  ^  of  man  nor  by 
man ;  but  it  came  from  heaven,  the  Holy 
Spirit  teaching  them  invisibly  and  making 
unlearned  and  ignorant  men  mighty  inword  and 
deed.  "  **  Whence  these  and  these  alone  the 
Church  of  Christ  looks  up  to,  as  furnishing 
the  rule  of  truth. "  ""The  herb,  upon  which 
this  dew  falleth,  groweth  to  God  without  any 
aid  of  man,  and  flourisheth,  and  needeth 
neither  doctrines  of  philosophers,  nor  the  re- 
Avards  or  praises  of  men." 

8.  And  the  remnant  of  Jacob  shall  be  as  a 
young  lion.  "  ^^  What  more  unlike  than  the 
sweetness  of  the  dew  and  the  fierceness  of  the 
lion  ?  What  so  different  as  the  gentle 
shower  distilling  on  the  herb,  and  the  savage- 
ness  or  vehemence  of  a  lion  roaring  among  the 
flocks  of  sheeps?  Yet  both  are  ascribed  to  the 
remmmt  of  Jacob.  W]\y  ?  Because  the 
Apostles  of  Christ  are  both  tender  and  severe, 
tender  in  teaching  and  exhorting,  severe  in 
rebuking  and  avenging.  How  does  Paul 
teach,  '^  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
unto  Himself,  and  hath  committed  unto  us  the 
word  of  reconciliation  ;  noiv  then  ive  are  ambassa- 
dors for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you 
by  MS :  ive  pray  you  in  Chrisfs  stead,  be  ye  re- 
conciled to  God  !  What  sweeter  than  the  dew 
of  love,  the  shower  of  true  affection  ?  And 
so,  on  to  that,  "  our  heart  is  enlarged." 
They  are  such  drops  of  dew  as  no  one  could 
doubt  came  fi'om  '■^  the  Lord,  the  Father  of  our 

'  On  its  importance  to  vegetable  life,  see  Gen. 
.xxvii.  28,  Dent,  xxxiii.  1.3,  28,  Hag.  i.  10,  Zech. 
viii.  12. 

-DO'^"^.  It  occurs  Deut.  xxxii.  2.  Ps.  Ixv.  11. 
(Heb.)  Ixxii.  6,  as  espeeiallv  refreshing. 

8.S.  Cyr.  f^Cor.'iv.  12.  Ub.  T. 


both  treadeth  down,  and  ej^i('\'lT 
teareth  in  pieces,  and  none  __£}};:  t}»-__ 
can  deliver. 

9  Thine  hand  shall  be 
lifted  up  upon  thine 
adversaries,  and  all 
thine  enemies  shall  be 
cut  off. 


Lord  Jesus  Christ,  tJie  Father  of  mercies  and  the 
God  of  all  comfort.  Yet  the  same  Apostle  after  a 
little  writes,  '^  This  is  the  third  time  I  am  cmi- 
ing  to  you.  I  told  you  before  and  foretell  you, 
and  being  absent  now  I  write  to  them  ivhich  here- 
tofore have  sinned  and  to  all  others,  that  if  I  come 
again,  I  will  not  spare,  since  ye  seeh  a  proof  of 
Christ  speaking  in  me.  See  the  severity  of  a 
master,  like  the  roaring  of  a  lion  among  the 
beasts  of  the  forest.  For  such  surely  are  they 
whom  he  rebukes  for  the  "  undeanness  and  for- 
nication and  lasciviousness  which  they  had  com- 
mitted. Was  he  not  to  such  as  a  lion  '^  ?  Was 
not  Peter  .such,  when  he  rebuked  Ananias 
first  and  then  Sappliira  his  wife,  and  they 
fell  down  and  gave  up  the  ghost?  They 
tread  doivn  ©r  '**  cast  down  imaginations  and  every 
high  thing  that  e.valfeih  itself  against  the  know- 
ledge of  God;  as  Christ  Himself,  Wlio  spake 
in  them,  is  both  a  lamb  and  the  ''  Lio7i  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah,  and  nothing  is  so  teri-ible  as 
'**  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb. 

And  none  can  deliver.  "  ^^  For  as  the 
Apostles  past  from  nation  to  nation,  and  trod 
down  Heathenism,  subduing  it  to  Christ,  and 
taking  within  their  net  the  many  converted 
nations,  none  could  withdraw  from  the 
Apostles'  doctrine  those  whom  they  had  con- 
verted." The  Heathen  world  "^^  cried  out 
that  the  .state  is  beset,  that  the  Christians  are 
in  their  fields,  their  forts,  their  islands." 
"  '■''  W^e  are  a  people  of  yesterday,  and  yet  we 
have  filled  every  place  belonging  to  you, 
cities,  islands,  castles,  towns,  assemblies,  your 
very  camp,  your  tribes,  companies,  palace, 
senate,  forum  I  We  leave  you  your  temples 
only.  We  can  count  your  armies,  our  num- 
bers in  a  single  province  will  be  greater." 

9.  Their  hand  shall  be  lifted  up  upon  their 
adversaries.  The  might  of  the  Church  is  the 
Might  of  Christ  in  her,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Church  is  His  from  Whom  it  comes  and  to 
AVhom  it  returns.  It  is  all  one,  whether 
this  be  said  to  Christ  or  to  the  remnant  of 
Jacob,  i.  e.  His  Churcli.  Her  enemies  are  His, 
and    her's    only     because     they    are     His, 

6 1  Cor.  iii.  6,  7.       '  Gal.  i.  12.       «  Rup.      »  Rib. 
10  Rup.       "  2  Cor.  V.  19— vi.  11.         1=  lb.  i.  3. 
13  lb.  xiii.  1-3.  "lb.  xii.  21. 

IS  See  again  1  Cor.  v.  2-5.  ^^2  Cnr.  x.  5. 

"  Rev.  V.  5.  18  lb.  vi.  IC.        '» Dion. 

■M  Apol.  <•.  1.  p.  2.  Oxf.  Tr.  -'  lb.  c.  .HT.  p.  78. 


78 


MTCAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  71(1. 

4  Zech.  9. 10. 


» Is.  2.  6. 
•  Zfch.  13.  2. 


10  'And  it  shall  come 
.to  pass  in  that  day,  saith 

the  Lord,  that  I  will  cut 
off  thy  horses  out  of  the 
midst  of  thee,  and  I  will 
destroy  thy  chariots : 

11  And  I  will  cut  off 
the  cities  of  thy  land,  and 
throw  down  all  thy  strong 
holds : 

12  And  I  will  cut  off 
witchcrafts  out  of  thine 
hand  and  thou  shalt  have 
no  more  'soothsayers: 

13  'Thy  graven  images 


and  hate  her  as  belonging  to  Him.  They 
slwdl  be  cut  off,  either  ceasing  to  he  His  ene- 
mies, or  ceasing  to  be,  as  Julian  or  Arius  or 
Anti-Christ,  '  whom  the  Lord  sludl  consume 
with  tlie  spirit  of  His  Mouth  aiul  shall  destroy 
ivith  the  briyhtneris  of  His  Comiiuj.  And  in  the 
end,  Satan  also,  over  whom  Christ  gave  the 
Apostles  '^  power  to  tread  on  all  the  power  of 
tite  Emunij,  sliall  be  bruised  under  our feet^. 

10.  Atid  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  tluit  day,  of 
grace  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  His 
Presence  in  the  .Vpostles  and  with  the 
Church,  I  irill  cat  off  thy  horses  out  of  the  nwlst 
of  thee.  The  greater  the  glory  and  purity  of 
the  Church,  the  less  it  needs  or  hangs  upon 
human  aid.  Tlie  more  it  is  reft  of  human 
aid,  the  more  it  hangs  upon  God.  So  God 
promises,  as  a  blessing,  that  He  will  remove 
from  her  all  mere  human  resources,  both 
what  was  in  itself  evil,  and  what,  althougii 
good,  had  been  abused.  Most  of  these  tilings, 
whose  removal  is  here  promised,  are  spoken 
of  at  the  same  time  by  Isaiali,  as  sin,  or  the 
occasion  of  sin,  and  of  God's  judgments  to 
Judah.  * iSoothsayers,  (the  same  word)  horses, 
chariots,  idols  the  work  of  their  hands;  high 
towers, feiiced walls.  "*I  will  take,  from  thee 
all  arms  wherewith,  wliile  unconverted,  thou 
opposedst  the  faitli,"  all  which  thou  settest 
up  as  idols  in  place  of  God.  (Such  ai-e 
witchcrafts,  soothsayers,  graven  images,  im- 
iiges  of  .\shtaroth.)  "  I  will  take  from  thee  all 
outward  means  and  instruments  of  defence 
which  aforetime  were  turned  into  pride  and 
sin  ;  "  its  horses  and  chariots.  Not  such  shall 
l)c  the  arms  of  the  Church,  not  .such  her 
strongiiolds.  A  horse  is  a  rain  thiar/  to  save  a 
num.  Her  arms  shall  he  the  despised  Cross 
of  shame  ;  lier  warriors,   they  who  bear  it ; 


also  will  I  cut  off,  and  thy 
II  standing  images  out  of. 
the  midst  of  thee ;  and 
thou  shalt  'no  more  Avor- 
ship  the  work  of  thine 
hands. 

14  And  I  will  pluck  up 
thy  groves  out  of  the  midst 
of  thee :  so  will  I  destroy 
thy  1 1  cities. 

15  And  I  will  "execute 
vengeance  in  anger  and 
fury  upon  the  heathen, 
such  as  they  have  not 
heard. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

II  Or,  statues. 
»Is.  2.  8. 


II  Or,  emmiet. 

"  Ps.  149.  7. 
ver.  8. 
•2  Thess.  1.  8. 


their  courage,  to  endure  in  holy  patience  and 
meekness;  their  miglit,  the  Holy  Spirit 
within  them;  their  victories,  tlirough  death, 
not  of  others,  but  their  Master's  and,  in  His, 
their  own.  They  shall  overcome  the  world, 
as  He  overcame  it,  and  through  Him 
Alone  and  His  Merits  Who  overcame  it  by 
suffering. 

11-15.  /  will  cut  off  the  (■itic.-<  of  thy  land.  So 
God  promised  by  Zechariah  ^  iferusalem  .<?hall 
be  inhabited  as  town.s  without  walls  ;  for  I  will 
be  luito  her  a  wall  of  lire  round  about.  The 
Churi'li  shall  not  need  the  temptation  of  hu- 
man defence  ;  for  God  shall  fence  her  in  on 
every  side,  (rreat  cities  too,  as  the  abode  of 
luxury  and  sin,  of  power  and  pride,  and, 
mostly,  of  cruelty,  are  chiefly  denounced  as 
the  olijects  of  (iod's  anger.  Babylon  stands 
as  the  emblem  of  the  whole  city  of  the  world 
or  of  the  devil,  as  opposed  to  God.  "  '  The 
first  city  was  built  by  Cain ;  Abel  and  tiie 
other  saints  had  no  continninr/  city'^"  here. 
Citie.'i  then  will  inchule  '"all  the  tumults 
and  evil  passions  and  amltitiou  and  strife  and 
bloodshed,  which  Cain  brought  in  among  men. 
Cities  are  collectively  called  and  are  Bal\v- 
lon,  with  whom,  (as  in  the  Revelations  we 
hear  a  voice  from  heaven  saying),"  the  kings  of 
the  earth  committed  fornication  and  the  mer- 
chants of  the  earth  are  waxed  rich  through  the 
abundance  of  her  delicacies  ;  and  of  whicli  it  is 
written,  ^^  And  a  mighty  Angel  took  up  a  stone 
like  a  great  millstone,  and  ca.-^t  it  info  the  sea, 
saying.  Thus  with  riolence  .thall  that  great  city, 
Babylon,  be  thrown  doirn,  and  i^hall  be  found  no 
more  at  all.  "(ireat  rest  then  is  promised  to 
holy  Zion  i.  e.  the  Church,  wJien  the  cities 
or  strongholds  of  the  land  [strongiiolds,  as 
they  are,  of  earthliness]  .shall   be  destroyeil. 


'  2  ThoRs.  ii.  R. 
*  Ri)m.  xvi.  jii. 


2  8.  Liikc'X.  VX 
*  U.  ii.  (i-8.  ir,.        6  Ril).  Lup. 


«ii.  I,  ,'•.. 
»Heb.  xiii.  11. 


vRc'v.  ,\viii.;!. 


■  Hup. 
i"il..  21. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


79 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1  God's  controversy  for  unkind- 
ness,  6  for  ignwance,  10  for 
injustice,  IQ  and  fw  idolatry. 

TJEAR  ye  now  what  the 
Lord  saith;  Arise; 


For  together  with  them  are  inchuled  all  ob- 
jects of  desire  in  them,  with  the  sight  where- 
of the  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of  (Jod,  while 
pilgrims  here,  are  tempted ;  whereof  the 
wise  man  saith,  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity." 
The  fulfillment  reaches  on  to  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  when  the  Church  shall  finally 
receive  glory  from  the  Lord,  and  be  '  without 
spot  aiid  wrinkle.  All  looks  on  to  that  Day. 
The  very  largeness  of  the  promise,  which 
speaks,  in  its  fullest  sense,  oi'  the  destruction 
of  things,  without  which  we  can  hardly  do  in 
this  life,  (as  cities^,)  or  things  very  useful  to 
the  needs  of  man,  (as  horses,)  carries  us  on 
yet  more  to  that  Day  when  there  will  be  no 
more  need  of  any  outward  things;  "^when 
the  heavy  body  shall  "be  changed,  and  shall 
have  the  swiftness  of  angels,  and  shall  be 
transported  whither  it  willeth,  witliout 
iJmriots  awdi  horses  ;  and  all  things  which  tempt 
the  eye  shall  cease  ;  and  no  evil  shall  enter  ; 
and  there  shall  be  no  need  of  divining,  amid 
the  presence  and  full  knowledge  of  God,  and 
where  the  ever-present  Face  of  God,  AVho  is 
Truth,  sliall  shine  on  all,  and  nothing  be 
imcertain  or  uhknov,'n  ;  nor  shall  they  need 
to  form  in  their  souls  images  of  Him  Whom 
Ilis  own  shall  see  as  He  L  ;  nor  shall  they  es- 
teem anything  of  self,  or  the  work  of  their 
own  hands  ;  but  God  shall  be  All  in  all."  In 
like  way,  the  woe  on  those  wlio  obey  not  the 
truth,  also  looks  on  to  the  end.  It  too  is 
final.  There  is  notliing  to  soften  it.  Punish- 
ments in  the  course  of  life  are  medicinal. 
Here  no  mention  is  maile  of  ^lercy,  but  only 
of  executimj  renr/eance ;  and  tliat,  /'.'('//(.  v^rath 
and  fury  ;  and  that,  such  as  they  have  not  heard. 
For  as  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  heart  conceived  the 
good  things  laid  up  in  store  for  those  who  love 
God,  so  neither  the  evil  things  prepared 
for  those  who,  in  act,  shew  that  tliev  hate 
Him. 

Ch.  VI.  The  foregoing  prophecy  closed 
with  the  final  cleansing  of  the  Church  and 
the  wrath  of  God  resting  on  the  wicked, 
■when,  as  St.  Paul  saith,  *  The  Lord  Jesus  shall 
be  revealed  from  heaven  tvith  His  mighty  angels, 
in  flaming  fi,re,  taking  vengeance  on  them  that 

1  Eph.  V.  27. 

*  In  ver.  14.  Jon.  has  "  I  will  cut  off  thy  enemies," 
whence  E.  M.    But  although  IJT  stands  for  '\): 

"eneaay"  i  Sam.  xxviii.  16,  and  plur.  Ps.  o.xxxi.x. 

20,  (in  hotli  places  with  affix,)  here  every  object 

mentioned  is  of  things,  helonqing  to  Jndah,"its  own. 

3  Rup.  4  2  Thesb.  i.  7-10.  '  s  Ezck.  ii.  8. 


contend  thou   ||  before  the 
mountains,  and  let  the  hills . 
hear  thy  voice. 

2  *Hear  ye,  O  moun- 
tains, ^  the  Lord's  contro- 
versy, and  ye  strong  foun- 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

II  Or,  ivith. 
»  Deut.  32. 1. 

Ps.  50. 1,  4. 

Is.  1.  2. 
>•  Hos.  12.  2. 


know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the  Gospel  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  who  shall  be  punished 
with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  His  poicer;  when 
He  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  His  Saints,  and 
to  be  admired  in  all  the^n  that  believe.  The 
Proi)iiet  here  begins  his  third  and  last 
summons  to  judgment,  in  the  Name,  as  it 
were,  of  the  All-Holy  Trinity,  against  Whom 
they  had  sinned. 

1.  Hear  ye  nowivhat  the  Lord  .naith  :  If  ye 
will  not  hear  the  rebuke  of  man,  hear  now  at 
last  the  word  of  God.  "Arise  thou,  Micah." 
Tlie  prophet  was  not  willing  to  be  the  herald 
of  woe  to  his  people  ;  but  had  to  arise  at  the 
bidding  of  God,  that  he  might  not  ^  be  rebel- 
lious like  that  rebellious  house.  Stand  up;  as  one 
having  all  authority  to  rebuke,  and  daunted 
by  none.  He  rouses  the  iiearer,  as  shewing 
it  t(j  be  a  very  grave  lu-gent  matter,  to  be 
done  promptly,  urgently,  witliout  delay.  Con- 
tend thou  before  [better,  as  in  E.  M.  icith  •*]  the 
mountains.  Since  man,  who  had  reason, 
would  not  use  his  reason,  God  calls  the 
mountains  and  hills,  who  '  unvillingh/,  as  it 
were,  liad  been  the  scenes  of  their  idolatry, 
as  if  He  would  say,  '"'Insensate  though  ye 
be,  ye  are  more  sensible  tlian  Israel,  whom  I 
endowed  with  sense ;  foi-  ye  feel  the  voice 
and  command  of  God  your  Creator  and  obey 
Ilim  ;  they  do  not.  I  cite  you.  to  represent 
your  guilty  inhabitants,  that,  through  you, 
tliey  may  bear  j\Iy  complaint  to  be  just,  and 
own  tliemselves  guilty,  repent,  and  ask  for- 
giveness." "Tlie  altars  and  idols,  the  blood 
of  the  sacrifices,  the  bones  and  ashes  upon 
them,  with  unuttered  yet  clear  voice,  spoke 
of  the  idolatry  and  guilt  of  the  Jews,  and  so 
pronounced  God's  charge  and  expostulation 
to  be  just.  Ezekiel  is  bidden,  in  like  way,  to 
prophesy  against  the  mountains  of  Israel^,  I 
will  bring  a  sword  upon  you,  and  I  will  de- 
stroy your  high  places,  and  your  altars  shall  be 
desolate.  "'"Lifeless  nature  without  voice 
tells  the  glory  of  God  ;  without  ears  it  hears 
what  the  Lord  speaks  "." 

2.  Hear,  ye  strong  [or,  it  may  be,  ye  endur- 
ing '"^j]  foundations  of  the  earth.     Mountains 

6  This  is  the  uniform  sense  of  yy  with  riS  as 
well  as  with  DJ}.  See  Num.  xx,  13,  Jud.  viii.  1, 
Prov.  XXV.  9,  Is.  xlv.  9,  1.  8,  Jer.  ii.  9,  Neh.  v.  7,  xiii. 
11,  17.  (all,  in  FurstConc.) 

7  Rom.  viii.  20.  8 Lap.  »  Ezek.  vi.  2-5. 
i"Pnc.  n  Ps.  xix.  3,  S.  Lnke  xi.x.  40. 
^-  D"'JiTS-     •'^ev  (4cs.  Ia-x.  p.  (i44. 


80 


MTCAH. 


■Pefore 

CU  RIST 

cir.  710. 

•  Is.  1. 18. 
&  5.  3,  4. 
&43.  26. 
Hob.  4. 1. 

*  Jer.  2.  5, 31. 


dations  of  the  earth :  for 
"the  Lord  hath  a  contro- 
versy with  his  people, 
and  he  will  plead  with 
Israel. 

3  O  my  people,  ''what 
have   I   done   unto   thee? 


and  rocks  carry  the  soul  to  times  far  away, 
before  and  after.  They  change  not,  like  the 
habitable,  cultivated,  surface  of  the  earth. 
There  they  were,  before  the  existence  of  our 
short-lived  generations  ;  there  they  will  be, 
until  time  shall  cease  to  be.  They  have  wit- 
nessed so  many  vicissitudes  of  human  things, 
themselves  unchanging.  The  prophet  is  di- 
rected to  seize  this  feeling  of  simple  nature. 
"  They  have  seen  so  much  before  me,"  Yes  ! 
"  then  they  have  seen  all  wliich  befell  my 
forefathers ;  all  God's  benefits,  all  along,  to 
them  and  to  us,  all  their  and  our  unthankful- 
ness." 

He  will  plead  loilh  Israel.  God  hath  a  strict 
severe  judgment  *  with  His  people,  and  yet 
vouchsafes  to  clear  Himself  before  His  crea- 
tures, to  comedown  from  His  throne  of  glory 
and  place  Himself  on  equal  terms  with  them. 
He  does  not  plead  only,  but  mutually  (such 
is  the  force  of  the  word)  impleads  uith  ''■  His 
people,  hears  if  they  would  say  aught  against 
Himself,  and  then  gives  His  own  judgment  ^ 
But  this  willingness  to  hear,  only  makes  us 
condemn  ourselves,  so  that  we  should  be 
without  excuse  before  Him.  AVe  do  owe 
ourselves  wholly  to  Him  Who  made  us  and 
hath  given  us  all  things  richly  to  enjoy.  If 
we  have  withdrawn  ourselves  from  His  Ser- 
vice, unless  He  dealt  hardly  with  us,  we 
dealt  rebelliously  and  ungratefully  with 
Him.  God  brings  all  pleas  into  a  narrow 
space.  The  fault  is  with  Him  or  with  us. 
He  offers  to  clear  Himself.  He  sets  before 
us  His  good  deeds,  His  Loving  kindness. 
Providence,  Grace,  Long-suffering,  Bounty, 
Truth,  and  contrasts  with  them  our  evil 
deeds,  our  unthankfulness,  despitefulness, 
our  breach  of  His  laws,  and  disorder- 
ini^  of  His  creation.  And  then,  in  the 
face  of  His  Goodness,  He  asks,  "  Wliat 
evil  have  I  done,  what  good  have  I  left 
undone?"  so  tliat  our  evil  and  negligences 
should  be  but  a  requital  of  His.  For  if 
it  is  evil  to  return  evil  for  evil,  or  not  to 
return  good  for  good,  what  evil  is  it  to  return 

"Comp.  Is.  xliii.  26,  Jer.  ii.  5,6,9.  So  '5  njj*, 
"testify  against  Me,"  ^ver.  3.)  is  a  judicial  term,  lit. 
"answer  aeainst  Me.'M.e.  "an<!\vor  judicial  inter- 
rogatories, then  generally  "depose,"  "testify," 
Num.  XXXV.  30,  Deut.  xlx.  18,  Job  xv.  6,  Ruth  i.  21, 
U.  ill.  9,  lix.  12,  Jer.  xiv.  7. 


and  wherein  have  I  wearied 
thee  ?  testify  against  me. 

4  *For  I  brought  thee 
up  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  redeemed  thee 
out  of  the  house  of  ser- 
vants ;  and   I  sent  before 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

•  Ex.  12.  51. 
A  14.  30. 
A  20.  2. 
Deut.  4.  20. 
Amos  2. 10. 


evil  for  His  exceeding  good  !  As  He  says  by 
Isaiah,  *  What  conkl  have  been  done  more  to  My 
vineyard  and  I  have  not  done  in  it.  Wherefore, 
ivhen  I  looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes, 
brought  it  forth  wild  grapesf  And  our  Blessed 
Lord  asks ;  *  Many  good  works  have  I  shewed 
yon  from  My  Father.  For  which  of  those  works 
do  ye  stone  Me  f  ®  Which  of  you  convincelh  Me 
of  sin?  And  if  l say  the  truth,  why  do  ye  not 
believe  Me  ?  Away  from  the  light  of  God,  we 
may  plead  excuses,  and  cast  the  blame  of  our 
sins  upon  our  temptations,  or  passions, 
or  nature,  i.  e.  on  Almighty  Gotl  Him- 
self, AVho  made  us.  AVlien  His  light 
streams  in  upon  our  conscience,  we  are  silent. 
Blessed  if  we  be  silenced  and  confess  to  Him 
then,  that  we  be  not  first  silenced  in  the  Day 
of  Judgment.  '  liighteous  Job  snid,  ^  I  dei>ire 
to  reason  with  God;  but  when  his  eye  saw 
Him,  he  said,  ^wherefore  I  abhor  myself,  and 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes. 

3.  0  My  people.  This  one  tender  word '", 
twice  repeated ",  contains  in  one  a  whole 
volume  of  reproof.  It  sets  before  tlie  eyes 
God's  choice  of  them  of  His  free  grace,  and 
the  whole  history  of  His  loving-kindness,  if 
so  tiiey  could  be  ashamed  of  their  thankles.s- 
ness  and  turn  to  Him.  "  Mine,"  He  says,  "  ye 
are  by  creation,  by  Providence,  by  great  de- 
liverances and  by  hourly  love  and  guardian- 
ship, by  gifts  of  nature,  the  world,  and  grace ; 
such  things  have  I  done  for  thee;  what 
against  thee  ?  tvhat  evil  have  I  done  unto  thee  f  " 
^^  Thy  foot  did  not  sivell  titese  forty  years,  for  He 
upbears  in  all  ways  where  He  leads.  Wherein 
have  I  wearied  thee?  for  ^'*  His  commandments 
are  not  grievous.  Thou  hast  been  weary  of 
Me,  0  Israel,  God  says  by  Isaiah  ",  /  have  not 
wearied  thee  with  incense  ;  thou  hast  wearied  Me 
with  thine  iniquities. 

4.  For  I  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  redeemed  thee  out  of  the  house  of  ser- 
vants. What  wert  thou?  What  art  thou? 
Wlio  made  thee  what  thou  art  ?  (iod  i-eminds 
them.  They  (i'ere  slaves;  thej' arc  His  jK'ople 
in  the  heritage  of  the  heathen,  and  that  by 


<  Is.  V.  4. 

«Ib.  viii.  46. 

"Job  i.  8.  ii.  3,  Ezek.  xiv.  20. 

»xlii.  5,  6. 
"  Here  and  v.  6. 
"  Deut.  viii.  4. 
"Is.  xliii.  22-24. 


5S.  John  X.  32. 
8  Job  xiiL3. 

"  1  9.  John  T.  a. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


n 


Befofe 
CHRIST 

cir-  no.      Miriam 


thee  Moses,   Aaron,  and 
iriam. 
5  O  my  people,  remem- 


f  Num.  22.  5. 
&  23.  7. 

Deut.  23.  i  5.  ber  now  what  ^Balak  king 
Rev.  2. 14.'    '  of   Moab    consulted,    and 


His  outstretched  wm.  God  mentions  some 
heads  of  the  mercies  which  He  had  shewn 
them,  when  He  had  made  them  His  people, 
His  redemption  of  tlaem  from  Egypt,  His 
guidance  through  the  wilderness,  His  lead- 
ing them  over  the  last  diiSculty  to  the  pro- 
mised land.  The  use  of  the  familiar  language 
of  the  Pentateuch '  is  like  the  touching  of  so 
many  key-notes,  recalling  the  whole  har- 
mony of  His  love.  Moses,  Aaron,  and  Miriam 
together,  are  Lawgiver,  to  deliver  and  in- 
struct ;  Priest,  to  atone  ;  and  Prophetess  ^  to 
praise  God  ;  and  the  name  of  Miriam  at  once 
recalled  the  miglity  works  at  the  Red  Sea 
and  how  they  then  thanked  God. 

5.  Remember  now.  The  word  translated 
now  is  a  very  tender  one,  like  our  "  do  now 
remember "  or  "  do  remember,"  beseeching 
instead  of  commanding.  "^I  might  com- 
mand, but  I  speak  tenderly,  that  I  may  lead 
thee  to  own  the  truth."  What  Balak  king 
of  Moab  consulted,  and  ivhat  Balaam  the  son  of 
JBeor  answered  him.  God  did  not  only  raise 
up  Moses,  Aaron,  Miriam,  out  of  their 
brethren,  but  He  turned  the  curse  of  the 
alien  Balaam  into  a  blessing ;  and  that,  not 
for  their  righteousness,  (for  even  then  they 
were  rebellious,)  but  against  their  deserts, 
out  of  His  own  truth  and  righteousness.  Not 
that  the  curse  of  Balaam  could  in  itself 
have  hurt  them ;  but,  in  proportion  to  his 
reputation,  it  would  have  infused  great 
energy  into  their  enemies,  and  its  reversal 
must  have  struck  a  great  panic  into  them 
and  into  others.  Human  might  having 
failed  in  Sihon  and  Og,  Balak  sought  super- 
human. God  shewed  them  by  their  own 
diviner,  that  it  was  against  them.  Even 
after  they  had  seduced  Israel,  through 
Balaam's  devilish  counsel,  Midian  seems  to 
have  been  stricken  by  God  with  panic,  and 
not  to  have  struck  a  blow  *. 

From  Shiitim  unto  Gilgal.  The  words  are 
separated  by  the  Hebrew  accent  from  what 
went  before.  It  is  then  probably  said  in 
concise  energy  for,  "Remember  too  from 
Shittim  to  Giigal,"  i.  e.  all  the  great  works  of 
God  from  Shittim^,  the  last  encampment  of 
Israel  out  of  the  promised  laud,  where  they 
so  sinned  in  Baal-peor,  unto  Gilgal,  the  first 

'DnvD  ]nNr3  ynS;?n  see  oen.  1.  24.  no 

Q"\2]?  Ex.  xiii.  3. 14,  xx.  2,  Deut.  viii.  14,  xiii.  10; 
and  united,  as  here,  with  nil),  Deut.  vii.  8;  xiii.  5. 

2  Ex.  XV.  20.  8  Dion.  *  Num.  xxxi.  49. 

^8ee  on  Hoe.  ix,  10  vol.  i.  p.  93.  and  ou  Jo.  iii.  18. 
vol.  i.  p.  212.  6  Jos.  V.  9. 

6 


what   Balaam  the  son  of   ^^^i"/^, , 
Beor  answered  him  from      ^if.  710. 


*  Shittim  unto  Gilgal ;  that  « Num.  25. 1. 

-  .     ?       '.    ,  &33.  49. 

ye  may  know  "  the  right-  Josh.  4. 19. 

eousness  of  the  Lord.  i-  Judg.  5. 11. 


in  the  promised  land,  which  they  entered  by 
miracle,  where  the  Ark  rested  amid  the  vic- 
tories given  them,  where  the  Covenant  was 
renewed,  and  ^the  reproach  of  Egypt  was 
rolled  away.  Remember  all,  from  your 
own  deep  sin  and  rebellion  to  the  deep 
mercy  of  God. 

That  ye  may  know  the  righteousness  [^righteous- 
nesses^ of  the  Lord  ;  His  Faithfulness  in  per- 
forming His  promises  to  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob.  God  speaketh  of  His  promises, 
not  as  what  they  were  in  themselves,  mere 
mercy,  but  as  what  they  became,  througli 
that  gracious  and  free  promise,  righteousness, 
in  that  He  had  bound  Himself  to  fulfill  what 
He  had,  out  of  mere  grace,  promised.  So  in 
the  New  Testament  He  saith,  ^  Qod  is  not 
unrighteous  that  He  should  forget  your  wo7-ks 
and  labor  which  proceedcth  of  love;  and,  ^ He  is 
faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins.  Micah 
speaks,  by  a  rare  idiom,  of  the  righteousnesses  * 
of  the  Lord,  each  act  of  mercy  being  a  sepa- 
rate effluence  of  His  Righteousness.  The 
very  names  of  the  places  suggest  the  right- 
eous acts  of  God,  the  unrighteous  of  Israel. 
"  ^^  But  we  too,  who  desire  with  unveiled  face 
to  behold  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  have 
Abraham  really  for  our  father,  let  us,  when 
we  have  sinned,  hear  God  pleading  against 
us,  and  reproving  us  for  the  multitude  of 
His  benefits.  For  we  too  once  served 
Pharaoh  and  the  people  of  Egypt,  laboring 
in  works  of  mire  and  clay ;  and  He  redeemed 
us  Who  gave  Himself  a  Redemption  for  all ; 
that  we,  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord '',  whom 
He  redeemed  out  of  the  hand  of  the  enemy 
and  gathered  from  the  lands,  might  say, 
His  mercy  endureth  for  ever.  He  sent  also 
before  our  face  Moses,  the  spiritual  Law,  and 
Aaron  the  High  Priest,  not  bearing  the 
typical  Ephod  and  Urim,  but  having  in  His 
Forehead  the  seal  of  holiness  which  God  the 
Father  sealed  ;  and  Miriam,  the  foreshewing 
of  prophets.  Recollect  we  too  what  he 
thought  against  us  who  willed  to  devour  us, 
the  true  Balak,  Satan,  who  laid  snares  for  us 
through  Balaam,  the  destroyer  of  the  people, 
fearing  lest  we  should  cover  his  land  and 
occupy  it,  withdrawing  the  earthly-minded 
from  his  empire." 

7  Heb.  vi.  10.  » 1  S.  John  i.  9. 

•"  mplV,  only  occurs  beside  Jud.  v.  11.  (bis)  1 

Sam.  xii.  T  thence  Triply,  Dan.  ix.  16.  Else  only 

Ps.  ciii.  6. 
w  From  S.  Jer.  »  Ps.  evil.  1-3. 


82 


MICAH. 


chrTst        ^  ^Wherewith  shall  I 
cir-  710-      come  before  the  Lord,  and 


bow  myself  before  the  high 

God?  shall  I  come  before 

him  with   burnt  offerings, 

fHeb.  8on«o/a  with   calves    f  of   a   year 

yeart 
I  Ps.  50.  9.  old  ? 

isai.i. ii.  7  'Will  the  Lord  be 


6,  7.  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord? 
The  people,  thus  arraigned,  bursts  in,  as  men 
do,  with  professions  that  they  would  be  no 
more  ungrateful ;  that  they  will  do  any- 
thing, everything — but  what  they  ought. 
With  themit  shall  be  but  "  Ask  and  have." 
They  wish  only  to  know,  ivith  what  they  shall 
come  ?  They  would  be  beforehand  ^  with  Him, 
anticipating  His  wishes ;  they  would,  Avith 
all  the  submission  of  a  creature,  bow'',  pro- 
strate themselves  before  God  ;  tliey  acknow- 
ledge His  High  Majesty,  who  dwelleth  on 
high  ^,  the  mofit  High  God,  and  would  abase 
themselves*  before  His  lofty  greatness,  if 
they  but  knew,  "how"  or  "wherewith." 
They  would  give  of  their  best  ;  'sacrifices  the 
choicest  of  their  kind,  which  should  be  wholly 
His,  whole-bui-nt-offerings,  offered  exactly 
according  to  the  law  *,  buUock^  of  a  year  old  ; 
then  too,  the  next  choice  offering,  the  rams; 
and  these,  as  they  were  offered  for  the  whole 
people  on  very  solemn  occasions,  in  vast 
multitudes,  Mo((.saft(fe  or  ten  thousands*;  the 
oil  which  accompanied  the  burnt  sacrifice, 
should  flow  in  rivers' ;  nay,  more  still ;  they 
would  not  withhold  their  sons,  their  first 
born  sons,  from  (iod,  part,  as  they  were,  of 
themselves,  or  any  fruit  of  their  own  body. 
They  enhance  the  offering  by  naming  the 
tender  relation  to  themselves*.  They  would 
offer  everything,  (even  what  God  forbade) 
excepting  only  what  alone  He  asked  for, 
their  heart,  its  love  and  its  obedience'-'.  The 
form  of  their  ofier  contains  this ;  they  ask 
zealously,  "  witli  what  shall  I  come."  It  is 
an  outward  offering  only,  a  thiny  which  they 
would  bring.  Hypocritical  eagerness!  a  sin 
against  light.  For  to  enquire  further,  when 
God  has  already  revealed  anything,  is  to  deny 
that  He  has  revealed  it.     It  comes  from  the 


mpx. 


!f]3K. 


'  D'no  tiSn. 


<  Thf  wonl  occurs  only  of  one  sinking,  bowed 
<lo\vii,  iiniiil  per'^ecutions,  Ps.  Ivii.  7;  ol' the  "bowed 
down,"  whom  God  raiseth  up,  Ps.  cxlv.  14,  cxivi.  8, 
iind  in  Is.  Iviii.  ,'>,  of  "ostcntntious  outward  humilia- 
tion before  God."  Mo  prolmMy  here,  where  alone 
the  reflective  occurs. 

'Lev.  ix.  2,  :i. 

•At  Solomon's  dedication,  :i2,()00  oxen  and  12o,(kX) 
sheep,  I  Kings  viii.  «.'J ;  by  Hezeltiah,  2im)0  bullocks 
and  n.OTK)  sheep,  '2  Chron.  xxx.  24 ;  by  Josiah,  3fVKX» 
lambs  and  kids  for  the  paschal  offerings  and  3<-MiO 

bullocks.    lb.  XXXV.  7. 


pleased  with  thousands  of       Before 

CHRIST 

rams,  or  with   ten   thou-      cir.  710. 


sands    of   "rivers   of   oil ? 'g'^^^j^J^ ^g  3 
'shall  I  give  my  firstborn  jpf-7%*^-^"- 
for  my  transgression,  the  ^l^i^^/^^^ 
fruit  of  my  t  bodv  for  the  t  Heb.  bei'iy. 

•'     '  "   ''  n>  Deut.  10.  12. 

sin  of  my  soul  ?  1  s&m.  15. 22. 

•^  Hos.  6.  6. 

8  He  hath   "shewed  &i'2.6. 


wish  that  He  had  not  revealed  what  He  has 
revealed.  "  '^  Whoso,  after  he  hath  found  the 
truth,  discusseth  anything  further,  seeketh  a 
lie."  God  liad  told  them,  long  before,  from 
the  time  that  He  made  them  His  people, 
what  he  desired  of  them  ;  So  Micah  answers, 

8.  He  hath  shewed  thee.  Micah  does  not 
tell  them  noic,  as  for  the  first  time ;  which 
would  have  excused  them.  He  says.  He  hath 
shewed  thee  ;  He,  about  Whose  mind  and  will 
and  pleasure  they  were  pretending  to  enquire, 
the  Lord  their  God.  He  had  shewn  it  to  them. 
The  law  was  full  of  it.  He  shewed  it  to 
them,  when  He  said,  "  And  now,  hrael,  what 
doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  th.ee,  but  to  fear 
the  Lord  thy  God,  to  walk  in  all  His  ways,  and 
to  love  Him  and  to  sen-e  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul,  to  keep  the 
commandments  of  the  Lord  and  His  statides 
which  I  comnuind  thee  this  day  for  thy  good  f 
They  had  asked,  "  with  what  outward  thing  '^ 
shall  I  come  before  the  Lord  ; "  the  prophet 
tells  them,  "  what  thing  is  good,"  the  inward 
man  of  the  heart,  righteousness,  love,  hu- 
mility. 

And  what  doth  the  Lord  require  ^search,  se^k'] 
of  thee  f  The  very  word  ^'  implies  an  earnest 
search  within.  He  would  say.  ""Trouble 
not  thyself  as  to  any  of  the.se  things,  burnt- 
of}i?rings,  rams,  calves,  without  thee.  For 
(4o(l  seeketh  not  thine,  but  thee  ;  not  thy 
substance,  but  thy  spirit;  not  ram  or  goat, 
but  thy  heart."  '"^Thou  askest,  what  thou 
shouldest  offer  for  thee?  Oifor  thyself.  For 
what  else  doth  the  Lord  seek  of  thee,  but 
thee"?  Because,  of  all  earthly  creatures.  He 
hath  made  nothing  better  than  thee,  He 
seeketh  thyself  from  thyself,  because  thou 
hadst  lost  thyself." 

To  do  jtuigment,  are    chiefly   all  acts    of 

'Comp.  Job  XX.  17,  "rivers"  ('inj  as  here)  "of 
Btreams  of  honey  and  cream."  Oil  was  used  m  all 
meal-offerings  whicli  accompanied  the  burnt-offer- 
ing, Lev.  ii.  1,  2.  4-7,  vii.  10.  12,  and  so  entered 
into  the  daily  sacrifice,  Ex.  xxix.  40,  and  all  sacri- 
fices of  consecration,  Kx.  xxix.  2,  2:1,  Lev.  vi.  15,  21, 
Num.  viii.  s. 

«.See  Dent,  xxviii.  .'.3.  •Cone.  Uhalc.  Act.  3. 

i"The  enquiry,  v.  7,  was,  IIVW  the  Lord  he  pleased  f 
"  nX^'n.  The  subject  of.  He  hath  shewn  thee,  i« 
obviously  that  same  Lord. 

»  Dent.  X.  1'2,  13.  ''^np^,  0-  31£3  HO,  « 

"  B'in.    "  RU|>.     "■  .>*.  A'lc-  Merm.  48.  ad  loc.  g  2, 


CHAPTER  VI. 


83 


c  H  R*Ys  T   *^®®'  ^  "^^°'  ^^^^^  ^  S^od ; 
cir.  710.     ^  and  what  doth  the  Lord 


»Gen.  18. 19. 
Isai.  1. 17. 


require  of  thee,  but  "  to  do 


equity ;  to  love  mercy,  all  deeds  of  love. 
Judgment,  is  what  right  requires ;  mercy, 
what  love.  Yet,  secondaril}',  "  to  do  judg- 
ment "  is  to  pass  righteous  judgments  in  all 
cases;  and  so,  as  to  otliers,  ^  judge  not  accord- 
ing to  the  appearance,  but  judge  righteous  judg- 
ment ;  and  as  to  one's  self  also.  Judge 
equitably  and  kindly  of  others,  humbly  of 
thyself.  "  ^  Judge  of  tliyself  in  thyself  with- 
out acceptance  of  thine  own  person,  so  as  not 
to  spare  thy  sins,  nor  take  pleasure  in  them, 
because  thou  hast  done  them.  Neither  praise 
thyself  in  what  is  good  in  thee,  nor  accuse 
God  in  what  is  evil  in  thee.  For  tliis  is 
wrong  judgment,  and  so,  not  judgment  at  all. 
This  thou  didst,  being  evil ;  reverse  it,  and 
it  will  be  right.  Praise  God  in  what  is  good 
in  thee;  accuse  thyself  in  what  is  evil.  So 
shalt  thou  anticipate  the  judgment  of  God, 
as  He  saith,  *  Ij'  we  would  judge  ourselves,  we 
should  not  be  judged  of  the  Lord."  He  addeth, 
love  mercy;  being  merciful,  out  of  love,  *  not 
of  necessity,  for  God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver. 
These  acts  together  contain  the  wliole  duty 
to  man,  corresponding  with  and  formed  ujjon 
the  mercy  and  justice  of  God^  All  which 
is  due,  anyhow  or  in  any  way,  is  of  judgment  ; 
all  which  is  free  toward  man,  although  not 
free  toward  God,  is  of  mercy.  There  remains, 
ivcdk  humbly  with  thy  God;  not,  bow  thyself 
only  befoi'e  Him,  as  they  had  offered  ®,  nor 
again  tvalk  with  Him  only,  as  did  Enoch, 
Noah,  Abraham,  Job ;  but  walk  humbly  (lit. 
boiv  doivn''  the  going)  yet  still  ivith  thy  God; 
never  lifting  up  thyself,  never  sleeping,  never 
standing  still,  but  ever  walking  on,  yet  ever 
casting  thyself  down  ;  and  the  more  thou  goest 
on  in  grace,  the  more  cast  thyself  down  ;  as 
our  Lord  saith,  ^  When  ye  have  done  all  these 
things  which  are  comnumded  you,  say.  We  are 
unprofitable  servants ;  we  have  done  that  which 
was  our  duty  to  do. 

It  is  not  a  "crouching  before  God"  dis- 
pleased, (such  as  they  had  thought  of,)  but 
the  humble  love  of  tlie  forgiven ;  walk  humiily, 
as  the  creature  with  the  Creator,  but  in  love, 
with  thine  own  God.  Humble  thyself  with 
God,  Who  humbled  Himself  in  the  flesh ; 
walk  on  with  Him,  "Who  is  thy  Way.  Neither 
humility  nor  obedience  alone  would  be  true 
graces ;  but  to  cleave  fast  to  God,  because  He 
is  tliine  ^4//,  and  to  bow  thyself  down,  because 


1  S.  John  vii.  24. 
*2Cor.  ix.  7. 


2S.  Aug.  I.e.      31  Cor.  xi.  31. 
sPs.  ci.  1.  Ixi.  7.  oy.  0. 

'  i\Dl  i'l.Vn    The  root  only  occurs  beside  in  the 

form   D'J?1JV  Pi'ov.  xi.  2,  where  it  is  opposed  to 

pride.    In  tlie  Targg.  Afel  is  ^  Heb.  n'jn.    The 
noun  is  also  used  ot  hnniilily.    The  Arabic  has  no 


justly,  and  to  love  mercy, 

and  to  t  walk  humbly  with . 

%r^    J  a  iYi^h.  humble 

'jOd  !  thyaeU  to  walk. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


thou  art  nothing,  and  thine  All  is  He  and  of 
Him.  It  is  altogether  a  Gospel-precept; 
bidding  us,  ^  Be  ye  perfect,  as  your  Father  which 
is  in  Heaven  is  perfect ;  ^'^  Be  merciful,  as  your 
Father  also  is  mercifid ;  and  yet,  in  the  end, 
have  "  that  same  mind  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus,  Who  made  Himself  of  no  reputation. 

The  offers  of  the  people,  stated  in  the  bare 
nakedness  in  which  Micah  exhibits  them, 
have  a  character  of  irony.  But  it  is  the 
irony  of  the  truth  and  of  the  fact  itself  The 
creature  has  nothing  of  its  own  to  offer; 
^'^  the  blood  of  bulh  and  goats  cannot  take  away 
sin;  and  the  offerings,  as  they  rise  in  value, 
become,  not  useless  only  but,  sinful.  Such 
offerings  would  bring  down  anger,  not  mercy. 
Micah's  words  then  are,  for  their  vividness, 
an  almost  proverbial  expression  of  the 
nothingness  of  all  which  we  sinners  could 
offer  to  God.  "  '•''  We,  who  are  of  the  people 
of  God,  knowing  that  ^*  in  His  sight  shall  no  man 
living  be  justified,  and  saying,  ^^  lamabeastvdth 
Thee,  trust  in  no  pleas  before  His  judgment- 
seat,  but  pray ;  yet  we  put  no  trust  in  our 
very  prayers.  For  there  is  nothing  worthy 
to  be  offered  to  God  for  sin,  and  no  humility 
can  wash  away  the  stains  of  offences.  In  pen- 
itence for  our  sins,  we  hesitate  and  say, 
Whereivith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord  ?  how 
shall  I  come,  so  as  to  be  admitted  into  famil- 
iar intercourse  with  my  God  ?  One  and  the 
same  spirit  revolveth  these  things  in  each  of 
us  or  of  those  before  us,  who  liave  been 
pricked  to  repentance,  '  what  Avorthy  offering 
can  I  make  to  the  Lord  ?'  This  and  the  like 
we  revolve,  as  the  Apostle  saith  ;  '®  We  know 
not  ivhat  to  pray  for  as  ive  ought ;  but  the  Spirit 
itself  maketh  intercession  for  us  with  groanings 
whichcannot  be  uttered.  '  Should  I  offer  myself 
Mholly  as  a  burnt-offering  to  Him?'  If, 
understanding  spiritually  all  the  Levitical 
sacrifices,  I  should  present  them  in  myself, 
and  offer  my  first-born,  i.  e.  what  is  chief  in 
me,  my  soul,  I  should  find  notliing  worthy 
of  His  greatness.  Neither  in  ourselves,  nor 
in  ought  earthly,  can  we  find  anything 
worthy  to  be  oftered  to  reconcile  us  witli  God. 
For  the  sin  of  the  soul,  blood  alone  is  worthy 
to  be  oftered  ;  not  the  blood  of  calves,  or 
rams,  or  goats,  but  our  own  ;  yet  our  own  too 
is  not  ottered,  but  given  l>ack,  being  due 
already  '".     The  Blood  of  Christ  Alone  suf- 

bearing  upon  it,  all  its  meaning.s  being  derived 
from  the  original  "  formed." 

8  S.  Luke  xvii.  in.  9  g.  Matt.  v.  48. 

10  S.  Luke  vi.  30.      "Phil.  ii.  5,  7.       i-  Heb.  x.  4. 

18  from  S.  Jer.  S.  Cvr.  Rup.  Dion. 

»  Ps.  cxliii.  2.  >^  lb.  Ixxili.  22. 

i«  Rom.  viii.  20,  "  Ps.  cxvi.  8, 


84 


MICAH. 


chrTst  ^  ^^^   Lord's  voice 

cir.  710.  crieth  unto  the  city,  and 

'^?hA"Zt  \\the  man  of  ^visdom  shall 

which  is. 


liceth  to  do  away  all  sin."  '"The  whole 
is  said,  in  order  to  instruct  us,  that,  without 
the  shedding  of  the  Blood  of  Christ  and  its 
Virtue  and  Merits,  we  cannot  please  God, 
though  we  offered  ourselves  and  all  that  we 
have,  within  and  without ;  and  also,  that  so 
great  are  the  benefits  bestowed  upon  us  by 
the  love  of  Christ,  that  we  can  repay  nothing 
of  them." 

But  then  it  is  clear  that  there  is  no  teach- 
ing in  this  passage  in  Micah,  which  there  is 
not  in  the  law'^.  The  developments  in  the 
Prophets  relate  to  the  Person  and  character 
of  the  Redeemer.  The  law  too  contained 
both  elements ;  1)  the  ritual  of  sacrifice, 
impressing  on  the  Jew  the  need  of  an  Atoner ; 
2)  the  moral  law,  and  the  graces  inculcated 
in  it,  obedience,  love  of  God  and  man,  justice, 
mercy,  humility,  and  the  rest.  Tliere  was 
no  hint  in  the  law,  that  half  was  acceptable 
to  God  instead  of  the  whole ;  that  sacrifice 
of  animaLs  would  supersede  self-sacrifice  or 
obedience.  Tliere  was  nothing  on  which  the 
Pharisee  could  base  his  liercsy.  WJiat  Micah 
naid,  Moses  had  said.  The  corrupt  of  the 
l)eople  offered  a  half-service,  what  cost  them 
least,  as  faith  without  love  always  does. 
Micah,  in  this,  reveals  to  them  nothing  new ; 
but  tells  them  that  this  half-service  is  con- 
trary to  the  first  principles  of  their  law.  He 
hath  shewed  thee,  O  maa,  what  is  good.  Sacri- 
fice, without  love  of  God  and  man,  was  not 
even  so  much  as  the  body  without  the  soul. 
It  wa.s  an  abortion,  a  monster.  I-^or  one  end 
of  sacrifice  was  to  inculcate  the  insufficiency 
of  all  our  good,  apart  from  tlie  Blood  of 
Christ;  that,  do  what  we  would,  ^«//  came 
short  of  the  (jlonj  of  God.  But  to  substitute 
sacrifice,  which  was  a  confession  that  at  best 
we  were  miserable  sinners,  unable,  of  our- 
selves, to  please  God,  for  any  effi)rts  to  please 
Him  or  to  avoid  displeasing  Him,  would  be 
a  direct  contradiction  of  the  law,  antinomian- 
ism  iinder  the  dispensation  of  the  law  itself. 

>  Dion. 

-As  is  80  often  said,  in  order  to  depreciate  the 
law,  e.  g.  in  Dr.  Stanley's  J.  Church  p.  448. 

■■'  Rom.  iii.  25. 

*  Prov.  viii.  1,  :i,  4.  ''  Is.  xl.  3.  S.  Matt.  iii.  .5. 

6S.  Luke  X.  Hi. 

'This, the  .simple.-<t,  is  the  mo.st  energetic  renrler- 
iiia;.  Other  possible  renderings  of  the  simple 
words,  ."jOB^  riKT   n^iJ^ini,  come  to   the    same. 

iSuch  are,  "  And  wisdom  (i.  e.  wholly  wise)  is  he  who 
regards  Thy  Name;"  or  "Thy  Name  (i.e.  Thou, 
.-uch  as  Thy  name  expresses  of  Thee)  beholdeth 
wisdom,"  i.e.  the  re.illy  wise,  or  religious;  or,  "And 
wisdom  is  it,  that  one  regards  Thv  \nme;"  or,  with 
I  he  change  of  a  vowel  (PIKT  for  riKT),  "and  wis- 
dom iit  it,  to  f<'ar  Thy  Name."     In  regard  to  the  Use 


Before 


see  thy  name :  hear  ye  the    c  h  r  i  s  t 
rod,   and   who    hath   ap-      p'r.  710. 
pointed  it. 


Micah  changes  the  words  of  Moses,  in 
order  to  adapt  them  to  the  crying  sins  of 
Israel  at  that  time.  He  then  upbraids  them 
in  detail,  and  that,  with  those  sins  which 
were  patent,  whicli,  when  brought  home  to 
tliem,  they  could  not  deny,  the  sins  against 
their  neiglibor. 

9.  The  voice  of  the  Lord  crieth  unto  the  city, 
i.  e.  Jerusalem,  as  the  metropolis  of  their 
wealth  and  their  sin,  the  head  and  heart  of 
their  offending.  Crieth,  aloud,  earnestly, 
intently,  so  that  all  might  hear.  So  God 
says,  *  Doth  not  icisdom  cry  f  and  understandiny 
put  forth  her  voice  ?  She  crieth  at  the  yates, — 
unto  you,  0  men,  I  cry,  and  my  voice  is  to  the 
sons  of  men;  and  Isaiah  prophesied  of  St. 
John  Baptist,  as  ^the  voice  of  oiie  crying  in  the 
v:ilderne.^s  ;  and  our  Lord  saith,  ^  He  thai  hear- 
elh  you,  heareth  Me.  And  the  man  of  wisdom 
shall  see  Thy  Name.  The  voice  of  God  is  in 
the  hearing  of  all,  but  the  ivise  only  seeth  the 
Xanie  of  God '.  The  word  rendered  wisdom 
moans,  that  which  is*^,  and  so,  that  wliich 
alone  i%  which  alone  has  any  real  solid  being, 
because  it  alone  abides,  icisdom,  or  counsel 
according  to  God.  Such  as  are  thus  wise  shall 
see  the  Name  of  God,  (as  Jeremiah  says  to  his 
generations,  See  ye  the  tcord  of  the  Lord.) 
They  shall  see  His  power  and  majesty  and 
all  which  His  Name  expresses,  as  they  are 
displ:iyed  severally  in  each  work  of  His : 
He  shall  speak  to  them  by  all  things  wherein 
He  is;  and  so  seeing  Him  now  in  a  glass 
darkly,  they  shall  hereafter  see  all.  His  Glory, 
His  Goodness,  His  Love,  Himself,  face  to  face. 

Hear  ye  the  rod,  i.  e.  the  scourge  of  the 
wrath  of  God.  The  name  and  the  image 
recall  the  like  propecies  of  Isaiah,  so  that 
Micah  in  one  word  epitomises  the  prophecies 
of  Isaiah,  or  Isaiah  expands  the  word  of 
Micah.  '"  The  rod  in  thine  hand  is  My  indig- 
nation ;  "  As  if  the  rod  lifted  up  Him,  Who  is 
not  ivood  ;  ''•'  i^e  lifteth  up  his  rod  against  thee  ; 
'^  Thou  hast  broken  the  rod  (which  is)  on  his 

of  the  abstract,  wisdom,  for  the  concrete,  the  wise, 
Poc.  compares  Prov.  xiii.  6,  '•  wickedness  overthrow.^ 
sin,"  i.  e.  the  sinner,  and  lb.  xx.  1.  '  wine''  for  a  man 

of  wine.    He  quotes  also  nSPIp  "^OK,  Eccl.  i.  2.  in 

illustration  of  the  anomalv  of  gender,  and  vii.  s, 

nnx"  njno.      ,  "  .     .. , 

■^  There  is  no  other  even  plausible  etymology  nl 
iT'iy^n,  thnn  ty\  whose  3d  radical  appears  in  'r\*X 

in  Daiii.-l.  and  in  Syriac,  and  in  IK'^'N,  Heb.    s.e 
"Daniel  the  Pro]ih."p.  49. 
»  Jer.  ii.  31.  add  "Ex.  xx.  18,  and  all  the  people  .saw 

Hwlp  the  voiees,  or  Ihiinderinfi^,  and,  see  the  sintll  of 

Mil  xoii,  (ten.  XX vii.  27."  Poc. 
i»ls.  X.  5.     »>lb.  15.     >8Ib.  LM.     »ajb.  ix.3.  1Kb. 


[CHAPTER  VI. 


85 


10  •[  II  Are  there  yet  the 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  710.       treasures  of  wickedness  in 
yli  unto^every  the  house   of  the   wicked, 

i»nn  an  house  i      .i  i 

of  the  wicked,    and   the    J  scant   measure 
t  Heb.  measure  "  that  IS  abominable  ? 
Amos'8"T'  11  II  Shall  I  count  them 

•  Dent  25.  13-16.  Prov.  11.  1.  &  20. 10,  2.3. 
H  Or,  Shall  I  be  pure  with,  dx. 


shmdder  ;  ^  The  Lord  hath  broken  the  rod  of  the 
wicked;  ^whereon  the  grounded  [i.  e.  fixed  by 
the  decree  of  God]  staff  shall  pass. 

And  Who  hath  appointed  it,  i.e.  beforehand, 
fixing  the  time  and  place,  when  and  where  it 
should  come.  So  Jeremiali  says,  ^  Hoiv  canst 
thou  (swoi'd  of  the  Lord)  be  quiet,  and  the  Lord 
hath  given  it  a  charge  to  Ashkelon  and  to  the  sea- 
shore ?  there  hath  He  appointed  it.  He  Who 
has  appointed  it,  changetli  not  His  decree, 
unless  man  changeth  ;  nor  is  He  lacking  in 
power  to  fulfill  it.  He  will  surely  bring  it 
to  pass.  All  which  can  be  thought  of,  of 
fear,  terror,  motives  to  repentance,  awe,  hope, 
trust,  is  in  that  word  Who.  It  is  God;  hopes 
and  fears  may  be  infinite. 

10.  Are  there  *  yet,  still  after  all  the  warn- 
ings and  long-suffering  of  God,  the  treasures 
of  ivickedness  in  the  house  of  the  wicked  ^  Treas- 
ures of  wickedness  are  treasures  gotten  by 
wickedness  ;  yet  it  means  too  that  the  wicked 
shall  have  no  treasure,  no  fruit,  but  his 
wickedness.  He  treasureth  up  treasures,  but 
of  wickedness  ;  as  St.  James  saith,  °  Ye  have 
heaped  treasure  together  for  the  last  days,  i.  e.  of 
the  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  them  ®.  The 
words  stand  over  against  one  another ;  house 
of  the  wicked,  treasures  of  wickedness  ;  as  though 
the  whole  house  of  the  ivicked  was  but  a  "  treas- 
ure-house of  wickedness."  Therein  it  began  ; 
therein  and  in  its  rewards  it  shall  end.  Are 
there  yet?  the  Prophet  asks.  There  shall 
soon  cease  to  be.  The  treasure  shall  be 
spoiled  ;  the  iniquity  alone  shall  remain. 

And  the  scant  ephah  (lit.  "  ephah  of  leanness" 
E.  M.)  which  is  abominable  ?  Scant  itself,  and, 
by  the  just  judgment  of  God,  producing  scant- 
ness, .  emaciated  and  emaciating  ' ;  as  He 
says,  ^He  gave  them  their  desire,  and  sent  lean- 
ness withcd  into  their  soul ;  and  St.  James ",  it 
shaR  eat  your  flesh  as  it  were  fire.  Even  a 
heathen  said,  "  '"Gain  gotten  by  wickedness 
is  loss ; "  and  that,  as  being  "  abominable  " 
or    "  accursed "    or,    one    might    say,   "  be- 

1  lb.  xiv.  5.  2  lb.  XXX.  32. 

3.Jer.  xlvii.  7.  Ij;''  is  used  iu  regard  to  time,  2 
Sam.  XX.  5.  It  is  used  of  both  time  and  place  in  the 
Arab.  Conj.  iii.  as  in  lj?i0,  and  the  Syr. 

*  WVi  i.  q.  ty%  as  in  2  Sam.  xiv.  19,  the  *{  occurring 
together  with  the  '  (here  indicated  bv  the  vowel)  in 
Arab.  Chald.  Syr.  Sam.  Pers.  and  Heb.  'fl'X  See 
n.  5. 

•S.  Januv.  3.  "lb.  1.  'Seev.  U. 


pure  with  ^the  wicked 
balances,  and  with  the  bag . 
of  deceitful  weights  ? 

12  For  the  rich  men 
thereof  are  full  of  violence, 
and  the  inhabitants  thereof 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


P  Hos.  12.  7. 


wrathed  ^V'  b'Jng  under  the  wrath  and  curse 
of  God.  "  '^  What  they  miuish  from  the 
measure,  that  they  add  to  the  wrath  of  God 
and  the  vengeance  which  shall  come  upon 
them ;  what  is  lacking  to  the  measure  shall 
be  supplied  out  of  the  wrath  of  God."  The 
Ephah  was  a  corn-measure'^,  containing 
about  six  bushels  ;  the  rich,  in  whose  house 
it  was,  were  the  sellers  ;  they  were  the  neces- 
saries of  life  then,  which  the  rich  retailers  of 
com  w^ere  selling  dishonestly,  at  the  price  of 
the  lives  of  the  poor '''.  Our  subtler  ways  of 
sin  cheat  ourselves,  not  God.  In  what  ways 
do  not  competitive  employers  use  the  scant 
measure  ivhich  is  accursed?  What  else  is  all 
our  competitive  trade,  our  cheapness,  our 
wealth,  but  scant  measure  to  the  poor,  making 
their  wages  lean,  lull  and  overflowing  with 
the  wrath  of  God  ? 

11.  Shcdl  I  count  them  jnire  ?  rather,  {as  E. 
M.)  Shall  I  be  pure  ^'''l  The  Prophet  takes 
for  the  time  their  person  and  bids  them  judge 
tliemselves  in  him.  If  it  Avould  defile  me, 
how  are  ye,  with  all  your  other  sins,  not 
defiled?  All  these  things  were  expressly 
forbidden  in  the  law.  '*  Ye  shcdl  do  no  im- 
righteousness  in  judgment,  in  mete-yard,in  weight 
or  in  measure.  Just  balances,  just  weights,  a 
just  ephah  and  a  just  hin,  shcdl  ye  have ;  and, 
'"  Thou  shall  not  have  in  thy  bag  divers  iveights, 
a  great  and  a  small.  Thou  shall  not  have  in 
thine  house  divers  tneasures,  a  great  and  a  small. 
For  all  that  do  such  things,  and  all  that  do 
uwighteousness  are  an  abomination  unto  the  Lord 
thy  God.  Yet  are  not  these  things  common 
even  now? 

12.  For  the  rich  men  thereof,  i.  e.  of  the  city  ^^, 
are  full  of  violence.  It  had  been  little,  had 
thieves  and  robbers  lived  by  violence,  but 
now,  (as  Isaiah  at  the  same  time  upbraids 
them,)  ''  her  princes  were  become  companions 
of  thieves.  Not  the  poor  out  of  distress,  but 
the  rich,  out  of  wantonness  and  exceeding 
covetousness  and  love  of  luxury,  not  only  did 

sps.  evi.  15.  »v.  3. 

in  Chilon  in  Diog.  Laert.  i.  4.  "  HDIJ?!. 

12  Rib.  '3Am.  viii.  .'■>. 

'*  It  seems  necessary,  I  see,  in  so-called  Christian 
London,  to  advertise  in  shops,  that  bread  is  of  its 
alleged  weight. 

1*  HD'  in  Kal  is  only  intransitive. 

16  Lev.  xix.  35,  30. 

"  Deut.  XXV.  13,  15,  16.  add  Prov.  xi.  1.  xvi.  11. 
XX.  lu.  18  ver.  9.  i»  Is.  i.  23. 


8fi 


MICAH. 


r  i?rTs  t    ^'"^'^  spoken  lies,  a nd  ''  their 
■='r-  710. tongue  is  deceitful  in  their 


Jer.  9. 3, 5,  G,  8.  mouth. 

13  Therefore  also  will  I 
'  make  thee  sick  in  smiting 
thee,  in  makiug  thee  deso- 
late because  of  thy  sins. 

•  Lev.  26.  20.  ^  .       riAi  11  1 

Hos.4. 10.  14  '  ihou  shalt  eat,  but 


'  Lev.  26. 16 
Pb.  107.  17 


wrong  but  M'ere  filled,  not  so  much  with 
riches,  as  with  violence.  \'iolence  is  the  very 
meat  and  drink  wherewitli  tliey  are  tilled, 
yea,  and  wherewith  they  shall  be  iilled, 
when  it  is  returned  upon  their  heads. 

And  the  inh'd)itants  thereof  have  spohen  lies. 
Fraud  is  itself  lying,  and  lying  is  its  insepar- 
able comp:mion.  " '  Lying  i'olloweth  the 
irathering  together  of  riches,  and  the  hard 
rtont  to  lay  up  riches  hath  a  deceitful 
tongue."  The  sin,  he  saith,  is  spread 
tiiroughout  all  her  inhabitants ;  i.  e.  all  of 
them,  as  their  wont,  have  spoken  lies,  and, 
even  when  they  speak  not,  the  lie  is  ready ; 
their  tongue  is  deceitful  (lit.  deceit)  in  their 
inoiith.  it  is  deceit,  nothing  but  deceit,  and 
that,  deceit  which  should  "^overthrow"  and 
ruin  others.  One  intent  on  gain  has  the  lie 
ever  ready  to  be  uttered,  even  when  he 
speaks  not.  It  hirks  concealed,  until  it  is 
needed. 

Ill  'Therefore  also  will  I,  [lit.  And  I  too,] 
i.  e.  tiiis  dost  thou,  and  thus  will  I  too  do. 
"  ^  As  thou  madest  sick  the  heart  of  the  poor 
oppressed,  so  will  I,  by  My  grievous  and 
severe  punishments,  mn/cc  thee  side,"  or  make 
thy  wound  incurable,  as  in  Nahuin  *,  thy  wound 
is  grievous,  lit.  made  sick.  In  making  thee 
dejiolate  becau.'^e  of  thy  sins.  The  heaping  up 
riches  shall  itself  be  the  cause  of  thy  being 
waste,  deserted,  desolate. 

14.  Thuu  shalt  eat,  but  not  be  sathfied.  The 
correspondence  of  the  punishment  with  the 
sin  shall  shew  that  it  is  not  by  chance,  but 
from  the  just  judgment  of  CJod.  The  curse 
of  God  shall  go  with  what  they  eat,  and  it 
shall  not  nourish  them.  The  word,  thou,  is 
thrice  repeated  •*.  As  God  had  just  said,  / 
too,  so  here,  Thou.  Thou,  the  .same  who  hast 
plundered  others,  shall  thyself  r<tl,  and  not  be 
.vitisjird ;  'Uhou  shalt  sow,  and  not  reap;  thou 
shalt  tread  the  olive,  and  thou  shalt  not 
anoint  thee  with  oil."  "  Upon  extreme  but 
ill-gotten  abundance,  there  followeth  e.x- 
treme  want.  And  whoso,"  adds  one",  "seeth 
not  this  in  our  ways  and  our  times  is  abso- 

'8.  Jor. 

^D'OT  from  HOT.    It  is  used  of  the  tongue  in 

Ps.  hi.  4,  cl.  7,  cxx.  2,  3;  of  a  bow,  Ps.  Ixxviii.  57, 
Hos.  vii.  16. 

»  Poc.  *  iii.  19. 

*nnN  once  in  v.  14.  twice  In  v.  15. 


not  be  .satisfied ;  and  tby 
casting  down  t<hall  be  in . 
the  midst  of  thee ;  and 
thou  shalt  take  hold,  but 
shalt  not  deliver;  and 
that  which  thou  deliverest 
will  I  give  up  to  the 
sword. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


hitely  blind.  For  in  no  period  have  we 
ever  read  that  there  w'as  so  much  gold  and 
silver,  or  so  much  discomfort  and  indigence, 
so  that  those  most  true  M'ords  of  Chiist  Jesus 
seem  to  have  been  especially  spoken  of  us, 
"  Take  heed,  for  a  man's  life  consisteth  vot  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth." 
And  is  not  this  true  of  us  now  ? 

Thy  casting  down  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  thee. 
Where  thou  hast  laid  up  thy  treasures,  or 
rather  thy  wickedness,  there  thou  shalt  sink 
down,  or  give  Wiiy,  from  inward  decay,  in  the 
very  centre  of  thy  wealth  and  thy  sin.  They 
had  said,  '^ Is  not  the  Lord  in  the  nudst  of  us:' 
None  evil  can  come  upon  us.  Micah  tells  them 
of  a  difierent  indweller.  God  had  departed 
from  them,  and  left  them  to  their  inherent 
nothingness.  God  had  been  their  stay  ;  with- 
out God,  human  strength  collapses.  Scarcely 
any  destruction  is  altogether  hopeless  save  that 
which  Cometh  from  within.  Most  storms  pass 
over,  tear  ofi' boughs  and  leaves,  but  the  stem 
remains.  Inward  decay  or  excision  alone  are 
humanly  irrecoverable.  The  political  death 
of  the  people  was,  in  God's  hands,  to  be  the 
instrument  of  their  regeneration. 

Morally  too,  and  at  all  times,  inward 
emptiness  is  the  fruit  of  unrighteous  fullness. 
It  is  disease,  not  strength  ;  ;us  even  Heathen 
proverbs  said ;  "  the  love  of  money  is  a 
dropsy;  to  drink  increaseth  the  thirst,"  and 
"amid  migiity  wealth,  poor;"  and  Holy 
Scripture,  '  The  rich  He  sewleth  empty  away. 
And  truly  they  nmst  be  empty.  For  what 
can  fill  the  soul,  save  God  ?  "  '"  This  is  true 
too  of  such  as,  like  the  Bishop  of  Sardis, 
"  have  a  name  that  they  live  and  are  dead," 
""  such  as  do  some  things  good,  feed  on  the 
word  of  God,  l)ut  attain  to  no  fruit  of  right- 
eousness;" "  who  corrupt  natiu-al  and  seeming 
good  by  inward  decay;  who  appear  righteous 
before  men,  are  active  and  zealous  for  good 
ends,  but  spoil  all  by  some  secret  sin  or 
wrong  end,  as  vain-glory  or  praise  of  men, 
whereby  they  lose  the  praise  of  God.  Their 
casting  down  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  them.  The 

O-Vriiis  Montanu.s,  a  Spaniard.  His  Commentary 
on  tlie  Minor  Propliets  was  published  at  Antwerp, 
1571. 

'S.  Luke  xii.  15.  "iii.  11. 

»  S.  Luke  i.  53,  comp.  1  Sam.  ii.  5.  >«  Rib. 

"  Rev.  iii.  1.  ^  u  Dion. 


CHAPTER  Vr. 


87 


C  H  rTs  T  ^^   '^^^0"  ^^^^^  '  ^0^''  ^"-^^ 

'^"'-  "^"-      thou  shalt  not  reap ;  thou 
^eu  .  - . .  , .  • ,  gj^^]^  tread  the  olives,  but 

zepii!  i!  is!      thou  shalt  not  anoint  thee 

Hag.  1.  6. 


meaning  of  the  whole  is  the  same,  whether 
the  word  be  rendered  casting  down,  i.  e.  down- 
fall, (lit.  sinfciiic/  doivn^,)  or  emptiness,  espe- 
cially of  the  stomach,  perhaps  from  the  feel- 
ing of  "  sinking." 

Thou  shah  take  hold  to  rescue  or  remove  to  a 
safe  place  from  the  enemy,  those  whom  he 
would  take  fi'om  thee,  hut  shalt  not  wholly 
deliver;  and  that  which  thou  deliverest  for  a 
time,  will  I  give  up  to  the  suord,  i.  e.  the  chil- 
dren for  whose  sake  they  pleaded  tliat  the}- 
got  together  this  wealtli ;  as,  now  too,  tlie 
idols,  for  whose  sake  men  toil  wrongly  all 
their  life,  are  often  suddenly  taken  away. 
Their  goods  too  may  be  said  to  be  given  to 
the  sword,  i.  e.  to  the  enemy. 

15.  Thou  shcdt  sou:,  but  thou  shalt  not  reap. 
Micah  renews  the  threatenings  of  the  law  ^ 
which  they  had  been  habitually  breaking. 
Those  prophecies  had  been  fulfilled  before, 
throughout  their  histoi'y ;  they  have  been 
fulfilled  lately  in  Israel  for  the  like  oppres- 
sion of  the  poor  ^.  Their  frequent  fulfill- 
ment spoke  as  much  of  a  law  of  God's  right- 
eousness, punishing  sin,  as  the  yearly  supply 
in  the  ordinary  coui'se  of  nature  spoke  of  His 
loving  Providence.  It  is  the  bitterest  pun- 
ishment to  the  covetous  to  have  the  things 
which  they  coveted,  taken  away  before  their 
eyes  ;  it  was  a  token  of  God's  lland,  that  He 
took  them  away,  when  just  within  their 
grasp.  The  projshet  brings  it  before  their 
eyes,  that  they  might  feel  beforehand  the 
bitterness  of  forgetting  them.  "  *  They 
should  lose,  not  only  what  they  gained  un- 
justly, but  the  pi'oduce  of  their  labor,  care, 
industry,  as,  in  agricultui-e,  it  is  said  that 
there  is  mostly  much  labor,  little  fraud, 
much  benefit."  Harvest  is  a  proverb  for 
joy  ;  ^  they  joy  before  Thee  according  to  the  joy 
in  harvest ;  ^wine  maketh  glad  the  heart  of  mum, 
and  oil  is  to  make  him  a  cheerful  countenance. 
But  the  harvest  shall  be  turned  into  sorrow, 
"  the  oil  and  wine  shall  be  taken  away,  when 
all  the  labor  had  been  employed.  Yet,  since 
all  these  operations  in  nature  are  adapted  to 
be,  and  are  used  as,  symbols  of  tilings 
spiritual,  then  the  words  which  describe 
them  are  adapted  to  be  spiritual  proverbs. 
Spiritually,  "  •*  he  soweth  and  reapeth  not,  who 

1  It  is  possible,  as  Gesenius  conjectures,  that 
nty'  (a  oTT.  Aey.)  is  a  transposed  form  of  the  Arab, 
tyni;  more  probably  it  may  be  from  the  bi-literal 
ntJ?,  which  gave  rise  to  the  other  forms,  ni  ty,  nni^. 

2  Lev.  xxvi.  IG,  Deut.  xxviii.  30.  38-41. 

SAm.  V.  11.  «Mont.  6  is.  ix.  3. 

•  Ps.  ciT.  15. 


with  oil ;  and  sweet  wine,    „  ^'^^°}'l  r^ 

v^  XI  K  1  o  1 

but  shalt  not  drink  wine. 


cir.  710. 


I  Or,  he  doth 


16  ^  For  1 1  the  statutes  mJch  keep  the 
of  "  Omri  are   "  kept,  and  u  [  Kings  le.  2r. 

»  Hos.  5.  11.  26. 


®  soweth  to  the  flesh,  and  of  the  flesh  reapeth  cor- 
ruption, things  corruptible,  and  inward  decay 
and  condemnation.  He  treadeth  the  olive, 
who,  by  shameful  deeds  contrary  to  the  law, 
^'^  grieveth  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  and  therefore 
obtaineth  not  gladness  of  spirit ;  he  maketh 
tmne,  yet  drinketh  not  wine,  who  teacheth 
others,  not  himself."  They  too  take  hold  but 
do  not  deliver,  Avho  for  awhile  believe  and  in 
time  of  temptation  fall  away,  who  repent  for  a 
while  and  then  fall  back  into  old  sins,  or  in 
other  ways  bring  no  fruit  to  perfection  ;  taking 
up  the  Cross  for  awhile  and  then  wearying ; 
using  religious  practices,  as,  more  frequent 
prayer  or  fasting,  and  then  tiring ;  cultivat- 
ing some  graces  and  then  despairing  because 
they  see  not  the  fruits.  These  tread ,  the 
olive,  but  are  not  anointed  with  the  oil  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  grace,  who  "  "  end  by  doing 
for  the  sake  of  man,  what  they  had  thought 
to  do  out  of  the  love  for  God,  and  abandon, 
lor  some  fear  of  man,  the  good  which  they 
had  begun." 

16.  For  the  statutes  of  Omri  are  kept,  rather, 
(like  E.  M.  he  doth  much  keep,)  And  he  doth 
keep  diligently  for  himself.  Both  ways  express 
much  diligence  in  evil '-.  To  "  keep  God's 
commandments  "  was  the  familiar  phrase,  in 
which  Israel  was  exhorted,  by  every  motive 
of  hope  and  fear,  to  obedience  to  God.  ^^  / 
know  him,  God  says  of  Abraham,  that  he  will 
command  his  children  and  his  household  after 
him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to 
do  judgment  and  justice.  This  was  the  funda- 
mental commandment  immediately  after  the 
deliverance  from  Egypt  upon  their  first  mur- 
muring. ^^  The  Lord  made  there  (at  Marah) 
for  them  a  statute  and  ordinance,  and  said,  If 
thou  wilt  diligently  hearken  to  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  thy  God,  and  wilt  do  that  which  is  right  in 
His  sight,  and  ivilt  give  ear  to  His  commaiid- 
ments  and  keep  all  His  statutes,  I  will  put  none 
of  these  diseases  upon  thee  which  I  have  brought 
upon  the  Egyptians.  In  this  character  He 
revealed  Himself  on  Mount  Sinai,  as  '^  shelv- 
ing mercy  unto  thousands  of  them  thcd  loi'e  Me 
and  keep  My  commandments.  This  was  their 
covenant,  ^^  Thou  hast  avouched  the  Jjord  this 
day  to  be  thy  God  and  to  walk  in  His  ways,  and 
to  keep  His  statutes  and  His  co^nmandments  and 

1  Comp.  Is.  xvi.  9, 10,  Jer.  v.  17,  xlviii.  37. 

8  Theoph.      9  Gal.  vi.  8.      i<>  Eph.  iv.  30.      »  Ril>. 

12  In  the  construction  of  the  E.  V.  (which  is  possi- 
ble) the  force  of  the  union  of  the  sing,  verb  with 
the  plural  noun  would  be  that  "the  statutes  of 
Omri,  one  and  all,  are  kept  diligently." 

13  Gen.  xviii.  19.       "  Ex.  xv.  25,  26.      "  lb.  xx.  6. 
i«  Deut.  xxvi.  17. 


88 


MICAH. 


c  H  r7s  t    ^^^  ^^^^  works  of  the  house 

c'r-  "!"•      of  '^  Ahab,  and  ye  walk  in 

^ *e. '°^^  ^''" ^"' their  counsels;   that  I 

*Kin!^2L^3.     should  make  thee  'a  ||de- 

•1  Kings  9.  8.  Jer.  19.  8.        iji  Or,  oitonMment. 


His  judgments  and  to  hearken  unto  His  voice. 
This  was  so  often  enforced  upon  them  in  the 
law,  as  the  condition  upon  which  they  should 
hold  tlieir  land,  if  they  kept  the  covenant^, 
the  commandments'^,  the  judgments^,  the  stat- 
utes*, the  testimonies^,  the  charge^  of  the 
Lord.  Under  this  term  all  the  curses  of  the 
law  were  threatened,  if  they  ''hearkened  not 
unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  their  God,  to  keep  His 
commandments  and  His  statutes  xchich  He  com- 
manded them.  Under  this  again  the  future 
of  good  and  evil  was,  in  Solomon,  set  before 
the  house  of  David  ;  of  unbroken  succession 
on  his  throne,  if  ^thou  ivilt  keep  My  command- 
ments ;  but  contrariwise,  i/  ye  or  your  children 
will  not  keep  My  commandmenLs  and  My  statutes, 
banishment,  destruction  of  the  temple,  and 
themselves  to  be  '  a  proverb  and  a  byword 
among  all  people.  This  was  the  object  of 
their  e.xistence,  '*'  that  they  might  keep  His  stat- 
utes ami  observe  His  laws.  This  was  the  sum- 
mary of  their  disobedience,  ^'  they  kept  not  the 
covenant  of  God.  And  now  was  come  the  con- 
trary to  all  this.  They  had  not  kept  the 
commandments  of  God;  and  those  command- 
ments of  man  wliich  were  the  most  contrary 
to  the  commandments  of  God,  they  had  kept 
and  did  keep  diligently.  Alas !  that  the 
Christian  worlil  sliould  be  so  like  them ! 
What  iron  habit  or  custom  of  man,  what 
fashion,  is  not  kept,  if  it  is  against  the  law 
of  God  ?  How  few  are  not  more  afraid  of 
man  than  God  ?  Had  God's  command  run. 
Speak  evil  one  of  another,  brethren,  would  it  not 
have  been  the  best  kept  of  all  His  command- 
ments? God  says,  speak  not  evil;  custom, 
the  conversation  around,  fear  of  man,  say, 
speak  evil;  man's  commandment  is  kept; 
God's  is  not  kept.  And  no  one  repents  or 
makes  restitution ;  few  even  cea.se  from  the 
8in. 

Scripture  does  not  record,  what  was  the 
special  aggravation  of  the  sin  of  Gmri,  since 
the  accursed  worship  of  Baal  was  brouglit  in 
by  Ahab  ''^,  his  .son.  But,  as  usual,  "  like 
father,  like  son."     The  son  developed  the 

1  E.x.  xi.T.  .^.  the  words  of  this  covenant,  Dcut.  xxix.  9. 

'^m^fon  oi-  mxon  hj,  or  "  nixo  Lev.  xxii. 

31,  xxvi. .{,  Deut.  iv.  2,  vi.  17,  vii.  11,  viii.  C,  11,  x.  i:i, 
xi.  1,  8,  22,  xiii.  .'■>,  Heb.  19,  xv.  5.  xix.  9,  xxvii.  1. 
xxviii.  9,  XXX.  10. 

"DStr'O  Lev.  xviii.  r,,  26,  xx.  22,  Deut.  vii.  11, 
viii.  11,  xi.  1. 

*nipn  or  D'pn  Lev.  xviii.  5,  26,  xx.  8,  22.  Deut. 

Iv.  40,  vi.  17,  vii.  11,  X.  13,  xi.  1,  XXX.  10. 
■■  r\My  Deut.  vi.  17. 


solation,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants thereof  an  hissing : 
therefore  ye  shall  bear  the 
"  reproach  of  my  people. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

» Isai.  25.  8. 
Jer.  51.  51. 
Lam.  5. 1. 


sins  of  the  father.  Some  special  sinfulness 
of  Omri  is  implied,  in  that  Athaliah,  the 
murderess  of  her  children,  is  called  after  her 
grandfather,  Omri,  not  after  her  father, 
Ahab  '*.  Heresiarchs  have  a  deeper  guilt 
than  their  followers,  although  the  heresy 
it.self  is  commonly  developed  later.  Omri 
settled  for  a  while  tlie  kingdom  of  Israel, 
after  the  anarchy  whicli  followed  on  the 
murder  of  Elah,  and  slew  Zimri,  his  mur- 
derer. Yet  before  Gorl,  he  did  worse  than  all 
before  him,  and  he  ivalked  in  all  the  way  of  Jero- 
boam ".  Yet  this  too  did  not  suflBce  Judah  ; 
for  it  follows,  And  all  the  doings  of  the  house  of 
Ahab,  who  again  '*  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord  above  all  that  were  before  him  and  served 
Baal;  Ahab,  to  whom  none  ^^was  like  in  sin, 
who  did  sell  himself  to  work  wickedness  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord.  These  were  they,  whose 
statutes  Judah  now  kept,  as  diligently  and 
accurately  as  if  it  had  been  a  religious  act. 
They  kept,  not  the  statutes  of  the  Lord,  but  the 
statutes  of  Omri;  they  kept,  as  their  pattern 
before  their  eyes,  all  the  doings  of  the  house  of 
Ah(d),  his  luxury,  oppression,  the  bloodshed- 
ding  of  Naboth ;  and  they  walked  onward, 
not,  as  God  bade  them,  humbly  ^vith  Him,  but 
in  their  counsels.  And  what  must  be  the  end 
of  all  this  ?  that  I  should  make  thee  a  desolation. 
They  acted,  as  though  the  very  end  and 
object  of  all  their  acts  were  that,  wherein  they 
ended,  their  own  destruction  and  reproach  ". 
Therefore  ye  .<;/(«//  bear  the  reproach  of  My 
people.  The  title  of  the  people  of  God  must  be 
a  glory  or  a  reproach.  Judah  had  gloried  in 
being  God's  people,  outwardly,  by  His  cove- 
nant and  protection  ;  tliey  were  envied  for  the 
outward  distinction.  They  refused  to  be  so 
inwardly,  and  gave  themselves  to  the  hideous, 
desecrating,  worship  of  Baal.  Now  then 
what  had  been  their  pride,  should  be  the  ag- 
gravation of  their  punishment.  Now  too  we 
hear  of  people  everywhere  zealous  for  a  sys- 
tem, whicli  tlieir  deeds  belie.  Faith,  with- 
out love,  (such  as  their  character  had  been,) 
feels  any  insult  to  the  relation  to  God,  which 


•mntyO  Lev.  xviii.  30,  Deut.  xi.  1. 

'  Dcut.  xxviii.  15.  8  1  Kin^s  ix.  4-6. 

oib.  7.  10 P.I.  cv.  46.  uib.lxxviii.il. 

"Tlie  worship  of  Baal  \va.s  the  result  of  Ahab's 
marriace  with  Jezebel,  the  daughter  of  one,  whose 
name  desijinates  his  devotedriess  to  that  idohitry, 
Ethhaal,  (i.e.  "with  the  help  of  Baal.")  And  this 
marriage  i.s  spoken  of  as  Ahab'.s  act,  not  his  father'8. 
1  liines  xvi.  31. 

"  2  King.s  viii.  26.  2  Chron.  xxii.  2. 

i<  1  Kings  xvi.  25,  26.    »<*  lb.  .30-33.    >•  lb.  xxi.  25. 

>'  See  on  Hos.  viii.  4.  vol.  i.  p.  81. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


8!) 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  church,  complnininr/  of 
her  s)nall  number,  3  and  the 
general  corruption,  5  puiteih 
her  confidence  not  in  man,  but 
in  God.  8  She  triumpheth 
over  her  enemies.  14  Ood 
comforteth  her  by  promises,  16 
by  confusion  of  the  enemies,  18 
and  by  his  mercies. 


by  its  deeds  it  disgraces.  Though  they  had 
themselves  neglected  God,  yet  it  was  a  heavy 
burden  to  them  to  bear  the  triumph  of  the 
heathen  over  them,  that  God  was  unable  to 
help  them,  or  had  cast  them  off.  ^  These  are 
the  people  of  the  Lord  and  are  gone  forth,  out  of 
His  land.  ^  Wherefore  should'  they  say  among 
the  heathen,  where  is  their  God?  ^  We  are  con- 
founded, because  we  have  heard  reproach,  shame 
hath  covered  our  faces,  for  strangers  are  come  into 
the  sanctuaries  of  the  Lord's  house.  *  We  are  be- 
come a  reproach  to  our  neighbors,  a  scorn  and 
derisian  to  them  that  are  round  about  us.  *  Thou 
makest  us  a  reproach  to  our  neighbors,  a  scorn  and 
derision  to  them  that  are  round  about  us.  Thou 
makest  us  a  byivord  among  the  heathen,  a  shaking 
of  the  head  among  the  people.  My  confusion  is 
daily  before  me,  and  the  shame  of  my  face  hath 
covered  me,  for  the  voice  of  him  that  slandereth 
and  blasphemeth,  by  reason  of  the  enemy  and  the 
avenger. 

The  words,  the  reproach  of  My  people,  may 
also  include  "  ^  the  reproach  wherewith  God 
in  the  law '  threatened  His  people  if  they 
should  forsake  Him",  which  indeed  comes  to 
the  same  thing,  the  one  being  the  prophecy, 
the  other  the  fulfillment.  The  word  hissing 
in  itself  recalled  the  threat  to  David's  house 
in  Solomon ;  *  At  this  house,  which  is  high, 
everyone  that  passeth  by  it  shall  be  astonished  and 
hiss.  Micah's  phrase  became  a  favorite  ex- 
pression of  Jeremiah  ".  So  only  do  God's 
prophets  denounce.  It  is  a  marvelous 
glimpse  into  man's  religious  history,  that 
faith,  although  it  had  been  inoperative  and 
was  trampled  upon  without,  should  still  sui'- 
vive  ;  nay,  that  God,  Whom  in  prosperity 
they  had  forsaken  and  forgotten,  should  be 
remembered,  when  He  seemed  to  forget  and 
to  forsake  them.  Had  the  captive  .Jews  aban- 
doned their  faith,  the  reproach  would  have 
ceased.     The  words,  ye  shall  bear  the  reproach 

1  Ezek.  xxxvi.  20. 

2  Joel  ii.  17.    See  vol.  i.  pp.  185, 186. 

8  Jer.  li.  51.       *  Ps.  Ixxix.  4.        6  Ps.  xliv.  13-lG. 
6  Rib.  and  others  in  Poc.  "  Dent,  xxviii.  .Sfi. 

8 1  Kgs.  ix.  8. 
^npViy  Jer.  li.37.  rt^'ii.'dh  Jer.  xix.  8.  xxv.  9, 18. 

xxix.  18.    Else  it  is  only  used  by  Hezekiah,  2  Chron. 
xxi.x.  8. 
10  Rom.  ix,  2.  "  Rup.  i"  Is.  xxiv.  10. 

.13  lb.  XV.  6.  xvi.  11.      H  Joel  i.  15.      i^Jer.  xv.  10. 

^'"'77S<.    The  word  occurs    beside   only  in  Job 


WOE 


is  me!  for  I  am  as    chr7st 


fwhen   they   have__£ili_I12i 


gathered  the  summer  fruits,  t  Heb.  the 

,  .  gatherings  of 

as    the  srrapegleanmffs  of  summer. 

xi  •    ,  .  7  »Isai.  17.6. 

the  vintage:    there  is  no  &24. 13. 

cluster  to   eat:   ''my  soul  «>ig.28.4. 
desired  the  firstripe  fruit. 


of  My  people  are,  at  once,  a  prediction  of  their 
deserved  suffering  for  the  profanation  of 
God's  Name  by  their  misdeeds,  and  of  their 
perseverance  in  that  faith  which,  up  to  that 
time,  they  had  mostly  neglected. 

Chap.  VII.  The  Propliet's  office  of  threat- 
ening woe  is  now  over.  Here,  out  of  love,  he 
himself  crieth  Avoe  unto  himself.  He  hath 
^^  continual  sorrow  in  heart  for  his  people.  He 
be^yails  what  he  cannot  amend,  and,  by  be- 
wailing, sliews  tliem  how  much  more  they 
should  bewail  it,  over  whose  sins  he  sorrows"; 
how  certain  the  destruction  is,  since  there  is 
none  to  stand  in  the  gap  and  turn  away  the 
wrath  of  God,  no  "  ten  righteous,"  for  whose 
sake  the  city  may  be  spared.  ""These 
words  flow  out  of  the  fount  of  pity,  because 
the  good  zeal,  wherewith  the  Holy  seem  to 
speak  severely,  is  never  without  pity.  They 
are  wroth  with  the  sins,  they  sympathize 
with  the  sinner."  So  Isaiah  mourned  for  the 
judgment,  which  he  prophesied  against  the 
world,  ^^  Woe  is  me!  he  sorrowed  even  for 
Moab^^;  and  Joel,  ^* Alas  for  the  day!  and 
Jeremiah  in  that  exclamation  of  impas- 
sioned sorrow ;  ^^  Woe  is  me,  my  mother,  that 
thou  hast  borne  me  a  man  of  strife  and  a  man  of 
contention  to  the  whole  ivorld  ! 

1.  Woe '®  is  me  !  for  I  am,  as  when  they  have 
gathered  the  summer  fruits  ^'',  as  the  grape-glean- 
ings of  the  vintage.  The  lineyard  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts,  Isaiah  said  at  the  same  time^**,  is  the 
house  of  Israel,  and  the  men  of  Judah  His  pleas- 
ant plants.  Isaiah  said,  it  brought  forth  wild 
grapes  ;  INIicah,  that  there  are  but  gleanings, 
i'ew  and  jjoor.  It  is  as  though  Satan  pressed 
the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  and  made  the  most 
his  prey,  and  few  were  left  to  those  who  glean 
for  Christ ;  '*  the  foxes  hare  eaten  the  grapes. 
Some  few  remain  too  high  out  of  their  reach, 
or  hidden  behind  the  leaves,  or,  it  may  be, 
^^  falling  in   the  time  of  gathering,  fouled, 

X.  15.  but  it  is  the  cry  of  nature.  Among  the  Greeks 
it  is  chiefly  of  joy  or  triumph,  but  of  sorrow  too ;  in 
Latin  chiefly  of  sorrow,  "uhilo,"  our,  "howl." 

1"  lit.  as  the  gatherings  of  the  ^g-harvest.  It  is  one 
of  those  concise  comparisons,  which  have  to  be 
filled  up.  In  prose  it  would  be,  "  I  am  as  one  who, 
at  the  gatherings  of  the  fig-harvest,  should  still  look 
for  fruit  on  the  trees."  The  meaning,  ".summer," 
E.  M.  is  doubtless  a  secondary  sense  of  the  word, 
resulting  from  the  fact,  that  the  main  fig  harvest 
was  about  the  summer  solstice. 

18  Is.  T.  7.      i»  Cant.  ii.  15.    • '»  Poc.  from  Tanch.    • 


90 


MICAH. 


"Before 
(CHRIST 
oil-.  TU'. 
•Ps.  12.  1. 
A  14. 1,  3. 
Is.  57.  1. 
i  Or,  godly,  or, 

merciful. 
4  Hab.  1. 15. 


2  The  °  II  good  ?naH  is 
perished  out  of  the  earth: 
and  there  is  none  upright 
among  men :  they  all  lie  in 
wait  for  blood  ;  ^  they  hunt 


sullied,  marred  and  stained,  yet  left."  So  in 
the  gleaning  there  may  be  three  sorts  of  souls  ; 
'  two  or  three  in  the  top  of  the  uppermost  boiif/h, 
which  were  not  touched  ;  or  those  unripe, 
wliich  are  but  imperfect  and  poor;  or  those 
who  had  fallen,  yet  were  not  wholly  carried 
away.  These  too  are  all  sought  with  diffi- 
culty ;  they  had  escaped  the  gatherer's  eye, 
they  are  few  and  rare ;  it  might  seem  at  first 
sight,  as  though  there  were  none.  There  is 
no  cluster  to  eat ;  for  the  vintage  is  past,  the 
best  is  but  as  a  sour  grape  which  sets  the  teeth 
on  edge.  My  soul  desired  the  Jirst-ripe  Jig  '■^. 
These  are  they  which,  liaving  survived  the 
sharpness  of  winter,  ripen  early,  about  the 
end  of  June;  they  are  the  sweetest^;  but 
he  longed  for  them  in  vain.  He  addressed  a 
carnal  people,  who  could  undei-stand  only 
carnal  things,  on  the  side  which  they  could 
understand.  Our  longings,  though  we  per- 
vert them,  are  God's  gift.  As  they  desired 
those  things  which  refresh  or  recruit  the 
thirsty  body,  as  tlieir  whole  self  was  gathered 
into  the  craving  for  that  which  was  to  restore 
them,  so  was  it  with  him.  .Such  is  the  long- 
ing of  God  for  man's  conversi<m  and  salva- 
tion; such  is  tlie  tliii-st  of  His  ministers; 
such,  their  pains  in  seeking,  their  son-ow  in 
not  finding.  ''-^Tliere  were  none,  through 
whose  goodness  the  soul  of  the  prophet  might 
spiritually  be  refreshed,  in  joy  at  his  growth 
in  grace,  as  St.  Paul  saith  to  Philemon,  *  re- 
fresh my  bowels  in  the  Lord.  So  our  Lord  saith 
in  Isaiah,  *  /  said,  I  have  labored  in  vain,  I  have 
spent  my  strength  for  nought  ami  in  vain.  ^Je- 
.Huswas  grieved  at  the  hardness  of  their  hearts. 

'' '  The  first-ripe  fig  may  be  the  image  of 
the  righteous  of  old,  as  the  Patriarchs  or  the 
Fathers,  such  as  in  the  later  days  we  fain 
-would  see." 

2.  The  good  [or  godly,  or  merciful,  E.  M.] 
man.  The  Hebrew  word  contains  all.  It  is 
"  he  who  loveth  tenderly  and  piously  "  God, 
for  His  own  sake,  and  man,  for  the  sake  of 
God.  Mercy  was  probably  cliiefly  intended, 
since  it  was  to  this  that  the  prophet  had  ex- 
horted •*,  and  the  sins  which  he  proceeds  to 

>Is.  xvii.  6. 

*The  bikknrah,  hoccore,  Albacora.  (Span.)  See 
Shaw's  Travels  p.  .'J70.  Its  goodness  was  proverbial. 
See  IIos.  i.\.  10,  Is.  xxviii.  4,  Jer.  xxiv.  2. 

"  Dion.  *  Philem.  20.  ^  is.  xlix.  4. 

"H.  Mark  iii.  5.  'From  Hih. 

non  vi.  8.  TOn  vii.  2.  n^K. 

>"  Is.  Ivii.  1.  whore  13X  is,  In  like  way,  used. 

"  See  Hos.  v.  2,  and  Mic.  iii.  10,  They  build  up  Zion 
ti^ith  bloods:  Isaiah  says  iu  like  way,  Your  hands  are 
full  of  bloods .  i.  15. 


every  man  his  brother  Avith 
a  net. 

3  ^f  That  they  may  do 
evil  with  both  hands  earn- 
estly, Hhe  prince  asketh. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


'  Hos.  4. 18. 


speak  of,  are  against  this.  But  imaginary 
love  of  God  without  love  of  man,  or  love  of 
man  without  the  love  of  God,  is  mere  self- 
deceit.  Is  perished  out  of  the  earth,  i.  e.  by  an 
untimely  death  *.  The  good  had  either  been 
withdrawn  by  God  from  the  evil  to  come^°,  or 
liad  been  cut  off"  by  those  who  laid  vxiit  for 
blood;  in  which  case  their  death  brought  a 
double  evil,  tlirougli  the  guilt  which  such 
sin  contracted,  and  then,  through  the  loss  of 
those  who  might  be  an  example  to  others, 
and  whose  prayers  God  would  hear.  The 
loving  and  upright,  all,  who  were  men  of 
mercy  and  truth,  had  ceased.  They  who 
were  left,  all  lie  in  wait  for  blood,  lit.  bloods",  i.  e. 
bloodshedding ;  aU,  as  far  as  man  can  see  ;  as 
Elijah  complains  that  he  was  left  alone. 
Amid  the  vast  number  of  the  wicked,  the 
righteous  were  as  tliough  they  were  not. 
Isaiah,  at  the  same  time,  complains  of  the 
like  sins,  and  that  it  was  astliough  there  were 
none  righteous;  ^^  Your  hands  are  dcjiled  ivith 
blood,  and  your  fingers  tvith  inicjuity  ;  your  lips 
have  spoken  lies,  your  tongue  hath  muttered  per- 
verseness.  None  calkth  for  justice,  nor  any 
pkadelh  for  truth.  Indirectly,  or  directly, 
they  destroyed  life^'.  To  violence  they  add 
treachery.  The  good  a\\A.loving  had  perished, 
and  all  is  now  violence ;  the  upright  had 
ceased,  and  all  now  is  deceit.  They  hunt  every 
nmnhis  brother  loith  a  net.  Every  man  is  the 
brother  of  every  man,  because  he  is  man, 
born  of  the  same  first  parent,  children  of  the 
same  Father:  yet  they  lay  wait  for  one 
luiother,  as  hunters  for  wild  beasts  ^*. 

3.  That  they  may  do  evil  with  both  hands  ear- 
nestly, [lit.  upon  evil  both  hands  to  do  well,"]  i.  e. 
"  both  their  hands  are  upon  evil  to  do  it 
well,"  or  "  earnestly  '^"  as  our  translation 
gives  the  meaning;  only  the  Hebrew  ex- 
presses more,  that  evil  is  their  good,  and 
their  good  or  excellence  is  in  evil.  Bad  men 
gain  a  dreadful  skill  and  wisdom  in  evil,  as 
Satan  has;  and  cleverness  in  evil  is  their  de- 
light. "'•'They  call  the  evil  of  their  hands 
good."  The  prince  asketh,  and  the  judge  asketh 
(or,  it  may  more  readily  be  supplied,  judgeih, 

« Is.  lix.  2,  .3. 

"See  ab.  p.  44,  on  iii.  10. 

i*Coirip.  Ps.  XXXV.  7,  Ivii.  7,  oxl.  fi,  Jer.  v.  2G. 

'^^P'PI,  I'l^e  our,  "do  it  well,"  can  signify  "do  it 

thoroughly;"  yet  not  so  as  to  supersede  the  idea 
of  its  being  "clone  well"  in  the  mind  of  the  actor. 
The  two  cases  cited  to  the  contrary,  the  thorough 
destruction  of  the  calf,  (Deut.  ix.  21.)  and  of  the 
house  of  Baal,  (2  Kings  xi.  18J  were,  of  course,  good 
acts.  So  to  "search  well."  Deut.  xvii.  4,  xi:c.  18. 
i«S.  Jer. 


CHAPTER  Vir. 


91 


c  H  rTI  t  '^""^  ^^^®  i^^S^  asketh  for  a 

^'''-  '^^"-  reward ;  and  the  great  man, 

'Is.  1.23.  he  uttereth  fhis  mischiev- 

t  Heb."  the  mis-  ous  desire :  so  they  wrap  it 

chief  of  his 

soul.  up. 


4  The  best  of  them  « 


IS 


t2Sam.  23.6,7 
Ezek.  2.  6. 

Seels. 55. 13.  as  a  Drier:  the  most  up- 
right is  sharper  than  a 
thorn  hedge :  the  day  of 
thy  watchmen  and  thy 


doth  that  which  is  his  office,)  against  right 
for  a  reward,  (which  was  strictly  forbidden ',) 
and  the  great  man  he  uttereth  his  mischievous  de- 
sire, (or  the  desire  of  his  soul.)  Even  the  shew 
of  good  is  laid  aside ;  whatever  the  heart 
conceives  and  covets,  it  utters  ; — mischief  to 
others  and  in  the  end  to  itself.  The  mischief 
comes  forth  from  the  soul,  and  returns  upon 
it.  The  elders  and  nobles  in  the  city  ^,  as  well 
as  Ahab,  took  part,  (as  one  instance,)  in  the 
murder  of  Naboth.  The  great  man,  however, 
here,  is  rather  the  source  of  the  evil,  which 
he  induces  others  to  effect ;  so  that  as  many 
as  there  were  great,  so  many  sources  were 
there  of  oppression.  All,  prince,  judges,  the 
great,  unite  in  the  ill,  and  this  not  once  only, 
but  they  are  ever  doing  it  ^,  and  .so  theij  wrap 
it  up,  (lit.  twist  *,  intertwine  it.)  Things  are 
twisted,  either  to  strengthen,  or  to  pervert  or 
intricate  them.  It  might  mean,  they  strengthen 
it,  that  which  their  soul  covets  against  the 
poor,  or  they  pervert  it,  the  cause  of  the  poor. 

4.  The  best  of  them  is  as  a  brier  ;  the  gentlest 
of  them  is  a  thorn,  ^strong,  hard,  piercing, 
which  letteth  nothing  unresisting  pass  by 
but  it  taketh  from  it,  "robbing  the  fleece, 
and  wounding  the  sheep."  The  most  upright, 
those  who,  in  comparison  of  others  still  worse, 
seem  so,  is  .sharper  than  a  thorn  hedge,  (lit.  the 
upright,  than  a  thorn  hedge.)  They  are  not 
like  it  only,  but  worse,  and  that  in  all  ways  ; 
none  is  specified,  and  so  none  excepted  ;  they 
were  more  crooked,  more  tangled,  sharper. 
Both,  as  hedges,  were  set  for  protection  ;  both, 
turned  to  injury.  "*So  that,  where  you 
would  look  for  help,  thence  comes  suffering." 
And  if  such  be  the  best,  what  the  rest  ? 

The  day  of  thy  watchmen  and  thy  visitation 

1  Deut.  xvi.  19.  See  ab.  iii.  11. 
«!  Kings  xxi.  8,  U. 

SThe  force  of  the  partic.  hViW,  ■)3'l. 

*  Pi2j^i  the  verb,  is  a  an.  Aey.  What  remains  of 
the  root  has  the  meaning  of  "  twisted,"  (in  r>JJ^,  "a 
rope")  or  "entangled,"  (in  ri3J^.  nil',  "thick 
boughs.'") 

6  The  Heb.  p"in  seems  to  have  been  different 

from  the  Arab,  which  is  a  "  solanum,"  (Cels.  Hierob. 


visitation  cometh  ;  now    „  ,?'vfTo  -r 
shall  be  their  perplexity.         c'''-  7io- 


5  ^ "  Trust  ye  not  in  a    i>  .jer.  9. 4. 
friend,   put   ye   not  confi- 
dence in  a  guide :  keep  the 
doors  of  thy  mouth  from 

her  that  lieth  in  thy  bosom. 

„   _^      .  ,  .^  ,  I  Ezek.  22. 7. 

D  J? or 'the  son  dishonor-     Matt.  10. 21. 

eth  the  father,  the  daughter     Luke  12. 53. 

riseth  up  against  her     2Tim. 3.2,3. 


cometh.  When  all,  even  the  good,  are  thus 
corrupted,  the  iniquity  is  full.  Nothing  now 
hinders  the  visitation,  which  the  ivatchmcn,  or 
prophets,  had  so  long  foreseen  and  forewarned 
of.  Now  shall  he  their  perplexity  ^ ;  now,  with- 
out delay ;  for  the  day  of  destruction  ever 
breaketh  suddenly  upon  the  sinner.  •*  When 
they  say,  peace  and  safety,  then  sudden  destruc- 
tion cometh  upon  them.  "  Whose  destruction 
cometh  suddenly  at  an  instant.  They  had  per- 
plexed the  cause  of  the  oppressed  ;  they  them- 
selves were  tangled  together,  intertwined  in 
mischief,  as  a  tliorn-hedge.  They  should  be 
caught  in  their  own  snare ;  they  had  per- 
plexed their  paths  and  should  find  no  outlet. 
5.  6.  Trust  ye  not  in  a  friend.  It  is  part  of 
the  perplexity  of  crooked  ways,  that  all  rela- 
tionships are  put  out  of  joint.  Selfishness 
rends  each  from  the  other,  and  disjoints  the 
whole  frame  'of  society.  Passions  and  sin 
break  every  band  of  friendship,  kindred, 
gratitude,  nature.  "  Every  one  seeketh  his 
own."  Times  of  trial  and  of  outward  harass 
increase  this ;  so  that  God's  visitations  are 
seasons  of  the  most  frightful  recklessness  as 
to  everything  but  self.  So  had  God  fore- 
told '" ;  so  it  was  in  the  siege  of  Samaria  ",  and 
in  that  of  Jerusalem  both  by  the  Chaldeans  '- 
and  by  the  Romans  ^^  When  the  soul  has 
lost  the  love  of  God,  all  other  is  but  seeming 
love,  since  natural  affection  is  from  Him,  and 
it  too  dies  out,  as  God  gives  the  soul  over  to 
itself".  The  words  describe  partly  the  in- 
ward corruption,  partly  the  outward  causes 
which  shall  call  it  forth.  There  is  no  real 
trust  in  any,  where  all  are  corrupt.  The 
outward  straitness  and  perplexity,  in  which 
they  shall  be,  makes  that  to  crumble  and  fall 

ii.  35.)  but  Prov.  xv.  19,  (where  it  occurs  beside), 
shews  that  it  served  as  a  hedge.  "'S.  Jer. 

7  In  the  Hebrew  the  two  words  "  mesucah," 
"thorn  hedge  "  and  "mebucah,"  "perplexity,"  are 
alike  in  sound. 

8 1  Thess.  V.  .3. 

»See  Is.  XXX.  13.  comp.  2  Pet.  ii.  1,  "swift  de- 
struction ; "  Prov.  i.  27,  "  cometh  as  a  whirlwind," 
Ps.  XXXV.  8,  "  unawares." 

10  Deut.  xxviii.  53.  "  2  Kings  vi.  28. 

12  Lam.  iv.  3-16.  is  jos.  B.  J.  vi.  3.  8. 

"  Rom.  i.  28. 


92 


MKAU. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


mother,  the  daughter  in 
law  against  her  mother  in 
law;  a  man's  enemies 
are  the  men  of  his  own 
house. 


to  pieces,  which  was  inwardly  decayed  and 
severed  before.  The  words  deepen,  as  they 
go  on.  First,  the  friend,  or  neighbor,  the 
common  band  of  man  and  man ;  then  the 
guide,  (or,  as  the  word  also  means,  one  fa- 
miliar, united  by  intimacy,  to  whom,  by  con- 
tinual intercourse,  the  soul  was  itsed ;)  then 
the  wife  who  lay  in  the  bosom,  nearest  to  the 
secrets  of  the  heart ;  then  those  to  whom  all 
reverence  is  due,  father  and  mother.  Our 
Lord  said  that  this  should  be  fulfilled  in  the 
hatred  of  His  Gospel.  He  begins  His  warn- 
ing as  to  it,  with  a  caution  like  that  of  the 
prophet ;  '  Be  ye  icise  as  serpents,  and  beware 
of  mm.  Then  He  says,  how  tliese  words  should 
still  be  true  '^.  There  never  were  wanting  pleas 
of  earthly  interest  against  the  truth.  He 
Himself  was  cut  off,  lest  ^  the  Romans  should 
take  away  titeir  place  and  nation.  The  Apos- 
tles were  accused,  that  they  meant  to  bring 
this  Man^s  Blood  upon  the  chief  priests  * ;  or  as 
^  ringleaders  of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes,  pesti- 
lent fellows  and  ■inovers  of  sedition,  turning  the 
uvrld  upside  down,  setters  up  of  another  king  ; 
troublers  of  the  city  ;  commanding  things  unlaw- 
ful for  iiomam  to  practice ;  setters  forth  of 
strange  gods;  turning  away  much  people;  en- 
dangering not  men's  craft  only,  but  the  honor 
of  their  gods ;  evil  doers.  Truth  is  against 
the  world's  ways,  so  the  world  is  against  it. 
Holy  zeal  hates  sin,  so  sinners  hate  it.  It 
troubles  them,  so  they  count  it,  one  which 
troubleth  Israel*^.  Tertullian,  in  a  public 
defence  of  Christians  in  the  second  cen- 
tury, writes,  ""Truth  set  out  with  being 
herself  hated  ;  as  soon  as  she  appeared,  she 
is  an  enemy.  As  many  as  are  strangers  to 
it,  so  many  are  its  foes ;  and  the  Jews  indeed 
appropriately  from  their  rivalry,  the  soldiers 
from  their  violence,  even  tliey  of  our  own 
household  from  nature.  Each  day  are  we 
l)eset,  each  day  betrayeil ;  in  our  very  meet- 
ings and  assemblies  are  we  mostly  surprised."' 
There  was  no  lack  of  pleas.  '"'A  Christian 
thou  deemest  a  man  guilty  of  every  crime,  an 
enemy  of  the  gods,  of  the  Emperors,  of  law, 
of  morals,  of  all  nature  ;  "   "  factious,"   "  au- 

1  S.  Matt.  X.  10.  17.  3  lb.  21,  3.5,  .30. 

»  S.  John  xi.  48.  *  Acts  v.  28. 

f-  Ar-ts  xxiv.  6.  xvi.  20,  21.  xvii.  6,  7, 18.  1  Pet.  ii.  12. 

^  1  Kincs  xviii.  17. 

'  'Pert.  Apol.  c.  7.  p.  17.  Oxf.  Tr. 

»  lb.  c.  2.  p.  7.  O.  T.  38.  10.  (and  note  k.  Oxf.  Tr.) 
24,  28,  40,  and  notes  e.  f. ;  ad  Scap.  c,  2. 

*Tert.  ad  Nat.  i.  24.  "The  most  atrooion.u  calum- 
nies against  the  Christians,"  8.  Justin  M.  says, 
•*  were  invented  and  circulated  from,  country  to 


7  Therefore  ''  I  will  look 
unto  the   Lord;  I   will . 
wait  for  the   God  of  my 
salvation :    my   God   w^ll 
hear  me. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

k  Isai.  8. 17. 


thors  of  all  public  calamities  through  the 
anger  of  the  heathen  gods,"  "impious," 
"  atheists,"  "  disloyal,"  "  public  enemies." 
The  Jews,  in  the  largest  sense  of  the  word 
they  of  their  ov:n  household,  were  ever  the 
deadliest  enemies  of  Christians,  the  inventors 
of  calumnies,  the  authors  of  persecutions. 
"What  other  race,"  says  ^Tertullian,  "is 
the  seed-plot  of  our  calumnies  ?  "  Then  the 
Acts  of  the  Martyrs  tell,  how  Christians  were 
betrayed  by  near  kinsfolk  for  private  interest, 
or  for  revenge,  because  they  would  not  join 
in  things  unlawful.  "  ^"So  many  are  the  in- 
stances in  daily  life,  [of  the  daughter  rising 
against  the  mother]  that  we  should  rather 
mourn  that  they  are  so  many,  than  seek  them 
out." — "  I  seek  no  example-s,  [of  those  of  a 
man's  own  househould  being  his  foes]  they 
are  too  many,  that  we  should  have  any  need 
of  witness."  "  '^  Yet  ought  we  not,  on  account 
of  these  and  like  words  of  Holy  Scripture,  to 
be  mistrustful  or  suspicious,  or  always  to  pre- 
sume the  worst,  but  to  be  cautious  and  pru- 
dent. For  Holy  Scripture  speaketh  with 
reference  to  times,  causes,  persons,  places." 
So  St.  John  saith,  ^^  Believe  luA  every  spirit,  but 
ti-y  the  .'spirits,  ivhether  they  are  of  God. 

7.  Therefore,  [And.)  when  all  these  things 
come  to  pass  and  all  human  helj)  fails,  /,  for 
my  part,  will  look  unto,  (lit.  on)  the  Lord  God, 
the  Unchangeable.  The  propliet  sets  him- 
self, /,  with  emphasis,  against  tlie  multitude 
of  the  ungodly.  When  all  forsake,  betray, 
fail,  when  ^^  love  is  ivaxed  cold,  and  men,  in 
the  last  days,  shall  be  "  lovers  of  their  own- 
selves,  not  lovers  of  God,  I, — he  does  not  say, 
"will  trust,"  but — hwV/,  " '*•  with  the  eye  of 
the  heart  contemplating,  h)ving,  venerating 
God  most  High,  and  weighing  His  mercy 
and  justice,"  gaze  intently^''  with  the  devotion 
of  faith  toward  Him,  though  1  see  Hiiu  not : 
yet  so  too  I  will  rest  in  Him  '"^  and  on  Him, 
lus  the  eyes  are  wont  to  rest  in  trust  and  love 
and  dependence,  and  a.s,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Eyes  of  God  "espy  into  man  and  dwell 
on  him,  never  leaving  him  unbeheld.  I  will 
espy  Him,  although  from  afar,  with   the  eyes 

country  by  the  Jews."  Apol.  i.  49.  See  also  Dial  c 
Trvph.  §  10.  108.  c.  Cels.  vi.  27. 

>'«S.  Jor.  "Dion.  12  ijo),,,  jy.  i. 

"  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  12.  »  2  Tim.  iii.  2,  4. 

'^nSyX,  intensive,  (as  in  Ps.  v.  4.)  "will  espy 

intently,"  as  toward  that  which  can  be  seen  only 
by  intent  gazing;  and  with  3  pers.  ".so  as  to  dwell 
upon." 

'"Comp.  Ps.  xxv.  15.  cxxiii.  1.  cxli.  8. 

"  Ps.  Ixvi.  7.  . 


CHAPTEE  VII. 


93 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


'  Prov.  24. 17. 
Lam.  4.  21. 
"  Ps.  37.  24.  Prov.  24. 16 


8  ^  '  Rejoice  not  against 
me,  O  mine  enemy :  "  when 
I  fall,  I  shall  arise ;  when 


of  the  soul,  as  a  watchman,  (the  word  is  the 
same,)  looking  for  His  Coming  and  announc- 
ing it  to  others ;  and  until  He  comes,  /  ivill 
vait  [I  uould  icait']  with  trust  unbroken  by 
any  troubles  or  delay,  as  Job  saith,  ^  Though 
He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  put  my  trust  in  Him. 
The  word  is  almost  appropriated  to  a  long- 
ing waiting  for  God  ^.  For  the  God  of  my 
salvation.  This  too  became  a  wonted  title  of 
God  ',  a  title,  speaking  of  past  deliverances, 
as  well  as  of  confidence  and  of  hope.  Deliver- 
ance and  salvation  are  bound  up  with  God, 
and  that,  in  man's  personal  experience.  It 
is  not  only,  "Saviour  God,"  but  "God,  my 
Saviour,"  Thou  who  hast  been,  art,  and  wilt 
be,  my  God,  my  saving  God.  It  is  a  prelude 
to  the  name  of  Jesus,  our  Eedeeming  God. 
The  Lord  ivill  hear  me.  His  purpose  of  wait- 
ing on  God  he  had  expressed  wistfully.  I 
would  wait*;  for  man's  longing  trust  must 
be  upheld  by  God.  Of  God's  mercy  he  speaks 
confidently,  the  Lord  will  hear  me,  He,  Who 
is  ever  "  more  ready  to  hear  than  we  to 
pray."  He  has  no  doubts,  but,  as  Abraham 
said,  ^the  Lord  udll  provide,  so  he.  The  Lord 
will  hear  me.  So,  when  Jehoshaphat  prayed, 
®  We  have  no  might  against  this  great  company 
that  cometh  against  us,  neither  know  we  what  to 
do,  but  our  eyes  are  upon  Thee;  God  answered 
by  the  prophet,  Be  not  afraid  nor  dismayed  by 
reason  of  this  great  multitude  ;  for  the  baffle  is 
not  yours,  but  God's.  Micah  unites  M'ith  him- 
self all  the  faithful  as  one,  "in  the  unity  of 
the  spirit,"  wherein  all  are  one  band,  looking, 
waiting,  praying  for  His  Coming  in  His  king- 
dom. " '  God  is  our  only  refuge  and  asylum  in 
things  desperate,  and  rejoices  to  help  in  them, 
in  order  to  shew  His  supreme  Power  and 
Goodness  especially  to  those  who  believe, 
hope,  and  ask  it.  Therefore  all  mistrust  and 
despondency  is  then  to  be  supremely  avoided, 
and  a  certain  hope  and  confidence  in  God  is 
to  be  elicited.    This  will  call  forth  the  help 

1  Job  xiii.  15. 

-7  rirniX,  as  in  Ps.    xxxviii.   10.  xlii.  6,  12, 

xliii.  5,  cxxx.  5,  2  Kings  vi.  33,  Lam.  iii.  24.  Vn'  is 
almost  appropriated  to  one  who  so  waiteth  for  God. 
.\bs.  Hifil,  Lam.  iii.  21.  Pi.  Job  vi.  11,  xiv.  14,  Ps. 

Ixxi.  14.  7'n%  adj.  Lam.  iii.  26.  and  Prop.  Name 
"Waiter"  on  God,  as  expressed  in  7X^n'.  Pi- 
with  ^,  Ps.  xxxi.  2o,  xxxiii.  22,  Ixix.  4;  with  7X,  of 
God,  Ps.  cxxx.  7,  exxxi.  3;  with  *?,  of  the  uord  of 
God,  Ps.  cxix.  74,  81,  114,  147;  of  His  mercy,  Ps. 
xxxiii.  18,  cxlvii.  11;  of  His  j«rfy/»€(Us,  Ps.  cxix. 
43;  of  His  Arm,  Is.  li.  5;  of  His  law.  Is.  xlii.  4. 
Transitively,  Ps.  cxix.  49.  So  H^niH,  flbs  Pr.  x. 
2a.  Lam.  iii.  18  ;  with  ^7,  Ps.  xxxix.  8. 


I 

Lord    shall    he    a 
unto  me. 


CHRIST 
light        g'r-  710. 


'  Ps.  27.  1. 


of  God  assuredly,  yea  though  it  were  by 
miracle,  as  to  Lot  in  Sodom,  to  IMoses  and 
the  people  from  Pharaoh,  to  David  from 
Saul,  to  Hezekiah  from  Sennacherib,  to 
the  Maccabees  from  Antiochus.  This  our 
proverbs  express**,  how  God  aids,  when  there 
is  least  sign  of  it." 

8.  Rejoice  not  against  me,  0  mine  enemy. 
The  Prophet  still  more  makes  himself  one 
with  the  people,  not  only  as  looking  for  God, 
but  in  penitence,  as  Daniel  bewails  ^  his  aim, 
sins  and  the  sins  of  his  people.  The  enemy  is 
Babylon  and  Edorn^";  and  then,  in  all  times, 
(since  this  was  written  for  all  times,  and  the 
relations  of  the  people  of  God  and  of  its  ene- 
mies are  the  same,)  whosoever,  whether 
devils  or  evil  men,  rejoice  over  the  falls  of 
God's  people.  Rejoice  not ;  for  thou  hast  no 
real  cause ;  the  triumphing  of  the  ungodly,  and 
the  fall  of  the  godly,  "  is  but  for  a  moment. 
When  I  fall,  I  shall  arise  ;  (lit.  xchen  I  have 
fallen,  I  have  arisen-;)  expressing  both  the 
certainty  and  speed  of  the  recovery.  To  falP'^ 
and  to  arise  is  one.  "  ^^  The  fall  of  infirmity 
is  not  grave,  if  free  from  the  desire  of  the 
will.  Have  the  will  to  rise,  He  is  at  hand 
Who  will  cause  thee  to  rise."  "  "  Though  I 
have  sinned.  Thou  forgivest  the  sin  ;  though 

1  have  fallen,  thou  raisest  up ;  lest  they,  who 
rejoice  in  the  sins  of  others,  should  have  oc- 
casion to  exult.  For  we  who  have  sinned 
more,  have  gained  more;  for  Thy  grace 
maketh  more  blessed  than  our  own  inno- 
cence." 

When  I  sit  in  darkness,  the  Lord  shall  be  a 
light  unto  me.  "^*He  does  not  say 'lie,' but 
sit;  she  was  not  as  one  dead,  without  hope  of 
life,  but  she  sat  solitary  as  a  widow,  helpless, 
unable  to  restore  herself,  yet  waiting  for 
God's  time.  The  darkness  of  the  captivity 
was  lightened  by  the  light  of  the  prophetic 
grace  which  shone  through  Daniel  and  Eze- 
kiel,  and  by  the  faithfulness  of  the  three 

3 "God  of  my  salvation,"  ('J'B'',)  Ps-  xviii.  47,  (2 
Sam.  xxii.  47.)  xxv.  5,  xxvii.  9,  Hab.  iii.  18.  "God,  my 
s."  Ps.  Ixii.  8.  "  God  of  our  s."  Ps.  Ixv.  0,  Ixxix.  9, 
Ixxxv.  5.  "God  of  thy  s."  Is.  xvii.  lu.  "God  of  his 
s."  Ps.  xxiv.  5.    "Rock  of  our  s."  Ps.  xcv.  1. 

*  nS'niN,  optat.  ^  Gen.  xxii.  8, 14. 

6  2  Chron.  xx.  12, 1.").  "  Lap. 

8  Deus  ex  maehinfl.  »  Dan.  ix.  10. 

1"  Obad.  10. 12.  Ps.  cxxxvii.  7.  "  Ps.  xxx  5. 

12  Si3 J  is  used  of  the  fall  of  a.  people.  Am.  v.  2, 
viii.  14,  Is.  xxi.  9,  Jer.  li.  8 ;  of  a  king  and  his  people, 

2  Kings  xiv.  10 ;  of  manv  individuals,  Is.  viii.  15. 
In  Prov.  xxiv.  10.  it  is  used  of  the  fall  of  the  right- 
eous, from  which  he  shall  rise,  in  contrast  with  the 
stumbling  ohtffD')  of  the  wicked,  without  recovery. 

13 S.  Ambr.  in  Ps.  37.  [38  Eng]  v.  15. 


»Ib.  V.  47, 


IS  ilont. 


u 


^nCAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

>  Lam.  3.  39. 


t  Ps.  37.  6. 


9  "  I  will  boar  the  indig- 
.  nation  of  the  Lord,  be- 
cause I  have  sinned  against 
him,  until  he  plead  my 
cause,  and  execute  judg- 
ment for  me :   ^  h  e  will 


Before 
OH  RIST 

cir.  710. 


children,  and  the  brightness  of  Divine  glory 
shed  abroad  through  them,  when  Nebuchad- 
nezzar proclaimed  to  all  people  that  their 
God  was  '  God  of  gods  and  Lord  of  kings, 
and  that  none  should  ''  speak  anything  amiss 
'((gainst  Him.  Still  more  when,  at  the  close 
of  the  captivity,  they  were  delivered  from 
sorrow,  trouble,  bondage,  death,  to  joy,  rest, 
freedom,  life.  Yet  how  much  more  in  Christ, 
(for  Whom  this  deliverance  prepared,)  when 
'  the  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a 
great  light:  they  that  dwell  in  the  land  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  upon  them  hath  the  light 
shined.  God  is  not  only  our  light,  as  "  *  re- 
storing us  "  outwardly  to  gladness,  freedom, 
happiness,  whereof  light  is  a  symbol,  as 
darkness  is  of  sorrow,  captivity,  advei-sity, 
death."  Scripture  speaks  of  God,  in  a  di- 
recter  way,  as  being  Himself  our  light.  ^  The 
Lord  is  mij  light.  *■  The  Lord  .shall  be  unto  thee 
an  everlasting  light.  He  calls  Himself,  '  The 
tiglU  of  Israel.  He  is  our  light,  by  infusing 
knowledge,  joy,  heavenly  brightness,  in  any 
outward  lot.  He  does  not  say,  "  after  dark- 
ness, comes  light,"  but  wlwn  I  shcdl  sit  in 
darkness,  tlien,  the  Lord  is  light  unto  me.  The 
sitting  in  darkness  is  the  occasion  of  the  light, 
in  that  the  soul  or  the  people  in  sorrow  turns 
to  Him  Who  is  their  light.  In  their  sin, 
which  was  so  punished,  they  were  turned 
away  from  the  light. 

9.  /  ivill  bear  the  indignation  of  the  Lord, 
because  I  have  sinned  against  Him.  This  is  tlie 
temper  of  all  penitents,  wlien  stricken  by 
God,  or  under  chastisement  from  Him.  "It 
is  the  Lord,  let  Him  do  v:hat  seemeth  Him 
good.  ".So  let  hiin  curse,  because  the  Lord  hath 
said  unto  him,  curse  David.  Who  shall  then 
say,  Wherefore  hast  thou  done  .ho  ?  '"  He  put- 
teth  his  mouth  i'l  the  du,st ;  if  so  be  there  may 
be  hope.  The  penitent  owns  the  just  sentence 
of  God,  and,  knowing  that  he  deserves  far 
more  than  God  indicts,  is  thankful  to  endure 
it,  until  He  remove  it,  until  He  plead  nnj 
cause  and  crenite  judgment  for  me,  i.  e.  until 
God  Ilini.seU'  think  the  punisliments  in- 
flicted, enough,  and  judge  between  me  and 
th().se  through  whose  hands  they  come.  The 
judgments  which  (lod  righteously  sends,  and 
which  man  sutlers  righteously  from  Him,  are 


bring  me  forth  to  the  light, 
and  I  shall  behold  his 
righteousness. 

10 II  Then  she  that  is  mine 
enemy  shall  see  it,  and 
"I shame  shall   cover  her'Ps. 35. 26. 


Or,  And  thou 
wilt  see  her  that 
is  mine  enemy, 
and  cover  her 
tcith  shame. 


unrighteously  inflicted  by  those  whose  malice 
He  overrules,  whether  it  be  that  of  evil  men 
(as  the  As.syrian  or  the  Chaldsean  or  the  Edo- 
mite)  or  of  Satan.  The  close  of  the  chastise- 
ments of  His  people  is  the  beginning  of  the 
visible  punishment  of  their  misdeeds,  who 
used  amiss  the  power  which  God  gave  them 
over  it.  Whence  it  is  said,  "  Daughter  of 
Babylon,  tfie  wasted!  blessed  he  that  rewardeth 
thee  as  thou  hast  served  us.  But  all  is  of  the 
mercy  of  God.  So  He  saith,  He  shcdl  bring 
me  forth  to  the  light  of  His  Countenance  and 
His  favor  and  His  truth.  Micah  speaks  in 
the  name  of  those  who  Mere  penitent,  and  so 
were  forgiven,  and  yet,  in  that  they  were 
under  punishment,  seemed  to  lie  under  the 
wrath  of  God.  For,  although  God  remits 
at  once  the  eternal  penalty  of  sin,  yet  we  see 
daily,  how  punishment  pursues  the  forgiven 
sinner,  even  to  the  end  of  life.  The  light  of 
God's  love  may  not,  on  grounds  which  He 
knoweth,  shine  unchequered  upon  him.  We 
should  not  know  the  blackness  of  the  offence 
of  sin,  and  should  never  know  the  depth  of 
God's  mercy,  but  for  our  punishment.  The 
indignation  of  God  toward  the  penitent  is  an 
austere  form  of  His  love.  So  then  peni' 
tents  may  well  say,  in  every  grief  or  sickness 
or  visitation  or  disappointment,  /  rvill  bear 
the  indignation  of  the  Lord,  because  I  have  .sinned 
against  Him.  He  says,  /  shall  behold  His 
righteousness,  because  tliey  had  a  righteous 
cause  against  man,  althougli  not  toward  God, 
and  God  in  His  just  judgment  on  their  ene- 
mies shewed  Himself  as  the  righteous  Judge 
of  the  world. 

10.  Then  [Aiul'\  she  that  is  mine  etiemyshaU 
see  it,  and  shanu  shall  cover  her  v:hich  said  unto 
me,  ]Vliere  is  He^-,  He  of  Whom  thou  boast- 
est,  the  Lord  thii  God  f  The  cause  of  her 
ghtdness  then  is,  that  the  blasphemies  of  the 
enemy  of  God  were  to  cease.  Tliis  was  tlie 
l>ittercst  portion  of  her  cup,  that  they  said 
daily,  "Where  is  noirthy  God?  let  Him  come 
and  save  thee  ;"  as  though  He  could  not,  or 
as  though  He  loved  her  not,  and  she  vainly 
presumed  on  His  lielp.  Even  when  fallen, 
U  was  for  His  sake  tliat  she  was  hated,  Who 
seemed  to  be  overcome  in  her:  as  He  was 
hated    in    His    Martyi-s,  and    they    asked, 


>  Daa.  ii.  47. 
'  l8.  Ix.  2. 
*  Fs.  xxvii.  1. 
•I."*.  Ix.  lit. 


Il>.  X.  17. 


"  lb.  iii.  29. 
••  Lftp. 


8 1  Sam.  iii.  18. 


«1J  Sam.  xvi.  10. 

'"Lnm.  iii.  29. 

»  Ps.  rxxxvii.  8. 

"TX.    The  f"r(>i\(>iui  is  iii.*erio<l  omplmtioally. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


95 


OHR°iST   "^^hich   said   unto   me, 

cir.  710, 


/Where  is  the  Lord  thy 

PS.  42,3,  10.       ^^^  ,   s^^jj^g  gygg  gj^^jj  ^g_ 


&  79.  10. 

&  115.  2.  Joel  2. 17 


=  eh.  4.  11. 


" '  Where  is  the  God  of  the  Christians  ?  " 
Now  the  taunt  was  closed,  and  turned  back 
on  those  who  used  it.  The  wheel,  which 
they  had  turned  against  her,  rolled  round  on 
themselves.  They  who  had  said.  Let  our 
eye  look  on  Zion,  now  were  ashamed  that  their 
hope  had  failed.  They  had  longed  to  feed 
their  sight  on  her  miseries;  Zion  had  her 
reverent  gladness  in  gazing  on  ^  the  righteous- 
ness of  God.  Babylon  was  trodden  down  by 
the  Medes  and  Persians,  and  they  whom  she 
had  let  captive  beheld  it.  Daniel  was  in  the 
palace,  when  Belshazzar  was  slain. 

The  soul  of  one,  who  has  known  the  chas- 
tening of  God,  cannot  but  read  its  own  his- 
tory here.  The  sinful  soul  is  at  once  the 
object  of  the  love  of  God  and  hath  that 
about  it  which  God  hates.  God  hates  tlie 
evil  in  us,  even  while  He  loves  us,  being,  or 
having  been,  evil.  He  forgives,  but  chastens. 
His  displeasure  is  the  channel  of  His  good- 
pleasure.  Nathan  said  to  David,  *  The  Lord 
hath  put  away  thy  sin,  but  also,  the  sword 
shall  Jiever  depart  from  thy  house.  It  is  part  of 
His  forgiveness  to  cleanse  the  soul  with  a 
*  spirit  ofburninq.  "  It  seemeth  to  me,"  says 
St.  Jerome,  "  tliat  Jerusalem  is  every  soul, 
which  had  been  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  and 
had  had  the  vision  of  peace  and  the  know- 
ledge of  Scripture,  and  which  afterward, 
overcome  by  sins,  hath  fallen  captive  by  its 
own  consent,  parting  from  tliat  which  is  right 
in  the  sight  of  God,  and  allowing  itself  to 
sink  among  the  pleasures  of  the  world."  So 
then  "^captive,  and  tortured,  she  saith  to 
Babylon,  i.  e.  the  confusion  of  this  world  and 
the  power  of  the  enemy  which  ruleth  over 
the  world,  and  sin  who  lordeth  it  over  her. 
Rejoice  not  against  me,  0  mine  enemy  ;  when  I 
fall,  I  shall  arise  ;  "  "  "  from  sin  by  repentance, 
and  from  tribulation  by  the  consolation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  Who,  after  weeping,  poureth 
in  joy.  For  '  the  Lord  helpeth  them  that  are 
fallen,  and  saith  by  the  Prophet,  ^ Shall  they 
fall  and  not  az-ise  .*"  and  ",  /  have  no  pleasure  in 
the  death  of  the  wicked  ;  but  that  the  wicked  turn 
from  his  way  and  live.  If  I  walk  in  darkness, 
the  Lord  is  my  light!  For  although  ^°the 
rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world  liave  deceived 
me,  and  I  ''  sit  in  darkness  and  in  the  shadoiv  of 
death,  and  '^  my  feet  stumble  upon  the  dark 
mountains,  yet  ^^  to  them  %vho  sit  in  the  re- 
gion and  shadoiv  of  death,  light  is  sprung   up, 

1  Ep.  of  Churches  of  Vienue  and  Lvons,  in  Eus. 
H.  E.  V.  1  fin. 
*  inpnX J  HKIK  ver.  9,  corresponding  to  HJ'K^n 

r\2,  V.  10. 

a  2  Sam.  xii.  10, 13.  *  Is.  iv.  4.  »  S.  Cyr. 


hold  her  :  now  t  shall  she    ^  ^•[°7?.  ^ 

i_  11  1  OHKIST 

be   trodden  down  'as  the      f'r-  7io. 

mire  of  the  streets.  \''eMftreaJ!' 


'  2  Sam.  22.  43.  Zeeh.  10.  5. 


ing  doicn. 


and  ^^  light  shineth  in  darkness,  and  ^^  the 
Lord  is  my  light,  and  my  salvation;  ivhom 
then  shall  I  fear  ?  and  I  will  speak  to  Him 
and  will  say,  '« Thy  ivord  is  a  lamp  unto 
my  feet,  and  a  light  unto  my  path."  "  He 
draweth  me  from  the  darkness  of  ignorance 
and  from  the  black  night  of  sin,  and  giveth  a 
clear  view  of  future  bliss,  and  brighteneth  the 
very  inmost  soul  within."  " «  Even  if  a  mist 
have  come  upon  me  and  I  have  been  in 
darkness,  I  too  shall  find  the  light,  i.  e. 
Christ ;  and  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness  aris- 
ing on  my  mind  shall  make  it  white."  / 
tvill  bear  patiently,  yet  gladly,  the  indignation 
of  the  Lord,  '"^all  adversity,  trial,  tribulation, 
persecution,  which  can  happen  in  tliis  life ; " 
because  I  have  sinned  against  Him,  "and  sucli 
is  the  enormity  of  sin,  offered  to  the  Majesty 
and  dishonoring  tlie  Holiness  of  God,  and 
such  punishment  doth  it  deserve  in  the  world 
to  come,  that  if  we  weigh  it  well,  we  shall 
bear  with  joy  whatever  adversity  can  befall 
us."  "^For  although  for  a  short  time  I  be 
out  of  His  Pi-esencc,  and  be  "  given  to  an  un- 
distinguishing  mind,  yet,  seeing  I  suffer  this 
rejection  justly,  I  will  bear  the  judgment,  for 
I  am  not  chastened  in  vain."  ^^  All  chasten- 
ing for  the  present  seemeth  not  to  be  joyous  but 
grievous,  neverthekss  afterward  it  yieldeth  the 
peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  unto  them  who  are 
exercised  thereby.  "  ^^  The  soul,  feeling  that  it 
hath  sinned,  and  hath  the  wounds  of  sins 
and  is  living  in  dead  flesli  and  needs  the 
cautery,  says  firmly  to  the  Physician,  '  Burn 
my  flesli,  cut  open  my  wounds,  all  my  im- 
posthumes.  It  was  my  fault,  that  I  was 
wounded ;  be  it  my  pain,  to  endure  such  suf- 
ferings and  to  regain  health.'  And  the  tiiie 
Physician  shews  to  her,  when  whole,  the 
cause  of  His  treatment,  and  that  He  did 
rightly  what  He  did.  Then  after  these  suf- 
ferings, the  soul,  being  brought  out  of  outer 
darkness,  saith,  /  shall  behold  His  Righteous- 
ness, and  say,  •^"  Thou,  0  Lord,  art  upright  ; 
Righteous  are  Thy  judgments,  0  God.  But  if 
Christ  is  ^^  made  unto  us  wisdom  and  righteous- 
ness and  sanctijication  and  redemption,  he  who, 
after  the  indignation  of  God,  saith  that  he 
shall  see  His  Riyhfeousnes.-^,  promiseth  to  him- 
self the  sight  of  Christ."  "^Then,  having 
considered  in  her  mind  the  grace  of  the 
righteousness  in  Christ  and  the  overthrow  of 
sin,  the  soul,    in   full   possession  of  herself, 

"'Dion.  'Ps.  exivi.  s.  sjer.  viii.  4. 

^  Ezek.  xxxiii.  11.  i"  Eph.  vi.  12. 

I' Ps.  cvii.  10.  >2Jer.  xiii.  le.  >;*I9.  ix.  2. 

"  S.  John  i.  ,i.      "i  Ps.  xxvii.  1.      i»  Ps.  exix.  105. 
"Rom.  i.  28.  iBIIeh,  xii.  11.  i»S.  Jer. 

»  Ps.  oxix.  137.  »i  1  Cor.  i.  30. 


96 


MICAH. 


chrTst       11  -fw  the  day  that  thy 

cir.  710.      "walls  are  to  be  built,  in 


•  Amos  9. 11,  Ac.  that  day  shall  the  decree 
be  far  removed. 


crieth  out,  3/ine  eiieiny  shall  see  it,  &c.  _  For, 
after  that  Christ  came  unto  us,  justifying 
sinners  through  faith,  the  mouth  of  the  un- 
godly One  is  stopped,  and  the  Author  of  sin 
is  put  to  sliame.  He  hath  lost  his  rule  over 
us,  and  sin  is  trodden  down,  like  mire  in  the 
s//'ee<s,  being  subjected  to  the  feet  of  the  saints. 
But  the  blotting-out  of  sin  is  the  Day  of 
Christ."  "^And,  because  the  end  of  all 
punishment  is  the  beginning  of  good,"  God 
.saith  to  the  poor,  penitent,  tossed,  soul,  "  the 
nails  of  virtues  shall  be  built  up  in  thee,  and 
thou  shalt  be  guarded  on  all  sides,  and  the 
rule  of  thine  oppressors  shall  be  far  re- 
moved, and  thy  King  and  God  shall  come 
unto  thee,  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall 
see  the  salvation  of  God."  "  '■'  All  this  shall 
be  most  fully  seen  in  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment." 

11,  12.  On  this  confession  of  un worthi- 
ness and  trust  the  message  of  joy  bursts  in, 
with  the  abruptness  ^  and  conciseness  of 
Hosea  or  Nahura : 

A  day  to  build  thy  fences;  [i.  e.  cometh  ;] 

That  day,  far  shall  be  the  decree; 

That  day,  and  he  shall  come  quite  to  thee  * ; 
and  there  follows,  in  a  longer  but  still  remark- 
ably measured  and  interrupted  cadence  *,  the 
statement  of  the  length  and  breadth  from 
whicli  the  people  shall  come  to  her; 

Up  to  and  from  Assyria  and  the  cities  of  strong- 
land  [Egypt;] 

1  S.  Jer.  *  Dion. 

3  Hence  the  omis.sion  of  the  preposition  "^y  before 
"113^0  'IJ^  and  D\  and  of  any  preposition  in  the 
last  clause,  inn  "ini. 

*The  three  sentences,  which  begin  with  DV,  are 
manifestly  each  complete  in  itself 

6Ver.  12  is  divided  into  four  clauses,  of  which 
each  consists  of  four  words,  and  these  in  pairs; 
"  Yom  hoo,  ve'adeica  yabo 
leminni  a^shur,  ve'are  mfitsor, 
ooleminni  matsor,  ve'  nd  nahar 
veyam  miyyam,  vehar  hahar. 

«v.  0-13. 

'  "^11  is  the  wall  of  a  vineyard,  Num.  xxii.  24,  Is. 

V.  5,  Ps.  Ixxx.  13;  a  wall  pushed  down,  Ps.  Ixii.  4; 
on«  in  which  a  serpent  mipht  lurk,  Eccl.  x.  8;  a 
wall  with  ^taps  in  it,  Ezek.  xiii.  .5,  xxii.  3";  the  wall 
of  the  court  of  the  temple,  lb.  xlii.  7  ;  a  fence,  Ezr. 
ix.  9.  It  is  no  where  used  of  "the  wall  of  a  city." 
"nj  too  is  the  wall  of  the  court  of  the  temple,  Ezek. 

xlii.  10;  the  wall  of  a  vineyard,  Prov.  xxiv.  :u. 
n"^T[J  is  "a  sheepfold,"  Num.  xxxii.  Ki,  24,  sc,  1 

Sam.  XXIV.  4,  Zopli.  ii.  0;  fences  under  which  lo- 
custs lodge,  Null.  lii.  17;  in  the  open  field,  Jer.  xlix. 
3,  Hos.  ii.  8.  Hfb. ;  fences,  Ps.  Ixxxix.  11.  Heb. 

«i9.  V.  5.  »i3c.  n. 

wph  l!*  "='cd  ohietly  i>f  u  "statute"  of  God,  either 


12  In  that  day  aho  "  he    ^  ^efore  ^ 
shall  come  eveu   to   thee.     <=''"•  '^^o. 


from  Assyria,  ||and  from  &\9.h.'&c. 
the  fortified  cities,  and  from  hos!  li."  ii. 

II  Or,  even  to. 


Up  to  and  from,  strong-land  and  even  to  river 
[Euphrates ;] 

And  sea.  from  sea,  and  mountain  to  moun- 
tain. 

It  is  not  human  might  or  strength  which 
God  promises  to  restore.  He  had  before 
predicted,  that  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah 
should  stand,  not  through  earthly  strength  ^ 
He  promises  the  restoration,  not  of  city 
walls,  but  of  the  fence  of  the  vineyard '  of 
God,  w!uch  God  foretold  by  Isaiah  that  He 
would  break  down  ^.  It  is  a  peaceful  renewal 
of  her  estate  under  God's  protection,  like 
that,  with  the  promise  whereof  Amos  closed 
his  prophecy  ;  **  In  that  day  I  ivill  raise  up  the 
tabernacle  of  David  that  is  fallen,  and  close  up 
the  breaches  thereof.  This  decree,  which  he 
says  shcdl  be  far  away,  might  in  iteelf  be  the 
decree  either  of  God  or  of  the  enemy  ^°.  The 
sense  is  the  same,  since  the  enemy  was  but 
the  instrument  of  God.  Yet  it  seems  more 
in  accordance  with  the  language  of  the  pro- 
phets, that  it  should  be  the  decree  of  man. 
For  the  decree  of  God  for  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  captivity  of  His  people 
was  accomplished,  held  its  course,  was  ful- 
filled. The  destruction,  captivity,  restora- 
tion, were  parts  of  one  and  the  same  decree 
of  God,  of  which  the  restoration  was  the  last 
accomplished  in  time.  The  restoration  was 
not  the  removal,  but  the  complete  fuUillment, 
of  the  decree.    He  means  then    probably, 

those  positive  laws  given  by  Moses,  (its  common 
use)  or  such  laws  as  God  has  impressed  upon  the 
physical  world,  Job  xxvi.  10,  xxviii.  2(5,  xxxviii.  10, 
3:3,"Prov.  viii.  29,  Jer.  v.  22.  xxxi.  36,  G;  of  the  tii.ie 
appointed  by  God  for  man's  life.  Job  xiv.  5, 13;  a 
decree  of  God,  Jobxxiii.  14,  Ps.  ii.  7,  Zeph.  ii.  2;  of  a 
portion  of  food  appointed  by  God,  Job  xxiii.  12, 
Prov.  XXX.  8,  Ezek.  xvi.  27  ;  by  man.  Gen.  xlvii.  22, 
Prov.  xxxi.  15;  of  a  statute  made  by  man.  Gen. 
xlvii.  2fi,  1  Sam.  xxx.  2") ;  a  custom,  Jiid.  xi.  39,  (Plur. 
Jer.  xxxii.  11,  Ez.  xx.  18.);  a  task  appointed  by 
man,  Ex.  V.  14.  But  in  all  cases  the  laea  of  "ap- 
pointment," is  prominent;    so  that  although  pn 

expresses  the  law  of  God  determining  the  bounds 
of  the  sea  or  the  term  of  man's  life,  it  cannot  there- 
fore signify  a  mere  point  in  space  or  time.    pnT 

also,  with  which  it  is  luiited  by  alliteration,  (proba- 
lily  to  fi.t  the  words  in  men's  mcmorios.)  is  not  to 
"expand,"  but  to  "be  fur  off."  Then  also  pni',  cor- 
responding to  nij37  which  implies  a  future,  must 

itself  be  a  future,  not  a  mere  aorist  or  vivid  present. 
Those  throe  observations  together  oxclude  such 
renderings  as.  "  the  decree  for  thy  restoration  shall 
be  promulgoa  far  and  wide;"  "the  decree  of  God 
shall  not  be  confined  to  Babylon  but  shall  extend  to 
other  countries."  "  In  that  day,  the  interval  is  dis- 
tant;" (Ew.)  "the  bound  set  to  her  will  be  far'»ff." 
i.e.  Israel  shall  he  enlarged. 


CHAPTER  YII. 


97 


chrTIt   ^^®  fortress  even  to  the 
cir.  710.      riverj  and  from  sea  to  sea, 


that  the  decree  of  the  enemy,  whereby  he  held 
her  captive,  was  to  remove  and  be  Jar  off,  not 
by  any  agency  of  her's  '.  The  people  were 
to  stream  to  her  of  themselves.  One  by  one, 
shall  all  thy  banished,  captive,  scattered, 
children  be  brought  quitehome  unto  thee  from 
all  parts  of  the  earth,  whither  they  have 
been  driven,  from  Assyria,  and  from  strong- 
land.  The  name  Matsor,  which  he  gives  to 
Egypt,  modifying  its  ordinary  dual  name 
Mitsraim,  is  meant,  at  once  to  signify  "Egypt'' " 
and  to  mark  the  strength  of  the  country  ;  as, 
in  fact,  "  ^  Egypt  was  on  all  sides  by  nature 
strongly  guarded."  A  country,  which  was 
still  strong  relatively  to  Judah,  would  not,  of 
itself,  yield  up  its  prey,  but  held  it  straitly  ; 
yet  it  should  have  to  disgorge  it.  Isaiah  and 
Hosea  prophesied,  in  like  way,  the  return  of 
Israel  and  Judah  from  Assyria  and  from 
Egypt  *.  And  from  strowj-land  even  to  the 
river  [Euphrates] ;  the  ancient,  widest, 
boundary  of  the  promised  land  * ;  and  from 
sea  to  sea,  and  from  mountain  to  mountain. 
These  last  are  too  large  to  be  the  real  boun- 
daries of  the  land.  If  understood  geograph- 
ically, it  would  by  narrowing  those  which 
had  just  been  spoken  of,  from  Egypt  to  the 
Euphrates.  Joel  likens  the  destruction  of 
the  Northern  army  to  the  perishing  of  locusts 
in  the  two  opjDOsite  seas,  the  Dead  sea  and  the 
Mediterranean  ^ ;  but  the  Dead  sea  was  not 
the  entire  Eastern  boundary  of  all  Israel. 
Nor  are  there  any  mountains  on  the  South, 
answering  to  Mount  Libanus  on  the  North. 
Not  the  mountains  of  Edom  which  lay  to  the 
South-East,  but  the  desert '  was  the  Southern 
boundary  of  Judah.  In  tlie  times  too  of 
their  greatest  prosperity,  Edom,  Moab,  Am- 
mon,  Syria,  had  been  subject  to  them.  The 
rule  of  the  Messiah  from  sea  to  sea  had  already 
been  predicted  by  SiJomnn®,  enlarging  the 
boundaries  of  the  promised  land  to  the  whole 
compass  of  the  world,  fro^n  the  sea,  their 
bound  westward,  to  the  further  encircling  sea 
beyond  all  habitable  land,  in  which,  in  fact, 
our  continents  are  large  islands '.  To  this, 
Micah  adds  a  new  description, /)-om  mountain 
to  mountain,  including,  probably,  all  subdi- 
visions in  our  habitable  earth,  as  the  words, 

1  This  is  conveyed  by  the  simple  neuter,  pPIT. 
"  shall  be  far  oflF."  ' 

2  As  it  certainly  does  in  Isaiah  at  the  same  date, 
Is.  xix.  6,  xxxvii.  25,  (2  Kings  xix.  24.). 

s  Diod.  Sic.  i.  31. 

*  Is.  xi.  11.  xxvii.  13.  Hos.  xi.  11. 

5  Gen.  XV.  18,  Ex.  xxiii.  31,  Deut.  i.  7,  xi.  24,  Jos. 
i.  4, 1  Kings  iv.  21,  24. 

6  Joel  ii.  20. 

'  Ex.  xxiii.  31,  Num.  xxxir.  3,  Dent.  xi.  24. 
8Comp.  Ps. Ixxii.  8.  See  "Daniel  the  Prophet,"  p. 
479  sqq. 

7 


and  from  mountain   to 
mountain. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


sea  to  sea,  had  embraced  it  as  a  whole.  For, 
physically  and  to  sight,  mountains  are  the 
great  natural  divisions  of  our  earth.  Rivers 
are  but  a  means  of  transit.  The  Euphrates 
and  the  Nile  were  the  centres  ot  the  kingdoms 
which  lay  upon  them.  Each  range  of 
mountains,  as  it  rises  on  the  horizon,  seems 
to  present  an  insuperable  barrier.  No  bar- 
rier should  avail  to  hinder  the  inflow  to  the 
Gospel.  As  Isaiah  foretold  tliat  all  obstacles 
should  be  removed '",  every  valley  shall  be  ex- 
alted, and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made 
low,  so  Micah  prophesies,  from  mountain  to 
mountain  they  shall  come. 

The  words  are  addressed  as  a  promise  and 
consolation  to  the  Jews,  and  so,  doubtless, 
the  restoration  of  the  Jews  to  their  own  land 
after  the  captivity  is  foretold  here,  as  Micah 
had  already  foretold  it  '^  But  is  the  whole 
limited  to  this  ?  He  says,  with  remarkable 
indefiniteness,  there  shall  come  '^.  He  does  not 
say,  who  "shall  come."  But  he  twice  sets 
two  opposite  boundaries,  from  which  men 
should  come ;  and,  since  these  boundaries, 
not  being  coincident,  cannot  be  predicted  of 
one  and  the  same  subject,  there  must  be 
two  distinct  incomings.  The  Jews  were  to 
come  from  those  two  countries,  whither  its 
people  were  then  to  be  carried  captive  or 
would  flee.  From  the  boundaries  of  the 
world,  the  world  was  to  come. 

Thus  Micah  embraces  in  one  the  prophe- 
cies, which  are  distinct  in  Isaiah,  that  not 
only  God's  former  people  should  come  from 
Egypt  and  Assyria,  but  tliat  Egypt  and  Assy- 
ria themselves  should  be  counted  as  one  with 
Israel  ^^ ;  and  while,  in  the  first  place,  the 
restoration  of  Israel  itself  is  foretold,  there 
follows  that  convei'sion  of  the  world,  which 
Micah  had  before  promised'*,  and  whith  was 
the  object  of  the  restoration  of  Israel.  This 
was  fulfilled  to  Jews  and  heathen  together, 
when  the  dispersed  of  the  Jews  were  gathered 
into  one  in  Christ,  the  Son  of  David  acconling 
to  the  flesh,  and  the  Gospel,  beginning  at  Jeru- 
salem, was  spread  abroad  among  all  m.tions. 
The  promise  is  thrice  repeated,  It  w  the  day, 
assuring  the  truth  tliereo!,  as  it  were,  in  the 
Name  of  the  All-Holy  Trinity. 

9 See  Aristot.  de  mundo  c.  3.  in  "Daniel  the 
Prophet,"  p.  025.  Strabo  speaks  as  though  Hompr 
too  knew  the  fact  that  the  sea  encircled  the  land, 
"  hinting  at  those  in  East  and  West,  in  that  they 
were  washed  by  the  Ocean." 

10  Is.  xl.  4. 

11  Mic.  iv.  10. 

*^Ki3\iiot,  "they  shall  come;"  nor  again  is  it, 
"  he,"  Israel,  "  shall  come,"  since  they  were  to  come 
to  Israel,  " there  shall  come  to  thee;"  nor  is  it  an 
individual,  since  one  person  could  not  come  from 
all  these  places. 

"  U.  xix.  2:V2.-..  »*iv.  1-3. 


98 


MICAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


13  II  Xotwithstand- 

g  the  hind  shall  be  deso- 

iOr, A ft,r that  lute  becausc  of  them  that 
T  jer"2i.  u."-     dwell  therein, '  for  the  fruit 
''^•^•^"         of  their  doings. 


13.  Notiritkitandiiuj  [And]  the  land  (i.e. 
that  spoken  of,  the  land  of  Jndahj  i^hall  be 
desolate,  not  through  any  arbitrary  law  or  the 
might  of  her  enemies,"biit  through  the  sins 
of  the  peojde,  because  of  theia  that  dwell  therein, 
for  the  fruit  of  their  doinr/s.  Truly  "the  fruit 
of  their  doings,"  what  they  did  to  jilease 
themselves,  of  tlieir  own  minds  against  God. 
As  they  sow,  so  shall  they  reap.  Tliis  sounds 
almost  as  a  riddle  and  contradiction  before- 
hand; "the  walls  built  up,"  "  tlie  people 
gathered  in,"  and  "  the  land  desolate."  Yet  it 
was  all  fulfilled  in  the  letter  as  well  as  in  s])irit. 
Jerusalem  was  restored;  the  people  was 
g-athered,  first  from  tlie  captivity,  tlien  to 
Christ;  and  yet  the  land  was  again  desolate 
through  the  fruit  of  tlieir  doiwjs  who  rejected 
Christ,  and  is  so  until  tliis  day. 

The  prophet  now  closes  with  one  earnest 
prayer  * ;  to  wliich  he  receives  a  brief  answer, 
that  God  would  shew  forth  His  power  anew, 
as  when  He  first  made  them  His  people'-. 
On  tliis,  he  describes  vividly  the  awed  sub- 
mission of  the  world  to  their  God  ',  and  closes 
with  a  thanksgiving  of  marveling  amaze- 
ment at  the  greatness  and  completeness  of 
the  forgiving  mercy  of  God  *,  ascribing  all  to 
His  free  goodness  ^. 

14.  Feed  Thy  people  with  Thy  rod.  The 
day  of  final  deliverance  was  still  a  great  way 
off".  There  was  a  weary  interval  before  them 
of  chastisement,  suffering,  captivity.  So 
Micaii  lays  down  his  pastoral  office  by  com- 
mitting his  people  to  Ilim  Who  was  their 
true  and  abiding  Sheplierd.  Who  that  has 
had  the  pastoral  office,  has  not  tiiought,  as 
the  niyht  drew  nigh  in  ivhich  no  vvtn  can  work, 
"  what  will  be  after  him  ?"  Micah  knew  and 
foretold  the  outline.  It  was  for  his  people  a 
passinf/  through  the  valley  of  the  nhadou!  of  death. 
Micah  then  commits  thom  to  Him,  AVho  had 
Himself  committed  them  to  him,  Who  alone 
could  guide  them  through  it.  It  is  a  touch- 
ing parting  with  his  people  ;  a  last  guidance 
of  those  whom  he  had  taught,  reproved,  re- 
buked, in  vain,  to  Him  the  Good  Shepherd 
Who  led  Israel  like  a  fiock.  The  rod  is  at 
times  tlie  she|)herd's  staff",  although  more 
frecpiently  the  symbol  of  chastisement,  (iod's 
chastisement  of  His  people  is  an  austere  form 
of  His  love.    So  He  says,  ^  If  his  children  for- 

>T.  14.      »v.  1:1.      3v.  16,  17.     <v.  18,  19.     »v.  20. 
•£331!'  Lev.  ,\\vii.  liJ:,  Vs.  .xxiii.  4. 
'  Ps.  Ixxxix.  ai,  :j:i.  «  Dent.  ix.  2r>,  2!». 

»1  KinRs  viii.  r.l.  '»  Ps.  Ixxix.  1. 

"   P.v    INXIV.  I,  J.  l'-!Jn,.|    ii.    17.  >»P.-.  X(!iV.  .->. 


14^11  Feed  thy  people  (,  before  ^ 
with  thy  rod,  the  flock  of__£iliI22i_ 
thine     herita":e,    which    ior,Suie. 

Ps  *^8   9 

dwell  solitarily  in  Hhe     ch. 5.4.' 
wood,  in  the  midst  of  Car- 


sake  My  law,  I  will  vi)^it  tlieir  offences  vdth  a  rod 
and  their  sin  ivith  scourges :  nevertheless  My  lov- 
ing-kindness; xvill  I  not  utterly  take  from  them. 

The  Jlock  of  Thine  inheritance.  So  Moses 
luul  appealed  to  God,  "Destroy  not  Thy  people 
and  Thine  inheritance  which  Thou  hast  redeemed 
through  Thy  greatness — They  are  Thy  people  ami 
Thine  inheritance  ;  and  Solomon,  in  his  dedica- 
tion-prayer, that,  on  their  repentance  in 
tlieir  captivity,  God  would  forgive  His  peo- 
ple, ^for  they  be  Thy  people  ami  Thine  inlierit- 
anre  which  Thou  broughtest  forth  out  of  Egypt  ; 
and  Asaph,  '"  0  Lord,  the  heathen  are  come  into 
Thine  inheritance;  and  again,  "  Why  doth 
Thine  anger  smoke  against  the  .^heep  of  Thy  pas- 
ture'/  Remember  the  tribe  of  Thine  inheritance 
which  Thou  hast  redeemed;  and  Joel,  " »Sjaa/e 
Thy  people  and  give  not  Thine  heritage  to  re- 
proach ;  and  a  Psalmist,  '^  They  break  in 
pieces  Thy  people,  0  Lord,  and  afflict  Thine 
heritage;  and  Isaiah,  "  Return  for  thy  servants' 
mke,  the  tribes  of  Thine  inheritance.  The  ap- 
peal excludes  all  merits.  Not  for  any  deserts 
of  their's,  (for  these  were  but  evil,)  did  the 
Prophets  teach  them  to  pray  ;  but  because 
they  w^ere  God's  property.  It  was  His 
Name,  which  would  be  dishonored  in  them ; 
it  wa-s  His  work,  wdiich  would  seemingly 
come  to  nothing;  it  was  He,  Who  would  be 
thought  powerless  to  save.  Again,  it  is  not 
God's  way,  to  leave  half-done  what  He  has 
begun.  ^'  Jesus,  having  loved  His  own  xvhich 
were  in  the  world,  loved  them  unto  the  eml.  God's 
love  in  creating  us  and  making  us  His,  is  the 
earnest,  if  we  will,  of  His  everlasting  love. 
We  have  been  the  objeits  of  His  everlasting 
thought,  of  His  everlasting  love.  Though 
we  have  forleited  all  claim  to  His  love,  He 
hiis  not  forfeited  the  work  of  His  Hands; 
Jesus  has  not  fori'eited  the  price  of  His  Blood. 
So  holy  men  have  prayed;  "  '*l  lielieve  that 
Thou  hast  redeemed  nic  iiy  Thy  Blood :  per- 
mit not  the  price  of  the  Ransom  to  perish." 
""O  Jesus  Christ,  my  only  Saviour,  let  not 
Thy  most  bitter  Passion  and  Death  be  lost  or 
wasted  in  me,  miserable  sinner  !  " 

Which  dwell  xolitarily,  or  alone.  Micah  uses 
the  words  of  Balaam,  when  he  had  been  con- 
strained by  (Jod  to  bless  Israel.  ^^  The  peo- 
ple shall  dwell  alone  and  shall  tuit  be  reckoned 
among  the  nations.    Moses  had  repeated  them, 

"Is.  Ixiii.  17.  IBS.  John  xiii.  1. 

iiRp.  .\ndrewes  Proces  quotid.  Grsec.  p.  150. 
Tracts  for  the  Times,  No.  88.  p.  6G. 

17  Paradise  for  the  Christian  Soul.  On  the  Paasion 
c.  -,.  WNnm.  ^xiii.  n 


CHAPTER  YII. 


99 


mel :  let  them  feed  in  Ba- 


'  Before 
CHRIST 

^''r.  TIP. shall  and  Gilead,  as  in  the 


days  of  old. 


'  Israel  shall  chcell  in,  safefi/  alone.  This  alone- 
ness  among  other  nations,  then,  was  a  bless- 
ing, springing  from  God's  being  in  the  midst 
of  them''',  the  deeds  which  He  did  for 
them  ^,  the  law  which  He  gave  them*.  So 
Moses  prayed,  °  Wherein  shall  it  be  known 
here,  that  I  and  Thy  people  have  found  yrace  in 
Thy  sight  f  is  it  not  in  that  TJiou  goesl  with  us  f 
So  shcdl  we  he  separated,  J  and  Thi/  people,  from 
all  the  people  that  are  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  It 
was,  then,  a  separate  apj^eal  to  God  by  all  His 
former  loving-kindness,  whereby  He  had 
severed  and  elected  His  i)eople  for  Himself. 

In  the  wood,  in  the  midst  of  Carmel.  God 
®  turneth  a  fruitful  land  into  barrenness  for  the 
wickedness  of  them  that  dwell  therein.  He  turn- 
eth the  vjilderness  into  a  standing  water  and  dry 
ground  into  watersprings.  Isaiah  at  the  same 
time  used  the  like  image,  that '  Lebanon  shall 
be  turned  into  a  fruitful  field  [Carmel],  and  the 
fruitful  field  [Carmel]  shall  be  esteemed  as  a 
forest^.  The  wild  forest  was  to  be  like  the 
rich  domestic  exuberance  of  Carmel ",  He 
would  say,  "  Feed  Thy  people  in  Babylon, 
which  is  to  them  a  wild  homeless  tract,  that 
it  may  be  to  them  as  their  own  peaceful  Car- 
mel." Without  God,  all  the  world  is  a  wil- 
derness ;  with  (Tod,  the  wilderness  is  Paradise. 

Let  them  feed  in.  Bashun  and  Gilead.  The 
former  words  were  a  prayer  for  their  restora- 
tion. Gilead  and  Bashan  were  the  great 
pasture-countries  of  Palestine  ^'',  " "  a  wide 
tableland,  with  undulating  downs  clothed 
with  rich  grass  throughout,"  where  the  cattle 
ranged  freely.  They  were  the  first  posses- 
sions, which  God  liaci  bestowed  upon  Israel ; 
the  first,  which  they  forfeited.  Micah  prays 
that  God,  Who  protected  them  in  their  desola- 
tion, would  restore  and  protect  them  in  the 
green  pasture  where  He  placed  them.  They 
are  a  prayer  still  to  the  Good  Shepherd  Who 
laid  down  His  life  for  His  sheep  ^'^,  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  He  would  feed  His  flock 
whom  He  has  redeemed,  who  have  been  given 

iDeut.  xxxiii.  28.  In  both  cases,  as  in  |Micah, 
P^/  is  used;  as  also  in  Jer.  xlix.  31,  of  Hazor 

dwelling  in  security  alone.  The  idioin  inn  ^jy, 
"sit  alone,"  is  different.  It  occurs  first  of  the 
separation  of  the  leper,  "  he  shall  sit  alone,  without 
the  camp  sliall  his  dwelling  be  (13jyiO),"'  Lev.  xiii. 
4();  then  ot  an  individual  in  sorrow,  Jer.  xv.  17, 
Lam.  iii.  is  :  and,  in  one  case,  of  the  deserted  city 
personified,  Lain.  i.  1.      2  Ex.  xxxiii.  16,  Deut.  iv.  7. 

3  Ex.  xxxiv.  10,  Deut.  iv.  .34.         *  Deut.  iv.  8.  :!3. 

5  Ex.  xxxiii.  16.     6  Ps.  cvii.  34,  5.     1 1s.  xxix.  17. 

*3tyn'  '\y''h  Sr313m.  The  phrase  recurs  Is. 
xxxii.  15,  except  that  the  Keihib  omits  the  article, 

which  makes  the  contrast  of  "^^j;"  and  SoiD  •ex- 
actly the  same  as  in  Micah. 

*See  on  Am.  i.  2.  vol.  i.  p.  iu. 

10  See  on  .Vm.  i.  3.  vdI.  i.  p.  234;  iv.  1.  p  28o. 


15  » According   to   the    chi{7st 
days  of  thy  coming  out  of  _    ^ir.  710. 


the  land  of  Egypt  will  I    "&'i8.'i2^'- 


to  Him  as  an  inheritance'^'^,  the  little  flock  ^*,  to 
M'hich  it  is  the  Father  s  good  pleoMu-e  to  give 
the  kingdom,  M'hich  cleaveth  to  Him  and  shall 
be  heirs  M'ith  Him  '^  "  '«  Christ  feedeth  His 
own  with  a  rod,  gniding  them  gently,  and  re- 
pressing by  gentle  fears  the  tendency  of  be- 
lievers to  listlessness.  He  hruiseth  as  with  a 
rod  of  Iron,  not  them,  but  the  rebellious  dis- 
oliedient  and  proud,  who  receive  not  the 
faith  ;  believers  He  instructs  and  forms  ten- 
derly, "feeds  them  among  the  lilies,  and  leads 
them  into  good  pastures  and  rich  places, 
namely  the  Divinely-inspired  Scriptures, 
making  the  hidden  things  thereof  clear 
through  the  Spirit  to  those  of  understanding, 
that  they  "*  may  grow  up  unto  Him  in  all  thing.-^ 
ivhich  is  the  Head,  even  Christ,  with  minds 
well-fed  and  nourished  and  gladdened  with 
all  spiritual  delights.  But  the  chosen  and 
elect  dwell  solitarily,  being  apart  from  the  rest 
who  think  only  of  the  things' of  earth,  and 
give  themselves  to  the  pleasures  of  sense.  So 
then  these,  having  the  mind  at  rest,  freed 
from  the  vain  and  abominable  tumults,  are 
placed  apart  as  //;  a  wood  and  in  a  VKunitain.. 
By  the  wood  you  may  understand,  the  rich 
and  varied  and  solid  instruction  (as  it  were 
trees  and  floAvers)  both  in  doctrine  and  life; 
by  the  mountain,  what  is  high  and  loity.  For 
none  of  the  wisdom,  accounted  of  in  the 
Churcli,  is  low.  They  are  fed  in  Bashan  and 
Gilead,  as  in  the  days  of  old,  rich  pastures  ; 
for  the  mind  of  the  holy  is  beautified,  de- 
lighting itself  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
inspired  Scriptures,  and  filled,  as  it  were, 
with  a  certain  richness,  and  shares  without 
stint  all  excellence  in  thought  or  in  deed  ; 
and  that,  not  for  a  brief  and  narroAV  season, 
but  for  ever.  For  what  gladdeneth  the  flesh 
falleth  therewith  and  fadeth  and  hasteth 
away  like  a  shadow;  but  the  participation  of 
the  good  things  from  above  and  of  the  S^jirit, 
stretcheth  out  along  endless  ages." 

15.  According  to  the  days  of  thy  coming  out 

11  Rev.  G.  H.  Palmer  in  Dr.  Stanley  Pal.  p.  320. 
See  also  Porter's  Handbook,  p.  307  sq.  "One  can 
scarcely  get  over  the  impression  that  he  is  roam- 
ing through  some  English  park.  The  graceful 
hills,  the  rich  vales,  the  luxuriant  herbage,  the 
bright  wild-flowers,  the  plantations  of  evergreen 
oak,  pine,  and  arbutus,  now  a  tangled  thicket,  and 
now  sparsely  scattered  over  the  gontle  slopi-,  as  if  in- 
tended to  reveal  its  beauty,  the  little  rivulets  fringed 
with  oleander,  &e. — such  are  the  features  of  the 
mountains  of  Gilead."  p.  310.  "The  country  from 
Jerash  to  Wadtj  O^hes  [.Tabesh  Gilead]  8  hours, 
resembles  in  scenery  that  from  es-!Salt  to  Jerash. 
We  have  the  thickly  wooded  hills,  the  deep  and 
fertile  valleys,  and  the  luxuriant  pasturage  in  every 
part  of  it."  p.  316.  See  also  Th^im^'ju,  The  Land  and 
the  Book,  i.  304.      ^i  s.  John  x.  U,  15.      «  Ps.  ii.  8. 

"S.  Luke  xii.  32.      'i"' Rom.  viii.  17.       'AS.  Cyr. 

I'f'ant.  vi.  3.  '^  l4'b-  iv-  '■>. 


100 


MICAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

»Is.  26. 11. 


shew  unto  him  marvelous 
things. 

16  «f[  The  nations  "shall 
see  and  be  confounded  at 


of  the  hind  of  Eyypt.  God  answers  the  prayer, 
beginning  with  its  closing  words '.  Micah 
had  prayeil,  "  Turn  Thy  people  like  the  days 
of  old'^;"  God  answers,  ''like  the  days  of  thy 
coming^  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt."  Micah 
had  said,  in  the  name  of  his  people,  ^  I  shall 
belwld  His  liighteousiiess  ;  God  answers,  I  ivill 
make  him  to  behold  marvelous  things.  The 
word  nuirvelous  things*  was  used  of  God's 
great  marvels  in  the  physical  world',  or  the 
marvelous  mercies  of  Ills  Providence  to- 
ward individuals  or  nations  ",  and  especially 
of  those  great  miracles,  whii'h  were  accumu- 
lated at  tlie  deliverance  from  Egypt',  and 
the  entrance  of  the  promised  land**  which 
was  its  completion.  The  reference  to  the 
lvKi)dus  must  have  led  thein  to  tliink  of  act- 
u:d  miracles  ;  since,  in  regard  to  the  Exodus, 
it  is  used  of  nothing  else.  But  there  were 
no  miracles  at  the  return  from  the  captivity. 
"  ]Vhen  the  Lord  turned  again  the  captivity  of 
Zioii,  said  a  Psalmist  of  tlie  returned  people, 
nr.  were  like  them  that  drecun.  The  Lord  hath 
(lone  grrat  things  for  us ;  we  are  glad.  Great 
things,  but  not  miraculous.  The  promise 
then  kept  the  people  looking  onward,  until 
lie  came,  '"«  Prophet  mighty  m  v.ord  ami  deed, 
as  to  Wliom  8t.  Peter  appealed  to  the  people, 
tliat  He  wa.s  •'  approved  of  God  among  you  by 
iidrades  and  wonders  and  fdgios,  which  God  did 
1)1/  ILim  ill  the  mi(Ut  of  you,  as  ye  yourselves  also 
know;  Who  gave  ;ilso  to  them  who  believed 
on  Iliin  power  to  do  ^'greater  works  than,  lie 
did,  through  His  own  power,  because  He  went 
to  His  Father;  and  when  they  believed.  He 
xhewed  to  him,  viz.  tf)  the  whole  people  gath- 
ered into  tiie  One  Church,  Jew  and  Gentile, 
yet  more  marvelous  things,  things,  every  way 
more   marvelous   and    beyond    nature    than 

1  Gasp. 

^dS'V  '^'''^  ^■^'■-  ^*-  'l'?**^  '?'^  ver.  10.  The 
word  D7lJ^  is  neeessiirily  restj-ained  to  time,  in 
that  it  relates  to  man's  past,  and  that,  aocordini?  to 
'1.')  context,  a  limited  pa~<t,  the  time  of  their  coming 
oi\t  of  Egyjpt.  This  docs  not  interfere  with  its  use 
M  to  eternity.    See  ab.  on  Mie.  v.  2.  p.  67.       , 

*•  ver.  9.  Ca«p.  '•niXlSJ. 

''.Job  V.  9,  xxxvii.  r>.  M. 

*Ps.  ix.  2,  xxvi.  7,  Ixxi.  17,  Ixxii.  18,  Ac. 

'  E.x.  iii.  2(),  Jiid.  vi.  i:{,  Ncli.  ix.  17,  Ps.  Ixxviii.  4, 
ll,:i2,  cv.  2,  ■>.  cvi.  7,  22. 

*  Ex.  xxxiv.  10.  Of  the  pa>isage  of  th(?  Jordan, 
ioH.  iii.  5. 

9Ps.  cxxvi.  1,  3.  >"!^.  I.iikc  xxiv.  l!t. 

".\ctsii.  22.    la.S.  John  xiv  12.    "  e,,i,.  jji.  8,  y. 

>M3^nK  end  of  vcr.  V>;  ?J<i;  lie^.  of  vir.  Ifi. 
Casp. 

'■*  See  ab.  p.  92. 

'•This  is  the  force  of  ]fj\l  with  J?p.  VO  dcsiR- 
ttuds,  as  usual,  the  cuu.se  and  soiu'cc  of  the  .sliame; 


all  their  might :  "they  shall 
lay  their  hand  upon  their. 
mouth,  their  ears  shall  be 
deaf. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

•  Job  21.  5. 
&  20.  9. 


those  of  old,  ^^  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Chrut, 
the  mystery  which  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  hath  been  hid  in  God. 

16.  The  nations  shall  see.  God  had  an- 
swered, w  hat  He  would  give  to  His  own  peo- 
ple, to  see.  ^licah  takes  up  the  word'*,  and 
says,  what  effect  this  sight  should  have  upon 
the  enemies  of  God  and  of  His  people.  The 
world  should  still  continue  to  be  divided  be- 
tween the  people  of  God  and  their  adversa- 
ries. Those  who  are  converted  pass  from 
the  one  to  the  other ;  but  the  contrast  re- 
mains. Assyria,  Babylon,  Egypt,  pass  away 
or  become  subject  to  other  powei-s ;  but  the 
antagonism  continues.  The  nations  are  they, 
who,  at  each  time,  waste,  oppress,  are  arrayed 
against,  the  people  of  God.  When  the  (ios- 
pel  came  into  the  world,  the  whole  world  was 
arrayed  against  it  '^  These  then,  he  says, 
shall  see,  i.  e.  the  marvelous  works  of  (iod, 
which  God  should  shew  His  people,  and  be 
ashamed  of,  i.  e.  becau,^e  of  all  their  might,  their 
own  might.  They  put  forth  their  whole 
might,  and  it  failed  them  against  the  marvd- 
ous  might  of  God.  They  should  array 
might  against  might,  and  be  ashuuuxl  at  the 
failure  of  all  their  might '".  The  word  all  is 
very  emphatic ;  it  implies  that  thoy  luid  put 
forth  all,  and  that  all  Jiad  failed  them,  and 
proved  to  be  weakness.  So  the  Heathen 
might  was  often  put  to  shame  and  gnaslied 
its  teeth,  when  it  could  avail  nothing  against 
the  strength  to  endure  which  (Tod  gave  to 
His  martyrs.  Its  strength  to  inflict  and  to 
crush  was  balHed  before  the  hiilden  might  of 
(iod's  Spirit.  They  shall  lay  their  hand  upon 
ttieir  mouth,  in  token  that  they  were  reduced 
to  silence,  having  no  more  to  say"  ;  for  He 
promised,  '*  /  will  give  you  a  mouth  and  wis- 

and  mostly  with  this  agfcravation,  that  they  had 
trusted  in  it,  and  it  had  failed  them.  .See  Hos.  iv. 
li),  "thci/  al.all  be  aihamcd  because  of  their  sacrifices ; 
X.  r.,  becansf  of  ttieir  own  counsel "  (.see  on  Hos.  x.  t;.  vol. 
i.  p.  Ill):  "They  shall  be  afraid  and  asliameti  because 
of  Ethiopia,  their  e-cpcctation,  and  of  Effiipt,  their 
(jlori/,"  Is.  x.x.  5;  "6(:cr(i(6t:  of  the  oafci,  ic/i/r/i  i/e  haca 
desired,"  lb.  i.  2t);  "thou  shnlt  be  ashamed  because  of 
Efifipt,  as  thou  least  ashamed  because  of  Asstiria,"  Jer. 
ii.  an ;  ■'  .Moab  shall  be  ashamed  because  of  Chemnsh,  as 
the  house  of  Israel  was  aslinmed  because  of  Bethel  their 
confidence,  lb.  xlviii.  13;  add  xii.  13.  Tlic  idiom  it- 
sell,  D'tyiS  DiTIOJf?!  "ashamed  because  of  tlicir 
m\(]ht,"  occurs  in  Ezek.  xxxii.  30,  of  the  nations, 
wliich  had  perished  in  war.  In  a  few  cases,  the 
idiom  is  used  of  the  source  of  sliamc,  whore  the 
idea  of  previous  trust  in  them  is  less  prominent,  as 
in  EziU.  xxxvi. '^i,  Zeph.  iii.  11.  But  here,  this  is 
involved  in  the  subject  itself,  and  is  illustrated  by 
Ezek.  xxxil.  30. 

"See  the  use  of  the  idiom  in  Jud.  xviii.  10.  JoU 
xxi.  ."i,  x\ix.  n,  xl.  4,  Prov.  xxx.  32. 

'»S.  Luke  xxi.  15.  eomp.  Acts  v.  ;;'J. 


CHAPTER  Yir. 


101 


'  Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


17  They  shall  lick  the 
^  dust  like  a  serpent,  *  they 
shall   move    out   of  their 


*  Ps.  72.  9. 
Is.  49.  23. 

I  Or^  creeping     holes  like  1 1  worms  of  the 

things. 


dom,  which  all  your  adversaries  shall  not  be  able 
to  gainsay  nor  resist ;  and  they  had  to  own, 
^  indeed  a  notable  miracle  hath  been  done  by 
them,  and  we  cannot  deny  it.  Their  ears  shall  be 
den/;  they  shall  be  silent,  as  though  they 
had  heard  nothing,  as  if  they  were  both 
dumb  and  deaf  ^.  Yet  it  seems  too  that 
they  are  wilfully  deaf,  shutting  their  ears  out 
of  envy  and  hatred,  that  they  might  not  hear 
what  great  things  God  had  done  for  His  peo- 
ple, nor  hear  the  voice  of  truth  and  be  con- 
verted and  healed.  "  ^  The  nations  and  the 
Emperors  of  the  nations  saw,  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles saw,  and  were  ashamed  at  all  their 
might,  because  their  might,  great  as  it  M'as 
accounted,  upheld  by  laws  and  arms,  could 
not  overcome  tl)e  mighty  works,  which  the 
Good  Shepherd  did  among  His  people  or 
flock  by  His  rod,  i.  e.  by  His  power,  through 
weak  and  despised  persons,  the  aged,  or 
oftentimes  even  by  boys  and  girls.  They 
were  then  ashamed  at  all  their  might  which 
could  only  touch  the  *  earthen  vessels,  but 
could  not  take  away  the  treasure  which  was 
in  them.  What  shall  I  say  of  the  wisdom  of 
those  same  nations  ?  Of  this  too  they  were 
ashamed,  as  he  adds,  Tliey  shall  put  their 
hands  upon  their  mouths.  For,  in  comparison 
with  the  heavenly  wisdom,  which  spake  by 
them  and  made  their  tongues  eloquent,  dumb 
was  all  secular  eloquence,  owning  by  its 
silence  that  it  was  convicted  and  confounded." 
17.  They  shall  lick  the  dut^t  like  a  [///e]  ser- 
pent.  To  lick  the  dust,  by  itself,  pictures  the 
extreme  humility  of  persons  who  cast  them- 
selves down  to  the  very  earth  *.  To  lick  it 
"  like  the  serpent "  seems  rather  to  represent 
the  condition  of  those  who  share  the  serpent's 
doom^  whose  lot,  viz.  earth  and  things  of 
earth,  they  had  chosen  ^.  They  shall  move  out 
of  their  holes,  or,  better,  shall  tremble,  (i.  e. 
"come  tremblingly,")  out  of  their  close  places'' , 
whether  these  bs  strong  places  or  pri'<ons,  as 
the  word,  varied  in  one  vowel  ^,  means.  If 
it  be  strong  places,  it  means,  that  "^the  ene- 
mies of  God's  people  should,  in  confusion 
anl  tunniltuously  with  fear,  leave  their 
strongholds,  wherein  they  thought  to  be  se- 

'  Acts  iv.  16. 

2  As  in  Ps.  xxxviii.  14,  "  I  was  as  a  man  that  hear- 
cth  not,  and  in  whose  mouth  are  no  reproofs.'' 
«Rup.  ■«2Cor.  iv.  7. 

5  As  in  Ps.  Ixxii.  9.  Is.  xlix.  23. 

6  Gen.  iii.  14,  Is.  Ixv.  25. 

'  So  our  Version  renders  the  word  in  Ps.  xviii.  45, 
2  Sam.  xxii.  46. 
8lJpO  masc.  Is.  xxiv.  22,  xlii.  7,  Ps.  cxlii.  8;  here 

•nd  in  Ps.  xviii.  46,  iTlJDD  fem. 


earth :  '  they  shall  be  afraid    ^  ,p'tfT'^  .n 
of  the    Lord    our    God,      cir-  7t"- 


and  shall  fear  because  of    Uer.  33. 9. 
thee. 


cure,  not  able  to  lift  themselves  up  against 
God  and  those  by  Him  sent  against  them." 
Like  woiins  of  tiie  earth,  lit.  creeping  things,  or, 
as  we  say,  reptiles^'^,  contemptuously.  "They 
shall  be  afraid  of,  or  rather  come  trembling  to, 
the  Lord  our  God;  it  is  not  said  their,  but  our 
God,  Who  hath  done  so  great  things  for  us. 
And  shall  fear  because  of  [lit.  from']  Thee,  0 
Lord,  of  Whom  they  had  before  said,  Where 
is  the  Lord  thy  God  ? 

It  is  doubtful,  whether  these  last  words 
express  a  "servile  iear,"  whereby  a  man 
turns  away  and  flees  from  '^  the  person  or 
thing  which  he  fears,  or  whetlier  they  sim- 
ply describe  fear  of  God  ^'^,  the  first  step  to- 
ward repentance.  In  Hosea's  words  ^^,  they 
shall  fear  toivard  the  Lord  and  His  goodness, 
the  addition,  and  His  goodness,  determines 
the  character  of  the  fear.  In  Micah,  it  is  not 
said  that  the  fear  brings  them  into  any  rela- 
tion to  God.  He  is  not  spoken  of,  as  becom- 
ing, any  how,  their  God,  and  Micah  closes  by 
a  thanksgiving,  for  God's  pardoning  mercy, 
not  to  them  but  to  His  people. 

And  so  the  Prophet  ends,  as  he  began, 
with  the  judgments  of  God  ;  to  those  who 
would  repent,  chastisement,  to  the  impeni- 
tent, punishment :  "  sentencing  Samaria, 
guilty  and  not  repenting  V'  to  perpetual  cap- 
tivity ;  "  to  Jerusalem,  guilty  but  repenting, 
promising  restoration.  So  from  tlie  begin- 
ning of  the  world  did  God;  so  doth  He;  so 
shall  He  unto  the  end.  So  did  He  shew 
Himself  to  Cain  and  Abel,  who  both,  as  we 
all,  sinned  in  Adam.  Cain,  being  impeni- 
tent. He  wholly  cast  away;  Abel,  being 
penitent,"  and  through  faith  offering  a  better 
sacrifice  than  Cain,  and  "  bringing  forth  fruits 
worthy  of  repentance,  He  accepted."  So  He 
hath  foreshewn  as  to  the  end".  "*And 
that  we  may  know  how  uniformly  our  Judge 
so  distinguishetli,  at  the  very  moment  of  His 
own  Death  while  lianging  between  the  two 
thieves,  the  one,  impenitent  and  blasphem- 
ing. He  left ;  to  the  other,  penitent  and  con- 
fessing, He  opened  the  gate  of  paradise ;  and, 
soon  after,  leaving  the  Jewish  people  unre- 
pentant, He  received  the  repentance  of  the 

«Poc. 

10  The  idiom  occurs  beside  on'.y  in  Deut.  xxxii. 
24,  with  the  variation  only  of  13J,^.for  ]*"]{<. 
"  KT  with  ?0  Ps-  iii-  7,  xxvii.  1,  Job  v.  21.    See 

CJes.  Thes.  p.  804.  ^    ,      , 

12  XT'  with  p  is  used  of  a  fear  of  God,  whereby 

one  is  kept  from  evil.  Lev.  xix.  14.  Yet  also  gener- 
ally of  fear  of  God,  Ps.  xxxiii.  8. 

13  Hos.  iii.  6.  "|S.  Matt.  xxv. 


102 


^[ICAH. 


18  8  Who  j>  a  God  like 


iniquity,   and   passeth   by 


remnant   of  his  heritage? 
"  he  retaineth  not  his  anger 


Bpforr 
CHRIST 

fir.  710.      unto  thee,  that "  pardoneth 

eEx.  15.  a. 
"■  Ex.  U.  6,  T 

ioIi.^t".    '       the  transgression   of  *the 

&  5.  3,  7,  8. 
k  Ps.  103.  9. 
Is.  67.  IG. 
Jer.  3.  5. 


Gentiles."  Thus  the  Prophet  parts  with 
both  out  of  sight ;  tlie  people  of  God,  feeding 
on  the  rich  bounty  anfl  abundance  of  God, 
and  His  mirvdoa-i  gifts  of  grace  above  and 
beyond  nature,  injltiplied  to  them  above  all 
the  wonders  of  old  time ;  the  enemies  of 
God's  people  looking  on,  not  to  admire,  but 
to  be  ashamsd,  not  to  be  healthfully  ashamed, 
but  to  be  wiUnV.y  deaf  to  the  voice  of  God. 
For,  however  to  la\j  the  hand  on  the  mouth 
might  be  9  token  of  reverent  silence,  the 
Jea/nesfi  of  the  ears  can  hardly  be  other  than 
Ihe  ec:blem  of  hardened  obstinacy.  AVhat 
follows,  then,  seems  more  like  the  unwilling 
creeping-forth  into  the  Presence  of  God, 
nhen  tiiey  cannot  keep  away,  than  conver- 
iion.  It  seems  to  picture  the  reprobate,  wlio 
would  not '  hear  the  Voice  of  the  Son  of  God 
vnd  live,  but  who,  in  the  end,  shall  be  forced 
lo  hear  it  out  of  their  close  places  or  prisons, 
\.  e.  the  grave,  and  come  forth  in  fear,  when 
Ihey  shall  "^say  to  the  mountains,  Fall  on  us  ; 
ami  to  the  hills,  Cover  us.  Thus  the  Prophet 
brings  us  to  the  close  of  all  tilings,  the  glad- 
ness and  joy  of  God's  people,  the  terror  of 
His  enemies,  and  adds  only  the  song  of 
thanksgiving  of  all  the  redeemed. 

18.  Who  is  a  God  (and,  as  the  word  means,  A 
Mighlij  God,)  like  unto  Thee?  He  saith  not, 
■'  Who  hast  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and 
all  that  tlierein  is  ;  nor,  *  Who  telleth  the  number 
of  the  stars  ;  and  cnlleth  them  all  by  their  names  ; 
nor,  °  Who  by  His  strength  setteth  fast  the  monn- 
taim  and  is  yirded  about  with  power ;  but  Who 
forgivest !  For  greater  is  the  work  of  Re- 
demption than  the  work  of  Creation.  That 
j)  irdoneth,  and  bearcth  and  taketh  away  also, 
and  passeth  by  the  tran-^f/re-<sion  of  ihe  remnant 
of  His  heritage,  i.  e.  His  heritage,  which  is  a 
remnant  still  when  *</«€ /'to'^  ore  blinded;  and 
this,  not  of  its  merits  but  of  His  mercy ;  since 
it  is  not  His  nature  to  retain  //«  anger  for 
ever;  not  for  anything  in  them,  but  because 
He  delighteth  in  mercy,  as  He  saith,  '  /  am 
inercifiU,  saith  the  Lord,  and  I  will  not  keep 
angei' for  ever.  ^  I  am  He  that  blotteth  out  thy 
transgressions  for  Mine  own  sake,  and  vill  not 
remember  thy  sins.  "^  For  although  God  for  a 
time  is  angry  with  His  elect,  chastening  them 
mercifully  in  this  life,  yet  in  tlie  end  He  hath 

'8.  John.  V.25. 

«  S:  Luke  xxiii.  30,  Rev.  vl.  16.       »2  Ex.  xx.  11. 
♦  Ps.  cxlvii.  4.  'Pa.  Ixv.  6.       «Rom.  xi.  7. 

"  Jer.  iii.  12.  »  1p.  xliil.  26.  »  Dion. 

1"  Ex.  XV.  11. 


for   ever,   becau.se   he   de- 
lighteth in  mercy. 

19  He  ■will  turn  again, 
he  will  have  compassion 
upon  us ;  he  will  subdue 
our   iniquities ;   and   thou 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 


compassion  on  them,  giving  them  everlasting 
consolations." 

Moses,  after  the  completion  of  liis  people's 
deliverance  at  the  Red  Sea,  used  the  like  ap- 
peal to  God,  in  unmingled  joy.  Then  the 
tlianksgiving  ran,  ^''glorious  m  holiness,  awful 
in  praises,doing  wonders.  Now,  it  ran  in  a  more 
sulidued,  yet  even  deeper,  tone,  taken  from 
(lod's  revelation  of  Himself  after  that  great 
transgression  on  Mount  Sinai,  ^^ forgiving  in- 
iquity and  transgression  and  sin.  With  this, 
Micah  identified  his  own  name'*.  This  was 
the  one  message  which  he  loved  above  all  to 
jtroclaim ;  of  this,  his  own  name  was  the 
herald  to  his  people  in  his  day.  Who  is  liki- 
ihe  Lord,  the  Pardoner  of  sin,  the  Redeemer 
from  its  guilt,  the  Subduer  of  its  power  ?  For 
no  i'alse  god  was  ever  such  a  claim  made. 
The  heathen  gods  were  symbols  of  God's 
workings  in  nature  ;  they  were,  at  best,  rep- 
resentatives of  His  Government  and  of  His 
displeasure  at  sin.  But,  being  the  creatures 
of  man's  mind,  they  could  not  freely  pardon, 
for  man  dared  not  ascribe  to  them  the  attri- 
bute of  a  freel^'-pardoning  mercy,  for  which 
lie  dared  not  hope.  Who  is  a  God  like  lo 
Thee,  mighty,  not  only  to  destroy  but  to  par- 
don ?  is  the  wondering  thanksgiving  of  time, 
the  yet  greater  amazement  of  eternity,  as 
eternity  siiall  unveil  the  deep  blackness  of 
sin  over-against  the  light  of  God,  and  we, 
seeing  God,  as  He  Is,  shall  see  what  that 
Holiness  is,  against  which  we  sinners  sinned, 
The  soul,  wiiich  is  truly  penitent,  never 
wearies  of  the  wondering  love.  Who  is  a  God 
like  unto  Thee  f 

19.  He  will  turn  again.  Who  seemed  to  be 
turned  away  from  us  when  we  were  turned 
away  from  Him  '^.  He  ivill  subdue,  or  trample 
binder  foot,  our  woret  enemy,  our  iniquities,  as  He 
saith,  ^*He  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet 
shortly.  Hitherto,  sinful  passions  had  not  re- 
belled only,  Ijut  had  had  the  mastery  over  us. 
Sin  subdued  man  ;  it  was  liis  lord,  a  fierce  tyr- 
ant over  him;  /le could  not  subdue  iV.  Holy 
Scripture  says  emphatically  of  man  under 
the  law,  that  he  was  .so/rf  under  sin  '*,  a  slave 
under  a  hard  master,  oppressed,  weighed 
down,  and  unable  to  throw  ofl'  the  bondage. 
'*  We  have  before  proved  both  Jews  and  Gen- 

"I't?'31  I'l^^Kli'j,  Ex.  xxxiv.  7;  Micah,  dividing 

the  clauses,  inserted  '7^^  "yyj  before  J.'tJ'fl.  Casp. 

12  .See  Introd.  to  Micah,  ah.  p.  6.        "  See  Jo.  li.  14. 
"  Rom.  xvl.  20.  "  lb.  vii.  14.       '«  Ih.  iii.  ». 


CHAPTER  VII. 


103 


will  cast  all  their  sins  into 


before 
CHRIST 

cir-  no.      the  deiDths  of  the  sea. 


tiles,  (hat  they  are  all  under  si7i ;  '  (he  Scripture 
hath  concluded  all  under  sin.  Under  the  Gos- 
pel, God,  he  says,  would  subdue  sin  "  under 
ns,"  and  make  it,  as  it  were,  our  "ioot- 
stooP."  It  is  a  Gospel  before  the  Gospel. 
God  would  pardon;  and  He,  not  uv,  would 
subdue  sin  to  us.  He  would  bestow,  "•''of 
sin  the  double  cure,  Save  us  fi-om  its  guilt 
and  power."  *  Not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God, 
which  was  with  me. 

And  Thou  ivilt  cast, — not,  some  ("^for  it  is 
imjjious  to  look  for  a  half-pardon  from  God") 
iiut — all  their  sins  into  the  depths^  of  the  sea, 
so  that  as  in  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea 
there  was  not  one  Egyptian  left  of  those  who 
pursued  His  people,  so  neither  sliall  there  be 
one  sin,  whidi,  through  Baptism  and  on  Re- 
pentance, shall  not  through  His  free  mercy 
be  pardoned.  An  they,  which  '  sank  as  lead 
in  the  mighty  waters,  never  again  rose,  so  shall 
the  sins,  unless  revived  by  us,  not  rise  against 
us  to  condemnation,  but  shall  in  the  Day  of 
Judgment  be  sunk  in  the  abyss  of  hell,  as  if 
they  had  never  been. 

20.  Thou  wilt  perfoi-m  the  truth  to  Jacob  and 
the  mercy  to  Abraham,  What  was  free  mercy 
to  Abraham,  became,  when  God  had  once 
promised  it.  His  truth.  Abraham  also  stands 
for  all  those,  who  in  him  and  his  Seed  should 
be  blessed,  those  who  were  ^  cdiens  from  the 
commonwealth  of  Israel,  and  strangers  from  the 
covenants  of  jjromise,  having  no  hope,  and  ivith- 
out  God  in  the  world,  in  no  covenant  or  rela- 
tion with  God,  as  well  as  those  who  were  the 
children  of  the  faitli ;  heathen,  as  well  as 
Jews.  Jacob  represents  those  who  were  im- 
mediately his  children,  such  of  the  children 
of  Israel,  as  were  also  the  true  Israel  and 
children  of  faithful  Abraham.  In  both  ways 
the  gift  to  Abraham  was  mercy,  to  Jacob, 
truth.  So  also  St.  Paul  saith  ^,  "  Jesus  Christ 
was  a  Minister  of  the  circumcision  for  the 
truth  of  God,  to  confirm  the  promises  made 
to  the  fathers,  and  that  the  Gentiles  might 
glorify  God  for  His  mercy."  Yet  mercy  and, 
truth '",  together,  are  all  the  paths  of  the  Lord  ; 
they  ^^  met  together  in  Christ ;  yea  Christ 
Himself  is  full  of  Mercy  as  well  as  '^  Truth  : 
and  woe  were  it  to  that  soul  to  whom  He 
were  Truth  without  mercy.  "  ^^  For  to  be 
saved,  we  look  not  so  much  to  the  truth  of 

1  Gal.  iii.  22. 

-'SJ22,  "footstool,"  2  Chr.  ix.  18.  (as  in  Syr.  Ch.) 
from  the  same  root. 
3  Hymn,  "  Rock  of  ages." 
*  1  Cor.  XV.  10. 
6  S.  Amb.  ap.  Alb. 

*Pwi]fD  doubtless  is  meant  to  refer  back  to 
pi /"IVO,  Ex.  XV.  5,  and  so,  to  suggest  the  image  of 


20  'Thou  wilt   perform 
the  truth  to  Jacob,  and  the 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

1  Luke  1.  72,  73. 


the  Judge  as  to  the  mercy  of  the  Redeemer." 
And  mercy,  in  the  counsel  of  (iod,  reacheth 
wider  than  truth  ;  for  truth  is  given  to  Jacob, 
the  father  of  one  nation,  Israel ;  but  mercy 
to  Abraham,  '*  the  father  of  many  nations. 
Isaac,  it  may  be,  is  not  here  mentioned,  be- 
cause all  to  whom  the  blessing  should  come 
are  already  spoken  of  in  Jaaib  and  Abra- 
ham ;  in  Jacob,  all  to  whom  tlie  promise 
was  first  made ;  in  Abraliam,  all  nations 
of  the  world  who  should  be  blessed  in  his 
Seed,  through  the  mercy  of  God  overflowing 
the  bounds  of  that  covenant.  Isaac  is,  in 
liis  sacrifice,  chiefly  a  type  of  our  Lord 
Himself. 

Which  Thou  hast  sworn  unto  our  fathers. 
^^  That  by  tvjo  immutable  things,  in  which  it  was 
impossible  for  God  to  lie,  we  might  have  a  strong 
consolation. 

From  the  days  of  old.  '®  From  etei'uity,  in 
the  counsel  of  God ;  in  promise,  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  as  is  said  in  the 
hymn  of  Zacharias  ",  As  He  spake  by  the  mouth 
of  His  holy  Prophets,  which  have  been  since  the 
world  began.  '*'The  inspired  hymns  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  Mary  and  of  Zachariah  take 
up  the  words  of  the  propliet,  and  shew  that 
they  are  already  fulfilled  in  Christ,  although 
they  shall  be  more  and  more  fulfilled  unto  the 
world's  end,  as  Jew  and  Gentile  are  brought 
into  His  fold ;  '"  He  remembering  His  mercy,  as 
He  spake  to  our  fathers,  to  Abraham  and  to  his 
seed  for  ever.  '^^  To  perform  the  mercy  promised 
to  our  fathers,  and  to  remember  His  holy  cove- 
nant, the  oath  which  He  sware  to  our  father 
Abraham  that  He  would  grant  unto  us. 

"  I  too,"  St.  Jerome  subjoins,  "sealing  the 
labor  of  my  little  work  by  calling  upon  the 
Lord,  will  say  at  the  close  of  this  tract,  0 
God,  rvho  is  like  unto  Thee  ?  Take  away  the 
iniquity  of  Thy  servant,  pass  by  the  sin  of 
my  decayed  soul,  and  send  not  Thine  anger 
upon  me,  nor  rebuke  me  in  Tliy  indignation  ; 
for  Thou  art  full  of  pit}'  and  great  are  Tliy 
mercies.  Return  and  have  mercy  upon  me  ; 
drown  mine  iniquities,  and  cast  them  into  the 
depth  of  the  sea,  that  the  bitterness  of  sin 
may  perish  in  the  bitter  waters.  Grant  the 
truth  which  Thou  didst  promise  to  Thy  ser- 
vant Jacob,  and  the  mercy  which  Thou  didst 
pledge  to  Abraham  Tliy  friend,  and  free  my 

the  destruction  at  the  Red  Sea,  and  its  complete- 
ness. 

'  Ex.  XV.  10. 


»  Rom.  XV.  8,  9. 
11  Ps.  Ixxxv.  10. 
13  Rup. 
15  Heb.  vi.  18. 
"  S.  Luke  i.  70. 
i»S.  Luke  1.54,  55. 


8Eph.  11.12. 

10  Ps.  XXV.  10. 

12  S.  John  i.  14. 

i*Gen.  xvli.  5,  Rom.  iv.  17. 

16  Alb. 

18  Poc. 

» lb.  72-74. 


104 


MICAH. 


Beforo 

CHRIST 

cir.  710. 

>  Ps.  luo.  y,  10. 


mercy  to  Abraham, "  which 
thou  hast  sworn  unto  our 


soul,  as  Thou  didst  sware  to  my  fathers  in 
tlie  days  of  old;  ^  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord 
Go'l,  i  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way  and 
1  Ezek.  xxxiil.  11. 


fathers   from  the  days  of    chrTst 


old. 


cir.  710. 


live.  Then  shall  mine  enemy  see  ^  and  be 
crowned  with  confusion,  who  now  saith  unto 
me,  where  is  now  thy  Oodf  "  Amen,  Amen,  O 
Good  Lord  Jesu. 


IIS"TEODUCTION 


TO 


THE    PROPHET 
NAHUM. 


The  prophecy  of  Nahum  is  both  the  com- 
plement and  the  counterpart  of  the  book  of 
Jonah.  When  Moses  had  asked  God  to 
shew  him  His  glory,  and  God  had  promised 
to  let  him  see  the  outskirts  of  that  glory,  and 
to  proclaim  the  Name  of  the  Lord  before 
him,  the  Lord,  we  are  told,  passed  by  before 
him  and  proclaimed,  *  The  Lord,  the  Lord  Ood, 
merciful  and  gracious,  longsuffering  and  abun- 
dant in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for 
thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression 
and  sin,  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty.  God  proclaimed  at  once  His  mercy 
and  His  justice.  Those  wondrous  words  echo 
along  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Moses  himself'',  David  °,  other  Psalmists  **, 
Jeremiah  ®,  Daniel  \  Nehemiah  s,  plead  them 
to  God  or  rehearse  some  part  of  them  in 
thanksgiving.  Joel  repeated  them  as  a 
motive  to  repentance  ^.  Upon  the  repent- 
ance of  Nineveh,  Jonah  had  recited  to  God  the 
bright  side  of  that  His  declaration  of  Him- 
self, '  /  knew  that  Thou  art  a  gracious  God  and 
merciful,  slow  to  anger  and  of  great  goodness, 
repeating  to  God  His  words  to  Moses,  and 
adding,  and  repenting  of  the  evil.  Nineveh,  as 
appears  from  Nahum,  had  fallen  back  into 
the  violence  of  which  it  had  repented. 
Nahum  then,  in  reference  to  that  declaration 
of  Jonah,  begins  by  setting  forth  the  awful  side 
of  the  attributes  of  God.  First,  in  a  stately 
rhythm,  which,  in  the  original,  reminds  us  of 
the  gradual  Psalms,  he  enunciates  the  solemn 
threefold  declaration  of  the  severity  of  God 
to  those  who  will  be  His  enemies. 

»Ex.  xxxiv.  6,  7.  •'Num.  xiv.  17, 18. 

•Ps.  Ixxxvi.  15,  ciii.  8,  cxlv.  8. 
*  Ps.  cxi.  4,  cxii.  4,  cxvi.  5.  •  xxxii.  18, 19. 

'  ix.  4.     ( ix.  17.     h  ii.  13.      » Jon.  iv.  2.      ^  i.  2. 


^  A  jealous  God  and  Avenger  is  the  Lord  : 
An  Avenger  is  the  Lord,  and  lord  of  wrath; 
An  Avenger  is  the  Lord  to  JTis  adversanes  : 
And  a  Reserver  of  wrath  to  His  enemies. 
Then,    he   too    recites   that   character  of 
mercy  recorded  by  Moses,  •  The  Lord  is  sloiv  to 
anger,  and  great  in  poiver.   But  anger,  although 
slow,  comes,  he  adds,  not  the  less  certainly 
on  the  guilty ;    '  and  will  not  at  all  clear  the 
guilty.     The  iniquity  is  full.     As  a  whole, 
there    is    no    place    more    for    repentance. 
Nineveh  had  hud  its  prophet,  and  liad  been 
spared,  and  had  sunk  back  into  its  old  sins. 
The  office  of  Nahum  is  to  pronounce  its  sen- 
tence.    That   sentence  is  fixed.    ■"  There  is 
no  healing  of  thy  bruise.     Nothing  is  said  of 
its  ulterior  conversion  or  restoration.     On 
the   contrary,   Nahum  says,   '^  He  will  make 
the  place  thereof  an  \dter  desolation. 

The  sins  of  Nineveh  spoken  of  by  Nahum 
are  the  same  as  those  from  which  they  had 
turned  at  the  preaching  of  Jonah.  In  Jonah, 
it  is,  "  the  violence  of  their  hands.  Nahum 
describes  Nineveh  as  p  a  dwelling  of  lions,  fXled 
ivith  prey  and  with  ravin,  the  feeding-place  of 
young  lions,  ivhere  the  lion  tore  enough  for  his 
whelps  ;  "J  a  city  of  bloods,  full  of  lies  and  robbery, 
from  which  the  prey  departeth  not. 

But,  amid  this  mass  of  evil,  one  was  emi- 
nent, in  direct  antagonism  to  God.  The 
character  is  very  peculiar.  It  is  not  simply 
of  rebellion  against  God,  or  neglect  of  Him. 
It  is  a  direct  disputing  of  His  Sovereignty. 
The  prophet  twice  repeats  the  characteristic 
expression,  What  will  ye  devise  so  vehemently  ■" 

lib.  3.  miii.  19.  »i.  8.       oiii.  8. 

pNah.  ii.  11, 12.  q  lb.  iii.  1. 

'lb.  i.  9,  nilli'nn  n?3.  The  verb  is  doubly  inten- 
sive, both  as  Piel,  and  as  having  the  intens.  J. 

105 


106 


INTRODL'CTION   TO 


againsi  the  Ijord  ?  "  dei'Uiiny  evil  against  the 
Lord  ;  and  adds,  couvseJlor  of  evil.  This  was 
exactly  the  character  of  Sennacherib,  whose 
wars,  like  those  of  liis  forefathers,  fas  appears 
from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions*,)  were  re- 
ligious wai*s,  and  wlioblasphemously  compared 
(jod  to  the  local  deities  of  the  c<nuitries,  which 
his  forefathers  or  himself  had  destroyed". 
( )f  this  enemy  Naiiuni  sjjeaks,  as  having  "  gone 
forth  ;"  out  of  thee  (Nineveh)  hath  gone  forth  " 
one,  devising  evil  against  the  Lord,  a  counsellor 
of  Belial.  This  was  past.  Their  purpose 
was  inchoate,  yet  incomplete.  God  challenges 
them,  '  What  will  ye  devise  so  vehemently  against 
the  Lord  f  The  destruction  too  is  proximate. 
Tlie  prophet  answers  for  God,  "  ^  He  Himself, 
by  Himself,  /.s  already  making  an  utter  end." 
To  Jerusalem  he  turns,  "  ^  And  now  I  will 
break  his  yoke  from  off  thee,  and  will  break 
his  l)onds  asunder."  Twice  the  prophet 
mentions  the  device  against  God  ;  each  time 
he  answers  it  by  the  prediction  of  tlie  sudden 
utter  destruction  of  the  enemy,  while  in  the 
most  perfect  security.  *  While  they  are  inter- 
twined as  thorns,  and  swallowed  up  as  their  drink, 
they  are  devoured  as  stid>ble  fully  dry  ;  and,  ''  If 
they  be  perfect,  unimpaired  in  their  strength, 
and  thus  mnny,  even  thus  shall  they  be  mown 
down.  Their  destruction  was  to  be,  as  their 
numbers,  complete.  With  no  previous  loss, 
secure  and  at  ease,  a  mighty  host,  in  conse- 
(luence  of  their  prosperity,  all  were,  at  one 
blow,  mown  dt)wn  ;  "  and  he  (their  king,  who 
comisdled  against  the  Lord)  shall  pass  away  and 
jierish.  "  The  abundance  of  the  wool  in  the 
fleece  is  no  hindrance  to  the  shears,"  nor  of 
the  grass  to  the  scythe,  nor  of  the  Assyrian 
host  to  the  will  of  the  Lord.  After  he,  the 
chief,  had  ih.n^  passed  away,  Nahum  foretells 
that  remarkable  death,  in  connection  witli 
the  house  of  his  gods ;  "  Out  of  the  house  of  thy 
gods  I  will  cut  off  the  graven  image  and  the  mol- 
ten image:  I  will  make  thy  grave.  There  is  no 
natural  construction  of  these  words,  except,  1 
ivill  make  it  thy  grave'^.  Judah  too  was,  by 
the  presence  of  the  Assyrian,  hindered  from 
going  up  to  worship  at  Jerusalem.  The 
Ijrophet  bids  proclaim  peace  to  Jerusalem ; 
keep  thy  feasts — for  the  wicked  shall  no  more  pass 
through  thee.  It  was  then  by  the  presence  of 
the  wicked,  that  they  were  now  hindered 
from  keeping  their  feasts,  wliich  could  be 
kept  only  at  Jerusalem. 

The  prophecy  of  Nahum  coincides  then 
with  that  of  Isaiali,  when  Hezekiah  prayed 

"  i.  11.    'See  on  "  Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  444,  5. 
« Is.  xxxvl,  18-20,  xx.xvii.  10-13.  »  i.  11.  KV\ 

y  i.  9. 7}f);  Kin  rh3.  '  i.  i3.  nni'i. 

•i.  10.     ■  'bi.  12.  oi.  14. 

d-SoChald.  Syr.  S.  Jer.  and  modern.'*,  as  soon  as 
they  have  no  bias,  e.  g.  Ros.  Ew.  It  is  not  asah,  hut 
swi ;  i.e.  not  n-oieii',  but  6elvai ;  not,  in  our  sense, 
I  will  "  make  a  grave,"  but  "I  will  net"  or  "make" 
something  eNe,  viz.  the  house  of  his  gods  of  which 
Nfthum  had  just  spoken,  "to  be  his  grave." 


against  Sennacherib.  In  the  history ''j  and 
in  tlie  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  the  reproach  and 
Ijlaspiiomy  and  rage  against  God  are  promi- 
nent, as  an  evil  design  against  God  is  in 
Nahum.  In  Isaiah  we  have  the  messengers 
sent  to  blasi)heme';  in  Xahum,  the  promise, 
that  the  voice  of  thy  messengers  shall  no  more  be 
heard.  Lsaiah  prt)phesies  the  fruitlessness  of 
his  attempt  against  Jerusalem  =  ;  his  dis- 
graced return ;  his  violent  death  in  his  own 
land  '' ;  Nahum  prophesies  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  his  army,  his  own  passing  away,  his 
grave.  Isaiah,  in  Jerusalem,  foretells  how 
tiie  spontaneous  fruits  of  the  earth  shall  be 
restored  to  tliem',  and  so,  that  they  shall 
have  possession  of  the  open  corn-country ; 
Nahum,  living  prol)ably  in  the  country,  fore- 
tells the  free  access  to  Jerusalem,  and  bids 
them  to  ''  keep  theirf easts,  and  perform  the  vows, 
which,  in  their  trouble,  the}'  had  promised  to 
God.  He  does  not  only  foretell  that  they  may, 
but  he  enjoins  them  to  do  it.  The  words, 
'  the  emptiers  have  emptied  them  out  and  nmrred 
their  vi;)ie  branches,  may  relate  to  the  first  ex- 
pedition of  Sennacherib,  when,  Holy  Scrip- 
ture says,  he  "'  came  up  against  all  the  fenced 
cities  of  Judah  a)ul  took  them,  and  Hezekiah 
gave  him  thirty  talents  of  gold,  and  300  talents 
of  silver.  Sennacherib  himself  says  ",  "  Heze- 
kiah, king  of  Judah,  who  had  not  submitted 
to  my  autiiority,  forty-six  of  his  principal 
cities,  and  fortresses  and  villages  depending 
upon  them  of  which  I  took  no  account,  I  cap- 
tured, and  carried  away  their  spoil.  And 
from  these  places  I  cai)tured  and  carried  oft' 
as  spoil  200,150  people,"  &c.  This  must 
relate  to  the  first  expedition,  on  account  of 
the  exact  correspondence  of  the  tribute  in 
gold,  with  a  variation  in  the  number  of 
the  talents  of  silver,  easily  accounted  for ". 
In  tlie  first  invasion  Sennacherib  relates  that 
he  besieged  Jerusalem.  "  ''  Hezekiah  him- 
self I  slmt  up  in  Jerusalem  his  capital  city, 
like  a  Ijird  in  a  cage,  building  towers  roinid 
the  city  to  fence  him  in,  and  raising  banks 
of  earth  against  the  gates,  so  as  to  prevent 
es(aj)e."  It  is  perhaps  in  reference  to  this, 
tbat,  in  tiie  second  invasion,  God  promises 
by  Isaiah;  ''He  shall  not  come  into  this  city, 
and  shall  not  shoot  an  arrow  there ;  and  sliall 
not  present  shield  before  it,  iind  shall  not  cast  up 
bank  against  it.  Still,  in  this  second  invasion 
also,  lloly  Scripttu'e  relates,  that  '^  the  king  of 
Assyria  sent  Rahshakeh  from  Lachish  to  Jerusa- 
lem unto  king  Hezekiah  with  a  great  army.   Per- 

•  2  Kings  xix.  4,  22-28.  '  Is.  xxxvii.  4,  23-29. 
Kib.  33,  34.  iilb.  7. 
'2  Kings  xix.  29,  Is.  xxxvii.  30. 

*  Nah.  1.  15,  ii.  1.  [2  Heb.]  •  lb.  ii.  2.  [3.  Heb.] 
™2  Kings  xviii.  13,  14,  Is.  xxxvi.  1. 

"Dr.  Ilincks  in  Layard  Nin.  and  Bab.  pp.  143,  4. 
Sir  II.  Hawlinson,  quoted  ib.  and  Rawl.  Bampt.  L. 
p.  141. 

«  See  Lavard  ib.  pp.  144,  6.  Rawl.  B.  L.  p.  143. 

PSir  II.  Rawl.  transl.  in  B.  L.  ib.        i  xxxvii.  3S. 

'  lb.  xxxvi.  2.  2  Kings  xviil.  17. 


NAHUM. 


101 


haps  it  is  in  regard  to  tliis  second  expedition, 
that  God  says,  "  Though  I  have  affiicted  thee,  I 
unll  nfflicf  thee  no  more  ;  i.  e.  this  second  inva- 
sion should  not  desolate  her,  like  that  first. 
Not  that  God  absolutely  would  not  again 
afflict  her,  but  not  now.  The  yoke  of  the 
Assyrian  was  then  broken,  until  the  fresh 
sins  of  Manasseh  drew  down  their  own 
punishment. 

Nahum  then  was  a  prophet  for  Judah,  or 
for  that  remnant  of  Isi'ael,  which,  after  the 
ten  tribes  were  carried  captive,  became  one 
with  Judah,  not  in  temporal  sovereignty,  but 
in  the  one  worship  of  God.  His  mention  of 
Basan,  Carmel  and  Lebanon  alone,  as  places 
lying  under  the  rebuke  of  God,  perhaps 
implies  a  special  interest  in  Northern  Pales- 
tine. Judah  may  have  already  become  the 
name  for  the  whole  people  of  God  who  were 
left  in  their  own  land,  since  those  of  the  ten 
tribes  who  remained  had  now  no  separate 
religious  or  political  existence.  The  idol- 
centre  of  theiT  worship  was  gone  into  captivity. 

With  this  agrees  the  old  tradition  as  to  the 
name  of  the  birth-place  of  Nahum,  the  Elkosh- 
ite.  "Some  think,"  says  St.  Jerome',  "that 
Elces£eus  was  the  father  of  Nahum,  and, 
according  to  the  Hebrew  tradition,  was  also 
a  prophet ;  whereas  Elcesi "  is  even  to  this 
day  a  little  village  in  Galilee,  small  indeed, 
and  scarcely  indicating  by  its  ruins  the  traces 
of  ancient  buildings,  yet  known  to  the  Jews, 
and  pointed  out  to  me  too  by  my  guide." 
The  name  is  a  genuine  Hebi'ew  name,  the 
El,  with  which  it  begins,  being  the  name  of 
God,  which  appears  in  the  names  of  other 
towns  also,  as,  El'ale,  Eltolad,  Elteke,  Elto- 
lem.  The  author  of  the  shortlived  Gnostic 
heresy  of  the  Elcesaites,  called  Elkesai,  elka- 
sai,  elxai,  elxaios,  Elkasaios ",  probably  had 
his  name  from  that  same  village.  Eusebius 
mentions  Elkese,  as  the  place  "  whence  was 
Nahum  the  ElkesEean."  S.  Cyril  of  Alexan- 
dria says,  that  Elkese  was  a  village  some- 
where in  Judsea. 

On  the  other  hand  Alcush,  a  town  in  Mosul, 
is  probably  a  name  of  Arabic  origin,  and  is 
not  connected  with  Nahum  by  any  extant  or 
known  writer,  earlier  than  Masius  toward 
the  end  of  the  16th  century  ",  and  an  Arabic 
scribe  in  1713^.  Neither  of  these  mention 
the  tomb.  "  The  tomb,"  says  Layard^,  "is 
a  simple  plaster  box,  covered  with  green 
cloth,  and  standing  at  the  upper  end  of  a 


•  Nah.  i.  12.  '  Prsef.  to  Nah. 
"'EAiceo-ai,   'EKKa<Tai,    (Theod.   Hisr.    Fab.   i.  27.) 

'UKxacraL,  (Hippol.  Philosoph.  ix.  4.  (fee.)  'HA^al', 
'HAlaios,  'EKKe<T<jaloi,  S.  Epiph.  Hser,  Xix.  5,  XXX.  3, 
liii.  1.  "EAKacraro!  or  'EAiceo-aios,  Method.  Conviv.  in 
Combef.  Nov.  Coll.  p.  234.  A. 

»  Assem.  Bibl.  Or.  i.  525.  r  lb.  iii.  1.  352. 

^  Nin.  i.  233.  »  Travels  i.  310.  ed.  Asher. 

*  Niebuhr  Voyage  en  .\i-abie  ii.  289,  90. 
<=  2  Kings  xvii.  6. 

d  ini  >=  in  of  the  "  circling  "  of  the  forefeet  of 
the  horse  in  his  speed,  Nah.  iii.  2,  Jud.  v.  22. 


large  cliamber.  The  house  containing  tlic 
tomb  is  a  modern  building.  There  are  no 
inscription.s,  nor  fragments  of  any  antiquitv 
near  the  place."  The  place  is  "now  rever- 
enced by  the  Jews,  but  in  the  r2th  century 
Benjamin  of  Tudela  °^  supposed  his  tomb  to 
be  at  Ain  Japhata,  South  of  Babylon.  Were 
anything  needed  to  invalidate  statements 
above  2U0U  yeai-s  after  the  time  of  Nahum, 
it  might  suffice  that  the  Jews,  who  are  the 
authors  of  this  story,  maintain  that  not  Jonah 
only  but  Obadiah  and  Jephthah  the  Gilead- 
ite  are  also  buried  at  Mosul  ^.  Nor  were  the 
ten  tribes  placed  there,  but  "  °  in  the  cities  of 
the  Medes."  The  name  Capernaum,  "  the 
village  of  Nahum,"  is  probably  an  indication 
of  his  residence  in  Galilee.  There  is  nothing 
in  his  language  peculiar  to  the  Northern 
tribes.  One  very  poetic  word  "*,  common  to 
him  with  the  song  of  Deborah,  is  not  there- 
fore a  "  provincialism,"  because  it  only  hap- 
pens to  occur  in  the  rich,  varied,  language  of 
two  prophets  of  North  Palestine.  Nor  does 
the  occurrence  of  a  foreign  title*  interfere 
with  "  purity  of  diction."  It  rather  belongs 
to  the  vividness  of  his  description. 

The  conquest  of  No-Ammon  or  Thebes 
and  the  captivity  of  its  inhabitants,  of  which 
Nahum  speaks,  must  have  been  by  Assyria 
itself.  Certainly  it  was  not  from  domestic 
disturbances  ' ;  for  Nahum  says,  that  tiie  peo- 
ple were  carried  away  captive  ^.  Nor  was  it 
from  the  Ethiopians'^;  for  Nahum  si)eaks  of 
them,  as  her  allies*.  Nor  from  the  Cartha- 
ginians J ;  for  the  account  of  Ammianus'', 
that  "  when  first  Carthage  was  beginning  to 
expand  itself  far  and  wide,  the  Punic  generals, 
by  an  unexpected  inroad,  subdued  the  hun- 
dred-gated Thebes,"  is  merely  a  mistaken 
gloss  on  a  statement  of  Diodorus,  that 
" '  Ilanno  took  Hekatompylos  by  siege  ;  "  a 
city,  according  to  Diodorus  himself™,  "in  the 
desert  of  Libya."  Nor  was  it  from  the  Scyth- 
ians"; for  Herodotus,  who  alone  speaks  of 
their  maraudings  and  who  manifestly  exag- 
gerates them,  expressly  says,  that  Psammet- 
ichus  induced  the  Scythians  by  presents  not 
to  enter  Egypt  ° ;  and  a  wandering  predatory 
horde  does  not  besiege  or  take  strongly-forti- 
fied towns.  There  remain  then  only  the 
Assyrians.  Four  successive  Assyi-ian  Mon- 
archs,  Sargon,  his  son,  grandson  and  great 
grandson,  Sennacherib,  Esarhaddon,  Asshur- 
bani-pal,  from  B.C.  718  to  about  B.C.  657, 


•  TOi)£0>  doubtless  a  Ninevite  title,  probably  signi- 
fying "noble  prince,"  from  TDDtO,  as  Prof.  Lee 
conjectured.  Lee  denies  that  it  bears  in  Persian 
the  meaning  ascribed  to  it  by  Bohlen.  Richardson 
renders  tdbs&r,  "  an  elevated  window ;"  Vfillers 
notes,  "in  others  it  occurs  not."  Gesenius  was 
satisfied  with  no  explanation  of  those  before  him. 

f  Ewald's  theory.       f  iii.  10.       i"  Vitringa,  Grot. 

liii.  9.  iHeeren.  « xvii.  4. 

'  Excerpt,  ex.  L.  xxiv.  T.  ii.  p.  565. 

»v.  18.  T.  i.  p.  263. 

">  Gesenius  Lit.  Zeif .  1841,  n.  1.  •  L  106. 


108 


INTKODUfTION  TO 


conquered  in  Egypt  i'.  The  hostility  was 
first  provoked  by  the  encouragement  given 
by  Sabacho  the  Ethiopian  (Sab'ei,  in  the 
ciineilbrm  inscriptions,  fj  b  k,  in  Egyptian), 
the  So  of  Holy  Scripture',  to  lloshea  to  rebel 
against  Shalmaiieser*.  Sargon,  wiio,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  statement,  was  the  king  who 
actually  took  Samaria',  led  three  expeditions 
of  his  own  against  Egypt.  In  the  hi-st,  Sar- 
gon defeated  the  Egyptian  king  in  the  battle 
of  Raphia";  in  the  second,  in  his  seventh 
year,  he  boasts  that  Pharaoii  became  his 
tributary  "  ;  in  a  third,  which  is  placed  three 
years  later,  Ethiopia  submitted  to  him  y.  A 
sealofSabaco  has  been  found  at  Koyunjik, 
whicli,  as  has  been  conjectured  *,  was  prob- 
ably annexed  to  a  treaty.  The  capture  of  Ash- 
dod  by  the  Tartan  of  Sargon,  recorded  by 
Isaiah  *,  was  probably  in  the  second  expedi- 
tion, when  Sargon  deposed  its  king  Azuri, 
substituting  his  brother  Akhimit'':  the 
rebellion  of  Ashdod  probably  occasioned  the 
third  expedition,  in  which  as  it  seems,  Isaiah's 
prophecy  was  fulfilled,  that  Egyptians  and 
Ethiopians,  young  and  old,  should  be  carried 
captive  by  the  king  of  Assyria.  The  king 
of  Ashdod,  Yaman,  is  related  to  have  fled  to 
Egypt,  which  was  subject  to  Merukha  or 
Meroe ;  and  to  have  been  delivered  up  by 
the  king  of  Meroe  Avho  himself  fled  to  some 
unnamed  desert  afar,  a  march  of  (it  is  con- 
jectured) montlis".  Tlie  king  of  Meroe, 
first,  from  times  the  most  distant,  became 
tributary.  '"'His  forefathers  had  not"  in  all 
that  period  "sent  to  the  kings  my  ances- 
toi-s  to  ask  for  peace  and  to  acknow- 
ledge the  power  of  Merodach."  The  fact, 
that  his  magnificent  palace,  "one  of  the 
few  remains  of  external  decoration,"  Layard 
says®,  "  with  which  we  are  acciuainted  in  As- 
syrian architectuie,"  "seems"  according  to 
Mr.  Fergusson  ',  "  at  first  sight  almost  purely 
Egyptian,"  implies  some  lengthened  resi- 
dence in  Egypt  or  some  capture  of  Egyptian 
artists. 

Of  Sennacherib,  the  son  of  Sargon,  Jose- 
phus  writes,  "  «  Eerosus,  the  historian  of  the 
(Jhaldee  affiiirs,  mentions  the  king  Sennach- 
erib, and  that  he  reigned  over  the  Assyrians, 
and  that  he  warred  against  all  Asia  and 
Egypt,  saying  as  follows."  The  passage  of 
Berosus  itself  is  wanting,  whether  .Josephus 
neglected  to  fill  it  in,  or  whether  it  has  been 
subsequently  lost ;  but  neither  Chaldee  nor 

p.Sse  Rawlinson  Five  Empires  ii.  409-48C. 

<i  Oppert,  les  rapports  de  V  Eg.  et  de  1'  Asa.  p.  12. 

'KlO.  Ill  the  LXX,  in  ditferent  MSS.  %ui,  Xofid, 
iu^d,  2ouj3a ;  in  the  Complut.  2oua  Vulg.  Sua.  Sir 
G.  VVilltinson  in  Ilawl.  Herod.      '2  Kings  y.vii.  4. 

'Layard,  Nin.  and  Bab.  p.  G18,  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  472, 
Five  Empires  ii.  4iiB. 

»  Rawl.  Five  Em  p.  ii.  414.    »  Rawl.  lb.  pp.  415,  6. 

yUawl.  lb.  pp.  4ir,,  7. 

»  Rawl.  Horod.  i.  47:i,  note  1.  •  xx.  1. 

b  Inscription  in  Oppert,  les  rapports  de  1'  Eg.  ic. 
p.  18. 

« lb.  p.  19.  *  lb,  •  Nin.  and  Bab.  p.  130. 


Egyptian  writers  record  expeditious  which 
were  reverses ;  and  although  Berosus  was  a 
Babylonian,  not  an  Assyrian,  yet  the  doc- 
ument, which  he  used,  must  have  been  As- 
syrian. In  the  second  expedition  of  Sen- 
nacherib, Rabshakeh,  in  his  message  to 
Hezekiah,  says,  "^  Behold  thou  trustest  upon  the 
staff  of  this  bruised  reed,  upon  Er/ypt.  The 
expression  is  remarkable.  He  does  not  speak 
of  Egypt,  as  a  power,  weak,  frail,  failing,  but, 
passively,  as  crushed '  by  another.  It  is  the 
same  word  and  image  which  he  uses  in  his 
prophecy  of  our  Lord,  a  bruised  reed  {kaneh 
ratsuts)  shidl  He  not  break,  i.  e.  He  shall  not 
break  that  which  is  already  bruised.  The 
word  implies,  then,  that  the  king  of  Egj'pt 
had  already  received  some  decided  blow 
before  the  second  expedition  of  Sennacherib. 
Tlie  annals  of  Sennacherib's  reign,  still  pre- 
served in  his  inscriptions,  break  off  in  the 
eighth  of  his  twenty-two  years '',  and  do  not 
extend  to  the  time  of  this  second  expedition 
against  Hezekiah '.  Nor  does  Holy  Scrip- 
ture say,  in  what  year  this  2d  expedition 
took  place.  In  this  he  defeated  " ""  the  kings 
of  Egypt  and  the  king  of  Meroe  at  Altakou 
[Elteke]  and  Tainna  [Timnatha]." 

Sennacherib's  son  Esarhaddon  appears  for 
the  time  to  have  subdued  Egypt  and  Ethi- 
opia, and  to  have  held  them  as  kingdoms 
dependent  on  himself  "  He  acquired  Egypt 
and  the  inner  parts  of  Asia,"  is  the  brief 
statement  of  Abydenus":  (i.e.  of  Berosus.) 
"  He  established  "  (his  son  relates)  "  twenty 
kings,  satraps,  governors  in  Egypt  °,"  among 
which  can  be  recognized  Necho,  (the  father 
of  Psammetichus)  king  of  MempliisandSais  ; 
a  king  of  Tanis,  or  Zoan  (now  San)  ;  Xatho 
(or,  according  to  another  copy.  Sept),  Hanes, 
Sebennytus,  Mendes,  Buba.stis,  Siyout  or 
Lycopolis,  Chemmis,  Tinis,  and  No.  These 
were  all  subordinate  kings  ;  for  so  he  entitles 
each  separately  in  the  list,  although  he  sums 
up  the  whole,  "p  These  are  the  names  of  the 
Kings,  Pechahs,  Satraps  who  in  Egypt  obeyed 
my  father  who  begat  me."  Tearcho  or  Tar- 
acho  himself,  "  king  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia''," 
was  in  like  way  sul)ject  to  Esarhaddon. 
The  account  of  the  revolt,  which  his  son  As- 
shur-bani-pal  quelled,  implies  also  a  fixed  set- 
tlement in  Egypt.  The  20  kings  were  in- 
volved in  tlie  rebellion  through  fear  of  Tar- 
acho,  but  there  is  notice  of  other  servants  of 
Esarhaddon  who  remained  faithful  and  were 

'Palaces  of  Nineveh  and  Persepolis  restored,  p. 
223,  quoted  by  Layard  lb.  Rawl.  Her.  i.  474. 
g.\nt.  X.  1.  4.  '•2  Kings  xviii.  21. 

'1*1^1,  "quassatum,"  Vulg.  Gesenius  says  well, 

"  It  differs  from  '\2\if  in  this,  that  Vi'T  signifies, 
'  broke,  crushed,'  without  severance  of  the  parts ; 
IDiy  signifies, '  broke  asunder.'  " 

•■  Rawl.  Her.  i.  478.  •  See  Rawl.  i.  479,  note  1. 

">  I  user,  in  Oppert  Rapports  pp.  2(1,  27. 

"  In  Eus.  Chron.  Arm.   P.  i.  e.  i). 

•  Inscr.  in  0pp.  lb.  pp.  61,  53.  f  lb.  p.  58. 

lib.  pp.  51,62,  03. 


NAHUM. 


100 


maltreated  by  Taracho'.  Asshur-bani-pal 
says  also,  that  he  strengthened  his  former 
garrisons  ^  One  expedition  of  Esarhaddon 
(probably  toward  the  close  of  his  reign,  since 
he  does  not  mention  it  in  his  own  annals 
which  extend  over  eight  years)  is  related  by 
his  son  Asshur-bani-pal.  '''lie  defeated 
Tirhakah  in  the  lower  country,  after  which, 
proceeding  Southward,  he  took  the  city, 
where  the  Ethiopian  held  his  court,"  and 
assumed  the  title,  ""king  of  the  kings  of 
Egypt  and  conqueror  of  Ethiopia."  On 
anotlier  inscription  in  a  palace  built  for  his 
son,  at  Tarbisi,  now  Sherif-khan,  he  entitles 
himself  " ""  king  of  tlie  kings  of  Egypt,  Pathros, 
Ethiopia."  \Ve  do  not,  however,  find  the 
addition,  which  appears  to  recur  upon  every 
conquest  of  a  people  not  before  conquered  by 
Assyria,  "which  the  kings,  my  fathers,  had  not 
subdued."  This  addition  is  so  regular,  that  the 
absence  of  it,  in  itself,  involves  a  strong 
probability  of  a  previous  conquest  of  the 
country. 

The  subdual  apparently  was  complete. 
They  revolted  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Esarhaddon  (as  his  son  Asshur-bani-pal  re- 
lates) from  fear  of  Taracho^  rather  than 
from  any  wish  of  their  own  to  regain  inde- 
pendence. Asshur-bani-pal  accordingly,  alter 
the  defeat  of  Taracho,  forgave  and  restored 
them  ^.  Even  the  second  treacherous  revolt 
was  out  of  fear,  lest  Taracho  shall  return  ", 
upon  the  withdrawal  of  the  Assyrian  armies. 
This  second  revolt  and  perhaps  a  subsequent 
revolt  of  Urdamanie ''  a  stepson  of  Taracho, 
who  succeeded  him,  Asshur-bani-iial  seems  to 
have  subdued  by  his  lieutenants  '',  witliout 
any  necessity  of  marching  in  person  against 
them.  Thebes  was  taken  and  retaken ;  but 
does  not  appear  to  have  ofiered  any  resistance. 
Taracho,  upon  his  defeat  at  Menqahis,  fled  to  it, 
and  again  abandoned  it  as  he  had  Memphis, 
and  the  array  of  Asshur-bani-pal  made  a 
massacre  in  it  "*.  Once  moi"e  it  was  taken, 
when  it  had  been  recovered  by  Urdamanie  ®, 
and  then,  if  the  inscriptions  are  rightly  de- 
ciphered, strange  as  it  is,  the  carrying  ofl'  of 
men  and  women  from  it  is  mentioned  in  the 
midst  of  that  of "  great  horses  and  apes." 
"  Silver,  gold,  metals,  stones,  treasures  of  his 
palace,  dyed  garments,  berom  and  linen,  great 
horses,  men,  male  and  female,  immense  apes 
— they  drew  from  the  midst  of  the  city,  and 
brought  as  spoils  to  Nineveh  the  city  of  my 
dominion,  and  kissed  my  feet." 

'  Inscr.  in  0pp.  p.  64.  « lb.  pp.  58,  68. 

'Rawl.  5  Emp.  ii.  474,  5. 

"lb.  475.  He  also  entitles  himself,  "king  of' 
Assyria,  Babylon,  Egypt,  Meroe  and  Ethiopia." 
Oppert  Sargoriides,  p.  ki.  Rawl.  lb.  484. 

»  Inscript.  Oppert  Rapp.  p.  41. 

r  lb.  p.  .58.  '  lb.  »  lb.  p.  59.  <>  p.  77 

"  lb. 70.  where  he  speaks  o{ sapite-ya  ('02^)  "my 

judges"  pp.  77,78.  In  another  inscription,  how- 
ever, Oppert  observes  that  Asshurbanipal  speaks,  as 
if  he  had  been  there  iu  person,  pp.  73-7G.    It  lias 


All  of  those  kings  having  been  conquerors 
of  Egypt,  the  captivity  of  Xo  might  equally 
have  taken  place  under  any  of  them.  All  of 
them  employed  the  policy,  which  Sargon  ap- 
parently began,  of  transporting  to  a  distance 
those  whom  they  had  conquered  ^  Yet  it  is, 
in  itself,  more  probable,  tliat  it  was  at  tlie 
earlier  than  at  the  later  date.  It  is  most  in 
harmony  with  the  relation  of  Nahum  to  Isaiah 
that,  in  regard  to  the  conquest  of  Thebes  also, 
Nahum  refers  to  the  victory  over  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia  foretold  by  Isaiah,  when  Sargon's 
general,  the  Tartan,  was  besieging  Ashdod. 
The  object  of  Isaiah's  prophecy  was  to  unde- 
ceive Judah  in  regard  to  its  reliance  on  Egypt 
and  Ethiopia  against  Assyria,  which  was  their 
continual  bane,morally,religiously,  nationally. 
But  the  prophecy  goes  beyond  any  mere  de- 
feat in  battle,  or  capture  of  prisoners.  It  re- 
lates to  conquest  within  Egypt  itself.  For 
Isaiah  says,  "  ^  the  king  of  Assyria  shall  lead 
into  captivity  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians, 
young  and  old. "  They  are  not  their  choice 
young  men*',  the  flower  of  their  army,  but 
those  of  advanced  age  and  those  in  their  first 
youth  ',  such  as  are  taken  captive,  only  when  a 
population  itself  is  taken  captive,  either  in  a 
marauding  expedition,  or  in  the  capture  of  a 
city.  The  account  of  the  captivity  of  No  ex- 
actly corresponds, with  this.  Nahum  says 
nothing  of  its  permanent  subdual,  only  of  the 
captivity  of  its  inhabitants.  But  Esarhaddon 
apparently  did  not  carry  the  Egyptians  cap- 
tive at  all ''.  Every  fact  given  in  the  In- 
scriptions looks  like  a  permanent  settlement. 
The  establishment  of  the  20  subordinate 
kings,  in  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of 
Egypt,  implies  the  continuance  of  the  previ- 
ous state  of  things,  with  the  exception  of  that 
subordination.  No  itself  appears  as  one  of 
the  cities  settled  apparently  under  its  native 
though  tributary  king  \ 

In  regard  to  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy, 
they  who  assume  as  an  axiom,  or  petitio 
principii,  that  there  can  be  no  prophecy  of 
distant  events,  have  overlooked,  that  while 
they  think  that,  by  assuming  the  later  date, 
they  bring  Nahum's  prophecy  of  the  capture 
of  Nineveh  nearer  to  its  accomplL^hment, 
they  remove  in  the  same  degree  Isaiah's 
prophecy  of  the  captivity  of  Egyptians  and 
Ethiopians,  young  and  old,  from  its  accom- 
plishment. "  Young  and  old  "  are  not  the 
piisoners  of  a  field  ot  battle  ;  young  and  old 
of  the  Ethiopians  would  not  be  in  a  city  of 

been  observed,  long  since,  that  the  Assyrian  mon- 
archs  speak  at  times  of  what  was  done  by  their 
generals  as  done  by  themselves.  This,  however, 
scarcely  appears  here,  where  he  says  "  I  returned 
in  safety  to  Nineveh."  p.  76. 

d  lb.  66,  68. 

« lb.  p.  79.  Iu  p.  75  it  is  said  that  Urdamanie  aban- 
doned No  and  fled  to  Kipkip. 

f  See  on  Am.  i.  5,  vol.  i.  p.  240. 

8l8.  XX.  4.  "Omna.  'D'JpIl  D^VJ- 


k  Rawl.  lb.  474,  475. 


'  Rawl.  lb.  p.  486. 


liu 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


lower  Egypt.  If  Ibaiah's  prophecy  was  not 
fultilled  under  Sargon  or  Sennadierib,  it  must 
probably  have  waited  tor  its  fulfilment  until 
this  last  subdual  by  Asshurbanipal.  For  the 
policy  of  Esarhaddon  and  also  of  Asshur- 
banipal, until  repeated  rebellions  wore  his 
patience,  was  of  settlement,  not  of  deportation. 
If  too  tlie  prophecy  of  Nahuni  were  brought 
down  to  the  reign  of  Asshurbanipal,  it  would 
be  the  more  stupendous.  For  the  empire 
was  more  consolidated.  Nahum  tells  the 
conqueror,  flushed  with  his  own  successes  and 
those  of  his  fatlier,  that  he  had  himself  no 
more  inherent  power  than  the  city  whose 
people  he  had  carried  captive.  Thebes  too, 
like  Nineveli,  dwelt  securely,  conrjuei-ing  all, 
unreached  by  any  ill,  sea-girt,  as  it  were,  by 
the  mighty  river  on  which  slie  rested.  She 
too  was  strengthened  with  countless  hosts  of 
her  own  and  of  allied  people.  Yet  she  fell. 
Nineveh,  the  prophet  tells  her,  was  no 
migiitier,  in  herself.  Her  river  was  no 
stronger  defence  than  that  sea  of  fresh  water, 
the  Nile;  her  tributaries  woulil  disi)erse  or 
become  her  enemie«<.  Tlie  Proi)het  holds  up 
to  her  the  vicissitudes  of  No-amon,  as  a  mir- 
ror to  herself.  As  eacli  death  is  a  renewed 
witness  to  man's  mortality,  so  each  marvel- 
ous revei-se  of  temporal  greatness  is  a  wit- 
ness to  the  precariousness  of  other  human 
might.  No  then  was  an  ensam[)le  to  Nine- 
veil,  although  its  capture  was  by  the  armies 
of  Nineveh.  They  liad  l)een,  for  centuries, 
two  rivals  for  power.  But  the  contrast  had 
far  more  force,  when  the  victory  over  Egypt 
was  fresh,  than  after  61  years  of  alternate 
conquest  and  rebellion. 

But,  anyhow,  the  state  of  Nineveh  and  its 
empire,  as  pictured  by  Nahum,  is  inconsistent 
with  any  times  of  siqjposed  weakness  in  the 
reign  of  its  bust  king:  tlie  slate  of  .Judah, 
with  refiM-ence  to  Assyria,  corresponds  with 
tliat  under  Sennacherib  but  with  none  l)elow. 
They  are  these.  Assyria  was  in  its  lull  un- 
impaired strength".  She  still  blended  those 
two  characters  so  rarely  combined,  but  actu- 
ally united  in  her  and  suljsequently  in  Baliy- 
lon,  of  a  great  merchant  and  military  people. 
She  had,  at  once,  the  prosperity  of  peace  and 
of  war.  Lying  on  a  great  line  of  ancient  traffic, 
which  bound  together  East  and  West,  India 
witii  Phienicia,  and  with  Europe  through 
Piiocnicia,  l>oth  East  and  West  poured  their 
treasures  into  the  great  capital,  wiiich  lay  as 
a  centre  between  them,  and  stretched  out  its 
arms,  alike  to  tlie  Indian  sea  and  the  Medi- 
terranean. Nahum  can  compare  its  mer- 
chants only  to  that  which  is  countless  by  man, 

"  i.  12.  ii.  \2.  ■>  iii.  10. 

"11.12,1:$.  p  iii.  19.  ii.  !i,  tl.       'i.  i:!. 

•  i.  12.        « i.  1.5.        »  2  Kings  xviii.  14.       »  lb.  2.3. 
T  lb.  17.  « lb.  31,  :j2. 

»2Chron.  xxxiii.  11.    The  miifoim  meaning  of 

■^37  is  "took,  took  prisonor;"  of  DTlin.  '"  tlmnis;" 
the  singular  only,  niP,  '"  <'<*>'  "I  ll"'  '""  iiImc.-«  in 


the  locusts  or  the  stars  of  heaven ".  But 
amid  this  prosperity  of  peace,  war  also  wa** 
enriching  her.  Nineveh  was  still  sending 
out  its  messengers  (such  as  was  Rabshakeh), 
the  leviers  of  its  tribute,  the  demanders  of 
submission.  It  was  still  one  vast  lion-lair, 
its  lions  still  gathering  in  prey  from  the 
whole  earth",  still  desolating,  continually, 
unceasingly,  in  all  directions  p,  and  now, 
specially,  devising  evil  against  God  and  His 
people''.  Upon  that  people  its  yoke  already 
pressed,  for  God  promises  to  break  it  oflfrom 
them  ■■ ;  the  people  was  already  afflicted,  for 
God  says  to  it,  Though  I  have  afflicted  thee,  1  will 
afflict  thee  no  nwre  *,  viz.  by  this  invader. 
The  solemn  feasts  of  Judah  were  hindered 
through  the  presence  of  ungodly  invadei*s ; 
Belial,  the  counsellor  of  evil  spoken  of  under 
that  name,  already  passing  through  her '. 
War  was  around  her,  for  he  promises  that 
one  should  publish  peace  upon  her  moun- 
tains'.  This  was  the  foreground  of  the  pic- 
ture. This  was  the  exact  condition  of  things 
at  Hezekiah's  second  invasion,  just  before  the 
miractilous  destruction  of  his  army.  Sen- 
nacherib's yoke  was  heavy  ;  for  he  had  ex- 
acted from  Hezekiah  three  hundred  talents  of 
silver  and  thirty  talents  of  gold";  Hezekiah 
had  nofteo  tliousand  horsemen;  the  yreat 
host  5"  of  the  Assyrians  encircled  Jerusalem. 
They  summoned  it  to  surrender  on  the  terms, 
that  they  should  pay  a  new  triliute,  and  that 
Sennacherib,  whenever  it  pleased  him,  should 
remove  them  to  Assyria'. 

At  no  subsequent  period  were  there  any 
events  corresponding  to  this  description. 
Manasseh  was  carried  captive  to  Babylon  by 
Esarhaddon ;  but  probaljJy  this  was  no  for- 
midable or  resistecl  invasion,  since  the  book 
of  Kings  pa.sses  it  over  altogether,  the  Chron- 
icles mention  only  that  the  .\.ssyrian  gen- 
erals took  Manasseh  prisoner  in  a  thicket", 
accordingly  not  in  Jerusalem,  and  carried 
iiim  to  Babylon.  Probably,  this  took  place, 
in  the  expedition  of  Esarhaddon  to  the  West, 
when  he  settled  in  the  cities  of  Samaria  peo- 
ple of  ditlerent  nations,  his  captives''.  The 
capture  of  Manasseh  was  then,  probably,  a 
mere  incident  in  the  liistory.  Since  he  was 
taken  among  the  thickets,  he  had  probably 
fled,  as  Ze(lekiah  did  atterward,  and  was 
taken  in  his  place  of  concealment.  This  was 
simply  personal.  No  faking  of  towns  is 
mentioned,  no  siege,  no  terror,  no  exaction 
of  tribute,  no  carrying  away  into  captivity, 
except  of  the  single  Mana.s.seh.  The  grounds 
of  his  restoration  are  not  mentioned.  The 
Chronicles  mention  only  the  religious  aspect 

Job,  is  "a  hook,"  l;i  the  otliprit  is  a  "thorn."  107, 
whlcli  orotirs  120  times  in  the  O.  T.,  never  means 
"dmsfred  captive."  The  meaning  ascribed  to  the 
woi'ils,  "bound  him  with  chains,"  is  wholly  conjec- 
tural. '\2'1  does  not  mean  "bound,"  nor  D'Hin 
"  chains." 
'■  Iv/r.  iv.  2,  !i,  10. 


NAHUM. 


Ill 


of  his  captivity  and  liis  restoration,  his  sin 
and  his  repentance.  But  it  seems  probable 
that  he  was  restored  by  EsarhadJon,  upon 
the  same  system  of  policy,  on  which  he 
planted  subjects  of  his  own  in  Samaria  and 
the  country  around  Zidon,  built  a  ne\v  town 
to  take  the  place  of  Zidon,  and  joined  in  the 
throne  of  Edom  one,  brought  up  in  his  own 
palace.  For,  when  restored,  Manasseh  was 
set  at  full  liberty  to  fortify  Jerusalem'^,  as 
Hezckiah  had  done,  and  to  put  "  °  captains 
of  war  in  all  the  cities  of  Judah."  This  looks 
as  if  he  was  sent  back  as  a  trusted  tributary 
of  Esarhaddon,  and  as  a  frontier-power 
against  Egypt.  At  least,  sixty  years  after- 
wai-d,  we  find  Josiah,  in  tlie  like  relation  of 
trust  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  resisting  the  passage 
of  Pharaoli-Necho.  However,  the  human 
cause  of  his  restoration  must  remain  un- 
cwtain.  Yet  clearly,  in  their  whole  history, 
there  is  nothing  to  correspond  to  the  state  of 
Judaea,  as  described  by  Nahum. 

A  recent  critic  writes,  "  *  Xahum's  pro- 
phecy must  have  been  occasioned  by  an  ex- 
pedition of  mighty  enemies  against  Nineveh. 
The  whole  prophecy  is  grounded  on  the  cer- 
tain danger,  to  which  Nineveh  was  given 
over ;  only  the  way  in  which  this  visible 
danger  is  conceived  of,  in  connection  with  the 
eternal  truths,  is  here  the  properly  prophetic." 
Ewald  does  not  explain  how  the  danger, 
to  which  "  Nineveh  was  given  over "  was 
certain,  when  it  did  not  happen.  The  expla- 
nation must  come  to  this.  Nahum  described 
a  siege  of  Nineveh  and  its  issue,  as  certain. 
The  description  in  itself  might  be  either  of 
an  actual  siege,  before  tlie  Prophet's  eyes,  or 
of  one  beheld  in  the  Prophet's  mind.  But 
obviously  no  mere  man,  endowed  with  mere 
hiunan  knowledge,  would  have  ventured  to 
predict  so  certainly  the  fall  of  such  a  city  as 
Nineveh,  unless  it  wa.'<  "  given  over  to  cer- 
tain danger."  But  according  to  the  axiom 
received  in  Ewald's  scliool,  Nahum,  equally 
with  all  other  men,  could  have  had  only 
human  prescience.  Therefore  Nahuin,  pro- 
phesying the  issue  so  confidently,  must  liave 
prophesied  when  Nineveh  was  so  "  given 
over."  The  h  priori  axiom  of  the  school 
rules  its  criticism.  Meanwhile  the  admission 
is  incidentally  made,  that  a  prophecy  so  cer- 
tain, had  it  related  to  distant  events,  was 
what  no  man,  with  mere  human  knowledge, 
would  venture  upon.  Ewald  accordingly 
thinks  that  the  prophecy  was  occasioned  by  a 
siege  of  Phraortes  ;  which  siege  Nahum  ex- 
pected to  be  successful ;  which  however  failed, 
so  that  Nahum  was  mistaken,  although  the 
overthrow  which  he  foretold  came  to  pass  after- 
ward !  The  siege,  however,  of  Nineveh  by 
Phraortes  is  a  mere  romance.  Herodotus, 
who  alone  attributes  to  Phraortes  a  war  with 


'  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  14. 
'  In  Rawl.  i.  409. 


•«•  Ewald,  Proph.  i.  349. 
f  i.  103. 


Assyria,  has  no  hint,  that  he  even  approached 
to  Nineveh.  He  simply  relates  that  Phraor- 
tes "  subdued  Asia,  going  from  une  nation  to 
another,  until,  leading  an  army  against  the 
Assyrians,  he  perished  himself,  in  the  22d 
year  of  his  reign,  and  the  greater  part  of  his 
army."  It  is  not  neces.sary  to  consider  the 
non-natural  expositions,  by  which  the  simple 
descriptions  of  Nahum  were  distorted  into  con- 
formity with  this  tlieory,  which  has  no  one  fact 
to  support  it.  Herodotus  even  dwells  on  the 
good  condition  of  the  Assyrian  aflairs,  al- 
though isolated  from  their  revolted  allies, 
and  seemingly  represents  the  victory  as  an 
easy  one.  And,  according  to  Herodotus, 
whose  account  is  the  only  one  we  have, 
Phraortes  (even  if  he  ever  fought  with  the 
Ninevitcs,  and  Herodotas'  account  is  not 
merely  the  recasting  of  the  history  of  another 
Median  Frawartish  who,  according  to  the  Be- 
histun  Inscription,  claimed  the  throne  of 
Media  against  Darius,  and  perished  in  battle 
with  him  ^)  had  only  an  unorganized  army. 
Herodotus  says  of  Cyaxares,  his  son,  "  ^He  is 
said  to  have  been  more  warlike  far  than  his 
forefathers,  and  he  first  distributed  Asiatics 
into  distinct  bands,  and  separated  the  spear- 
men and  archers  and  horsemen  from  one 
another,  whereas,  before,  everything  had 
alike  mixed  into  one  confused  mass."  Such 
an  undisciplined  horde  could  have  been  no 
formidable  enemy  for  a  nation,  whom  the 
monuments  and  their  history  exhibit  as  so 
warlike  and  so  skilled  in  war  as  the  Assyrians. 

Another  critic s,  then,  seeing  the  unten- 
ablencss  of  this  theory,  ventures  (as  he  never 
hesitated  at  any  paradox)  to  place  the  pro- 
phet Nahum,  as  an  eye-witness  of  the  fii-st 
siege  of  Cyaxares. 

Herodotus  states  that  Cyaxares,  the  son  of 
Phraortes,  twice  besieged  Nineveh.  First, 
immediately  after  his  father's  death,  to  avenge 
it  ^ ;  the  second,  after  the  end  of  the  Scythian 
troubles,  when  he  took  it ''.  The  capture  of 
Nineveh  was  in  the  first  year  of  Nabopolassor 
B.  C.  625.  Tiie  accession  of  Cyaxares,  ac- 
cording to  Herodotus,  was  B.  C.  633.  Eight 
years  then  only  ela2)sed  between  his  first 
siege  and  its  capture,  and,  if  it  be  true,  that 
the  siege  lasted  two  years,  there  was  an  inter- 
val of  six  years  only.  But,  at  this  time,  the 
destruction  of  Nineveh  was  no  longer  a  sub- 
ject of  joy  to  Judah.  Since  the  captivity  of 
Manasseh,  Judah  had  had  nothing  to  fear  from 
Assyria  ;  nor  do  we  know  of  any  oppression 
fi-om  it.  Holy  Scripture  mentions  none. 
The  Assyrian  monuments  speak  of  expedi- 
tions against  Egypt  ;  but  there  was  no  temp- 
tation to  harass  Judah,  which  stood  in  the 
relation  of  a  faithful  tributary  and  an  out- 
work against  Egypt,  and  which,  when  Nine- 
veh fell,  remained  in  the  same  relation  to  its 

«  Hitzig,  followed  by  David.son,  iii.  293. 
>>  i.  106. 


112 


INTKODUCTION  TO 


conquerors,  into  whose  suzerainty  it  passed, 
together  with  the  other  dependencies  of  As- 
syria. The  relation  of  Jusiah  tu  Babyh)n 
was  the  continuation  of  that  of  Manasseh  to 
Esarhaddon. 

The  motive  of  this  theory  is  explained  by 
the  words,  "  With  a  confidence,  which  leaves 
room  for  no  doubt,  Nahuni  expects  a  siet^e 
and  an  ultimate  destruction  of  >«'ineveh.  The 
security  of  his  tone,  nay  that  he  ventures  at 
all  to  hope  so  enormous  a  revolution  of  the 
existino;  state  of  tilings,  must  find  its  expla- 
nation in  tlie  circumstances  of  the  time,  out 
of  the  then  condition  of  the  world  ;  but  not 
till  Cyaxares  reigned  in  Media,  did  things 
assume  an  aspect,  corresponding  to  this  confi- 
dence." It  is  well  that  tbis  wi'iter  doffs  the 
courteous  language,  as  to  the  "  hopes,"  "  ex- 
pectations," "  inferences  from  God's  justice," 
and  brings  the  question  to  the  issue,  "  there 
is  such  absolute  certainty  of  tone,"  that  Na- 
hum  must  have  had  either  a  Divine  or  a 
human  knowledge.  He  acknowledges  the 
untenableness  of  any  theory  which  would  ac- 
count for  the  prophecy  of  Nahum  on  any 
human  knowledge,  l)efore  Cyaxares  was 
marching  against  the  gates  of  i^ineveh. 
Would  liuman  knowledge  have  sufficed  tlien  ? 
Certainly,  from  such  accounts  as  we  have, 
Nineveli  might  still  have  stood  against  Cy- 
axares and  its  own  rebel  and  traitorous 
general,  but  for  an  unforeseen  event  which 
man  could  not  bring  about,  the  swelling  of  its 
river. 

But,  as  usual,  unbelief  fixes  itself  upon 
that  which  is  minutest,  ignores  what  is  great- 
est. There  are,  in  Nahura,  three  remarkable 
predicticms.  1)  The  sudden  destruction  of 
vSennacherib's  army  and  his  own  remarkable 
deatli  in  tiie  house  of  his  god.  2)  The  cer- 
tain, inevitalde,  capture  of  Nineveh,  and 
that,  not  by  capitulation  or  famine,  not  even 
by  the  siege  or  assault,  which  is  painted  so 
vividly,  but  the  river,  which  was  its  protec- 
tion, becoming  tiie  cause  of  its  destruction. 
3)  Its  utter  desolation,  when  captured.  The 
first,  men  assume  to  have  been  the  descrip- 
tion of  events  past ;  the  secon  1,  the  siege, 
they  assume  to  have  been  present ;  and  that, 
when  hiunan  wisdom  could  foresee  its  issue ; 
the  tliird,  they  generalize.  The  first  is  be- 
yond the  reacli  of  proof  now.  It  was  a  wit- 
ness of  the  Providence  and  just  judgment  of 
God,  to  those  days,  not  to  our's.  A  brief  sur- 
vey of  the  liistory  of  the  .Vssyrian  Empire  will 
shew,  that  the  second  and  third  predictions 
were  beyond  human  knowledge. 

The  Assyrian  Empire  dated  probably  from 
the  ninth  century  before  Christ.  Sucli,  it 
has  been  pointed  out,  is  the  concurrent  result 
of  the  statements  of  Berosus  and  Herodotus. 

•  Gen.  X.  10,11. 

ki<_ri  not  Kv;  Knn  y^xn  jo. 

'nilE'W  Gen.  xxv.  1«. 


Moses,  according  to  the  simplest  meaning  of 
his  words,  spake  of  the  foundation  of  Nineveh 
as  contemporary  with  that  of  Babylon.  '  IVie 
beginning  of  the  kingdom  of  Nimrod,  he  re- 
lates, was  Babel  and  Erech,  and  Acccul  and 
Cidneh,  in  the  land  of  Shinar.  Out  of  that  land 
went  forth  Asshur,  cmd  biiilded  Nineveh.  Op- 
pressed probably  and  driven  forth  by  Nim- 
rod, Asshur  and  his  Semitic  descendants 
went  forth  from  the  plain  of  Shinar,  the  Ba- 
bylonia of  after-ages.  Had  Moses  intended 
to  express  (what  some  have  thought),  that 
Nimrod  "  went  forth  out  of  that  land  to  Assy- 
ria," he  would  doubtless  have  used  the  ordi- 
nary style  of  connected  narrative ;  "  ^And  lie 
went  forth  thence."  He  would  probably  also 
have  avoided  ambiguity,  by  expressing  that 
Nimrod  "  went  forth  to  Asshur ',"  using  a 
form,  whicii  he  employs  a  little  later.  As  it 
is,  Moses  has  used  a  mode  of  speech,  by 
which,  in  Hebrew,  a  parenthetic  statement 
would  be  made,  and  he  has  not  used  the 
form,  which  occurs  in  every  line  of  Hebrew 
narrative  to  express  a  continued  history.  No 
one  indeed  would  have  doubted  that  such 
was  the  meaning,  but  that  they  did  not  see, 
how  the  mention  of  Asshur,  a  son  of  Shem, 
came  to  be  anticipated  in  tiiis  account  of  the 
children  of  Ham.  This  is  no  gn)und  ibr 
abandoning  the  simple  construction  of  the 
Hebrew.  It  is  but  the  history,  so  often  re- 
peated in  the  changes  of  the  world,  that 
the  kingdom  of  Nimrod  was  founded  on 
the  expulsion  of  the  former  inhabitants. 
Nimrod  began  his  kingdom;  "Asshur  went 
forth." 

It  is  most  probable,  from  this  same  brief 
notice,  that  Nineveh  was,  from  the  first,  tliat 
a.'gregate  of  cities,  which  it  afterward  was. 
Moses  says,  "  ""And  he  builded  Nineveh  and 
Rehoboth-Ir  and  Calach  and  Ilesen,  between 
Nineveh  and  Calach ;  this  is  that  great 
city"."  This  cannot  be  understood  as  said 
exclusively  of  Nineveh  ;  since  Nineveh  was 
mentioned  first  in  the  list  of  cities,  and  the 
mention  of  the  three  others  had  intervened; 
and,  in  the  second  place  wliere  it  is  named, 
it  is  only  spoken  of  imlirectly  and  subordi- 
nately  ;  it  is  hardly  likely  to  be  said  of 
Kesen,  of  whose  unusual  size  nothing  is  else- 
where related.  It  seems  more  probable,  that 
it  is  said  of  the  aggregate  of  cities,  tliat 
they  formed  together  one  great  city,  the  very 
cliaracteristic  of  Nineveh,  as  spoken  of  in 
Jonah. 

Nineveh  itself  lay  on  the  Eastern  side  of 
the  Tigris,  opposite  to  the  present  Mosul.  In 
later  times,  among  the  .Syrian  writers,  As- 
shur becomes  the  name  for  the  country, 
distinct  from  Mesopotamia  and  Babylonia ", 
from  which  it  was  separated  by  the  Tigris, 

">Geu.  X.  11, 12. 

»  Bar-Hebr.  in  Tuch  de  Nluo  urbt»  pp.  9,  10. 


NAHUM. 


113 


and  bounded  on  the  North  by  Mount  Ni- 
phates. 

This  distinction,  however,  does  not  occur 
until  after  the  extinction  of  the  Assyrian 
empire.  On  the  contrary,  in  Genesis,  Asshur, 
in  one  place,  is  spoken  of  as  West  p  of  the 
Hiddekel  or  Tigris,  so  that  it  must  at  that 
time  have  comprised  Mesopotamia,  if  not  all 
on  this  side  of  the  Tigris,  i.  e.  Babylonia.  In 
another  place,  it  is  the  great  border-state  of 
Arabia  on  the  one  side,  as  was  Egypt  on  the 
other.  The  scnis  of  Jshmael,  Moses  relates  ^, 
dwelt  from  Havilah  unto  Shur  that  is  before 
Egypt,  CIS  thou  goest  to  Assyria  ;  i.e.  they  dwelt 
on  the  great  caravan-route  across  the  Arabian 
desert  from  Egypt  to  Babylonia.  Yet  Moses 
mentions,  not  Babylon,  but  Asshur.  In  Ba- 
laam's prophecy'',  Asshur  stands  for  the 
great  Empire,  whose  seat  was  at  one 
time  at  Nineveh,  at  another  at  Babylon, 
which  should,  centuries  afterwards,  carry 
Israel  captive. 

Without  entering  into  the  intricacies  of 
Assyrian  or  Babylonian  history  further  than 
is  necessary  for  the  immediate  object,  it 
seems  probable,  that  the  one  or  other  of 
the  sovereigns  of  these  nations  had  an  as- 
cendency over  the  others,  according  to  his 
personal  character  and  military  energy.  Thus, 
in  the  time  of  Abraham,  Chedorlaomer  king 
of  Elam,  in  his  expedition  against  the  kings 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  took  with  him,  as 
subordinate  allies,  the  kings  of  Shinar,  (or 
Babylon)  and  Ellasar,  as  well  as  Tidal  king 
of  nations,  a  king  probably  of  Nomadic 
tribes.  The  expedition  was  to  avenge  the 
rebellion  of  the  petty  kings  in  the  valley  of 
Siddim  against  Chedorlaomer,  after  they  had 
been  for  twelve  years  tributary.  But,  al- 
th  jugh  the  expedition  closed  with  the  attack 
on  the  hve  kings  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
AdniLih,  Zeboim,  and  Zoar,  its  extent  on  the 
East  side  of  the  Jordan  from  Ashteroth 
Karnaim  in  Basan  to  Elparan  ( perhaps  Elath 
on  the  Ee  1  Sea),  and  the  defeat  of  the  giant 
tribes,  the  Kephaim,  Zuzim,  Emim,  Horites, 
the  Amalekites  and  the  Amorites  in  their 
several  abodes,  seems  to  imply  one  of  those 
larger  combinations  against  the  aggressions 
of  tlie  East,  which  we  meet  with  in  later 
times ".     It  was  no  insulated  conflict  which 

p  Gen.  ii.  14.  There  is  no  reason,  with  Keil,  to 
disturb  the  rendering.     flOlp  is  most  naturally 

rendered  Eastward,  in  the  other  three  places; 
Michmash  was  E.  S.  E.  of  Bethaven  (1  Sam.  xiii.  5), 
but  was  not  uver-aqainst  it,  being  some  four  miles 
from  it,  in  a  valley.  The  battle  which  began  at 
Michmash,  passed  over  to  Bethaven.  (1  Sam.  xiv.  2:5.) 
The  Philistmes  too  were  obviously  facing  Saul  who 
was  at  Gilgal  (1  Sam.  xiii.  12).  In  Ezek.  xxxix.  11, 
the  words  "  eastward  of  the  sea,"  express  that  the 
carcases  were  outside  the  promised  land.  In  Gen. 
iv.  1(>,  Cain  was  not  one  to  linger  over-against  the 
lost  Eden.  Probably  he  went  Eastward,  because 
then  too  the  stream  of  population  went  Westward. 
In  Isaiah  vii.  20  the  Icingof  Assyria  is  spoken  of  as 
beyond  the  river,  i.  e.  the  Euphrates. 

8 


spread  over  nearly  tliree  degrees  of  latitude. 
But  it  was  the  king  of  Elam,  not  the  king  of 
Babylon  or  of  Asshur,  who  led  this  expeli- 
tion  ;  and  those  other  kings,  according  to  the 
analogy  of  the  expeditions  of  Eastern 
monarchs,  were  probably  dependent  on  him. 
It  has  been  ol  served  tliat  the  inscriptions  of 
a  monarch  whose  name  partly  coincides  with 
that  of  Chedorlaomer,  viz.  Kudurmabuk,  or 
Kudurmapula,  shew  traces  of  a  Persian 
influence  on  the  Chaldee  characters ;  but 
cuneiform  decipherers  having  desponded  of 
identifying  those  monarchs',  Chedorlaomer 
appears  as  j'et  only  so  far  connected  with 
Babylon,  that  its  king  was  a  tributary  sove- 
reign to  him  or  a  vice-king "  like  those  of 
later  times,  of  whom  Sennacherib  boasts, 
"  Are  not  my  princes  altogether  kings  ?" 

Assyria,  at  this  time,  is  not  mentioned, 
and  so,  since  we  know  of  its  existence  at  an 
earlier  period,  it  probably  was  independent. 
Lying  far  to  the  North  of  any  of  the  nations 
here  mentioned,  it,  from  whatever  cause  or 
however  it  may  have  been  engaged,  took  no 
share  in  the  war.  Subsequently  also,  down 
to  a  date  almost  contemporary  with  the  Exo- 
dus, it  has  been  observed  that  the  name  of 
Asshur  does  not  appear  on  the  Babylonian 
inscriptions,  nor  does  it  swell  the  titles  of 
the  king  of  Babylon ".  A  little  later  than 
the  Exodus,  however,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  14th  century  B.  C.,  Asshur  and  Egypt 
were  already  disputing  the  country  which 
lay  between  them.  The  account  is  Egyptian, 
and  so,  of  course,  only  relates  the  successes  of 
Egypt.  Thothmes  III,  in  his  fortieth  year, 
according  to  Mr.  Birch,  received  tribute  from 
a  king  of  Nineveh  ^.  In  another  monument 
of  the  same  monarch,  where  the  line,  follow- 
ing on  the  name  Nineveh,  is  lost,  Thothmes 
says  that  he  "  ^  erected  his  tablet  in  Naharaina 
(Mesopotamia)  lor  the  extension  of  the 
Irontiers  of  Kami"  [Egypt].  Amenophis 
III,  in  the  same  century,  represented  Asia- 
tic captives*,  with  the  names  of  Patana 
[Padan-Aram],  Asuria,  Karukamishi  [Car- 
chemish"].  "On  another  column  are 
Saenkar  (Shinar),  Naharaina,  and  the  Khita 
(Hittites)."  The  mention  of  these  contiguous 
nations  strengthens  the  impression  that  the 
details  of  the  interpretation  are  accurate.    All 

1  Gen.  XXV.  18.  '  Num.  xxiv.  22. 

"Sir  H.  Rawl.  in  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  446. 

' "  On  the  one  hand  the  general  resemblance  of 
Kudurmapula's  legends  to  those  of  the  ordinary 
Chaldsean  monarchs  is  unquestionable;  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  remarkable  that  there  are  pecu- 
liarities in  the  forms  of  the  letters,  and  even  in  the 
elements  composing  the  names  upon  his  bricks 
which  favor  his  connection  with  Elam."  Sir  H. 
Rawlinson  in  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  436. 

"  Rawl.  Five  Empires  i.  206. 

» lb.  p.  447. 

yFrom  statistical  Tablet  of  Karnak,  quoted  by 
Layard  Xin.  and  Bab.  c.  xxvi.  p.  631,  Birch  in  Arch- 
seologia  Vol.  xxxv.  pp.  116-66. 

'  lb.  p.  630,  note  1.  » lb. 


114 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


these  inscriptions  imply  that  Assyria  was 
independent  of  Babylon.  In  one,  it  is  a  co- 
ordinate power;  in  tlie  two  others,  it  is  a 
state  which  had  measured  its  strength  with 
■Eg>-pt,  under  one  of  its  greatest  conquerors, 
thougli,  according  to  the  Egyptian  account, 
it  had  been  worsted. 

Another  account,  which  has  been  thought 
to  be  the  first  instance  of  the  extension  of 
Babylonian  authority  so  far  northward,  seems 
to  me  rather  to  imply  the  ancient  self-gov- 
ernment of  Assyria.  "  ^  A  record  of  Tiglath- 
pileser  I.  declares  him  to  have  rebuilt  a 
temple  in  the  city  of  Asshur,  which  had 
been  taken  down  60  years  previously,  after  it 
had  lasted  for  041  years  from  the  date  of  its 
first  foundation  by  Shamas-Iva,  son  of  Ismi- 
Dagon."  Sir  H.  Eawlinson  thinks  that  it  is 
probable  (although  only  probable)",  that  this 
Ismi-Dagon  is  a  king,  whose  name  occurs  in 
the  brick-legends  of  Lower  Babylonia.  Yet 
the  Ismi-Dagon  of  the  bricks  does  not  bear 
the  title  of  king  of  Babylon,  but  of  king  of 
Nifler  only  ** :  "  his  son,"  it  is  noticed,  "  does 
not  take  the  title  of  king  ;  but  of  governor  of 
Hur  "^."  The  name  Shamas-Iva  nowhere  oc- 
curs in  connection  with  Bal)ylonia,  but  it 
(Iocs  recur,  at  a  later  period,  as  the  name  of 
an  Assyrian  Monarch  '.  Since  the  names  of 
the  Eastern  kings  so  often  coutinue  on  in  the 
same  kingdom,  the  recurrence  of  that  name, 
at  a  later  period,  makes  it  even  probable, 
that  Shamas-Iva  was  a  native  king.  There 
is  absolutely  nothing  to  connect  his  father 
Ismi-Dagon  with  the  Ismi-Dagon  king  of 
NiflTer,  beyond  the  name  itself,  which,  being 
Semitic,  may  just  as  well  have  belonged  to  a 
native  king  of  Nineveh  as  to  a  king  of 
Lower  Babylonia.  Nay,  there  is  nothing  to 
shew  that  Ismi-Dagon  was  not  an  Assyrian 
Monarch  w  ho  reigned  at  Niffer ;  for  the 
name  of  his  father  is  still  unknown  ;  there  is 
no  evidence  that  his  father  was  ever  a  king, 
or,  if  a  king,  a\  here  he  reigned.  It  seems  to 
me  in  the  last  degree  precarious  to  assume, 
without  further  evidence,  the  identity  of  the 
two  kings.  It  has,  further,  yet  to  be  shewn 
that  Lower  Babylonia  had,  at  that  time,  an 
empire,  as  distinct  from  its  own  local  sover- 
eignty. We  know  from  Holy  Scripture  of 
Nimrod's  kingdom  in  Shinar,  a  province  dis- 
tinct from  Elymais,  Mesopotamia,  Assyria, 
and  probably  Chaldsea.  In  Abraham's  time, 
190U  B.  C,  we  find  again  a  king  of  Shinar. 
Shinar  again,  it  is  supposed,  appears  in 
Egyptian  inscriptions,  in  the  14th  century, 
B.  C.*;  and,  if  so,  still  distinct  from  Mesopo- 
tamia and  Assyria.  But  all  this  implies  a 
distinct  kingdom,  not  an  empire. 

Again,  were  it  ever  so  true,  that  Shamas- 

^Sir  H.  Rawlinson  from  the  Shergat  Cylinders  in 
Rawl.  Herod.  Ess.  vi.  i.  43.3.  note  1. 

•  lb.  p.  4,56.  note  5.  <>  lb.  p.  437.  « lb.  ?  7. 

'Sir  II.  RawlinH.,  .Journ.  As.  .Soe.  xvi.  P.  1.  Ann. 
Ki/|>.  i>.  xii.  s([.  !{a\vl.  Herod,  i.  p.  460. 


Iva  was  a  son  of  a  king  in  Lower  Babylonia, 
that  he  built  a  temple  in  Kileh-Shergat,  as 
being  its  king,  and  that  he  was  king,  as 
placed  there  by  Ismi-Dagon,  this  would  be 
no  proof  of  the  cnntinual  dependence  of  As- 
syria upon  Babylonia.  England  did  not 
continue  a  dependency  of  France,  because 
conquered  by  William  of  Normandy.  How 
was  Alexander's  empire  broken  at  once !  Spain 
under  Charles  the  V.  Avas  under  one  sover- 
eignty with  Austria  ;  Spain  with  France  had, 
even  of  late,  alike  Bourbon  kings.  A  name 
would,  at  most,  shew  an  accidental,  not  a  per- 
manent, connection. 

But  there  is,  at  present,  no  evidence  im- 
plying a  continued  dependence  of  Assyria 
upon  Babylon.  Two  facts  only  have  been 
alleged;  1)  that  the  cuneiform  writing  of 
inscriptions  at  Kileh-Shergat,  40  miles  Soutli 
of  Nineveh,  has  a  Babylonian  character;  2l 
that,  on  those  bricks,  four  names  have  been 
found  of  inferior  Satraps. 

But  1)  the  Babylonian  character  of  the 
inscriptions  would  show  a  dependence  of 
civilization,  not  of  empire.  .Vrls  flourished 
early  at  Babylon,  and  so  the  graven  cliar- 
acter  of  the  Inscriptions  too  may  have  been 
carried  to  the  rougher  and  warlike  North. 
The  garment,  worked  at  Babylon,  was,  in  the 
loth  century  B.  C,  exjiorted  as  far  as  Pales- 
tine, and  was,  for  its  beauty,  the  object  of 
Achan's  covetousness  ■*. 

2)  In  regard  to  the  satraps  whose  names 
are  found  on  the  bricks  of  Kileh-Shergat, 
it  does  not  appear,  that  they  were  tributary 
to  Babylon  at  all ;  they  may,  as  far  as  it  ap- 
peal's, have  been  simply  inferior  officers  of 
the  Assyrian  empire.  Anyhow,  the  utmost 
wliich  such  a  relation  to  Babylon  would 
evince,  if  ever  so  well  established,  would  be 
a  temporary  dependence  of  Kileh-Shergat 
itself,  not  of  Nineveh  or  the  Assyrian  king- 
dom. Furtlier,  the  evidence  of  the  duration 
of  the  dependency  would  be  a^i  limited  at  its 
extent.  Four  satraps  would  be  no  evidence 
as  to  this  period  of  700  years,  only  a  century 
less  than  has  elapsed  since  the  Norman  con- 
quest. The  early  existence  of  an  Assyrian 
kingdom  has  been  confirmed  by  recent  cunei- 
form discoveries,  which  give  the  names  of  8 
Assyrian  kings,  the  earliest  of  w  hom  is  sup- 

Eosed  to   have   reigned   about  3i  centuries 
efore  the  coannencement  of  tiie  Assyrian 
Empire '. 

The  "empire,"  Herodotus  says ^  "Assyria 
held  in  Upper  Asia  for  o20  years  ;  "  Berosus', 
"  for  526  years."  The  Cuneiform  Inscriptions 
give  much  the  same  result.  Tiglath-pileser  ", 
who  gives  live  years'  annals  of  his  own  vic- 
tories, mentions  his  grandfather's  grandfather, 

«Mr.  Birch  in  Layard,  Niii.  and  Bab.  p.  C31. 

!•  Josh.  vii.  21. 

'  Uawl.  6  Emp.  ii.  291 ;  romp.  i.  212. 

ki.  9.'>.  >Fragm.  II. 

«"  Bawl.  Her.  i.  4.'>7. 


NAHUM. 


115 


the  4th  king  before  him,  as  the  king  who 
"  iirst  orgamzed  the  country  of  Assyria,"  who 
"  established  the  troops  of  Assyria  in  author- 
ity." The  expression,  "  established  in  author- 
ity," if  it  may  be  pressed,  relates  to  foreign 
conquest.  If  this  Tiglath-pileser  be  the  same 
whom  Sennacherib,  in  the  10th  year  of  his 
own  reign,  mentions  as  having  lost  his  gods 
to  Merodach-ad-akhi,  king  of  Mesopotamia, 
418  years  before  °,  then,  since  Sennacherib 
ascended  the  throne  about  703  B.C.",  we 
should  have  B.C.  1112  for  the  latter  part  of 
the  reign  of  Tiglath-pileser  I.,  and  counting 
this  and  the  six  preceding  reigns  at  20  years 
each  P,  should  have  about  1252  B.  C.  for  the 
beginning  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  It  has 
been  calculated  that  if  the  526  years,  assigned 
by  Berosus  to  his  45  Assyrian  kings,  are  (as 
Polyhistor''  states  Berosus  to  have  meant) 
to  Le  dated  liack  from  the  accession  of  Pul 
wlio  ti:ok  tribute  from  Menahem,  and  so 
from  between  B.C.  770  and  B.C.  760,  they 
carry  back  the  beginning  of  the  dynasty  to 
about  12yo  B.C.  If  they  be  counted,  (as  is 
perhaps  more  probable)  from  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Pul  "•,  i.  e.  proliably  B.  C.  747,  "  the 
era  of  Xabonassar,"  the  Empire  would  com- 
mence aliout  1273  B.C.  Herodotus,  it  lias 
been  shewn  **,  had  nuich  the  same  date  in  his 
mind,  when  he  assigned  520  years  to  the 
Assyrian  empire  in  upper  Asia,  dating  back 
from  the  revolt  of  the  ^ledes.  For  he  sup- 
posed this  revolt  to  be  179  years  anterior  to 
the  death  of  Cyrus  B.C.  529  (and  so,  B.C. 
708) +a  period  of  anarchy  before  the  acces- 
sion of  Deioces.  Allowing  30  years  for  this 
period  of  anarchy,  we  have  738  B.  C.+520, 
i.  e.  1258  B.  C,  for  the  date  of  the  commence- 
ment of  Assyrian  empire  according  to  Hero- 
dotus. Thus,  the  three  testimonies  would 
coincide  in  placing  tlie  beginning  of  that 
Empire  anyhow  between  1258  and  1273  B.C. 
But  this  Empire  started  up  full-grown.  It 
was  the  concentration  of  energy  and  power, 
which  had  before  existed.  Herodotus'  ex- 
pression is  "  rulers  of  Upper  Asia."  Tiglath- 
pileser  attributes  to  his  forefather,  that  he 
"  organized  the  country,"  and  "  established 
the  armies  of  Assyria  in  authority."  The 
2d  king  of  that  list  takes  the  title  of  "  ruler 
over  the  people  of  Bel ',"  i.  e.  Babylonia. 
The  4th  boasts  to  have  reduced  "all  the 
lands  of  the  Magian  world."  Tiglath-pileser 
I.  claims  to  have  conquered  large  parts  of 

"Dr.  Hincks,  from  Bavian  Inscription  in  Layard 
Nin.  and  Bab.  pp.  212,3. 

0  His  annals  mention  that,  having  e-xpelled  Mero- 
daoh-baladan  in  the  first  year  of  his  roign,  he,  set 
up  Belib  in  Babylon  (HinclvS  in  Layard  Bab.  and 
Nin.  Itn,  1) ;  but,  in  the  Canon  of  Ptolemv,  the  date 
of  Belib  is  B.  C.  70.3. 

p  Rawl.  gives  this  as  the  average  of  Assyrian 
reigns  (Five  Empires  ii. 93.).  The  whole  calculation 
is  nis.  An  interregnum  of  20  years,  carries  the 
whole  back  to  the  date  of  Berosus  1273  B.  C. 

iln  Euseb.  Chron.  Arm.  pp.  40, 1. 

'  2  King?  XV.  19,  s  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  407. 


Cappadocia,  Syria  from  Tsukha  to  Car- 
chemish,  Media  and  Muzr.  According  to 
the  inscription  at  Bavian",  he  sustained  a 
reverse,  and  lost  his  gods  to  a  king  of  Meso- 
potamia, which  gods  were  recovered  by  Sen- 
nacherib from  Babylon.  Yet  this  exception 
tlie  more  proves  that  conquest  Avas  the  rule. 
For,  had  there  been  subsequent  successful 
invasions  of  Assyria  by  Babylonia,  the  spoils 
of  the  5th  century  backward  would  not  have 
been  alone  recovered  or  recorded.  If  the 
deciphering  of  the  Inscriptions  is  to  be 
trusted,  Nineveh  was  the  capital,  even  in  the 
days  of  Tiglath-pileser  I.  For  Sennacherib 
brought  the  gods  back,  it  is  said,  and  put 
them  in  their  places,  i.  e.  j^robably  where  he 
himself  reigned,  at  Nineveh.  Thence  then 
they  were  taken  in  the  reign  of  Tiglath- 
pileser.     Nineveh  then  was  his  capital  also. 

Of  an  earlier  portion  we  have  as  yet  but 
incidental  notices;  yet  the  might  of  Assyria 
is  attested  by  the  presence  of  Assyrian  names 
in  the  Egyptian  dynastic  lists,  whether  the 
dynasties  were  themselves  Assyrian,  or 
whether  the  names  came  in  through  matri- 
monial alliances  between  two  great  nations  ^. 

With  few  exceptions,  as  far  as  appears 
from  their  own  annals  (and  these  are  in  the 
later  times  confirmed  by  Holy  Scripture), 
the  Assyrian  Empire  was,  almost  whenever 
we  hear  of  it,  one  long  series  of  victory  and 
rapine.  It  is  an  exception,  if  any  monarch 
is  peaceful,  and  content  to  "rei^air  the  build- 
ings^  "  in  his  residence,  "  leaving  no  evidence 
of  conquest  or  greatness."  Tiglathi-Nin, 
father  of  the  warlike  Asshur-i-danipal  or 
Sardanapalus,  is  mentioned  only  in  his  son's 
monument,  "  ^  among  his  warlike  ancestors, 
who  had  carried  their  arms  into  the  Arme- 
nian mountains,  and  there  set  up  stelfe  to 
commemorate  their  conquests."  Civil  wars 
there  were,  and  revolutions.  Conquerors 
and  dynasties  came  to  an  untimely  end ; 
there  Mas  pari-icide,  fratricide ;  but  the  tide 
of  war  and  conquest  rolled  on.  The  restless 
warriors  gave  no  rest.  Sardanapalus  terms 
himself,  ""the  conqueror  from  the  upper 
passage  of  the  Tigris  to  Lebanon  and  the 
great  sea,  who  all  countries,  from  the  rising 
of  the  sun  to  tlie  going  down  thereof,  has  re- 
duced under  his  authority."  His  son,  Shal- 
manubar  or  Slialmaneser,  in  his  thirty-five 
years  of  reign  led,  in  pei-son  twenty-three 
military  expeditions.     20,000,16,000,  are  the 

t  Rawl.  i.  4.")8. 

"  Layard  N.  and  B.  207-12.  614.  Rawl.  459. 

»  Ra'wlinson's  conjecture.  Five  Emp.  ii.  a3.i.  The 
period  is  one  of  "  obscurity,"'  as  Rawl.  says,  but  that 
very  obscurity  forbids  our  docidiiitc,  as  he  does,  that 
it  was  one  of  "extraordinary  weakness  and  de- 
pression." 

y  Asshur-adan-akhi  and  three  following  kings.  See 
Rawl.  Her.  i.  4G0.  The  accession  of  Asshur-adan- 
akhi  was  placed  liy  some,  referred  to  by  Rawl.  lb., 
at  B.  C.  10.W,  by  himself,  at  B.  C.  O.'iO,  Five  Emp.  ii. 
291.        'Sir  H.  Rawl.  lb.  in  Rawl.  Her.  i.  4(;u,  n.  7. 

a  In  Layard  X.  and  B.  pp.  3G1,  2  Rawl.  p.  101, 


116 


IXTROPITTION  TO 


numbers  of  his  eiieuiies  left  dead  upon  a  field 
of  battle  with  Benhadad  and  Hazael  ^  Cap- 
padocia,  Pontus,  ^Vrmenia,  Media,  Babylonia, 
Syria,  Phoenicia",  15  degrees  of  longitude 
and  10  of  latitude,  save  where  the  desert  or 
the  sea  gave  him  nothing  to  conquer,  were 
the  range  of  his  repeated  expeditions.  He 
circled  round  Judtea.  He  thrice  defeated 
Benhadad  with  his  allies  (on  several  occa- 
sions, twelve  kings  of  the  Hittites).  His 
own  army  exceeded  on  occasions  100,000 
fighting  men.  Twice  he  defeated  Hazael. 
Israel  under  Jehu,  Tyre,  Sidon,  24  kings  in 
Pontus,  kings  of  the  Hittites,  of  Chalda^a,  27 
kings  of  Persia  are  among  his  tributaries  ^  ; 
"  the  shooting  of  his  arrows  struck  terror," 
he  says,  "  as  far  as  the  sea  "  [Indian  Ocean]  ; 
"  he  put  up  ids  arrows  in  their  quiver  at  the 
sea  of  the  setting  sun."  His  son  Shamasiva 
apparently  subdued  Babylonia,  and  in  the 
West  conquered  tribes  near  Mount  Taurus, 
on  the  North  the  countries  bordering  on 
Armenia  to  the  fiouth  and  East,  the  Medes 
beyond  Mount  Zagros,  and  "^the  Zimri '  in 
upper  Luristan."  His  son  Ivalush  III.  or 
IV.  received  undisturbed  tribute  from  the 
kingdoms  which  his  fathers  conquei'ed,  and 
ascribes  to  iiis  god  Asshur  the  grant  of  "  =  the 
kingdom  of  Babylon  to  his  son."  Thus 
"Assyria  with  one  hand  grasped  Babylonia  ; 
with  the  other  Philistia  and  i]dom  ;  she  held 
Media  Proper,  S.  Armenia,  possessed  all 
Upper  Syria,  including  Coramagene  and 
Amanus,  bore  sway  over  all  the  whole  Syrian 
coast  from  Issus  to  Gaza,  and  from  the  coast 
to  the  desert."  Tiglath-pileser  II.  and  Shal- 
maneser  are  known  to  us  as  conquerors  from 
Holy  Scripture  "*.  Tiglath-pileser,  we  are 
told  from  the  inscriptions,  warred  and  con- 
quered in  Upper  Mesopotamia,  Armenia, 
Media,  Babylonia,  drove  into  exile  a  Bal^y- 
lonian  prince,  destroyed  Dama.scus,  took  tri- 
bute from  a  Hiram  king  of  Tyre,  and  from 
a  Queen  of  the  Arabs ''.  And  so  it  continued, 
until  nearly  the  close  of  the  Monarchy. 

The  new  dynasty  which  began  with  Sar- 
gon  were  even  greater  conquerors  than  their 
predecessors.  Sargon,  in  a  reign  of  seven- 
teen or  nineteen  years,  defeated  the  king  of 
Elam,  conquered  in  latbour  beyond  Elain, 
reigned  from  Ras,  a  dependency  on  Elam, 
over  Poukoud  (Pekod),  Phoenicia,  Syria,  &c. 
to  the  river  of  Eu^vpt,  in  the  far  Media  to  the 
rising  sun,  in  Scythia,  Albania,  Parthia,  Van, 
Armenia,  Colchis,  Tubal  to  the   Moschi  :  he 

>>  Riiwl.  lb.  404,  .5. 

"Nimrud  Obelisk  translated  by  Dr.  Hiiicks,  in 
Dubl.  Univ.  Mag.  Oct.  1853.  pp.  422,  5,  6.  Rnwl.  Her. 
i.  462. 

<>Dr.  Hiuck^i,  Atheneeum  N.  1476.  p.  174.  Rawl.  lb. 
Five  Emp.  ii.  36i). 

•  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  460.  Five  Emp.  ii.  374. 

f  Jer.  XXV.  2.5. 

«Rawl.  Her.  i.  407,  Five  Empires  ii.  380. 

h  Rawl.  Her.  i.  470.       '2  Kings  xvil.  6,  xvlii.  11. 

»Tlu-  .-xbovc  HOooiint  ■'!'  Sni'gon  !.-<  taken  from  O]!- 


placed  his  lieutenants  as  governors  over  these 
countries,  and  imposed  tribute  upon  them,  as 
upon  Assyrians  ;  he,  probably,  placed  Mero- 
dach-Baladan  on  the  throne  of  Babylon,  and 
after  12  years  displaced  him ;  he  reduced  all 
Chaldfea  under  his  rule  ;  he  defeated  "  Sebech 
(i.  e.,  probably,  So),  Sultan  of  Egypt,  so  that  he 
was  heard  of  no  more ; "  ho  received  tribute 
from  the  Pharaoh  of  Egypt,  from  a  Queen  of 
Arabia  and  from  Himyar  the  Sabtean.  To 
him  first  the  king  of  Meroe  paid  tribute. 
He  finally  captured  Samaria :  he  took  Gaza, 
Kharkar,  Arpad  and  Damascus,  Ashdoil 
(whicli  it  cost  Psammetichus  29  years  to 
reconquer),  and  Tyre,  (which  resisted  Ne- 
buchadnezzar ibr  13  yeai"s).  He  added  to 
the  Satrapy  of  Parthia,  placed  a  Satrap  or 
Lieutenant  over  Commagene  and  Samaria, 
Kharkar,  Tel-Garimmi,  Gamgoum,  Ashdod, 
and  a  king  of  his  own  choice  over  Albania. 
He  seized  55  walled  cities  in  Armenia,  11, 
wiiich  were  held  to  be  "  inaccessible  fort- 
resses ; "  and  02  great  cities  in  Commagene ; 
34  in  Media ;  he  laid  tribute  on  the  "  king 
of  the  country  of  rivers."  He  removed 
whole  populations  at  his  will ;  from  Samaria, 
he  carried  captive  its  inhabitants,  27,800,  and 
jjlaced  them  in  "cities  of  the  Medes';"  he 
removed  those  of  Commagene  to  Elam;  all 
the  great  men  of  the  Tibareni,  and  the  in- 
habitants of  unknown  cities,  to  Assyria ; 
Cammanians,  whom  he  had  conquered,  to 
Tel-Garimmi,  a  capital  wliich  he  rebuilt; 
others  whom  he  had  vanquished  in  the  East 
he  ]>laced  in  Ashdod :  again  he  placed 
"Assyrians  devoted  to  his  empire"  among 
the  Tibareni  ;  inhabitants  of  cities  unknown 
to  us,  in  Damascus;  Chaldneans  in  Com- 
magene''. "'The  Comiikha  were  removed 
from  the  extreme  North  to  Susiana,  and 
Clialdieans  were  brought  from  the  extreme 
South  to  supply  their  place."  "  Seven  kings 
of  latnan,  seven  days'  voyage  oflf  in  the 
Western  seas,  whose  names  were  unknown  to 
the  kings"  his  "fathers,  hearing  of"  his 
"  deeds,  came  before"  him  to  Babylon  with 
"  presents ;  "  as  did  the  king  of  Asmoun,  who 
dwelt  in  the  midst  of  the  Eastern  sea  (the 
Pei-sian  gulf).  He  i)laced  his  statue,  "writ- 
ing on  it  the  glory  of  Asshur  his  master,"  in 
tlie  capital  of  Van,  in  Kikisim  (Circesium) 
as  also  in  Cyprus,  which  lie  does  not  name, 
but  where  it  has  been  discovered  in  this 
century™.  The  Moschian  king,  with  his 
3000  towns,  who  had  never  submitted  to  the 

port's  Inscriptions  .\ssyrionncs  des  .Sarijoiiides',  p. 
10-4(1,  extrafted  from  the  Annales  de  Philnsophie 
Chr^tienne  T.  vi.  p»  s^rie).  Oppert,  p.  8,  jiives  as 
the  meaning  of  his  name,  "actnal  king,"  "roi  de 
fait."  Sargon  himself,  if  Oppert  has  translated 
him  rightly,  gives  as  its  meaning,  "righteous 
prince,"  (ti-^jy)  p.  38. 

'  Rawl.  5  Emp.  ii.  423.  This  statement  is  not  in 
Oppert's  Inscriptions. 

■".Now  in  thf  Roval  Museum  at  Berlin.  I.avard, 
Bub.  i>.  ois, 


NAHUM. 


117 


kings  his  predecessors,  sent  his  submission 
and  tribute  to  liini. 

Sennacherib,  the  son  of  Sargon,  says  of 
himself,  "Assour,  the  great  Lord,  has  con- 
ferred on  me  sovereignty  over  the  peoples  ; 
lie  has  extended  my  dominion  over  all  those 
who  dwell  in  the  world.  From  the  upper 
Ocean  of  the  setting  sun  to  the  lower  Ocean 
of  the  rising  sun,  I  reduced  under  my  power 
all  who  carried  aloft  their  head."  He  de- 
feated Merodach  Baladan  and  the  king  of 
Elara  together";  took  in  one  expedition, 
""79  great  strong  cities  of  the  Chaldseans 
and  820  small  towns ; "  he  took  prisoners  by 
hundreds  of  thousands ;  200,150  in  his  first 
expedition  against  Hezekiah,  from  44  great 
walled  cities  which  he  took  and  little  villages 
innumerable  "  ;  208,000  from  tlie  Nabathseans 
and  Hagarenes  p  :  he  employed  on  his  great 
buildings  360,000  men,  gathered  from 
Chaldffia  and  Aramtea,  from  Cilicia  and 
Armenia  "J ;  he  conquered  populations  in  the 
Korth,  which  "  had  of  old  not  submitted  to 
the  kings  my  brothei-s  "■,"  annexed  them  to 
the  prefecture  of  Ari'apachitis  and  set  up  his 
image  ■■;  he  received  tribute  from  the  gov- 
ernor of  Khararaf,  wasted  the  2  residence- 
cities,  34  smaller  cities  of  Ispahara  king  of 
Albania,  joining  a  part  of  tlie  territory  to 
Assyria,  and  calling  its  city,  Ilhinzas,  the 
city  of  Sennacherib  * ;  he  reduced  countries 
of  "  Media,  whose  names  the  kings  his 
brothei-s  had  not  heard*;  he  set  a  king, 
Touljaal,  over  the  great  and  little  Sidon, 
Sarepta,  Achzib,  Acco,  Eetzitti,  Mahalliba ; 
the  kings  of  Moab,  Edoni,  Bet-Amman, 
Avvad,  Ashdod,  submitted  to  him ' ;  he  de- 
feated an  "  innumerable  host "  of  Egyptians 
at  Altakou"  [Elteke]  ;  sons  of  the  king  of 
Egypt  fell  into  his  hands;  he  captured 
Ascalon,  Bene-Barak,  Joppa,  Hazor";  put 
back  at  Amgarron  [Migron]  the  expelled 
king  Padi,  who  had  been  surrendered  to 
Hezekiah  ■'' ;  gave  portions  of  the  territory  of 
Hezekiah  to  the  kings  of  Ashdod,  Migron, 
Gaza  y ;  he  drove  Merodach-baladan  again  to 
Elam,  captured  his  brothers,  wasted  his 
cities,  and  placed  his  own  eldest  son,  Assur- 
nadin,  on  the  throne  of  Babylon  ^ ;  took  seven 
impregnable  cities  of  the  Toukharri,  placed 
like  birds' nests  on  the  mountains  of  Nipour^; 
conquered  the  king  of  Oukkou  in  Dayi,  among 
mountains  which  none  of  his  ancestois  had 
penetrated ;  took  Oukkou  and  33  other 
cities*;  attached  Elam,  "crossing"  the  Per- 
sian gulf  "  in  Syrian  vessels  * ; "  capturing 
the    men,   and    destroying    the    cities'*;  in 

"Oppert  Sarg.  p.  41. 

0  lb.  p.  45.  p  Layard  Bab.  p.  141. 

1  Rawl.  Her.  i.  476.  '  0pp.  pp.  42,  3.  '  lb.  p.  43. 
'pp.  43,  4.  »p.  44.  »pp.  44,  5.  y  p.  45. 
»p.  46.  "p.  47.  i>pp.  47, 8.  "pp.48. 
*pp.  49-51. 

«Polyhist.  in  Ens.  Chr.  i.  c.  5.  Abyden.  ib.  e.  9. 

'Rawl.  5  Emp.  ii.  456. 

I  Is.  X.  5-l.\  xxxvL  18-20.  *  Oppert  p.  53. 


another  campaign,  he  garrisoned,  witli  pris- 
oner-warriors of  his  own,  cities  in  Elam 
which  hib  father  had  lost  '^ ;  destroyed  34 
large  cities  and  others  innumerable  of  Elam  "=. 
His  account  of  his  reign  closes  with  a  great 
defeat  of  Elam,  whom  the  escaped  Souzoub 
had  hired  Avith  the  treasures  of  the  temples 
of  Babylon,  and  of  17  rebel  tribes  or  cities,  at 
Khalouli,  and  their  entire  subdual**.  He 
repelled  some  Greeks  in  Cilicia,  set  up  his 
image  there,  with  a  record  of  his  deeds,  and 
built  Tarsus,  on  the  model  of  Babylon  *.  It 
has  been  noticed,  what  a  "  keen  appreciation 
of  the  merits  of  a  locality'"  his  selection  of 
its  site  evinced.  The  destruction  of  his  army 
of  185,000  men,  at  the  word  of  God,  might 
well  deter  him  from  again  challenging  the 
Almighty  ;  but  we  have  seen,  in  the  wars  of 
Napoleon  I.,  that  such  losses  do  not  break 
the  poAver  of  an  empire.  It  was  no  vain 
boast  of  Sennacherib,  that  he  had  gathered  all 
the  earth,  and  carried  captive  the  gods  of  the  . 
nations.  The  boast  was  true  ;  the  application 
alone  was  impious.  God  owned  in  him  the 
instrument  which  He  had  formed,  the  rod  of 
His  anger.  He  condemned  him,  only  because 
the  axe  boasted  itself  against  Him  Who  hetoed 
therexiith.  Victorious,  except  when  he  fought 
against  God,  and  employed  by  God  to  tread^ 
doivn  the  people  as  the  mire  of  the  streets^,  Sen- 
nacherib was  cut  ofi'  as  God  foretold,  but  left 
his  kingdom  to  a  victorious  son. 

His  son,  Esarhaddon,  takes  titles,  yet  more 
lofty  than  those  of  Sennacherib.  He  calls 
himself,  "^  King  of  Assyria,  Vicar  of  Baby- 
lon, King  of  the  Sumirs  and  Accads,  King  of 
Egypt,  Meroe  and  Cush,  who  reigned  from 
sunrising  to  sun-set,  unequalled  in  the  im- 
position of  tributes."  In  Armenia,  he  killed 
Adrammelech  \  his  half-brother,  one  of  his 
father's  murderers,  who  fled  to  Armenia, 
probably  to  dispute  thence  his  father's  crown. 
In  every  direction  he  carried  his  conquests 
further  than  his  powerful  father''.  He 
speaks  of  conquests  in  the  i'ar  Media,  " '  where 
none  of  the  kings,  our  fathers,"  had  con- 
quered, wdiose  kings  bore  well-known  Per- 
sian names™. 

They  and  their  subjects  were  carried  off  to 
Assyria.  Others,  Avho  "  "  had  not  conspired 
against  the  kings  my  fathers  and  the  land  of 
Assyria,  and  whose  territories  my  fathers  had 
not  conquered,"  submitted  voluntarily  in 
terror,  paid  tribute  and  received  Assyrian 
governors.  In  the  West,  he  pursued  by  sea 
a  king  of  Sidon  who  rebelled,  divided  the 
Syrians   in    strange    countries,   aiid    placed 

'Abyden.  in  Eus.  Chron.  Arm.  p.  53. 

^  Tlie  murder  then  of  Sennaenerib  was  no  sign 
of  the  decadence  of  the  empire,  but  one  of  the 
common  fruits  of  the  polygamy  of  Eastern  mon- 
arohs. 

1  Oppert  pp.  56,  7.  "  Sitirparna  and  Iparna. 

o  lb.  Two  of  the  names  again,  Rawl.  ob.«erves  (5 
Emp.  ii.  473),  are  Aryan,  Zariasana  and  Kamatiya;  a 
3d  is  Arpis. 


ns 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


mountaineers,  wliuinliis  buw  liml  siilidued  in 
the  East,  with  a  governor,  in  a  castle  of 
Esarhaddon  which  he  built  in  Syria.  He 
warred  successlully  in  Cilicia,  Khoubousna, 
and  destroyed  10  large  cities  of  the  Tibareni 
and  carried  their  people  captive ;  trod  down 
the  country  of  Masnaki,  transported  rebels 
of  Van ;  he  established  on  the  Southern 
shore  that  son  of  Merodach-baladan  who  sub- 
mitted to  him,  removing  the  brother  who 
trusted  in  Elara,  himself  reigned  in  Baby- 
lon", whither  he  carried  Manasseh  p.  He 
reconquered  "  tlie  city  of  Adoumou  (Edom), 
(the  city  of  the  power  of  the  Arabs,)  which 
Sennacherib  had  conquered,  and  carried  ofl" 
its  people  to  Assyria  ;  "  he  named  as  Queen 
of  the  Arabs,  Tabouya,  born  in  his  palace ; 
put  the  son  of  Hazael  on  his  lather's  tin-one. 
An  expedition  to  "  *•  a  far  country  to  the  bounds 
of  the  earth  beyond  the  desert,"  Bazi  (Buz), 
reached  by  traversing  140  farsakhs  (?)  of  sandy 
desert,  then  20  larsakhs  (?)  of  fertile  land  and 
a  St  iny  region,  Khazi  (Uz),  looks  like  an  ex- 
pedition aci-oss  Arabia,  and,  if  so,  was  un- 
))aralleled  except  by  Nushirvan.  Some  of 
the  other  names  are  Arabic.  Anyhow,  it 
was  a  country,  whither  none  of  his  predeces- 
sors hail  gone  ;  he  killed  8  kings,  carried  off 
their  subjects  and  spoils.  He  conquered  the 
Gombouiou  in  their  marshes.  Twelve  kings 
on  the  coast  of  Syria  whom  he  recounts  by 
name,  ( Ba'lou  king  of  Tyre,  Manasseh  king 
of  Judah,  and  those  of  Edom,  Maan,  Gaza, 
Ascalon,  Amgarron,  Byblos,  Aradus,  Ousi- 
mouroun,  Bet-Ammon,  Ashdod)  and  10  kings 
of  Yatnan  in  the  sea  (Cyprus),— ^Egistlius 
(Ikistousi),  King  of  Idalion  (Idial),  Pytha- 
goras (Pitagoura)  K.  of  Citium  (Kitthim), 
Ki— ,K.  of  Salamis  (Silhimmi),  Ittodagon 
("Dagon  is  with  him,"  Itoudagon),  K.  of 
Paphos  (Pappa),  Euryalus  (Irieli),  K.  of 
Soli  (Sillon),  Damasou,  K.  of  Curium  (Kuri,) 
Ounagousou,  K.  of  Limenion  (Limini), 
Roumizu,  K.  of  Tamassus  (Tamizzi,)  Da- 
nmtsi  of  Amti-Khadasti,  Puhali  of  Aphro- 
disium  (Oupridissa)  ■■, — held  their  rule  from 
him. 

The  names  of  the  countries,  from  which  he 
brougiit  those  whom  he  settled  in  Samaria, 
attest  alike  his  strength  and  the  then  weak- 
ness of  two  of  the  nations,  which  afterward 
concurred  to  overthrow  his  empire.  The 
cokmists,  according  to  their  own  letters  to 
Artaxerxes^  comprehended,  among  others, 
linhijloniam ;  Ardievites  i.  e.  inhabitants  of 
Erech,  mentioned  in  Genesis',  as,  together 
with  Baliel,  jiart  of  the  beginning  of  the 
kingdom  of  Nimrod  ;  Susanchitca,  i.  e.  inhab- 

•  Babyl.  taljlet  in  Rawl.  Her.  i.  482. 
p2  Chr.  xxxiii.  11. 

1  Oppert  p.  GO.  Rawl.  5  Emp.  ii.  470,  J.  Oppert  does 
not  identify  the  ntimps  of  distanoes. 

•  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  483, 4.  6  Emp.  ii.  483,  Oppert  p.  58. 

•  Ezr.  iv.  9.  « Gen.  x.  10.  » 1. 125. 
«  Ritter  Erdk.  vil.  CCS.             J  Is.  -xxi.  2,  xxii.  G. 


itanls  of  Susiana  or  Chusistan ;  Dehnviifs, 
Daans  in  Herodotus ",  one  of  the  wandering 
Persian  tribes,  whose  name  (Taia)  still 
exists";  Elamites^,  or  the  dwellers  on  the 
Persian  gulf,  bordering  on  Susiana ;  Aphar- 
sitoi  or  tlie  Persians  in  their  original  abode 
in  Parana,  ParaiQ,  now  Farsistan.  It  seems 
also  probable  that  the  Aph'irsachites''  are 
those  more  known  to  us  as  Sacaj  or  Scythians, 
whom  Esarhaddon  says  that  he  conquered*; 
and  that  the  Apharsachthites  (with  the  same 
word  Aphar  prefixed)  are  the  Sittaceni  on 
the  Casi)ian.  The  Dinniies  and  the  Turphe- 
litcii  are  as  yet  unidentified,  unless  the  Tar- 
petes'*  of  the  Pains  Mseotis  near  the  Sittaceni, 
or  the  Tapiri  "  in  Media  be  a  corruption  of 
the  name.  The  Samaritan  settlers  add,  Aiul 
the  rest  of  the  nations,  tvhom  the  great  and  noble 
Asnapper  carried  captive,  and  settled  in  the  cities 
of  Samaria  and  the  rest  on  this  side  the  river. 
Under  this  general  term,  they  include  the 
Mesopotamia!!  settlers  brought  from  Avvali 
and  Sepharvaim,  and  those  from  Haraath'', 
probably  wishing  to  insist  to  the  Persian 
Monarch  on  their  Persian,  Median,  or  Baby- 
lonian descent.  They  attest  at  the  same  time 
that  their  forefathei-s  were  not  willingly 
removed  but  transported,  carried  into  exile^, 
and  accordingly  that  Esarhaddon,  in  whose 
reign  they  were  removed,  had  power  in  all 
these  countries.  The  condensation  also  of 
settlers  trom  twelve  nations  in  so  small  a 
space  as  the  cities  of  Samaria  (analogous  as 
it  is  to  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  over  so 
many  provinces  of  their  capto!-s)  illustrates 
the  policy  of  these  transportations,  and  the 
strength  which  they  gave  to  the  empire. 
Nations  were  blended  together  among  those 
foreign  to  them,  with  no  common  bond  ex- 
cept their  relation  to  their  conquei'or.  A 
check  on  those  around  them,  and  themselves 
held  in  check  by  them,  they  had  no  common 
home  to  which  to  return,  no  interest  to  serve 
by  rebelling.  Esarhaddon  built  3t)  temples 
in  Assyria  by  the  labor  of  foreign  slaves,  his 
captives,  who  worshiped  his  g<ids  '.  . 

This  coUectioi!  of  people  of  twelve  nations 
in  the  cities  of  Samaria  represents  moreover 
one  porticm  only  of  the  conquests  of  Esarhad- 
don, and,  for  the  most  part,  that  furthest  from 
Judiva.  For  the  principle  of  the  policy  was 
to  remove  them  far  fiom  their  owi!  land. 
Ethiopian  and  Egyptian  cajitivcs  would  be 
Ijlacecl,  not  here  whence  they  could  easily 
i-eturn,  but,  like  Israel  in  the  cities  of  the 
Medes,  whence  they  could  find  no  escape. 

The  son  of  Esarhaddon,  Asshurbanipal 
8 II.,  yet  further  enlarged  a!!d  consolidated 

•  Ezr.  V.  G.  Rawl.  Journ.  of  Asiat.  Soc.  xv.  p.  lt)4. 
«  Rawl.  Her.  i.  481.  >>  Strabo  xl.  2.  8.  11. 

•  Id.  xl.  8.  and  13.  2.  ^  2  Kgs  xvii.  24. 

•'^jn  Ezr.  iv.  10. 

« .\99yr.  texU  p.  16,  Oppert  p.  67,  Rawl.  6  Emp. 
ii.  482. 
f  Or  Asordanes,  Layard  Nin.  and  B.  p.  462. 


NAHUM. 


119 


the  cciiiquests  of  his  conquering  father.  His 
expeditions  into  Egypt  have  been  already 
dwelt  upon ;  his  victories  were  easy,  com- 
plete. Tirhaka,  himself  a  great  conqueror, 
lied  into  unknown  deserts  beyond  reach  of 
pursuits.  His  step-son  Urdaminie  attempted 
to  recover  liis  kingdom,  was  defeated  at  once, 
fled  and  his  capital  was  taken.  In  Asia,  he 
took  away  the  king  of  Tyre,  who  offended 
liim  ;  made  conquests  Ijeyond  Mt.  Taurus, 
where  his  fathers  had  never  been'' ;  received 
an  embassy  from  Gyges  ;  attached  to  Assyria 
a  tract  of  Minni  or  Pei-sarmenia,  took  the 
capital  of  Minni ;  took  Shushan '  and  Ba- 
daca,  slew  their  kings,  united  Susiana  to 
Babylonia;  subdued  anew  Edom,  Moab, 
Kedar,  the  Nabatha?ans;  i-eceived  the  sub- 
mission of  the  king  of  Urarda,  Ararat ''. 
While  Assyria  was  extended  wider  than 
before,  its  old  enemies  were  more  incorporated 
with  it,  or,  at  least,  more  subdued ;  it  was 
more  at  one  within  itself.  Egypt,  the  great 
rival  Empire,  had  tried  to  shake  off  the  yoke, 
but  was  subdued  ;  no  people  in  Syria  or  the 
valley  of  the  Euplirates  stii'red  itself;  the 
\\'hole  tract  within  the  Taurus,  once  so  rife 
with  enemies,  lay  hushed  under  his  rule  : 
hushed  were  the  Hittites,  Hamathites,  the 
(Syrians  of  Damascus,  the  Tibareni  who  had 
once  held  their  own  against  his  father  ;  war 
was  only  at  the  very  extremities,  in  Minni 
or  Edom,  and  tliat,  rather  chastisement  than 
war  ;  Babylon  wa.s  a  tranquil  portion  of  liis 
empire,  except  during  the  temporary  rebellion 
of  the  brother,  whom  he  had  placed  over  it, 
and  whom  he  pardoned.  His  death,  amid 
the  tranquil  promotion  of  literature ',  when 
he  had  no  more  enemies  to  conquer  or  rebels 
to  chasten,  left  his  empire  at  the  zenith  of 
its  power,  some  22  years  before  its  destruc- 
tion. Calno  had  become,  as  Sennacherib 
boasted"",  like  Carchemisk;  Hamath  like 
Arpad ;  Samaria  o.s  Damascus.  He"  hod 
removed  the  bounds  of  the  people  and  gathered 
all  the  earth,  as  one  galhereth  eggs,  left  by  the 
parent  bird,  undefended  even  by  its  impotent 
love.  Tliei'e  was  not  a  cloud  on  the  horizon, 
not  a  token  whence  the  whirlwind  would 
come.  The  bas-reliefs  attest,  that  neither 
the  energy  nor  the  cruelty  of  the  Assyrians 
were  diminished  °. 

Of  those  twenty-two  yeai-s,  we  have  noth- 
ing reliable  except  their  close.  There  was 
probably  nothing  to  relate.  There  would 
not  be  anything,  if  Asshurbanipal  had  con- 
solidated his  empire,  as  he  seems  to  have 
done,  and  if  liis  son  and  successor  inherited 
his  father's  later  tastes,  and  was  free  from  the 
thirst    of   boundless    conquest,    which    had 


^  Raw),  remarks  that  the  names  are  new. 

'  The  name  is  spelt  as  in  Daniel. 

k  Rawl.  5  Emp.  li.  484r-93. 

"» Is.  X.  9. 

-  lb.  13, 14. 

•  See  plates  in  Layard  Nin.  and  B.  pp.  457, 8.  Kawl. 


1  lb.  495,  6. 


characterized  the  earlier  rulei-^  of  Assyria. 
Anyhow,  we  know  nothing  authentic.  The 
invasion  of  Assyria  by  Phraortes,  which 
Herodotus  relates,  is  held,  on  good  grounds, 
to  be  a  later  history  of  a  rebellion  against 
Darius  Hystaspes,  adapted  to  times  before  the 
Medes  became  one  nation  p.  There  was  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  have  been  recorded, 
had  it  taken  place,  since  it  is  admitted  to 
have  been  a  total  defeat,  in  whicli  Phraortes 
lost  his  life  i.  The  invasion  of  the  Scythians, 
which  is  to  have  stopped  the  siege  of  Nine- 
veh under  Cyaxares,  was  reported  in  a  mani- 
festly exaggerated  form  to  Herodotus.  The 
28  yeai-s,  during  which  Herodotus  relates  the 
Scythian  rule  to  have  lasted  '',  is  longer  than 
the  whole  of  the  reign  of  the  last  king  of 
Assyria ;  and  yet,  according  to  Herodotus,  is 
to  have  been  interposed  between  the  two 
sieges  of  Cyaxares.  And  as  its  empire  gave 
no  sign  of  decay,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  its 
history  Avithin  22  yeai-s  before  its  destruction, 
so,  with  the  like  rapidity,  did  the  empire 
rise,  which  was  to  destroy  it.  The  account 
which  Herodotus  received,  that  the  Medians 
had  thrown  off'  the  yoke  of  Assyria  before 
Deioces^,  is  in  direct  contradiction  to  the 
Assyrian  inscriptions.  Tliis  was,  they  state, 
the  time,  not  of  the  revolt,  but  of  the  con- 
quest of  Media.  They  are  confirmed  by 
Holy  Scripture,  which  says  tiiat  the  Assyrian 
king  [Sargon]  placed  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes ' 
his  Israelitish  captives.  The  utmost,  which 
Herodotus  ascribes  to  Deioces  however,  is, 
that  he  consolidated  the  six  Median  tribes 
and  built  a  capital,  Agbatana ".  It  is  an 
union  of  wild  hordes  into  one  people,  held 
together  for  the  time  by  the  will  of  one  man 
and  by  their  weariness  of  mutual  oppressions. 
Even  according  to  their  accounts,  Cyaxares 
(about  B.  C.  633,  i.  e.  8  years  before  "the  foil 
of  Nineveh)  first  oi'ganized  the  Median  army ; 
the  Greeks,  in  the  time  of  ^schylus,  believed 
Cyaxares  to  have  been  the  first  of  the  Median 
kings  ^ ;  rebels  in  Media  and  Sagartia  claimed 
the  Median  throne  against  Darius,  as  de- 
scended from  Cyaxares,  as  the  founder  of  the 
Monarchy  ^'. 

Further,  the  subsequent  history  supports 
the  account  of  Abydenus  against  Herodotus, 
that  not  the  Medes,  but  the  rebel  general  of 
the  last  Monarch  of  Nineveh  was,  with  his 
Babylonian  troops,  the  chief  author  of  the 
destruction  of  Nineveh.  The  chief  share  of 
the  spoil,  where  no  motives  of  refined  policy 
intervene,  falls  to  the  strongest,  who  had 
chief  portion  in  the  victory.  "  The  Medes," 
says  Herodotus,  "took  Nineveh,  and  con- 
quered all  Assyria,  except  the  Babylonian 

5  Emp.  iii.  504,  and  Layard  Monuments  Ser.  2.  PI. 
47,  49.  quoted  lb. 

p  Rawl.  Herod,  i.  408,  9.  i  Herod,  i.  402. 

'lb.  106.  •  i.  95,  6.  ' 2  Kgs  xvii.  6. 

"  Her.  i.  101.  »  Persse  761-4. 

7  Behistun  Inscr.,  quoted  by  Rawl,  Her.  i.  409.      j 


120 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


portion  »."  But  Babylon  was  no  spared  pro- 
vince, escaping  with  its  independence  as  a 
gain.  Baljylonia,  not  Media,  succeeded  to 
tlie  Southern  and  Western  dominions  of  the 
Assyrian  empire,  and  the  place,  wliere  Nine- 
veh hud  stood,  Cyaxares  retainini^  the  North. 
This  was  a  friendly  arrangement,  since  sub- 
seijuently  too  we  hnd  a  Babylonian  prince  in 
the  expe  lition  of  Cyaxares  against  Asia 
Minor,  and  Medians  assisting  Nebuchadnez- 
zar against  the  king  of  Egypt".  Abydenus 
repi-eseiits  the  Babylonians  and  Medes,  as 
equal'',  but  exhibits  the  rebel  general,  as  the 
author  of  the  attack.  ""After  him  [Sarda- 
napal],  Sarac  held  the  empire  of  Assyria, 
who,  being  informed  of  a  horde  of  mini;le(l 
troops  which  were  coming  against  him  from 
the  sea,  sent  Busalossor  [Nebopalassar]  gen- 
eral of  his  army,  to  Babylon.  But  he,  hav- 
ing determined  to  revolt,  betrothed  to  his 
son,  Nebuchodrossor,  Amuhea,  daughter  of 
Asdahao:,  prince  of  the  Medes,  and  soon  made 
a  rapid  attack  on  Nineveh.  King  Sai-ac, 
Aviien  he  knew  the  whole,  set  the  palace 
Evorita  on  lire.  Then  Nebuchodrossor, 
attaining  to  the  empire,  encircled  Babylon 
with  strong  walls." 

The  " horde  of  mingled  troops"  "from  the 
sea  "  were  probably  those  same  Susians  and 
Elymseans,  whom  the  Assyrians  had,  in  suc- 
cessi/e  reigns,  defeated.  If  the  account  of 
Herodotus  were  true,  the  father  of  the  Median 
Monarch  had  perished  in  conflict  with  Assy- 
ria. The  grandfather  of  the  Assyrian 
Monarch  had  himself  reigned  in  Babylon. 
Assyria  ruled  Babylon  by  viceroys  to  the 
end.  It  has  been  noticed  that  Nahum 
mentions  no  one  enemy  who  should  destroy 
Nineveh.  True,  for  no  one  enemy  did 
destroy  her. 

Even  now  its  fall  is  unexplained.  The 
conquests  of  its  Monarchs  had  not  been  the 
victories  of  talented  individuals.  They  were 
a  race  of  world-wide  ccmquerors.  In  the 
whole  history,  of  which  we  have  the  annals, 
they  are  always  on  the  aggressive.  They 
exacted  tribute  where  they  willed.  The  tide 
of  time  bore  them  on  in  their  conquests. 
Their  latest  conquests  were  the  most  distant. 
Egypt,  her  early  rival,  had  been  subdued  by 
her.  The  i)owers,  which  did  destroy  her, 
liad  no  common  bond  of  interest.  They 
were  united,  for  one  reign,  not  by  natural 
interests,  but,  as  far  as  we  see,  by  the  ambi- 
tion of  two  individuals.  These  crushed,  at 
oncean<l  for  ever.tiiecmpire  which  forsomany 
centuries  had  been  the  ravager  of  the  world. 
But  wh(j  could  have  foreseen  such  a  combi- 
nation and  such  results,  save  God,  in  Whose 
liands  are  human  wills  and  the  fate  of  empires? 

■  i.  lOfi.  •  Rawl.  Herofl.  i.  41fi,  6. 

•>Conf.  Tobit  xiv.  15.  "Before  he  died,  he  heard 
of  the  destruction  of  Nineveh,  which  was  taken  by 
Nahiiohonosor  and  Ahasueru.s." 

"  Euaeb.  Chron.  P.  1.  c.  6. 


The  fiery  empire  of  conquerors  sank  like  a 
tropic  sun.  Its  wrath  had  burned,  unas- 
suaged,  "from"  (in  tlieir  own  words)  "the 
rising  to  the  setting  sun."  No  gathering 
cloud  had  tempered  its  heat  or  allayed  its 
violence.  Just  ere  it  set,  in  tiiose  last  hours 
of  its  course,  it  seemed,  as  if  in  its  meridian. 
Its  bloodstained  disk  cast  its  la.st  glowing  rays 
on  that  field  of  carnage  in  Susiana ;  then, 
without  a  twilight,  it  sank  beneath  those 
stormy  waves,  so  strangely  raised,  at  once  and 
for  ever.  All,  at  once,  was  night.  It  knew 
no  morrow. 

Its  fall  is  inexplicable  still.  It  may  have 
accelerated  its  own  destruction  by  concentrat- 
ing the  fierce  Challecs  at  Bal)ylon.  It  was 
weakened  by  the  revolt  of  its  own  general, 
and  witli  himthe  defection  of  an  army.  Still, 
in  those  days,  the  city  of  1200  towers,  each 
200  leet  high,  its  ordinary  wall  100  feet  high 
and  of  such  breadth,  that  three  chariots 
could  drive  on  it  abreast  •*,  could  not  be  taken 
by  mounds,  e.Kcept  by  some  most  gigantic 
army  with  patience  inexhaustible.  Famine 
could  not  reduce  a  city,  which,  in  its  60  miles 
in  circumference,  enclosed,  like  Babylon, 
space  for  ^much  ca«/e, and  which  could,  within 
its  walls,  grow  corn  enough  for  its  popula- 
tion of  600,000.  With  its  perennial  supply 
of  provision,  it  might  have  laughed  to  scorn 
a  more  formidable  foe  than  the  Medes,  Ela- 
mites  and  Babylonians,  unaccustomed  to 
sieges,  except  in  as  far  as  any  had  fought  in 
its  armies,  while  the  Ninevites  possessed  the 
hereditary  skill  of  centuries.  Babylon, 
smaller  than  Nineveh*^,  was  at  rest  amidst  the 
siege  of  the  more  powerful  grandson  of 
Cyaxares.  Cyrus  could  only  take  it  by  strat- 
agem ;  Darius  liystaspes,  by  treachery.  Then, 
every  Ninevite  was  a  warrior.  Their  de- 
scendants, the  Curds,  are  still  among  the 
fiercest  and  most  warlike  people  of  Asia. 
The  bas-rcliel's,  which  bear  internal  evidence 
of  truth,  exhibit  a  wonderful  blending  of  in- 
dondtable  strength  of  will,  recklessness  of 
suffering,  inherent  physical  energy,  unim- 
paired by  self-indulgence.  A  German  writer 
on  art  says  ^,  "  You  recognize  a  strong  thick- 
set race,  of  very  powerful  frame,  yet  inclined 
to  corpulence,  a  very  peculiar  blending  of 
energy  and  luxury. — The  general  impression 
of  the  figures,  whether  men,  women  or 
eunuchs,  has  uniforndy  something  earnest 
and  imposing."  An  English  writer  says  still 
more  vividly;  """.Vll  the  figures  indicate 
great  physical  development,  animal  propen- 
sities very  strongly  marked,  a  calm,  settled 
ferocity,  a  perfect  nonchalance  amidst  the 
most  terrible  scones ;  no  change  of  feature 
takes  place,  whether  the  individual  is  inflict- 

*  Diod.  Sic.  ii.  3.  •Jon.  iv.  11. 

'.Straho  xvi.  p.  757. 

(  Knirl'T  Kunst-Oeschlchte,  (2)  p.  76,  6.  In  Straus* 
Nahinn  p.  li. 
>"  Edwards  iu  Kitto  Scr.  Lands,  pp.  50, 1. 


NAHUM. 


121 


ing  I  ir  experiencing  horrid  sufferings. — The 
pictures  are  very  remarkable  as  indicating 
the  entire  absence  of  higher  mental  and 
moral  qualities :  and  the  exuberance  of  bru- 
tal parts  of  man's  nature.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  not  wanting  a  certain  consciousness 
of  dignity  and  of  inherent  power.  There  is 
a  tranquil  energy  and  fixed  determination, 
which  will  not  allow  the  beholder  to  feel  any 
contempt  of  those  stern  warriors." 

How  then  could  it  fall  ?  The  prophecy  of 
Nahum  describes,  with  terrible  vividness,  a 
siege  ;  the  rousing  of  its  king  from  a  torpor 
of  indolence ;  '  he  remembereth  his  nobles  ;  the 
orderly  advance,  the  confused  preparations 
for  defence ;  and  then,  when  expectation  is 
strung,  and  we  see  besiegers  and  besieged 
prepared  for  the  last  decisive  strife,  there  is 
a  sudden  pause.  No  human  strength  over- 
throws the  city.  ^  The  gates  of  the  rivers  shall 
be  opened,  and  the  palace  shall  be  dissolved.  And 
it  is  decreed,  she  shall  be  led  away  captive.  Her 
captivity  follows  on  the  opening  of  the  gates 
of  the  rivers.  The  rivers,  ordinarily  her 
strength,  were  also  her  weakness.  The  an- 
nals of  Sennacherib  relate,  how  he  repaired 
a  palace  which  had  been  undermined  by  tlie 
Tigris.  " '  The  small  palace,  which  was  be- 
come very  ruinous  in  every  part,  because  the 
river  Tigris,  during  16  years,  had  under- 
mined and  ravaged  it,  [I  repaired.]"  Diony- 
sius,  the  Jacobite  Patriarch,  relates  how  in 
his  own  time,  A.  D.  763,  "  ™the  Tigris,  over- 
flowing, laid  waste  all  the  towns  around  it, 
and  especially  Mosul  "  (opposite  to  Nineveh). 
Barhebrseus,  in  four  different  years,  mentions 
the  destruction  of  houses  in  Bagdad  through 
the  overflow  of  the  Tigris  °.  He  mentions 
also  a  city-wall,  overthrown  by  an  inunda- 
tion, so  that  3000  men  were  drowned  in  their 
houses  °.  Ives  relates  p  ;  "  The  Bishop  (of 
Babylon)  remembers  that"  about  1733  "the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris  were  so  overflown,  that 
the  whole  country  between  them  appeared  as 
one  large  sea.  Over  all  the  plain  between 
Bagdad  and  Hilla,  people  could  pass  only  in 
boats.  The  Avater  flowed  quite  up  to  the 
glacis,  the  ditch  was  full,  the  city  also  over- 
flown, and  the  foundation  of  most  of  the 
buildings  hurt ;  300  houses  were  entirely  de- 
stroyed. To  prevent  as  much  as  possible  " 
the  recurrence  of  such  a  calamity,  "the 
Turks  now  face  the  foundation-wall  of  their 
houses  with  a  composition  of  charcoal,  ashes, 
and  Demar  (bitumen)."  "The  river  Kho- 
sar,"  also,  which  would  be  swollen  by  the 
same  causes  as  the  Tigris,  "entered  the  city," 
says  Ainsworth  i,  "  by  an  aperture  in  the 
walls  on  the  East  side,  which  appears  to  have 

•  ii.  5,  [6.]        k  ii.  6,  7.  [7, 8.]       '  Assjrr.  Texts  p.  7. 
"  Ass.  B.  0.  ii.  112. 

"  A.  D.  835,  941,  988, 1211.  Barh.  p.  153,  188,  20-1.  500. 
» lb.  p.  153.  p  Voyage  1773.  p.  281. 

1  Travels  ii.  142,  3.  >■  Koordistan,  ii.  56. 

» lb.  p.  64.  '  Lavard  N.  and  B.  p.  77. 


formed  part  of  the  original  plan  and  to  have 
been  pi-otected  by  a  gatowav  and  Malls, 
vestiges  of  which  still  remain."  "Tlie 
Khausser,"  says  Mr.  Kich  ■■,  "  is  generally 
drawn  ofl'  for  irrigating  the  cotton-planta- 
tions in  the  alluvial  ground  of  the  river; 
when  it  is  much  overflowed,  it  discharges  it- 
self into  the  Tigris  above  the  bridge." 
"*The  Khausser  now  [Dec.  1.  after  "  very 
heavy  tropical  rain,"]  discharges  itself  direct 
into  the  Tigris,  and  brings  an  immense  body 
of  water."  " '  After  rain,  it  becomes  an  im- 
petuous torrent,  overflowing  its  banks  and 
carrying  all  before  it."  "^The  stone-bridge 
was  carried  away  one  night  by  the  violence 
of  the  Khausser,  on  a  sudden  inundation." 
On  a  lesser  swelling  of  the  river, — "'the 
water-wheels  were  removed "  in  precaution 
"and  the  bridge  of  boats  opened."  Cazwini, 
the  Arabic  geographer,  speaks  of  " "  the 
rivers  of  Nineveh." 

Ctesias,  being  a  writer  of  suspected  author- 
ity, cannot  salely  be  alleged  in  proof  of  the 
fulfillment  of  prophecy.  Yet  in  this  case  his 
account,  as  it  is  in  exact  conformity  with  the 
obvious  meaning  of  the  prophecy  of  Nahum, 
so  it  solves  a  real  difficulty,  how  Nineveh,  so 
defended,  could  have  fallen.  It  seems  cer- 
tain that  the  account  of  the  siege  taken  from 
him  by  Diodorus,  is  that  of  the  last  siege.  It 
has  been  remarked  "  that  the  only  event  of 
the  siege,  known  from  any  otlier  source,  viz. 
that  the  last  Assyrian  king,  when  he  had 
learned  the  combination  of  the  Medes  and 
Babylonians  against  him,  set  fire  to  his  pal- 
ace, is  related  also  by  Ctesias.  Ctesias  has 
also  the  same  fact,  that  the  Babylonian  re- 
volt was  recent ;  the  name  of  the  revolted 
general  in  Ctesias,  Belisis,  is  the  latter  half 
of  that  given  to  him  by  Abydenus^,  Nebo- 
palassar,  omitting  only  the  name  of  the  god, 
Nebo.  The  rest  of  the  history  is  in  itself 
probable.  The  success  of  the  Assyrian  mon- 
arch at  first  against  the  combined  armies,  and 
the  consequent  revelry,  are  that  same  blend- 
ing of  fierceness  and  sensuality  which  is 
stamped  on  all  the  Assyrian  sculptures,  con- 
tinued to  the  end.  The  rest  of  his  relation, 
which,  on  account  of  the  facts  of  nature, 
which  we  know,  but  which,  since  they  are 
gathered  from  sources  so  various,  Ctesias 
probably  did  not  know,  is,  in  itself,  probable, 
accounts  for  what  is  unaccounted  for,  and 
corresponds  with  the  words  of  Nahum.  It  is, 
"  *  Sardanapalus,  seeing  the  whole  kingdom 
in  the  greatest  danger,  sent  his  three  sons 
and  two  daughters  with  much  wealth  to 
Paphlagonia  to  Cotta  the  Governor,  being 
the  best-disposed  of  his  subjects.   He  himself 

«  Quoted  by  Tuch  de  Nino  urbe  p.  24. 

»Rawl.  Her.  i.  413. 

r  Abydenus  in  Euseb.  Chron.  Can.  P.  i.  c.  9. 

"In'Diod.  Sic.  ii.  27.  Diodorus  lias  "Euphrates" 
in  conformity  with  his  own  error,  that  Nineveh  was 
on  that  river. 


122 


INTRODrC'TIOX  TO 


sent  liy  nn-sengei-s  to  all  his  subjects  for 
lorces,  an  I  prepared  what  was  needed  for  the  1 
siege.  He  had  an  oracle  handed  down  from 
his  forefathers,  that  no  one  should  take  'Sine-  ] 
veh,  unless  the  river  fii-st  became  an  enemy 
to  the  city.  Conceiving  that  this  never 
would  be,  he  held  to  his  hopes,  purposing  to 
abide  the  siege  and  awaited  the  armies  to  be 
sent  by  his  subjects."  "  The  rebels,  elated  by 
their  sufcesses,  set  themselves  to  the  siege, 
but  on  ac-ount  of  the  strength  of  the  walls, 
could  in  no  wise  injure  those  in  the  city." 
"  But  these  had  great  abundani-e  of  all  nec- 
essaries through  the  foresight  of  the  king. 
The  siege  then  being  prolonged  for  two  years, 
they  pressed  upon  it ;  assaulting  the  walls 
and  cutting  off  those  therein  from  any  exit 
into  the  country."  "  In  the  3d  year,  the 
river,  swollen  i)y  continuous  and  violent 
rains,  inundated  a  part  of  the  city  and  over- 
threw 20  stadia  of  the  wall.  Then  the  king, 
thinking  tltat  the  oracle  was  fulfilled,  and 
tliat  the  river  was  plainly  an  enemy  to  tiie 
city,  despaired  of  safety.  And,  not  to  fall 
into  the  enemy's  hands,  he  maile  an  exceed- 
ing great  pile  in  the  palace,  heaped  up  there 
all  the  gold  and  silver  and  the  royal  apparel, 
and  having  shut  up  his  concubines  and 
eunuclis  in  the  house  formed  in  the  midst  of 
the  pile,  consume  I  himself  and  all  the  roy- 
alties with  them  all.  The  rebels,  hearing 
that  Sardanapalus  had  perished,  p.wsessed 
themselves  of  the  city,  entering  by  the  broken 
part  of  the  wall." 

Yet  Nahum  had  also  prophesied  ^  ;  "  -the 
tire  shall  devour  thy  bars;"  "fortify  thy 
strong  holds,  there  shall  the  fire  devour 
thee;"  "I  will  burn  her  chariots  in  the 
smoke,"  and  all  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  still 
speak  from  beneath  the  earth  where  they  lie 
interred,  that,  overthrown  as  they  have  been 
by  some  gigantic  power,  fire  consumed  them 
within.  ""^The  palaces  of  Khorsabad  (Dur 
.Sarjina)  and  Nimrud  shew  eipial  traces  of 
fire  with  those  of  Koyunjik."  "  "*  The  recent 
e.xcavations  have  shown  tiiat  fire  was  a  great 
instrument  in  the  destruction  of  the  Nineveh 
palaces.  Calcined  alabaster,  masses  of  charred 
wood  and  charcoal,  colossal  statues  split 
through  with  the  heat,  are  met  with  in  parts 
of  the  Ninevite  movmds,  and  attest  the  ver- 
acity of  i)rophecy."  ""It  is  evident  from 
the  ruins  that  Khorsabad  and  Nimroud  were 
sacked,  and  set  on  fire." 

Yet  this  does  not  exhaust  the  fullness  of 
the  prophecy.  Nahum  not  only  foretold  the 
destruction  of  Nineveh,  that  it  should  be 
nnply,   void,   louate,  there    is  no  healing  of  Ihy 

»>  iii.  13. 1.5.  ii.  13. 

•Rawl.  Horofl.  i.  48S.  quoting  "Lavarrl  Nin.  nnd 
its  Remfiins  i.  12,  '27,  40.  ic.  Nin.  and  B.  [of  Nimrud] 
p.  351,  357,  a'jg.  Ac.  Vaux  Nineveh  and  Persepolis 
p.  196-8.  Botta  Lcttf  r  ii.  p.  '.'0.  iii.  p.  41.  Ao."  "  They 
[the  human-lieadod  bulls]  had  sufTon-d,  like  all  those 
previously  duicovercd,  from  the  fire."    Lay.  N.and  B. 


bruise,  but  in  emphatic  words,  that  Its  site 
also  should  be  a  desolation.  With  are  over- 
running flond  He  s/taW  make  the  place  thereuj 
{mr/coinni!)  a  iUvolation',  This  was  then  new 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Cities  have  re- 
mained, while  empires  passed  away.  Rome, 
Constantinople,  Athens,  Damascus,  Alexan- 
dria, Venice,  abide,  although  their  political 
miglit  is  extinct.  No  or  Thebes  itself  sur- 
vived its  capture  by  Sargon  and  a  yet  later 
loss  of  its  inhabitants  nearly  two  centuries, 
when  the  more  fatal  conquest  of  Cambyses, 
and  perhaps  the  rise  of  Memphis  perpetu- 
ated its  destruction.  Nahum  foretells  em- 
phatically as  to  Nineveh,  "  He  will  make  the 
place  thereof  an  utter  consumption."  Not 
only  would  God  destroy  the  then  Nineveh  ; 
but  tlie  very  place  or  site  thereof  should  be 
an  utter  desolation.  There  was,  then,  no  in- 
stance of  so  great  a  city  passing  away.  Such 
had  not  been  Babylonian,  Assyrian,  Egyp- 
tian policy.  It  had  become  an  established 
policy  in  Sennaciierib's  time  to  remove  popu- 
lations, not  to  destroy  cities.  And  these  two 
policies  were  incompatible.  For  a  conqueror 
who  would  remove  populations  must  have, 
whither  to  remove  them.  Nineveh  itself 
had  conquered  Babylon  and  Shushan,  and 
the  cities  of  the  Medes ;  but  had  placed  her 
own  lieutenants  in  them.  The  mere  de- 
struction of  such  a  city  as  Nineveh  was  "  con- 
trary to  experience."  Even  later  than  this, 
Babylon,  notwithstanding  its  rebellions,  was 
spared  by  its  first  conqueror,  and  survived  to 
be  the  grave  of  its  second,  Alexander.  Xeno- 
phon  describes  Nineveh  under  the  name  of 
Mespila  (of  which  Mosul  has  been  supposed 
to  i)e  a  corruption)  "^a  wall,  void,  large, 
lying  against  the  city — the  basement  was  of 
polished  stone,  full'of  shells,  its  width  50 
feet,  its  height  50  feet.  Thereon  was  built  a 
wall  of  brick,  its  breadth  50  feet,  the  height 
100;  the  circuit  was  six  ftirsangs,"  i.e.  22.1 
miles.  The  shell  remained;  the  tumult  of  life 
was  gone.  Its  protecting  bulwarlcs  remained  ; 
all,  which  they  protected,  had  disappeared. 
They  had  forgotten  already  on  thespotwlmt  it 
had  l)een  or  by  whom  it  h;id  perished.  '"'The 
Medes  inliabiteil  it  formerly.  It  was  said  that 
^ledia,  a  king's  wife,  had  fled  thither,  when  the 
Medes  were  losing  their  power  through  the 
Persians.  The  Persian  king,  besieging  this 
city,  could  not  take  it,  either  by  time  or  force ; 
but  Zeus  made  the  inhabitants  senseless,  and 
so  it  was  taken."  .\  little  later,  Alexander 
marched  over  its  site  to  gain  tiie  world,  not 
knowing  that  a  world-empire,  like  that  wliich 
he  gave  his  life  to  found,  was  buried  under 

p.  71.    "  It  [the  wall]  contained  pome  fragments  of 
calcined  sculptured  alabaster,  evidently  detached 
from  the  ba.s-rclicfs  on  the  walls."    lb.  Add  of  Kou- 
yuniik,  Athenmiim  N.  9CX).  Jan.  26. 1845.  p.  99. 
<i  IU\\\.  lb.  note  2. 

•  Honomi  p.  4(il.  M.S. 

I      cAnab.  iii.  4.  lU.  ^ib.  12. 


NAHUM. 


12;J 


his  feet'.  Gaugamela,  near  which  Darius 
lost  his  empire,  must  have  been  close  to  its 
site.  Yet  tliree  centuries,  and  history,  not 
its  mere  neighbors  only,  had  forgotten  when 
it  had  perished.  Strabo  says ",  "  It  was 
effaced  immediately  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Syrians."  Nearly  two  centuries  later  is 
Lucian's  saying,  "  '  Nineveh  h;is  perished, 
and  there  is  no  trace  lelt  where  it  once  was." 
Yet  before  this  time,  in  the  reign  of  Claudius, 
the  Romans  had  built  a  new  Nineveh  which 
they  called  by  his  name  "  Ninive  Claudiopo- 
lis."  In  the  Gth  centuiy,  it  is  mentioned  as 
a  Christian  see "".  Its  episcopate  was  taken 
away,  probably  on  account  of  its  decline, 
early  in  the  9th  century  ;  and  it  was  united 
to  Mosul  °.  It  was  still  in  being  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  14th  century ".  Yet,  in  tlie 
i2th  century,  as  a  whole,  "Pit  was  desolate, 
but  there  were  there  many  villages  and  cas- 
tles." This  was  not  the  Nineveh  of  pro- 
phecy ;  but  it  too  was  swept  away,  and  a  few 
coins  alone  attest  the  existence  of  the  Ro- 
man city.  "  The  city,  and  even  the  ruins  of 
the  city,"  relates  Gibbon  "^  of  the  last  victory 
of  Heraclius,  "  had  long  since  disappeared ; 
the  vacant  space  afforded  a  spacious  field  for 
the  operation  of  the  two  armies."  A  line  of 
lofty  mounds,  on  the  East  of  Tigris,  long  drew 
but  a  momentary  gaze  from  the  passers-by ;  a 
few  cottages  surmounted  the  heaps,  which 
entombed  the  palaces  of  king's,  wlio  were  the 
terror  of  the  East;  the  plough  turned  up, 
unheeded,  the  bricks,  whicli  recorded  their 
deeds ;  the  tide  of  war  swept  over  it  anew  ; 
the  summer's  sands  again  filled  up  "  ■■  the 
stupendous  mass  of  brick-work,  occasionally 
laid  bare  by  the  winter  rains."  Tlie  eyes 
rested  on  nothing  but  "  "■  the  stern  shapeless 
mound,  rising  like  a  hill  from  the  scorclied 
plain."  " '  The  traveler  is  at  a  loss  to  give 
any  form  to  tlie  rude  heaps,  upon  whicli  he 
is  gazing.  Those  of  whose  Avorks  they  are 
the  remains,  unlike  the  Roman  and  the 
Greek,  have  left  no  visible  traces  of  their 
civilization  or  of  their  arts ;  their  influence 
has  long  since  passed  away.  The  scene 
around  him  is  wortliy  of  the  ruin  he  is  con- 
templating ;  desolation  meets  desolation ;  a 
feeling  of  awe  succeeds  to  wonder,  for  there 
is  nothing  to  relieve  the  mind,  to  lead  to 
hope,  or  to  tell  of  what  has  gone  by.  Those 
huge  mounds  of  Assyria  made  a  deeper  im- 
pression upon  me,  gave  rise  to  more  serious 
thoughts  and  more  earnest  reflection,  than 
the  temples  of  Baalbec  and  the  theatres  of 
Ionia." 

'  It  is  noticed,  that  Arrian  alone  mentions  the 
name  of  Nineveh ;  and  he  too  speaks  of  it,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  course  of  the  Tigris,  not  of  the  battle. 
"The  lake,  into  which  the  Tigris  discharges  itself, 
which,  flowing  by  the  city  Ninus  formerly  a  great 
and  wealthy  citv,  forms  the  country  between  it 
[Tigris]  and  the  JEuphrates."    Ind.  p.  197.  ed.  Vail. 

^xvif.  1.  3.  'Charon  c.  23. 

■  See  Ass.  B.  O.  iii.  1.  p.  104. 


In  1827,  Buckingham  still  wrote  ' ;  "  we 
came  in  about  an  hour  to  the  [)rincipal 
mounds  whicli  are  thought  to  mark  the  site  of 
the  ancient  Nineveh.  There  are  four  of 
these  mounds,  disposed  in  the  form  of  a  square; 
and  these,  as  they  shew  neither  bricks,  stones, 
nor  other  materials  of  building,  but  are  in 
many  places  overgrown  with  grass,  resemble 
the  mounds  left  by  entrenchments  and  forti- 
fications of  ancient  Roman  camps.  The 
longest  of  these  mounds  runs  nearly  N.  and 
8.  and  consists  of  several  ridges  of  unequal 
height,  the  whole  appearing  to  extend  for 
four  or  five  miles  in  length.  There  are 
three  other  distinct  mounds,  which  are  all 
near  to  the  river,  and  in  the  direction  of  E. 
and  W. — There  are  appearances  of  mounds 
and  ruins  extending  for  several  miles  to  the 
southward  ;  and  still  more  distinctly  seen  to 
the  Northward  of  this,  though  both  are  less 
marked  than  the  mounds  of  the  centre.  The 
space  between  these  is  a  level  plain,  over 
every  part  of  the  face  of  which,  broken  pot- 
tery, and  the  other  usual  debris  of  ruined 
cities  are  seen  scattered  about."  "  Mounds 
and  smaller  heaps  of  ruins  were  scattered 
M'idely  over  the  plain,  suflicient  to  prove,  that 
the  site  of  the  original  city  occupied  a  vast 
extent."  Niebuhr  had  ridden  through  Nin- 
eveh unknowingly.  " '  I  did  not  learn  that 
I  was  at  so  remarkable  a  spot,  till  near  the 
river.  Then  they  showed  me  a  village  on  a 
great  hill,  which  they  call  Nunia,  and  a 
mosque,  in  which  the  prophet  Jonah  was 
buried.  Another  hill  in  this  district  is  called 
Kalla  Nunia,  or  the  Castle  of  Nineveh.  On 
that  lies  a  village  Koindsjug.  At  Mosul, 
where  I  dwelt  close  by  the  Tigris,  they 
showed  me  in  addition  the  walls  of  Nineveh, 
which  in  my  journey  through  I  had  not  ob- 
served, but  supposed  to  be  a  set  of  hills." 
'■  It  is  well-known,"  begins  an  account  of  the 
recent  discoveries ",  "  that  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Mosul,  travelers  had  obser\'ed  some 
remarkable  mounds,  resembling  small  hills, 
and  that  Mr.  Rich  had,  thirty  years  ago, 
called  attention  to  one  called  KnyivnjI/,;  in 
which  fragments  of  sculpture  and  pottery 
had  been  frequently  discovered." 

Andyet,  humanly  speaking,  even  if  destroyed, 
it  was  probable  before-hand,  that  it  would  not 
altogether  perish.  For  a  town  near  its  site 
was  needed  for  purposes  of  commerce.  Of 
the  two  routes  of  commerce  from  the  Per- 
sian gulf  to  the  North  by  the  Euphrates  or 
by  the  Tigris,  the  Tigris-route  was  free  from 
the   perils   of  the   arid  wilderness,  through 

n  By  Josua  Bar  Nun  Catholieus  A.  D.  820-824.  Ass. 
iii.  p.  344,  coll.  p.  165. 

0  Ebedjesu,  who  died  A.  D.  1318,  (Ass.  1.  539.)  wrote 
to  the  Ninevites  on  the  plague.  Ass.  iii.  1. 143. 

p  Benjamin  Tud.  p.  3  J  ed.  Asher.  i  c.  46. 

■■  Layard,  Nineveh  i.  pp.  6,  7. 

•  Travels  ii.  49-52,  02. 

*  Reisebeschr.  ii.  353. 

»W.  S.  V.  Vaux  in  Geogr.  Diet.  ii.  438. 


124 


INTROIUi  TinN  TO 


which  tlie  line  bv  the  Euphrates  passed.  If, 
for  tlie  (linvuward  course,  the  Euphrates  itself 
was  navigable,  yet  the  desert  presented  a 
(lilhculty  for  caravans  returning  upward 
from  the  Persian  j^ulf.  Arrian,  who  mentions 
the  two  lines  of  travel,  says  that  Alexander, 
having  crossed  the  Euphrates  at  Thapsacus, 
cliose  the  less  direct  line  by  the  Tigris,  as 
*  having  a  better  supply  of  all  things,  food 
for  his  cavalry,  and  a  less  scorching  heat. 
The  mention  of  Haran  (afterward  Carrh;ie) 
Canneh,  and  Asshur  in  Ezekiel,  (in  one 
verse  ^)  seems  to  indicate  tlie  continuation  of 
the  same  line  of  commerce  with  Tyre,  which 
must  have  existed  from  prajhistoric  times  (i.  e. 
from  times  of  which  we  have  no  definite  his- 
toric account),  since  there  is  no  ground  to 
question  the  statement  of  the  Phoenicians 
themselves  in  Herodotus,  that  they  had 
come  from  the  Erythraean  sea^,  i.  e.  the  Per- 
sian gulf.  The  later  hindrances  to  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Tigris  by  the  great  dams  (prob- 
ably for  irrigation),  were  of  Persian  date; 
but  they  could  ha\-e  had  no  great  effect  on 
the  actual  commerce ;  since  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  upward  course  on  the  Tigris  line, 
this  also  must,  on  account  of  the  rapidity  of 
the  river,  have  been  by  caravans.  The  route 
was  still  used  in  the  middle  ages*.  '""The 
ancient  road  and  the  modem  one  on  the 
upper  Tigris  follow,  pretty  nearly  through- 
out, the  same  line,  it  being  determined  by 
tiie  physical  necessities  of  the  soil."  In 
the  16th  century,  ""fi-om  the  head  of  the 
Persian  gulf  two  commercial  lines  existed  : 
by  one  of  them  goods  were  carried  some  way 
up  the  Euphrates,  and  then  by  land  to  Bir, 
Aleppo,  Iskenderun.  By  the  other  they  fol- 
lowed the  Tigris  to  Baghdad  and  were  car- 
ried by  Diyar-Bekr  and  Sivas  to  Terabuzum." 
[But  Mosul  was  necessarily  on  the  way  from 
Baghdad  to  Diyar  Bekr].  Mosul  still  lies  on 
the  line  of  commerce,  from  the  Persian  gulf, 
Basrah,  Baghdad,  Mosul,  Mardin,  Diyar- 
Bekr  to  Iskenderun,  the  port  of  Aleppo '',  or 
Trebizond  [Tarabuzurn  ®.]  It  still  carries  on 
some  commerce  with  Kurdistan  and  other 
provinces '[beside  Diyar-Bekrand  Baghdad]. 
Col.  Chesney,  in  1850,  advocated  the  advan- 
tages of  extending  the  line  of  commerce  by 
British  stations  at  Diyar-Bekr  and  Mardin, 

»  Arr.  iii.  7.  The  same  route  was  recommended 
to  Antiochus  the  great.  Polyb.  v.  51.  Xenophon 
relates  the  searcity  in  Cyrus'  advancing  army  on 
the  Euphrates  route,  Anah.  i.  5.  4;  Dio  Cassius,  the 
sufferings  of  the  army  of  Severus  L.  Ixxv.  1. 

1  Ez<'k.  xxvii.  23.  "  Eden  "  (Ih.J  is  mentioned  in  2 
KgH  xix.  12,  as  having  lieen  sutidned  by  Assyria ; 
"<;lm!mad"  remains  unknown;  "Siieba"  spread 
too  widely  to  tlio  desert  of  Syria  (Strabo  xvi.  4.  21.) 
for  the  nifnlion  of  it  to  be  any  indication  that  those 
thus  grouped  together  did  not  live  in  the  same 
direction. 

Herod,  i.  1.  vii.  89  and  Rawlinson  ib.and  App.  to 


13.  vii.  Essay  2.  T.  iv.  pp.  211.  sqq. 

'Abulpharaj  Hist.  Dyn.  p.  218  sqq.  quoted  by 
Tnoh  de  Nino  urbe  p.  32.  Col.  Chesney  counts 
Mosul  among  the  ttourishing  commercial  centres 


in  addition  to  and  connection  with  those 
already  existing  at  Baghdad  and  Mosul «. 
There  is,  in  fact,  a  consent  as  to  this.  Lay- 
ard  writes ;  "  ''  Tlie  only  imiiedimeut  between 
tiie  Syrian  coa.st  and  the  Titiris  and  Euphra- 
tes in  any  part  of  their  course,  arises  from 
the  want  of  proper  security.  The  navigation 
of  the  Persian  gulf  is,  at  all  times,  open  and 
safe  ;  and  a  glance  at  the  map  will  shew  that 
a  line  through  the  Mediterranean,  the  port 
of  Suedia,  Aleppo,  Mosul,  Baghdad,  Busrah, 
and  the  Indian  Ocean  to  Bomi'ay  is  as  direct 
as  can  well  be  desireil.  ^\'ith  those  prospects, 
and  with  the  incalculable  advantages,  which  a 
flourishing  commerce  and  a  safe  and  speedy 
transit  through,  perhaps,  the  richest  portions 
of  its  dominions  would  confer  upon  the  Turk- 
ish empire,  it  would  .seem  that  more  than 
Eastern  apathy  is  shown  in  not  taking  some 
.steps,  tending  to  restore  security  to  the  country 
watered  by  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates." 
Ainsworth  suggests  a  still  wider  commerce, 
of  which  Mosul  might  be  the  centre. 
" '  With  a  tranquil  state  of  the  surrounding 
country,  Mosul  presents  mercantile  advan- 
tages of  no  common  order. — There  are  sevei-al 
roads  open  to  Persia,  across  the  mountains  ; 
a  transit  from  five  to  seven  days,  and  by 
which,  considering  the  short  distance  and 
good  roads  from  Mosul  to  Iskenderun,  British 
manufactures  might  be  distributed  into  the 
heart  of  Persia,  in  a  time  and  at  an  expense, 
which  the  line  of  Trebizond  Erzrum  and 
Tabriz,  that  of  Bushire  and  Baghdad,  or  the 
Russian  line  of  Astrakhan  Bakhu  and  Mazen- 
deran  can  never  rival." 

But  although  marked  out  by  these  advan- 
tages for  continuance,  even  when  its  power 
was  gone,  Nineveh  was  to  perish  and 
it  perished.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  alleged, 
that  in  other  cases  too,  "  if  the  position  of 
the  old  capital  w;is  deemed,  from  political 
or  commercial  reasons,  more  advantageous 
than  any  other,  the  population  was  settled  in 
its  neighborhood,  as  at  Delhi,  not  amidst  its 
ruins."  For  1)  there  was,  nt  tlie  time  of 
Nahum,  no  experience  of  the  destruction  of 
any  such  great  city  as  Nineveh;  2)  In  the 
ca.se  of  conquest,  the  capital  of  the  conquer- 
ing empire  became,  ipso  facto,  the  capital  of 
the  whole  ;  but  this  did  not,  in  itself,  involve 

in  the  time  of  Abu'I  Abbas  A.D.  749.  Expedition 
ii.  581. 

'>,\insvvorth  Travels  ii.  3.37.  Tnoh  quotes  also 
CanipbelTs  Land  journey  to  India,  p.  252,  that  "the 
merchants  still,  from  the  nature  of  the  country,  g<-> 
from  the  Persian  gulf  to  Armenia  and  Syria  and 
thence  again  to  Bagdad  by  the  same  route  thioiigh 
Mosul  and  Arbela,  by  which  large  bodies  of  men 
went  formerly."      oChesnev's  Expedition  ii.  589. 

<!  lb  ii.  ,59.5.  'lb.  .596.  fib.  i.  21. 

»"  The  Tigris  being  already  provided  with  stations 
at  Bagdad  and  Mosul — it  only  requires  another  at 
Diyar  Bekr,  and  the  neighboring  town  of  Mardin, 
since  the  connection  of  the  former  places  with  tho 
countries  about  it  would  speedily  cause  a  revival  of 
Its  ancient  commerce."  Ciiesney  Expedition  ii.602. 

•■  Niu.  and  Bab.  p.  409.  « Travels  ii.  127. 


NAHUM. 


125 


the  destruction  of  the  former.  Babylon, 
from  having  been  the  winter  residence  of 
Cyms,  became  the  chief  residence  of  the 
Persian  Emperor  at  the  time  of  Alexander, 
and  continued  to  exist  for  many  centuries, 
after  the  foundation  of  Seleucia,  although  it 
ceased  to  be  a  great  city''.  And  this,  not- 
withstanding its  two  rebellions  under  Darius ', 
and  that  under  Xerxes'".  There  was  no 
ground  of  human  policy  against  Nineveh's 
continuing,  such  as  Mosul  became,  any  more 
than  Mosul  itself.  It  existed  for  some  time, 
as  a  Christian  See. 

The  grandeur,  energy,  power,  vividness  of 
Nahum,  naturally  can  be  fully  felt  only  in 
his  own  language.  The  force  of  his  brief 
prophecy  is  much  increased  by  its  unity. 
Nahum  had  one  sentence  to  pronounce,  the 
judgments  of  God  upon  the  power  of  this 
world,  which  had  sought  to  annihilate  the 
kingdom  of  God.  God,  in  His  then  kingdom 
in  Judah,  and  the  world,  were  come  face  to 
face.  What  was  to  be  the  issue?  The  en- 
tire final  utter  overthrow  of  whatever  opposed 
God.  Nahum  opens  then  with  the  calm 
majestic  declaration  of  the  majesty  of  God ; 
who  God  is,  against  whom  they  rebelled; 
the  madness  of  their  rebellion,  and  the  extinc- 
tion of  its  chief:  (c.  1)  ;  then  in  detail,  what 
was  to  come  long  after  that  first  overthrow, 
the  siege  and  capture  of  Nineveh  itself,  (c.  2.); 
then,  in  wider  compass,  the  overthrow  of  the 
whole  power  (c.  3.).  It  was  to  be  the  first 
instance,  in  the  history  of  mankind,  of  a 
power  so  great,  perishing  and  forever. 
Nahum's  office  Mas  not,  as  Jonali's,  to  the 
people  itself.  There  is  then  no  call  to 
repentance,  no  gleam  of  God's  mercy 
toward  them  in  this  life.  Nineveh  was 
to  perish  wholly,  as  the  habitable  world 
had  perished  in  the  time  of  Noah.  The  only 
relief  is  in  the  cessation  of  so  much  violence. 
There  is  no  human  joy  expressed  at  this 
destruction  of  the  enemy  of  God  and  of  His 
people ;  no  sorrow,  save  that  there  can  be  no 
sorrow  ;  "  °  who  will  bemoan  her  ?  whence 
shall  I  find  comforters  for  her  ?  " 

In  conformity  with  this  concentration  of 

kSee  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Rom.  Geogr.  i.  358. 
I  BehiPtun  Inscr.  in  Rawl.  Herod,  ii.  595-507.  608. 
">  Ctesias  Exc.  Pers.  22.  "  iii.  7.         "  p.  556. 

P  Davison  on  Prophecy,  p.  369.  ■»  N.  i.  7. 

DiSiy.  Is.  Iii.  7. 11^30  'bjn  D'inn  bjr  iib<j  no 

DlSty  y^T2W^.  It  seems  to  me  impossible  that 
Nahnm.had  he  been  adapting  the  words  of  Isaiah, 
would  have  left  out  the  tender  rX3  HO  at  the 
beginning,  or  the  triumphant  softly-flowing  con- 
tinuation, |rxS  "iDN  n>'  ty'  ;?'DtyD  2id  ib'30 

irnSx  I^D  at  the  end. 

*  The  following,  at  least  in  form  or  idiom,  stand 
alone  in  Nahum;  the  condensed  forms  ^H^'S^I 
(though  with  analogies)  i.  4;  D"K13p  i-  10;  VTIJJ 
i.  !•-';  yo,  else  HiDIO  a?  "yoke"!.  13;  D'llDf  mase. 


Nahum's  subject,  there  is  little  in  outward 
style  or  language  to  connect  him  with  the 
other  Prophets.  His  opening  (as  already 
observed  ")  bears  upon  God's  declarations  of 
mercy  and  judgment ;  but,  Nineveh  having 
filled  up  the  measure  of  its  iniquites,  he  had 
to  exhibit  the  dark  side  of  those  declarations ; 
how  much  lay  in  those  words,  "  that  will  by 
no  means  clear  the  guilty."  "p  Jonah  and 
Nahum  form  connected  parts  of  one  moral 
history,  the  remission  of  God's  judgment 
being  illustrated  in  the  one,  the  execution  of 
it  in  the  other :  the  clemency  and  the  just 
severity  of  the  Divine  government  being  con- 
tained in  the  mixed  delineation  of  the  two 
books."  His  evangelic  character  just  gleams 
through,  in  the  eight  tender  words,  in  which 
he  seems  to  take  breath,  as  it  were;  "Tob 
Yhvh  lemaoz  beyomtsarah,  veyodeah  chose 
bo,"  "Good  is  God  (Yhvh),  refuge  in  day  of 
trouble,  and  knowing  trusters  in  Him  i  ; " 
then  again,  in  the  few  words,  which  I  think 
Isaiah  expanded,  "  Lo  on  the  mountains  the 
feet  of  a  good-tidings-bearer,  peace-pro- 
claimerV  Else  there  is  only  the  mingled 
tenderness  and  austereness  of  truth,  which 
would  sympathize  with  the  human  being, 
but  that  that  object  had,  by  putting  ofiF  all 
humanity,  alienated  all  which  is  man.  "  Who 
will  bemoan  her?  Whence  shall  I  seek 
comforters  for  thee?"  Who?  and  Whence? 
None  had  escaped  evil  from  her.  "  Upon 
whom  hath  not  thy  wickedness  passed 
continualh'  ?  " 

It  is  difficult  for  us,  Avho  have  to  gather  up 
our  knowledge  of  the  sacred  language  from 
the  fragments  which  remain,  in  which  also 
the  number  of  words  forms  and  idioms,  which 
stand  out  singly  here  and  there,  seem  but  so 
many  specimens  of  lost  treasure,  to  judge  with 
any  certainty,  whether  any  approximation  of 
idiom,  which  we  may  observe,  implies  any 
connection  between  the  writers  in  whom  it 
occurs.  Nahum  has,  especially  in  his  picture 
of  the  capture  of  Nineveh,  so  many  of  those 
aTTof  Tieyo/ueva,  consisting  often  of  slight  modi- 
fications',  his  language  is  so  rich  and  so 
original,  that  one  the  more  doubts  whether 

ii.  3;  D';;^np  (denom.  from  n_y'7in)  ii.  4;  nnSs 
lb.  D'E'l'lil  like  fieAi'a,  cAanj,  "abies,"  of  the  spear, 
(lb.  iSj^in   "are    quivered;"   verb    too   on-.)  lb. 

pp-^prity^  (form)  ii.  5.  ^V^''"^'  (f"rm)  lb.  pb 
("  covered  way")  ii.  B.  J^HI  "  and  it  is  decreed  "  ii. 
8  (See  Ib.)*nnbj  (form,  the  meaning  is  determined 
by  r\h:  See'  lb.)  lb.  niJHip  ("moaning")  lb. 
r^lSShO  (form  and  metaphor  ;'Kal  once  Ps.  Ixviii. 
26)  ib.  'rn53S  masc.  plur.  lb.  K'H  'D'O  ii-  9- 
njiori  (like  "apparatus")  ii.  10.  HpO  and  np13D 
"void"  and,  as  to  the  form,  npSpp  (a  fern.  part, 
used  as  an  abstract ;  elsewhere  is  only  the  act.  part, 
kfti.   p^)2  Is-  sxiv.  1)  ii.  11.   p'l)  "shaking"  (of 


126 


INTRODLXTION  TO 


in  those  idioms,  in  which  lie  seems  to  appiuxi- 
mate  to  other  prophets,  the  expressions  in 
common  do  not  belong  to  the  common  stock 
of  the  language ;  and  that  the  more,  since 
mostly  "  part  of  the  idiom  only  coincides,  the 

knees)  lb  pjno,  form,  ii.  13.  (else  Nif.  2  Sam.  xvii. 
23;  noun,  pjno  Job  vii.  15)  Jt^J^a  'fll^On  (prffign. 
idiom)  ii.  1-1.  p")3  (in  this  sense)  iii.  1.  ^m  (the  verb) 
iil.  2.  (noun,  rf\TM,  Jud.  v.  22.)  1;»0  (i-  q-  Hin^'.iii.  5. 
D'Vp^  (onlj'  instance  of  etymol.  meaning)  iii.  G. 
'Kh  (as,  "  spectacle  ")  lb.  WPT  (part.  pass.  fem.  as 
noun  Is.  xl.  19)  iii.  10.  IS^nn  (of  oppressive  num- 
ber) iii.  15.  D'")IW  iii.  IT.  WIi2  iii- 18.  nn3  iii.  19. 
"The  correspondence  is  complete  between  Jo. 
ii.  C.  inXD  lynp  D'JiJ  hj.  and  Nah.  ii.  11.  "Jfl 

-inN3  i:f3p  dSj. 

»  Dr  Henderson  (in  addition  to  Nah.  ii.  1,  Is.  Iii. 
7,  see  note  r.)  (connects  a)  nty>"  hSs  12j?  '\Q^ 
Nah.  i.  8  and  ntT;'  XIH  TtHd  i-  f»  with  li;»1  r^^'^ 
Is.  viii.  8  and  711^^'— nV"^r)J)  n'73  Is.  x!'2;5;  b) 

npS^p^  npnoi  npn  N.Vi'.n,  wuh  pxn  y)^)2 
npSni  Is.  xxiv.  1.  c)  D'jriD  7D3  nSnSm  ii. 
11,  nSnSn  D;jnp  i«So  is.  xxi.s.  But  in)  a  nSj 

ntj'>'  is  an  idiom  used  not  in  Is.  only  but  in  Jeremiah 
(5  times)  in  Ezekiel  (twice)  Zephaniah  and  Nehe- 
miah.  It  is  tlien  an  ordinary  Hebrew  idiom.  The 
peculiarity  of  Isaiah,  that  in  both  places  (Is.  x.  23, 
xxviii  .22)  he  adds  DV  "in  J1,  does  not  occur  in  Nahum. 
Nahum  also  has  not  the  verb  ^Oiif,  which  Isaiah 
uses  in  5  places;  Isaiah  does  not  use  the  noun 
C|i3ty,  which  Nahum  has,  and  which  occurs  in  a 

Psalm  of  David  (xxxii.  0).  Nahum  too  speaks  of  a 
flood  which  shall  pa.ss  over  and  overwhelm  ;  Isaiah, 
of  a  man  who  should  pass  over  and  pass  away.  In 
b)  there  is  only  in  common,  that  Isaiah  joins  the 

two  like-sounding  words  pp2  and  p73  as  active 

verbs  (of  which,  the  word  common  to  the  two 
prophets  must  be  older  than  the  Prophet  Nahum 
(comp.  "Balak"  in  tho  Pent.).  Nahum  unites  two 
nouns,  one  from  a  ditft-rent  root  p13,  the  other  a 

pass,  intens.  part.  np730,  as  an  abstract  noun. 

The  gradual  lengthening  of  the  alliterate  form  oc- 
rurs  in  Nahum  only.    Two  of  the  three  words  in 

Nahum  are  air.  Aey.  c)  The  mention  of  nyH/n, 
"great  writhing  anguish,"  in  connection  with  the 

loins,  is  more  remarkable,  since  n/H/n  occurs  in 
those  places  only  and  Ez.  xxx.  4,  9  (with  the  same 

constr.  with  3);  yet  HDJ^IO  (although  not  nSnSn) 

occurs  with  D'JHO?  Ps-  'xvi.  11.  It  may  then  only 
be  an  accidental  coincidence  of  the  same  term. 

O.  Strauss  thinks  that  d)  Nah.  i.  l.'i  is  from  Is.  x. 
27;  o)  iii.  5  from  Is.  xlvii.  2.  3;  f )  Nah.  iii. 7  from  Is. 
Ii.  in.  But  in  d  and  c  there  is  no  characteristic 
word  the  same;  in  Nah.  i.  13  there  is  only  the  com- 
mon imagery  of  breaking  the  yoke.  £310  masc.  oc- 
curs in  Kahnm  only;  HIIDIO  pnj  i'l  Ps.  ii.  3  (of 

men  icbelliug)  and  Jerem.  3  times.  It  is  then  a 
common  idiom.    In  f.  there  is  the  correspondence 

of  the  idiom  T")  ^^^y  'O  in  Is.  (which  also  occurs 

Jer.  XV.  5)  in  N.  T\f  HI  J'  'D,  but  with  tho  difference 

tliut  Ml  Is.  God  speak?  of  tliu  heaviucss  uf  a  sorrow 


rest  is  ditferent  ^.  As  for  the  so-Ciiiled  Syri- 
asms  or  other  peculiarities  of  language  which 
Jrlitzig  would  have  to  be  evidences  of  a  later 
date^,  and  from  some  of  which  others  would 
infer  that  Nahum  lived  at  Nineveh  itself, 

which  He  will  comfort;  Nahum  speaks  of  desolation 
which  none  can  comfort.    The  construction  of  nj 

with  7  occurs  Job  ii.  11,  xlii.  11,  Jer.  xvi.  5,  xxii.  10, 
xlviii.  17;  in  Job  and  Ps.  Ixix.  21  11 J  is  united  with 
DHJ.  The  expression  seems  then  to  belong  to  the 
common    stock    of  the    language;    the  idiom  "p 

^•pnjX  "  Who  (in  what  character)  shall  I  comfort 
thee?"  is  peculiar  to  Isaiah. 

Hitzig  further  would  have  it,  that, "  D'H^D  J  occurs 
in  N.  iil.  10  exactly  as  in  Is.  xxiii.  9  alone  beside  ;" 
whereas  the  only  correspondence  is,  that  Isaiah  has 
the  idiom,  "honored  of  earth,"  "all  honored  of 
earth,"  VIK  'ISDJ ;  Nahum  has,  with  the  affix, 

"her  honored,"  n"133J  as  Ps. cxlix.  8.  DPI'lSpj. 

J  Of  the  forms  or  words,  which  Hitzig  would  make 
characteristic  of  a  later  time 

1)  ni^'C'  i.  3  is  only  orthographically  different 

from  the  more  common,  Hl^'p ;  yet  not  only  does 

nn^'t:'  occur  Job  ix.  17,  and  the  masc.  l^J'c',  Is. 

xxviii.  2,  but  the  verb  is  written  with  t^  in  the  same 
meaning,  Ps.  1.  3,  Iviii.  10,  Job  x.xvii.  21. 

2)  XljJD  occurs  in  Jos.  xxiv.  19,  the  oldest  book 

next  to  the  Pentateuch,  and  having  much  in  com- 
mon with  it  (see  on  Dan.  p.  312  note  2),  and  in  no 
later  book.    Xjp  occurs  5  times  in  the  Pentateuch  ; 

this  form  K3p  (not  Kl^p)  survived  in  the  Chaldee. 

3)  1i2^3J  iii.  18,  is  simply  Nif  from  1^13,  a  word  as 
old  as  the  Pentateuchj  since  the  river,  Pishon, 
t1tl'"'3,  is  derived  from  it.  Hitzig  obtains  his  "pro- 
nunciation" by  making  it  kal,  1^3  J,  a  word  not  ex- 
tant in  Heb. 

4)  "The  form  of  the  suffix  of  the  2d  person,  ii. 

14,"  DDDXS)?,  which  has  been  urged  by  all  writers 

on  his  side,  is  the  more  singular  ground  of  argu- 
ment, because  it  turns  entirely  on  the  vowels,  which 
only  represent  a  tradition  of  the  expiring  language, 
(jesenius  calls  it  "an  especial  form,  which  perhaps 
ought  properly  to  be  pronounced  r\D,  as  masc,  out 

of  which  the  punctuator  first  made  nj  in  order  in 
some  sort  of  way  to  indicate  the  feminine  "  (Lehrg. 
p.  216).  Written  n^DKbo,  it  is  only  the  full  and 
original  form  of  the  pronominal  affix,  HD  (from 
n33X  for  nPX).  as  it  is  found  in  the  Pentateuch, 
n3'K  Gen.  iii.  9,  H^T  Ex.  xiii.  IG,  riDPX  Ex.  xxix. 
35.  Nahum  chose  it  probably  as  a  fuller  form.  It 
occurs  in  a  Psalm  of  David,  cxxxix.  5,  at  the  close, 
n333,  and  in  Jer.  xxix.  25,  n3DtJ'3:  as  also  with 
the  verb,  DD^^JT  1  Kgs  xviii.  44,  and,  in  the 
pause,  n3^>*jn  Prov.  ii.  11,  H^KV?''  ^  Kings 
xviii.  10.  Mss.  have,  some  riDDsSo  (19  De  Rossi, 
3  by  correction,  and  3  early  Edd.  De  R.)  "many 
have  n3DJ<So ; "  3  of  De  R.  anfl  3  or  4  in  the  first 
instance",  had  the  regular  n^DXSo.  The  messen- 
gers were  the  king's  lnes^euger^  (Is.  xxxvi.  2. 12. 13, 
xxxvil.  4.  G.  9.  17.  24.)  and  so  the  masculine  form  is 
in  its  place.  Punctuators  probably  (as  Ges.  conjec- 
tured) wished  to  assimilate  it  to  the  preceding 
feminines;  Ewald  lays  down  that  HI),  is  a  dialectic 

diffcrcuce  ({J.  i;38  note)  and  uses  it  a.-  uii  urguinent 


NAHUM. 


127 


"  the  wish  has  been  father  to  the  thought." 
One  only  solid  ground  there  would  be  why 
Nahum   should   not  have    written  his  pro- 

for  Nahum's  living  near  Nineveh  (Proph.  i.  350). 
Davidson  (iii.  301.)  follows  Hitzig. 

.">)  "Tlie  form  of  the  suffix  of  the  3d  person,  i.  13, 
ii.  4.  comp.  Hab.  iii.  10."  The  form  ?n  lies  nearer 
to  the  original  Xin,  than  the  contracted  1 ;  it  also 
occurs  in  the  word  inyp/i  1'^  times  in  the  Penta- 
teuch (in  Gen.  8  times,  Levit.  5  times,  Deut.  once); 
it  occurs  most  (Ges.  observes,  Lehrg.  p.  213)  in 
words  ending  in  H.,  as  ^DS*"]!!?  10  times  (3  in  Levit.) 
iniE'  7  times  (5  in  Gen.  Ex.  Lev.)  IhS^  in  Ps.  i. 
Ezek.  twice,  Jerem.  once;  ^njpD  in  Gen.  4  times, 
Exod.  twice.  Job  twice :  although  nj?!  absolutely 
occurs  3  times  only,  in^."^  is  the  rule :  it  occurs  114 
times,  of  which  42  are  in  the  Pentateuch.  The 
form  in  also  occurs  in  inE^JTi)  Jud.  xix.  24,  ^Dl  >X 
Job  XXV.  3.  It  is  united  with  the  plur.  noun  in 
1^■^t?'^5  Prov.  xix.  18,  and  ^inj?"*  for  ')r[y\  1  Sam. 
XXX.  20,  Job  xlii.  10;  also  !inn'  Hab.  iii.  10,  n'J'j; 

Job  xxiv.  23.  It  is  obviously  used  by  Nahum  for  its 
more  stately  sound.       , 

6)  "The  meaning  of  73J  iii.  G,"  is  one  attributed 

to  it  by  Hitz.  only. 

7)  "As  Pilpel  occurs  more  and   more  in    later 

times,  so  n'7nSn  ii-  H,  (comp.  ppK'n/liy''.  ii-  5) 

only  occurs  in  Is.  xxi. :!,  Ez.  xxx.  4.  9."  Pilpel  is 
formed  on  exactly  the  same  principle,  as  the  other 
rarer  intensive  conjugations,  the  doubling  of  those 
letters  of  the  root,  most  capable  of  being  doubled. 

In  73  73,  it  occurs  from  Genesis  downward.    The 

use  of  the  word  n/H/n  by  two  contemporaries, 

Isaiah  and  Nahum,  was  nothing  remarkable. 

8)  "So,  plainly  31ty  ii.  3  could  only  in  later  times 
be  used  transitively,  otherwise  than  as  united  with 
nOK'."  Why?  If  31ty  is  transitive  in  the  phrase, 
Pi^^iif  31C^,  "restore  the  captivity"  of  Jacob,  the 
corresponding  phrase,  |1HJ  i^K  2lif  is  but  a  varia- 
tion of  the  phrase,  such  as  would  naturally  occur  in 
any  original  writer.  31  ty  is  transitive,  also  in  Ps. 
Ixxxv.  5,  and  Ezek.  xlvii.  7,  (since  if  intrans.,  as 
Abulwalid  pointed  out,  it  would  have  been  '31tJ'3 
not  ''J31ty3)  if  not  in  Num.  x.  36.  Gesenius  also 
pointed  out  that  the  corresponding  .\rab  J^JI  is 
both  transitive,  and  intransitive,  so  that  the  use  of 
the  causative  conj.  J^JIX  is  dialectic,  according  to 

DJauhari,  or  less  pure  (See  Lane  sub  v.  T.  i.  p.  1038). 
It  is  consistent  in  Hengst.  to  deny  the  transitive 
meaning  of  311^  altogether,  but  not  to  make  any 
idiomatic  difference  between  Pi)2^/  31^  and  3tj' 
|iXJ  as  belonging  to  different  dates. 

9)  "  n"113^D  (ii.  2)  in  the  sense  of  munitio,  first  oc- 
curs in  the  Chronicles."  In  the  Chronicles,  the 
phrase  is  different.  The  idiom  is  a  slight  variation 
of  the  old  masc,  11^0  T|'  Ps.  xxxi.,  23.  Ix.,  11 
(which  the  Chronicles  too  has,  2  C.  viii.  .5).  The 
Chronicles,  on  whatever  ground,  mostly  adopt  the 
feminine  form  in  speaking  historically  of  the  for- 
tified cities    built  in  Judah;     once   in    the  sing. 

nSlVD  ''Ij.'  2  C.  xiv.  5 ;  else  with  two  plurals  '1^ 
mSl^D,  2  C.  xi.  10.  23.  xii.  4.  xiv.  5.  xxi.  3.  In  one 
place  only,  having  ended  a  verse,  .xi.  10,  "and  in 
Benjamin  r\n^}fp  '"IJ?,"  the  writer  begins  the 
next,  (omitting  the  'IJ,')  "and  he  strengthened 
nniX Qn  IM^."  Nor  is  there  anything  character- 
istic of  a  later  period  in  the  use  of  the  foiniuiiio; 


phecy,  when,  according  to  all  history,  it 
could  alone  have  any  interest  for  Judah, 
long  before   the  event  itself,   viz.  if  He  to 

and,  any  how,  since  the  Chronicles  were  compiled 
after  the  captivity,  probably  by  Ezra,  the  use  of  the 
same  form  could  have  proved  nothing,  as  to  whether 
a  book  were  written  85  years,  sooner  or  later,  before 
the  captivity. 

"Also  the  Hebrew  of  Nahum  is  in  part  impure; 
1D3t3  iii.  IT,  is  probabh'  not  Semitic."  It  prolDably 
is  Semitic  (see  above  p."  108)  and  Assyrian.  The  oc- 
currence of  what  probably  is  a  title  of  an  .Assyrian 
commander,  not  onlv  fits  the  times  of  Nahum,  when 
Assj'rian  invasions  nnd  begun,  but  the  occurrence 
of  an  official  title,  (like  that  of  "  Pechah "  else- 
where, see  Daniel  the  Prophet  pp.  570,  571,)  without 
any  Syriasms,  belongs  to  Nahum's  time  and  life  in 
Palestine.  When  three  officers  of  Hezekiah  under- 
stood Assyrian  (Is.  xxxvi.  11.),  there  is  nothing  sur- 
prising in  the  mention  of  an  Assyrian  title.  Pechah 
IS  also  an  Assyrian  title,  occurring  in  the  Inscrip- 
tions in  the  plural  "  pahati,"  Oppert  Rapports  p.  51. 
52.  53.  57.  05.  74.  "Tart.an,"  in  Isaiah  and  2  Kings,  is 
also  probably  an  Assyrian  title,  since  Rabsaris, 
"  Chief  of  the  Eunuclis,"  "  Rab-shakeh,  Chief-cup- 
bearer," (with  which  Tartan  is  united  in  2  Kings 
xviii.  17)  are  names  of  officers.  Yet  no  satisfactory 
etymology  has  been  found  for  "Tartan." 

10)  "  "13D.  iii-  ■i^  stands  in  .\rabic  meaning."  The 
coincidence  with  Arabic  would  have  proved  nothing; 
but  Nahum  uses  130  in  its  common  meaning.  In 
Arabic  also  it  signifies  "deceived,"  not  (as  Hitzig 
would  have  it)  "meshed." 

11)  ".3nj,  ii.  8,  in  Syriac  meaning."  JDJ,  not  in 
Syriac  only,  but  in  Arabic,  signifies  to  be  "violently 
out  of  breath;"  but  this,  which  is  its  only  meaning 
which  could  be  brought  to  bear  on  this  passage,  does 
not  suit  it,  whereas  that  suggested  by  the  Hebrew 
itself  does.  In  Nahum  it  is  evidently  a  modification 
of  the  biliteral  in,  in  the  same  sense  as  H  JH  which 
is  used  of  the  low  moaning  of  the  dove.  Is.  xxxviii. 
14,  lix.  11 ;  and  the  subst.  H JH  "  moaning  "  is  united 
with  D'^p  and  Tl  (for  "'HJ)  Ezek.  ii.  10.  Another 
modification   of  the  biliteral   is    J^JH    Ps.    v.   2, 

x.xxxix.  4. 

12)  "  and  im  too,  iii.  2  (only  beside  in  the  song 
of  Deborah  Jud.  v.  22)  is  probably  equally  only  a 
Syriasm  ; "  i.  e.  supposing  its  meaning  to  be  derived 
from  Tin  "circle,"  the  substitution  of  H  for  1  occurs 
oftenest  in  .\ramaic.  In  the  root  "in  itself  how- 
ever, the  nearest  correspondence  of  Helarew  with 
any  Semitic  dialect  is  not  with  the  Syriac  but  with 
the  Arabic;  m  "generation"  and  the  Arab.  'IHT 
"  prolonged  time,"  but  also  the  period  of  life  (see 
Lane  p.  923) ;  whereas  the  Syr.  X"im  only  signifies 
"a  mill."  But  Hitzig  himself  sets  aside  these  last, 
with  the  observation,  "tliese  appearances  however 
are  sufficiently  explained,  if  the  home  of  Deborah 
was  also  Nahum's  country,  a  border-country  toward 
Svria,  inhabited  in  part  by  non-Israelites." 

13)  Hitzig  makes  neither  2^r\  the  Queen's  name 

and  so  .Assyrian,  nor  nn73,  although  he  has  his 
own  fantastic  meaning  for  each,  derived  from  mis- 
application of  the  -Arabic.    Tlie  alleged  Syriasm  in 

nnhD  rests  on  an  odd  ground-work.    The  Syriac 

word  iHlQ  has  not  been  found  in  any  Syriae 
author;  in  one  of  three  Syro-Arab  Lexica  (Bar- 
Bahlul's)  it  is  explained  by  the  Arabic  word,  "fu- 
ladso."  This  in  its  turn  is  interpreted  by  the  Per- 
sian, which  again  has,  in  V Oilers,  no  Persian  ety- 
mology. On  the  other  hand  the  .Arabic  "faladsa" 
"cut,"  conj.  ii.  "cut  to  pieces,"  does  give  a  good 
etymology  for  any  sharp  instrument,  as  the 
"scythe"  of  a  scythed  chariot. 

Yet  this  is  the  evidence  on  which  Davidson  tells 
the  unlearned  (Introd.  iii.  301),  "The  language  is 
pure  and  classical  with  a  few  exceptions,  as  JPIJ  to 

moaru,  ii.  s,  ini  iii-  -,  finSfl  ii-  4.  which  are  Syrj- 


128 


?vAHUM. 


Whom  all,  past  and  future,  are  present,  could 
not  or  did  not  declare  beforehand  things  to 
come'.     If  there  be  prophecy,  the  siege  of 

asms. — These  Syriasms  cannot  well  be  explained 
by  the  native  locality  of  the  prophet,  which  was  to- 
ward the  border-land  of  Syria  and  inhabited  in  part 
by  people  who  were  not  Israelites,  because  other 
prophets  of  the  Northern  kingdom  do  not  use  Syriac 
words  or  idioms.  They  imply  intimate  contact 
with  a  people  beyond  Palestine."  Yet  jrij  does 
not,  in  this  sense,  exist  beyond  Pale.«tine;  ini 
was,  in  the  time  or  the  Judges,  used  within  it,  and 

the  Arabic  does  give  an  etymology  for  j"\n'7£),  natu- 
ral and  adequate,  which  Syriac  does  not.  The 
only  difficulty  i.s,  that  the  Arabic  word  for  "steel" 
is  not  a  pure  Semitic  form,  like  the  Hebrew,  but  a 
Persian,  "fuladso"  or  "ffiludso."  Yet  the  Arabic 
has  also  the  genuine  Arabic  form  "mafli'idso" 
"formed  of  steel,"  of  a  sword.  The  direct  connec- 
tion of  r\n73  with  "fnl/idso"  or  "fali'idso'"  must  be 
given  up,  since  it  seems  that  the  direct  connection 
of  the  Arabic  falmlsa  and  fi'Uddso  or  falndso  must  be 
ab.'indoned.  f'or  Prof.  F.  Justi  whose  judgment  Prof. 
Max  Muller  kindly  obtained  for  me  says;  "The 
Ara.bic  fuli'idso  must  be  borrowed  from  tlie  Persian 
pub'ido,  not  conversely  (as  Freytag  and  Viillers  also 
assume  in  their  Lexica);  for  Persian  retains  the/ 
in  .\rabic  words  which  it  ailopts,  but  .\rabic  changes 
a  Persian  p  into/,  because  it  has  no  p.  So  Arabic 
again  changes  a  Persian  d,  especially  between  or 
after  vowels,  always  info  ds.  The  relation  of  the 
ArahK  falndso,  faladso,  with  the  root  falndsn  is  con- 
sequently only  apparent,  whence  the  derivation  of 

nn73  from  "112  is  also  shewn  to  be  untenable, 
•specially  since  this  Hebrew  root  is  not  evidenced 


Nineveh  might  be  as  vividly  presented  to  the 
Prophet's  mind,  as  if  he'  saw  it  with  his 
bodily  eyes*. 

but  assumed."  Yet  as  relates  to  the  Hebrew  iSs, 
since  the  Heb.  T  is  often  interchanged  with  the 
Arab,  ds  ("which  in  some  .Aral).  dia1«»cts  is  pro- 
nounced a"  Ges.),  the  ctym.  from  the  \ia.hic  faladsa, 
"cuts,"  lies  nearer  to  it  than  any  other,  designating 
a  sharp  instrument.  It  is  rem.'ukable  that  the  Heh- 
-Arab.  Lexieogr.,  Abraham  B.  David  and  Abulwalid, 
were  not  aware  of  any  connected  Arabic  root,  both 
regarding  1^3  as  inverted  from  T£)'7.    The  Syr. 

KjTyiV'73  "spark"  or  "sparks"  (which  Ew.  com- 
pares, Proph.  ii.  p.  11)  is  too  remote,  insulated,  un- 
certain, not  being  connected  with  any  known  root, 

and  being  written  also  XH'DID'^D.  See  Dr.  P. 
Smith's  Lex.  Syr.  s.  v.  "  The  Aral).  ^"13  "  (lb.)  must 
be  a  mis-print. 

'  "  Did  Nahum  predict  the  downfall  of  Nineveh  a 
century  before  the  event?  If  he  was  a  younger 
conteiriporary  of  Isaiah,  he  did  so.  He  prophesied, 
say  some,  about  the  llth  year  of  Hezekiah  and 
graphically  painted  the  overthrow  of  Assyria's  me- 
tropolis. The  interval  consists  of  about  one  hun- 
dred years.  Is  not  the  analogy  of  Prophecy  violated 
here  ?  If  a  specific  event  be  foretold  long  before  it 
happened,  what  becomes  of  tlie  canon  or  principle 
that  prophecy  presents  nothing  more  than  the  pre- 
vision of  events  in  the  immediate  future  f  [Dr.  Ds. 
italics.]"  The  principle  in  question  is  almost  axiom- 
atic.'" [Introd.  iii.  298.1  It  passes  for  an  axiom  in 
the  school,  whose  results  Dr.  Davidson  gives  to  the 
English  ;  i.  e.  it  is  a  petitio  principii  applied  to  each 
prophecy  in  turn. 

»  "  Nahum  must  have  seen  this  peril  with  his  own 
eyes."  Ewald  Proph.  i.  319. 


NAHUM. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


CHAPTER  I, 

1  The  Majesty  of  God  in  good- 
ness to  his  people,  and  severity 
against  his  enemies. 


1.  The  burdenK  "^The  word  'massa' 
[burden]  is  never  placed  in  the  title,  save 
when  the  vision  is  heavy  and  full  of  burden 
and  toil."  Of  Nineveh.  The  prophecy  of 
Nahum  again  is  very  stern  and  awful.  Nine- 
veh, after  having  "repented  at  the  preaching 
of  Jonah,"  again  fell  back  into  the  sins 
whereof  it  had  repented,  and  added  this,  that, 
being  employed  by  God  to  chasten  Israel,  it 
set  itself,  not  to  inflict  the  measure  of  God's 
displeasure,  but  to  uproot  the  chosen  people, 
in  whom  was  promised  the  birth  of  Christ  I 
It  was  then  an  Antichrist,  and  a  type  of  him 
yet  to  come.  Jonah's  mission  was  a  call  to 
repentance,  a  type  and  forerunner  of  all 
God's  messages  to  the  world,  while  the  day  of 
grace  and  the  world's  probation  lasts.  Na- 
hum,  "  the  full  of  exceeding  comfort,"  as  his 
name  means,  or  "  the  comforter"  is  sent  to* 
reprove  the  world  of  judgment.  He  is  sent, 
prominently,  to  pronounce  on  Nineveh  its 
doom  when  its  day  of  grace  should  be  over, 
and  in  it,  on  the  world,  when  it  and  ^all  the 
works  therein  shall  he  burned  up.  In  few  words 
he  directly  comforteth  the  people  of  God«; 
else  the  comfort  even  to  her  is  indirect,  in 
the  destruction  of  her  oppressor.  Beside  this, 
there  is  nothing  of  mercy  or  call  to  repent- 

iSo,  beyond  question,  H'lyO  should  be  rendered. 
Since  Kt^J  is  no  where  used  of  mere  speaking,  it 
is  beforehand  improbable  that  Xi!^0  should  mean 
"speech  ;  "  and  this,  apart  from  the  consideration 
that  "  the  speech  of  Babylon,  Damascus,  Egypt, 
Moab,  Tyre,  Dumah,"  "tlie  valley  of  vision,"  "  the 
desert  of  the  sea,"  "Nineveh,"  would  be  an  inex- 
pressive expression  for  a  speech  concerning  them. 
For,  in  one  place  only,  (Is.  xxi.  13.)  is  it  expressed 
that  the  burden  is  upon  {2)  .\rabia.  Else  prepositions 
are  only  used  to  determine  the  relation  of  Kt^D 
with  the  object  {2,  Zech.  ix.  1.  S;?,  lb.  xii.  1.  Sh, 
Ma!  i.  1.)  when  that  object  is  already  separated  from 
XE?^  ;  "  the  burden  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  upon  " 
lb.  Xtyj,  "  lift  up"  when  used  alone  for  Slp  Xti'J 

"  lifted  up "  [the  voice],  is  always  used  of  "  loud 
speaknig,"  Is.  xlii.  2, 11,  Job  .xxi.' 12,  and  so  Is.  iii. 
7,  "  loudly  protest."    Eleven  times  in  Isaiah  (xiii 
1,  XIV.  28,  XV.  1,  xvii.  1,  xix.  1,  xxi.  1, 11,  1,3,  xxii.  1 
xxiii.  1,  XXX.  6.)  in  Ezek.  xii.  10,  Hab.  i.  1,  Mai.  i.  1, 
N'-'p  is  followed  by  a  heavy  prophecy,  as  it  is  here, 
/ech.  ix.  l.also  is  a  heavy  propheev,  against  those 
whom    Alexander    would    conquer;    Zeeh.   xii.  2, 
begins  with  a  heavy  propheev  aaainst  .Judah  and 
•Jerusalem.  Prov.  xxx.  xxxi,  are  rebukes;  in  Prov. 
xxxi.,    it    is    expressly    added,    "wherewith    his   I 
mother  admonished  him."    The  blasphemy  also,   | 
rebuked  by  Jeremiah  (xxiii.  33,  34,  30),  presupposes  | 
that  the  meaning  of  KK/q,  at  which  they  mocked,  } 

was  a  heavy  prophecy.'  "What  fre<=h  burden  has 
God  for  usV"  they  asked  niockiiiuly,  not  believing 
that    thr  rvil   wliirh   .[.•ivuiiah   lu-.'.phr.-ied   would    ■ 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


"JHE  burden  "of  Nine- 
veh.    The  book  of  the^ 

vision  of  Nahum  the  El-    »zeph.2.i3 
koshite. 


ance,  or  sorrow  for  their  desolation  ^ ;  but 
rather  the  pouring  out  of  the  vials  of  the. 
wrath  of  God  on  her  and  on  the  evil  world, 
which  to  the  end  resists  all  God's  calls  and 
persecuteth  His  people.  The  book  of  Jonah 
proclaimeth  God,  a  gracious  God  and  merci- 
Jul,  slow  to  anger  and  of  great  kindness,  Who 
repenteth  Him  of  the  evil.  Nahum  speaketh 
of  the  same  attributes,  yet  closes  with,  and 
tvill  not  at  all  acquit  the  ivicked.  "  ^Tlle  Merci- 
ful Himself,  Who  is  by  Nature  Merciful,  the 
HolySpirit,  seemeth,  speaking  in  the  prophet, 
to  laugh  at  their  calamity:'  All  is  desolation, 
and  deatli.  The  aggression  against  God  is 
retorted  upon  the  aggressor;  one  reeling 
strife  for  life  or  death  ;  then  the  silence  of 
the  graveyard.  And  so,  in  its  further  mean- 
ing, "  Hhe  prophecy  belongs  to  the  dose 
of  the  world  and  the  comfort  of  the  saints 
therein,  so  that  whatsoever  they  see  in 
the  world,  they  may  hold  cheap,  as  passing 
away  and  perishing  and  prepare  tliemselves 
for  the  Day  of  Judgment,  wlien  the  Lord 
shall  be  the  Avenger  of  the  true  Assyrian." 

So  our  Lord  sets  fortii  the  end  of  the  world 
as  the  comfort  of  the  elect.  When  these 
things  begin  to  come  to  pass,  then  lookup  and  lift 
up  your  heads,  for  your  redemption  draweth 
come.  In  regard  to  the  use  of  Xt^D  (1  C  xv.  22, 
27,)  where  the  E.  V.  has, "  for  song,"  if' it  related  to  the 
voice  at  all,  It  must  (like  the  "on  Alamoth,""on 
Sheminith"  vv.  20, 21,  which  probably  designate  two 
notes  ot  music, "  treble  "  and  the  "  octave,"  "  bass  ") 
have  .signified  some  character  of  voice,  as  "alto," 
according  to  the  meaning  of  Xjyj,  "  lift  up."  But 
considering  (as  Hengstenberg  has  noticed,  Christol! 
on  Zech.  ix.  1.)  the  use  of  X^O  in  places  where  it  can 
only  mean  "  burden  "  as  also  throughout  Num.  iv. 
(19,24,27,31,32,  47,  40.)  it  seems  probable,  that  in 
1  C.  XV.  too,  it  signifies  "bearing"  (as  in  E.  M. 
"carnage  ").  For  the  "  bearing  the  ark  "  is  spoken 
oi  immediately  afterward  asamatterof  much  skill. 
"  When  God  helped  the  Levites,  the  bearers  of  the 
ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord,"  jTIJ  ?'nx  "KlI'J 
""  (1  C.  XV.  2iV) ;  and  the  writer  speaks  of  the  dress 
of  "all  the  Levites  who  bare  the  ark"  "and  the 
singers"  v.  27,  as  two  classes.  Even  Bertheau 
defends  this  meaning,  and  solidly.  In  Lam.  ii.  14, 
NIK'r^iXii'D  is  united  with  DTIHO  "expulsions." 
The  context  seems  to  require  more  than  is  in  the 
rendering,  "sayings  of  vanity,"  which  would  be  less- 
strong  than  NIJJ?  1  SvH  "have  seen  for  thee 
vanity."  "  The  burdens  of  vanity,"  which  the  false 
prophets  professed  to  see,  would  be  heavy  prophe- 
cies against  the  enemy,  that  they  should  be  driven 
from  the  land  of  Israel.  Comp.  Zedekiah's  en- 
quiry,  Jer.  xxi.  1,  2,  and  Hananiah's  prophecy  Jer. 
xxviii.  2.  11.  2S.  Jer.  "  Rup. 

<.S.  John  xvi.  fi,  8.  »2  Pet.  iil.  10.  «1. 15. 

''  .Vs  in  Jereiu.  iii.  12,  viil.  is,  21. 

129 


130 


NAHIM. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


2  II  God  is  *•  jealous,  and 
the  Lord  revengeth ;  the 


J  Or,  The  Lord  is  n  Jealous  God,  and  a  revenger,  dc. 
fcEx.  -.tt.  5.  &  34.  14.  Dent.  4.  -'4.  Josh.  ^4.  l!t. 
«  Deut.  32.  :jo.  Ps.  94.  1.  Isa.  Oil.  18. 


nigh^."  This  is  the  liighest  fulfillment  of 
the  prophecy ;  for  "then  will  the  wrath  of 
God  against  tlie  wicked  be  fully  seen,  Who 
now  patiently  waiteth  for  them  for  mercy." 

The  book  of  the  virion  of  yahum  the  El/coshite. 
"  *  lie  first  defines  the  object  of  the  prophecy, 
whereto  it  looks ;  then  states  who  spake  it 
and  whence  it  was  ; "  the  human  instrument 
which  God  employed.  The  fuller  title,  "  The 
/joo/:  o/ the  vision  of  Nahum,"  (which  stands 
alone)  proljal^ly  expresses  tliat  it  was  not, 
like  most  prophecies,  first  delivered  orally, 
and  then  collected  by  the  prophet,  but  was 
always  I iis  it  is  so  remarkably)  one  whole. 
"  The  weight  and  pressure  of  this  '  burden ' 
may  be  felt  from  the  very  commencement  of 
the  book." 

2.  God  is  jealous  and  tlie  Lord  revenyeth. 
Rather  (as  the  E.  M.)  *.l  God  very  jealous 
and  avenging  is  the  Lord.  The  Name  of  God, 
YHVH,  "He  Who  Is,"  the  Unchangeable, 
is  thrice  repeated,  and  thrice  it  is  said  of 
Him  that  He  is  an  Avenger.  It  sheweth 
both  the  certainty  and  greatness  of  the 
vengeance,  and  tliat  He  Who  inflicteth  it,  is 
the  All-Holy  Trinity,  Who  have  a  care  for 
the  elect.  God's  jealousy  is  twofold.  It  is 
an  intense  love,  not  bearing  imperfections  or 
unfaithfulness  in  tliat  which  It  loves,  and  so 
chastening  it ;  or  not  bearing  the  ill-dealings 
of  those  wlio  would  injure  what  It  loves,  and 
so  destroying  them.  To  Israel  He  had  re- 
vealed Himself,  as  a*  jealous  God,  insitiug 
iniquity  but  shewing  mercy  ;  here,  as  jealous 
for  His  people  against  tiiose  who  were  purely 
His  enemies  and  the  enemiesjof  His  people-*, 
and  so  His  jealousy  burnetii  to  their  destruc- 
tirm,  in  that  there  is  in  them  no  good  to  be 
refined,  but  only  evil  to  be  consumed. 

The  titles  of  God  rise  in  awe  ;  first,  intensely 
jealous^   and  an  Avenger;  then,  an  Avengei' 

is.  Luke  xxi.  28. 

2  3.  Cyr.  On  the  prophet,  and  his  country  which 
S.  Cyril  .says,  he  had  "learned  by  tradition  to  be 
expres-sed  by  the  addition,  the  Elkoshite,"  see  the 
Introduction  p.  357. 

'*K3p  Sx  is  used  as  an  attribute  of  God  Ex.  xx. 

.',.  xxxiv.  14.  Dt.  iv.  24.  v. 9.  vi.  15,  a.s  is  Kljn  Sx,  the 

form  used  here,  Jos.  xxiv.  19.    It  is  observed  that, 

in  prose,  7X  is  almost  uniformly  used  with  an  adj. 

pjni  Dim  '7K,  «iiji  Snj  Sx,  -n  Sx,  p'S;*  Sn, 
'nuf  Sk,  or  a  noun  'XT  Sk,  dSij;  Sx,  m>'T  Sk. 

*Ex.  XX.  5,  6.  »8eeZech.  i.  14. 

*The  form  t<13p  being  intensive. 
"  non  7^0  occurs  once  only  be.-(ide,  and  that, 
ol  mail,  I'r.  \x.i\.  JJ ;  i>m  r\j<  7j,'3  al -^o  I'r.  xxii.  24. 


Lord  revengeth,  and  +  is    ^  h  r7s  t 
furious ;   the   Lord   will      <^''"-  ''^^■ 


tHeb.  that  hath  Jury. 


and  a  Lord  of  rvrath  ;  One  Who  hath  it  laid 
up  with  Him,  at  His  Command,  and  the 
more  terrible,  because  it  is  so  ;  the  Master  of 
it,  (not,  as  man,  mastered  by  it');  having 
it,  to  withhold  or  to  discharge ;  yet  so  dis- 
charging it,  at  last,  the  more  irrevocably  on 
the  finally  impenitent.  And  this  He  says  at 
tile  last,  an  Avenger  to  "  His  adversaries,  (lit. 
"those  wiio  hem  and  narrow  Him  in"). 
The  word  avenged^  is  almost  appropriated  to 
God  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  to  punishment 
which  He  inflicts,  or  at  least  causes  to  be  in- 
flicted ''\  whetiier  on  individuals",  or  upon  a 
people,  (His  own'''  or  their  enemies  ^^,  for 
tlieir  misdeeds.  In  man  it  is  a  defect'*.  Per- 
sonal vengeance  is  mentioned  only  in  char- 
acters, directly  or  indirectly  censnred,  as 
Samsf)ii '"  or  Saul  "*.  It  is  forljidden  to  man, 
punished  in  him,  claimed  Ijy  God  as  His 
own  inalienable  right.  "  Vengeance  is  Mine 
and  reguital.  "*  Thou  shdt  not  avenge  nor 
keep  up  against  the  children  of  My  people. 
Yet  it  is  spoken  of,  not  as  a  mere  act  of 
God,  but  as  the  expression  of  His  Being. 
'■■'  Shall  not  My  soul  be  avenged  of  such  a  nation 
as  this  ? 

And  a  Reserver  of  wrath  for  Hi. s  enemies,  tlie 
hardened  and  unbelieving  who  hate  God,  and 
at  last,  when  they  had  finally  rejected  God 
and  were  rejected  by  Him.,  tlie  object  of  His 
aveision.  It  is  spoken  after  tlie  manner  of 
men,  yet  therefore  is  the  more  terrible. 
Tliere  is  that  in  God,  to  which  the  passions 
of  man  correspond  ;  tliey  are  a  false  imitation 
of  something  which  in  Him  is  good,  a  dis- 
tortion of  the  true  likeness  of  (lod,  in  which 
God  created  ns  and  which  man  by  sin  de- 
faced. "'^^  Pride  doth  imitate  exaltedness: 
whereas  Thou  Alone  art  God  exalted  overall. 
Ambition,  what  seeks  it,  but  honors  and  glory  ? 
whereas  Thou  Alone  art  to  Ije  honored  above 

'DpJ  w'itii  S  !>.,  only  beside  Ez.  xxv.  12. 

"DpJ. 

i''Nu.  -vxxi.  2,3.  Ps.  ckHx.  !I.  Hence  almost  the 
same  as,  punished  liy  law,  Ex.  xxi.  20.  21. 

11  Gen.  IV.  15.  24.  1  Sam.  xxiv.  12.  2  Sam.  iv.  8.  2 
Kin^s  ix.  7.  Jer.  xi.  20.  xv.  15.  xx.  12. 

12  Lev.  xxvi.  25.  Ps.  xcix.  8.  Ez.  xxiv.  8. 
"Deut.  xxxii.  41,  4.X  Ps.   xviii.  48.  Is.  xxxiv.  8. 

XXXV.  4.  xlvii.  3.  lix.  17.  Ixi.  2.  Ixiii.  4.  Mi.  v.  14.  Jer. 
xlvi.  10.  1.  15.  28.  li.  r>.  11.  30.  Ezek.  xxv.  14.  17. 
'*  DpjnO,  a  self-avenger,  Ps.  viii.  3.  xliv.  17.    It  is 

punished  by  God  Ezek.  xxv.  12, 15,  being  moreover 
unjust;  Jor.  xx.  10.  12.  Lam.  iii.  60.  coll.  O1. 

"f'Jud.  XV.  7.  xvi.  20. 

19  1  Sam.  xiv.  24.  xviii.  25.  Else  only  historically 
Pr.  vi.  34.  Esth.  viii.  13.  David  thanks  God  for  keep- 
ing him  from  It  toward  Nabal  1  Sam.  xxv.  32,  33. 

"  Deut.  xxxii.  35.  comp.  Ps.  xciv.  1. 

'«  Lev.  xix.  18.  "Jer.  v.  9.  29.  ix.  a 

•-■".S.  .\ug.  C>n\i.  n.  ii.  n.  13.  14. 


CHAPTER  I. 


131 


0  H  bT I T    ^^^®  vengeance  on  his  ad- 

cir.  713.       versaries,  and  he  reserveth 

wrath    for    his    enemies. 


all  and  glorious  for  evermore.  The  cruelty 
of  the  great  would  fain  be  feared;  but  who  is 
to  be  feared  but  God  Alone,  out  of  Whose 
power  what  can  be  wrested  or  withdrawn, 
when,  or  where ,  or  whither,  or  by  whom  ? 
The  tendernesses  of  the  wanton  would  fain 
be  counted  love :  yet  is  nothing  more  tender 
than  Thy  charity ;  nor  is  aught  loved  more 
healthfully  than  that  Tliy  truth,  bright  and 
beautiful  above  all.  Curiosity  makes  sem- 
blance of  a  desire  of  knowledge;  whereas 
Thou  supremely  knowest  all.  Yea,  ignor- 
ance and  foolishness  itself  is  cloaked  under  the 
name  of  simplicity  and  uninjuriousness:  be- 
cause nothing  is  found  more  single  than 
Thee;  and  what  less  injurious,  since  tiieyare 
his  own  works  which  injure  the  sinner? 
Yea,  sloth  would  fain  be  at  rest ;  but  what 
stable  rest  beside  the  Lord  ?  Luxury  aflects 
to  be  called  plenty  and  abundance ;  but  Thou 
art  the  fullness  and  never-failing  plenteous- 
ness  of  incorruptible  pleasures.  Prodigality 
presents  a  shadow  of  liberality  :  but  Thou  art 
the  most  overflowing  Giver  of  all  good.  Covet- 
ousness  would  possess  many  things ;  and  Thou 
possessest  all  things.  Envy  disputes  for  ex- 
cellency :  what  more  excellent  than  Thou  ? 
Anger  seeks  revenge :  who  revenges  more 
justly  than  Thou  ?  Fear  startles  at  tilings 
unwonted  or  sudden,  which  endanger  things 
beloved,  and  takes  fore-thought  for  their 
safety ;  but  to  Thee  what  unwonted  or  sud- 
den, or  who  separateth  from  Thee  what  Thou 
lovest?  Or  where  but  with  Thee  is  un- 
shaken safety?  Grief  pines  away  for  things 
lost,  the  delight  of  its  desires ;  because  it 
would  have  nothing  taken  from  it,  as  nothing 
can  from  Thee.  Thus  doth  the  soul  seek 
without  Thee  what  she  findeth  not  pure  and 
untainted,  till  she  returns  to  Thee.  Thus  all 
pervertedly  imitate  Thee,  who  remove  far 
from  Thee,  and  lift  themselves  up  against 
Thee.  But  even  by  thus  imitating  Thee, 
they  imply  Thee  to  be  the  Creator  of  all 
nature ;  whence  there  is  no  place,  whither 
altogether  to  retire  from  Thee."  And  so,  in 
man,  the  same  qualities  are  good  or  bad,  as 
they  have  God  or  self  for  their  end.  "  ^The 
joy  of  tlie  world  is  a  passion.  Joy  in  the 
Holy  Spirit  or  to  joy  in  the  Lord  is  a  virtue. 
The  sorrow  of  tlie  world  is  a  passion.  The 
sorrow  according  to  God  which  worketh  sal- 
vation is  a  virtue.      The  J'ear  of  the  world 

1  Rup. 

sPs.  ciii.  9.    The  idiom  V^'N?  "^DJ  stands  alone. 
"Jer.  iii.  5.  '  ■»  lb.  12. 

*  Rom.  ii.  '.  0.  « iv.  2. 


3  The  Lord  is  "^  slow  to    ^  jfefore  ^ 

cir.  713. 


anger,  and  ®  great  in  power, 

and  will  not  at  all  acquit  "Neh.^gliV.'" 

•  Job  9.  4.  Ps.  103.  8.  .Jonah  4.  2. 


*  Ex.  34. 6,  7. 


which  hath  torment,  from  which  a  man  is 
called  fearful,  is  a  passion.  The  holyiearof 
the  Lord,  wliich  abidetli  for  ever,  from  which 
a  man  is  called  reverential,  is  a  virtue.  Tlie 
hope  of  the  world,  when  one's  hope  is  in  tlie 
world  or  the  princes  of  the  world,  is  a  pas- 
sion. Hope  in  God  is  a  virtue,  as  well  as 
faith  and  charity.  Tliough  these  four  human 
passions  are  not  in  God,  there  are  four  vir- 
tues, having  the  same  names,  which  no  one 
can  have,  save  from  God,  from  the  Spirit  of 
God."  In  man  they  are  "  passions,"  because 
man  is  so  far  "passive"  and  sutlers  under 
them,  and,  through  original  sin,  cannot  hin- 
der having  them,  though  by  God's  grace  he 
may  hold  them  in.  God,  without  passion 
and  in  perfect  holiness,  has  qualities,  which 
in  man  were  jealousy,  wrath,  vengeance,  un- 
forgivingness,  a  "rigor  of  perfect  justice  towai'd 
the  impenitent,  whicli  punisheth  so  severely, 
as  though  God  had  fury ; "  only,  in  Him  it  is 
righteous  to  punish  man's  unrighteousness. 
Elsewhere  it  is  said,  -  God  keepeth  not  for  ever, 
or  it  is  asked,  ^  will  He  keep  for  ever  f  and  He 
answers,  *  Jielurn,  and  I  iiill  not  catnte  Mine 
anger  to  full  upon  you;  fcyr  I  am  merciful,  saitk 
the  Lord,  I  will  not  keep  for  ever.  Man's  mis- 
deeds and  God's  displeasure  remain  with  God, 
to  be  effaced  on  man's  repentance,  or  ^  by  Ai'.s 
Jmrdness  and  impenitent  heart  man  treasureth 
tip  unto  himself  ivrath  in  the  day  of  wrath  and 
of  the  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of 
God,  Who  will  reward  each  according  to  his 
works. 

3.  The  Lord  is  slow  to  anger.  Nahum  takes 
up  the  words  of  Jonah  ®as  he  spoke  of 
God's  attributes  toward  Nineveh,  but  only 
to  shew  the  opposite  side  of  them.  Jonah 
declares  how  God  is  sloiv  to  anger,  giving  men 
time  of  repentance,  and  if  they  do  repent,  re- 
penting Him  uUo  of  the  evil ;  Nahum,  that  the 
long-suffering  of  God  is  not  slackness,  that  He 
is  long-suffering  to  usward,  not  willing  that  any 
.'should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  re- 
pentance. 

And  strong  in  power''.  Divine  long-suffer- 
ing goes  along  with  Divine  power.  God  can 
be  long-suffering,  because  He  can,  whenever 
He  sees  good,  punish.  His  long-suffering  is 
a  token,  not  of  weakness,  but  of  power.  He 
can  allow  persons  the  whole  extent  of  trial, 
because,  when  they  are  past  cure.  He  can  end 
it  at  once.     *  God  is  a  righteous  judge,  strong 

'The  full  form  HD  SllJI,  Cheth.  belongs  prob- 
ably to  the  stately  character  of  Nahum.  The  like 
occurs  only  in  Ps.  cxlv.  8.  IDH    iVM. 

'sPs.  vii.  II. 


132 


^AHUM. 


chrTst    ^^^  wicked:   'the  Lord 
'^•'''-  "i-^-      /ia<^  his  way  in  the  whirl- 

'  Ps.  18.  7,  &c.  .1  1     •        i  1,  i. 

A  97. 2.  Wind   and   in  the  storm, 

Hab.3.5,11,12. 


imd  patient,  and  God  nniiheth  ^  evei^y  day.  The 
wrath  conieth  only  at  the  last,  but  it  is  ever 
present  witli  God.  He  cannot  but  be  dis- 
|)leased  with  the  sin;  and  so  the  Psalmist 
describes  in  the  manner  of  men  the  gradual 
approxiniiition  to  its  discharge.  '^  If  he  (the 
sinner)  wUl  not  return  [from  evil  or  to  God], 
He  iL'ill  irhel  His  sword ;  He  hatk  trodden  His 
bow  and  directed  it :  He  hath  prepared  for  him 
imtruments  of  death  ;  He  hath  made  his  arrows 
hurnin;/.  We  see  tlie  arrow  with  unex- 
tinguishable  fire,  ready  to  be  discharged, 
waiting  for  the  final  decision  of  the  wicked, 
whether  he  will  repent  or  not,  but  that  still 
the  Day  of  the  Lord  will  comeK  He  idHI  not 
<U  all  acquit  *.  The  words  occur  originally  in 
the  great  declaration  of  God's  attriljutcs  of 
mercy  by  Moses,  as  a  necessary  limitation  of 
them^;  they  are  continued  to  God's  people, 
vet  with  tlie  side  of  merc'v  predominant''; 
they  are  pleaded  to  Himself  ;  they  are  the 
sanction  of  the  tiiird  commandment"*.  He 
"•(7/  710^  acquit  of  His  own  will,  apart  from  His 
justice.  .So  He  saith^,  /  can  of  Mine  oion  self 
do  nothiny,  i.  e.  (in  part),  not  as  lui just  judges, 
wiio  call  good  evil  andevil  yod,  following  their 
own  will,  not  tlie  merits  of  the  case ;  but,  as  I 
hear,  Ijudye,and  My  jmlyment  i'iju.st.  He  can- 
not even  have  mercy  and  spare  unjustly,  nor 
wit iiout  the  lowliness  of  penitence.  Even  if 
it  be  Jerusalem,  over  which  He  wept,  or  His 
roinpanion,  His  own famiUitr  friend  '",  He,  Wiio 
is  no  accepter  of  jn'rsons,  cannot  of  mere  favor 
forgive  the  impenitent. 

Tfte  Lord  hath  His  way  in  the  whirlwind  and 
in  the  storm.  The  vengeance  of  God  comes 
at  last  swiftly,  vehemently,  fearfully,  irresist- 
ibly. When  they  say.  Peace  and  safety,  then 
xiidflen  deMruction  corneth  upon  them '  ,  and  all 
creation  stands  at  the  command  of  the  (  re- 
atoragainst  His  enenues.  He  shall  tab:  to  Him 
Hii  jealomy  for  complete  armor,  and  make  the 
creature  His  weapon,  for  the  revenge  of  His 
enemies  '^. 

And  the  clouds  are  tlie  dust  of  His  feet.  Per- 
liai)s  the  imagery  is  from  the  light  dust 
raised  by  an  earthly  army,  of  which  Nahum's 

'The  wont  exi>n^ssfs  coiitiimously  |ji-f.si'nt  action, 

Dj/'f.     Thclxx  (iddi.'il  glroiii/ ami  itatietit  to  bring  out 

the  meaning.  , 

«  lb.  12.  i;j.     3  2  Pet.  iii.  tt,'lO.     *  Hpy  Hi  npJV 

*Ex.  xxxiv.  7.    The  Samaritan  PiMitutcm'h  i-har- 

iioteristically  fhangos  the  wonls  into  PIpJ'  w  DpJI 

"  tlie  innocent  ahall  1)8  helrl  guiltless  by  him." 
"Jer.  XXX.  11.  xlvi.  28.  'Nu.  xiv.  18. 

»  Ex.  XX.  7.  Deut.  v.  11.  ».Tohn  v.  30. 

'XI'-*.  Iv.  14.  "  1  Thc'M.«.  V.  X 

'-  W  i-.l..r,i  V.  17.  ''K/,.'k.  xxvi.  ID. 


and  the  clouds  are  the  dust 
of  his  feet. 

4  « He  rebuketh  the  sea, 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  713. 

«  Ps.  lUG.  9. 
Isa.  00.  2. 
Matt.  8.  26. 


word  is  used  ".  The  powers  of  heaven  are 
arrayed  against  the  might  of  earth.  On  earth 
a  little  dust,  soon  to  subside ;  in  heaven,  the 
whirlwind  and  the  storm,  which  sweep  away 
wliat  does  noj  bow  before  them.  Tiie  vapors, 
slight  in  outward  seeming'*,  but  formed  of 
countless  multitudes  of  niist-droi)S,  are  yet 
dark  and  lowering,  as  they  liurst,  and  resist- 
less. "  The  Feet  of  God  are  that  jiower  where- 
by He  trampleth  upon  the  ungodly."  So  it  is 
said  to  the  Son,  Sit  Than  on  My  Right  Hand 
until  T  make  Thine  enemies  Thy  footstool.  Tem- 
pests have  al.so,  without  figure,  been  used  to 
overthrow  God's  enemies '^ 

4.  He  rebuketh  the  sea  and  maketh  it  dry  ^^, 
delivering  His  people,  as  He  did  fro*n  Pha- 
raoh '^,  the  type  of  all  later  oppressors,  and 
of  Antichrist.  His  word  is  ivith  power  ;  to  de- 
stroy them  at  once  ivith  one  rough  word  '*.  Tlie 
restlessness  of  the  barren  and  troubled  sea  is 
an  image  of  the  wicked  '".  And  drieth  up  all 
the  rivers,  as  He  did  Jordan.  His  coming 
shall  be  far  more  terrible  than  when  all  tlie 
hearts  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  did  mrll  '-'•*. 
Bashan  langiiishcth  and  Carmel ;  and  the  jhm'i'r 
of  Lebanon  languisheth.  Bashan  was  richest 
in  pastures  ;  Carmel,  according  to  its  name, 
in  gardens  and  vineyards ;  Lebanon,  in  vines 
also  and  fragrant  flowers"'*',  but  chiefly  in  the 
cedar  and  cypress;  it  had  its  name  from  the 
whiteness  of  the  snow,  which  rests  on  its 
summit.  These  mountains  then  together  are 
emblems  of  richness,  lasting  beauty,  fruitful- 
ness,  loftiness;  yet  all,  even  tliat  which  by 
nature  is  not,  in  the  variety  of  seasons,  wont 
to  fade,  dries  up  and  withers  before  the  re- 
buke of  God.  But  if  these  thing  are  done  in 
a  green  tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  the  dry  f  All 
freshness,  beauty,  comeliness,  shew  of  out- 
ward nature,  shall  fade  as  grass ;  all  ornament 
of  men's  outward  graces  or  gifts,  all  mere 
shew  of  goodneas,  shall  fall  otl'like  a  leaf  and 
perish.  If  the  glory  of  nature  perishes  be- 
fore God,  how  much  more  tiie  i>iide  of  man  ! 
Bashan  also  was  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
race  of  giants,  and  near  Libanus  was  Damas- 
cus ;  yet  tlieir  inhabitants  became  as  dead  men 

'^  pJN  oeours  six  times  in  the  O.  T.  It  is  by  itself 
"  light  dust"  Ex.  ix.  9.  De.  xxviii.  2J.  Is.  v.  24,  but 
has  pT  added  Is.  xxix.  5. 

1"  Rx.  xiv.  27.  Josh.  x.  11.  Judge.s  v.  20.  1  Sam.  ii. 
10.  and  vii.  lo.  2  Sum.  xxii.  1.5. 

'"The    contracted    form,    iiriK/S'l    is  again    lor 

emphasis.  The  like  contraction  IT'I  occurs  in  Lam. 

iii.  63.  nr.\  lb.  33.  Cyiff^]  2  Chr.  xxxii.  30.  Kri. 

"  Ps.  ovi.  0.  '"  Wisd.  xii.  0.         »»Is.  I  vii  '.'o. 

•-"".losh.  ii.  11.  •-■'  !!(.-.  xiv.  7,  Cam.  iv.  It. 


CHAPTER  1. 


133 


CHRIST    ^"^^    makcth    it    dry,   and 
°^^-  '^^3. drietli   up   all  the  rivers: 


h  Isa.  33.  9. 


kJudg.  5.  5. 
Ps.  97.  5. 
Mic.  i.  4.  - 

»2Pet.  3. 10.      and 


''Baslian  languisheth,  and 
Carmel,  and  the  flower  of 
Lebanon  languisheth. 

5  '  The  mountains  quake 
at  him,  and  "  the  hills  melt, 
the   earth  is  burned 
at   his   presence,  yea,  the 


and  their  power  shrank  to  nothing  at  the 
word  of  God. 

5.  The  mountains  quaked  at  Him,  and  the  hills 
melted,  as  of  their  own  accord.  The  words 
are  a  renewal  of  those  of  Amos '.  Inani- 
mate nature  is  pictured  as  endowed  with  the 
terror,  which  guilt  feels  at  the  presence  of 
God.  All  power,  whether  greater  or  less, 
whatsoever  lifteth  itself  up,  shall  give  way  in 
that  Day,  whicli  shall  be'''  upon  all  the  cedars 
of  Lebanon  that  are  high  and  lifted  up,  and  upon 
all  the  oaks  of  Bashan,  and  upon  all  the  high 
mountains,  and  upon  all  the  hills  that  are  lifted 
up.  And  the  earth  is  burned  [rather  lifteth  jV- 
selfup'^y,  as  in  an  earthquake  it  seems,  as  it 
were,  to  rise  and  sink  down,  lifting  itself  as 
if  to  meet  its  God  or  to  flee.  What  is  strongest, 
shaketh  ;  what  is  hardest,  melteth  ;  yea,  the 
whole  world  trembleth  and  is  removed.  "  *  If," 
said  even  Jews  of  old,  "  when  God  made 
Himself  known  in  mercy,  to  give  the  law  to 
His  people,  the  world  was  so  moved  at  His 
Presence,  how  much  more,  when  He  shall  re- 
veal Himself  in  wrath  !  "  The  words  are  so 
great  that  they  bear  tlie  soul  on  to  the  time, 
when  the  heaven  and  earth  shall  flee  away 
from  the  Face  of  Him  Who  sitteth  on  the  throne, 
and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat". 
And  since  all  judgments  are  images  of  the 
Last,  and  the  awe  at  tokens  of  God's  Pres- 
ence is  a  shadow  of  the  terror  of  that  coming, 
he  adds, 

6.  Wlio  can  stand  before  His  indignation  ? 
This  question  appeals  to  our  own  consciences, 
that  we  cannot  ^.    It  anticipates  the  self-con- 

'  Am.  ix.  13.  Jjionn  occurs  beside  ouly  in 
Ps.  cvii.  2e,  of  the  heart  of  man  through  terror. 
Delitzsch  (on  Hab.  p.  15G)  supposed  that  the  hith- 
pael  or  hithpalel  conveyed  "the  operation  of  an 
outward  cause,  completing  itself  within  the  subject, 
as  it  were  in  continued  vibrations,"  alleging  Ew. 
Lehrb.  124  a,  coll.  |'p3nn  Mie.  i.  4,  ti'^'jnn  Ps. 

xviii.  8,  niiijnn  ;7;;'inn,  is.  xxiv.  19,  bpSpnn 

.Ter.  iv.  24,  but  there  is  no  ground  for  making  the 
form  at  once  passive  and  reflective ;  and  it  is  less 
vivid. 

2  Is.  ii.  13, 14. 

^Ktyj  intrans.  as  Ps.  Ixxxix.  10,  vSj  KIE/^,  of 
the  sea.  With  this  agrees  the  constr.  VJtJO  "from 
His  Presence,"  as  the  cause  of  its  fear.  The  E.  V. 
"  is  burned  "  is  taken  from  Rashi. 

*  Jon.  5  Rev.  xx.  11 ;  2  Pet.  iii.  10. 


world,  and   all   that  dwell    f'^^^\%,y. 
therein.  '^"•-  ''^3. 

6  Who  can  stand  before 
his  indignation  ?  and  ^  who  "^  Mai.  3. 2. 
can  t  abide   in  the  fierce- 1  Heb.  stawd  «p. 
ness   of   his   anger  ?    "  his  ■>  Rev.  ig.  1. 
fury   is   poured   out   like 
fire,  and   the  rocks  are 
thrown  down  by  him.        * 


viction  at  every  day  of  God's  visitation,  the 
forerunners  of  the  last.  The  word  rendered 
"  indignation  "  is  reserved  almost  exclusively 
to  denote  the  wrath  of  God'.  "®  Who  can 
trust  in  his  own  righteousness,  and,  i'or  the 
abundance  of  his  worksorcon.sciousnessof  his 
virtues,  not  be  in  need  of  mercy  ?  Enter  not 
into  judgment  ivith  Thy  servant,  0  Lord,  for  in 
Thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified  ;  and  in 
Job  it  is  said  truly.  Behold  He  put  no  trust  in 
His  servants,  and  His  Angels  He  charged  with 
folly.  How  much  less  in  them  that  dwell  in  houses 
of  clay,  whose  foundation  is  in  the  dust,  which 
are  crushed  before  the  moth  ^  ?  It  were  need- 
less now  to  prove,  that  man's  own  deserts 
suffice  to  no  one,  and  that  we  are  not  saved 
but  by  the  grace  of  God,  for  all  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God  ^''.  Wherefore  he 
saith,  before  His  indignation,  standing  face  to 
Face  before  Him  in  wrath." 

lit.  in  the  Face  of:  guilt  cannot  look  in  the 
face  of  man,  how  much  less,  of  God.  The 
bliss  of  the  righteous  is  the  punishment  of 
the  wicked,  to  behold  God  face  to  Face.  For 
" '^  whoso  trusteth  in  his  own  works  deserv- 
eth  His  indignation,  and  thinking  he  stand- 
eth,  righteously  does  he  fall." 

His  fury  is  poured  out  ^^  like  fire,  sweeping 
away,  like  a  torrent  of  molten  fire,  him  who 
presumeth  that  he  can  stand  before  His  Face, 
as  He  did  the  cities  of  the  plain  ^'^,  the  image 
of  the  everlasting  fire,  which  shall  burn  up 
His  enemies  on  every  side  '^.  And  rocks  are 
thrown  down.  The  rocks  are  like  so  many 
towers  ^*  of  nature,  broken  down  and  crushed 

^  As  in  Jo.  ii.  11,  Mai.  iii.  2 ;  renewed  Rev.  vi.  17. 
'  The  noun  Q^f  (used  here)  occurs  21  times  in  the 

0.  T. ;  of  men  only  once ;  the  verb  D^T  occurs  13 

times,  5  times  only  of  man's  anger. 
8  Rup.  9  Job  iv.  IS,  19.  10  Rom.  iii.  23. 

"  "inj  is  used  of  the  pouring  out  of  God's  wrath, 

Jer.  yii.  20,  xlii.  18,  2  Chr.  xii.  7  (as  more  commonly 
"ISU/) ;  here  its  native  meaning  is  brought  out  the 

more,  by  adding  \i/ii2. 
12  Gen.  xix.     i^  pg.  xcvii.  3. 1.  3,  Ixviii.  3,  xviii.  8. 
^*  yr\}  (not  in  the  dialects)  is  used  34  times  of  the 

"  breaking  down  "  of  walls,  buildings,  a  statue,  altar, 
shrine ;  in  Ps.  Iviii.  7.  only,  of  the  teeth  of  lions, 
and,  by  metaphor,  of  men  in  Ps.  Iii.  7,  Job  xix.  10. 
Three  times  it  is  used  elliptically. 


1:34 


XAnr>[. 


Bef'T' 
CHRIST 
cir.  713. 
•  1  Chr.  lu.  :'A. 
Ps.  loo.  5. 
Jer  33.  11. 
Lam.  3.  2.5. 
B  Or,  strength. 
f  Ps.  1.  6. 
2  Tim.  2.  19. 


I  "  The  Lord  is  good, 
a  II  strong  hold  in  the  day 
of  trouble ;  and  "  he  know- 
eth  them  that  trust  in 
him. 


by  Him  lit.  from  Him.  It  needeth  not  any 
act  of  God's.  lie  wills  and  it  is  done.  Those 
who  harden  themselves,  are  crushed  and 
broken  to  pieces,  the  whole  fabric  they  had 
built  for  themselves  and  tlieir  defences, 
crumbling  and  shivered.  If  then  they,  whose 
lieartsare  hard  as  rocks,  and  bold  against  all 
peril,  and  even  Satan  himself,  whose  ^  heart  is 
as  firm  as  a  stone,  yea,  as  hard  as  a  piece  of  the 
nether  millstone,  shall  be  crushed  then,  who 
shall  abide  ? 

7.  The  Lord  is  good:  a  stronghold  in  the  day 
of  trouble.  "  Good  and  doin"  good,"  and  full 
of  sweetness;  alike  good  and  mighty;  Good 
in  giving  Himself  and  imparting  His  good- 
ness to  His  own;  yea*  none  is  good,  save 
God;  Himself  tlie  stronghold  wherein  His 
own  may  take  refuge ;  both  in  the  troubles  of 
this  life,  in  which  ^  He  ivill  not  suffer  us  to  be 
tempted  above  that  we  are  able,  and  in  tliat  Day, 
which  shall  hem  them  in  on  every  side,  and 
leave  no  place  of  esca])e  except  Himself. 

And  He  knoweth  them  that  trust  in  Him  ; 
so  as  to  save  them  ;  as  Rahab  was  saved  when 
Jericho  perished,  and  Lot  out  of  the  midst 
<»f  the  overtiirow  and  Hezekiah  from  the 
host  of  Sennacherib.  He  knoweth  them  with 
an  individual,  ever-present,  knowledge  *.  He 
says  not  only,  "  He  shall  own  them,"  but  He 
ever  knoweth  them.  So  it  is  said  ;  ^  The  Lord 
knoweth  the  way  of  the  righteous,  *  T/te  Lord  know- 
eth the  days  of  the  upright;  and  our  Lord 
says,  '  /  hiow  My  sliecp ;  and  S.  Paul,  *  The 
Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His.  God  speaks 
of  this  knowledge  also  in  the  past,  of  His 
knowledge,  when  things  as  yet  weie  not,  / 
have  known  thee  by  name  ;  or  of  loving  kind- 
ness in  the  past,  *  /  knew  thee  in  the  ivilderness, 
^^  you  alone  have  I  known  of  all  the  families  of 
the  earth,  as  contrariwi.se  our  Lord  says,  that 
He  shall  say  to  the  wicked  in  the  Great  Day, 
"  /  never  knew  you.  That  God,  being  what  He 
is,  should  take  knowledge  of  us,  being  what  we 
are,  is  such  wondrous  condescension,  that  it 

1  Job  xli.  24.     «  S.  Luke-  xviii.  19.     » 1  Cor.  x.  13. 
*_p"]r.  6  P.s.  i.  6.  «  Ps.  xxxvii.  18. 

»  8.  John  x.  14.  27.    «  2  Tim.  ii.  19.    »  Hos.  xiii.  5. 

"  Am.  iii.  2.      "  S.  Matt.  vii.  23.      "  Ps.  cxliv.  3. 

"It  is  the  well  known  construction  13  'plPi  in 
which,  the  verb  being  united  with  its  ohject  by  a 
preposition,  (like  our  "trust  in,")  the  "in  Him" 
stands  as  gen.  as  marked  by  the  stat.  const.  'piP. 
as  It  were  "all  trusters  of  Him,"  as  13  'On  Sj  Ps. 
ii.  12,  13  'Dh  '12  Ps.  V.  12.    Elsewhere  the  art.  is 


S  ■<  But    with    a  n    over-    ^  ^^^%  j 
running  flood  he  will  make      ^ir.  713. 


an  utter  end  of  the  place  q  Dan.  9. 26. 
thereof,  and  darkne.ss  shall  '•''••• 
pureue  his  enemies. 


involves  a  purpose  of  love,  yea.  His  love 
toward  us,  as  the  Psalmist  says  admiringly, 
Lord,  what  is  man  that  Thou  takest  knowledge 
of  him  12  ? 

Them  that  trust  in  Him.  It  is  a  hahit,  which 
has  this  reward ;  the  trusters  in  Him ",  the 
takers  of  refuge  in  Him.  It  is  a  continued  un- 
varying trust,  to  which  is  shewn  this  ever- 
present  love  and  knowledge. 

Yet  this  gleam  of  comfort  only  discloseth 
the  darkness  of  the  wicked.  Since  those  who 
trust  God  are  they  whom  God  knoweth,  it 
follows  that  the  rest  He  knoweth  not.  On 
this  opening,  which  sets  forth  the  attributes 
of  God  toward  those  who  defy  Him  and 
those  who  trust  in  Him,  follows  the  special 
application  to  Nineveh. 

8.  But  with  an  overrunning  fiood  He  will  make 
an  utter  end  of  the  place  thereof^*,  i.  e.  of  Nine- 
veh, although  not  as  yet  named,  except  in 
the  title  of  the  prophecy,  yet  present  to  the 
Prophet's  mind  and  his  hearers,  and  that  tlie 
more  solemnly,  as  being  the  object  of  the 
wrath  of  God,  so  that,  although  unnamed,  it 
would  be  known  so  to  be.  Image  and  reality, 
the  first  destruction  and  the  last  which  it 
pictures,  meet  in  the  same  words.  Nineveli 
itself  was  overthrown  through  the  swelling 
of  the  rivers  which  flowed  round  it  and 
seemed  to  be  its  defence  '^.  Then  also,  the 
fiood  is  the  tide  of  the  armies,  gathered  from 
all  (juarters,  Babylonians  '*,  Medes,  Persians, 
Arabians,  Bactrians,  which  like  a  Hood  should 
sweep  over  Nineveh  and  leave  nothing  stand- 
ing. It  is  also  the  flood  of  tiie  wrath  of  God, 
in  Whose  Hands  they  were,  ami  Who,  by 
them,  should  make  a  full  emlofit,  lit.  make  the 

idace  thereof  a  thing  consumed,  a  thing  whicli 
las  ceased  to  be.  For  a  while,  some  ruins 
existed,  whose  name  and  history  ceased  to 
be  known  ;  soon  after,  the  ruins  themselves 
were  effaced  and  buried  '".  Such  was  the 
close  of  a  city,  almost  coeval  with  the  flood, 
which  had  now  stood  almost  as  many  years 

used  to  express  the  class,  13  O'DFin  -  Sam.  .xxii. 
31  (Ps.  xviii.  31.)   Ps.  xxxiv.  23,  ^3   D'DinS,  Pf. 

xxxi.  20.  13  D'pmS  Pr.  XXX.  .^.  '3  nonin  Is. 

Ivii.  13. 

"So  Ezek.  xi.  13,  xx.  17,  7X12  being  the  second 

object  of  the  verb,  "  Ho  made  them  as  a  thing  con- 
sumed," or  y2  is  used  abs.  as  in  v.  9.  or  with  p\tfi 

Jer.  V.  18. 
14  See  on  ii.  fl.  »«  Died.  Sic.  Ii.  25. 

1'  See  ab.  Introd.  pp.  122, 123. 


CHAPTER  I. 


13 


9  'What    do 


ye" 


im- 


Beforc? 
CHRIST 

g"'-  '^^■'-      aiiiue  aoainst   the  Lord? 
>isam.\i2.     'he   will    make   an   utter 


as  have  passed  since  Christ  came,  but  which 
now  defied  God.  Marvelous  image  of  the 
evil  world  itself,  which  shiill  fiee  away  from 
the  Face  of  Him  Wlio  sat  on  the  throne', 
(iTid  there  wan  found  no  place  for  it. 

And  darkness  shall  pursue  His  enemies; 
better,  He  shall  pursue  Hia  enemies  into  dark- 
ness'^. Darkness  is,  in  the  O.  T.,  the  condi- 
tion, or  state  in  which  a  pei-son  is,  or  lives; 
it  is  not  an  agent,  which  pursues.  Isaiah 
speaks  of  the  •*  inhabitants  of  darkness  *,  e^iter- 
ing  into  darkness;  ''those  who  are  in  darkness. 
The  (jrave  is  all '^  darkness,  '  darkness,  and  the 
shadow  of  death.  Hence  even  Jews  rendered, 
"  •*  He  shall  deliver  them  to  hell."  Into  this 
darkness  it  is  said,  God  shall  pursue  them,  as 
other  prophets  speak  of  being  driven  forth  i^ito 
darkness^.  The  darkness,  the  motionless 
drear  abode,  to  which  they  are  driven,  anti- 
cipates the  being  cast  into  the  outer  darkness, 
vjhere  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth. 
"  ^°  The  vengeance  of  God  on  "  those  who 
remain  "  His  enemies  "  to  the  last,  "  ends  not 
with  the  death  of  the  body  ;  but  evil  spirits, 
who  are  darkness  and  not  light,  pursue  their 
souls,  and  seize  them."  They  would  not  hear 
Christ  calling  to  them,  '^  Walk,  uhile  ye  have 
the  light,  lest  darkness  come  upon  you.  ^'^  They 
are  of  those  that  rebel  against  the  light ;  they  know 
not  the  ways  thereof,  nor  abide  in  the  paths  there- 
of. '^  They  loved  darkness  rather  than  light. 
And  so  they  were,  driven  into  the  darkness 
which  they  chose  and  loved. 

9.  The  Prophet  had  in  few  words  summed 
up  the  close  of  Nineveh  ;  he  now  upbraids 
them  with  the  sin,  which  should  bring  it 
upon  them,  and  foretells  the  destruction  of 
Sennacherib.     Nineveh     had,    before     this, 

1  Rev.  XX.  11. 

2  So  S.  Jer.  The  punctuators  marked  this  by  the 
Makkef,  ^tyn-f]T1\ 

3is.  xlii.  7.  <  lb.  xlvil.  5.  6ib.  xlix.  9. 

«  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  12.  Job  xvii.  13.  '  Job  x.  21. 

» Jon.  .  , 

9  Is.  viii.  22.  n^JD  nbSKl  Jer.  xxiii.  12.  n^SKa 
nS  173J1  inT  "in  darkness,  into  which  they  shall 

be  driven  and  fall  therein." 

w  Rup.  »  S.  John  xii.  35.        >2  job  xxiv.  1.3. 

13  S.  John  iii.  19.  "  2  Kings  xviii.  35. 

16  lb.  xix.  16.  16  See  xix.  15-34. 

1'  The  Hebrew  form  is  doubly  emphatic,  lOl^nn. 
The  same  construction  occurs  with  7X,  "towards," 
Hos.  vii.  15,  _j;i  ?3I»/n'  w{<\  (in  the  same  general 
sense  as  the  stronger  j^  Nah.  i.  11,  Dan.  xi.  24),  in 
lOJn'  ''Td  Sx  Job  .w.  25,  rSx  ny  "runneth  at" 
i.  e.  agamst  Him  (God)  lb.  26.  31^71  is  not  simply 
"think,"  but  "excogitated,"  "calculated"  (Lev.  5 
times),  "  devised  "  Pr.  xvi.  9 ;  with  S  and  inf. "  to  do 


end  :  a  IH  i  c  (  i  o  n 
not  rise  up  the 
time. 


shall  Before 

''  CHRIST 

second      ^'i'"-  '^i^. 


been  the  instrument  of  chastising  Israel  and 
Judah.  Now,  the  capture  of  Samaria,  which 
had  cast  ott  God,  deceived  and  emboldened 
it.  Its  king  thought  that  this  was  the  might 
of  his  own  arm;  and  likened  the  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth  to  the  idols  of  the  heathen, 
and  said,  '*  Who  are  they  among  all  the  gods  of 
the  countries,  that  have  delivered  their  country 
out  of  mine  haiid,  that  the  Lord  should  delive^r 
Jerusalem  out  of  mine  hand  f  He  sent  ^^  to  re- 
proach the  living  God  and  ^^  defied  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel.  His  blasphemy  was  iiis  destruction. 
It  was  a  war,  not  simply  of  ambition,  or 
covetousness,  but  directly  against  the  power 
and  worship  of  God. 

What  will  ye  so  mightily ''  devise,  imagine 
against  the  Lord  f  He  '*  Ilimself,  by  Him- 
self, is  already  making  an  utter  end.  It  is  in 
store ;  the  Angel  is  ready  to  smite.  Idle 
are  man's  devices,  when  the  Lord  doeth. 
'*  Take  counsel  together,  and  it  shall  come  to 
nought ;  speak  the  word,  and  it  shall  not  stand  : 
for  God  is  with  us.  While  the  rich  man  was 
speaking  comfort  to  his  soul  as  to  future 
years,  God  was  making  an  utter  end.  Thou 
fool,  this  night  shall  thy  soul  be  required  of  thee. 

'•'"  Affliction  shall  not  rise  up  the  second  time  : 
as  he  says  afterward,  Though  I  have  afflicted 
tliee,  I  will  afflict  thee  no  more  ^^  God,  He  had 
said,  is  good  for  a  refuge  in  the  day  of  affliction  ; 
now,  personifying  that  affliction,  he  says,  that 
it  should  be  so  utterly  broken,  that  it  should 
rise  up  no  more  to  vex  them,  as  when  a  ser- 
pent's head  is,  not  wounded  only  but, 
crushed  and  trampled  under  foot,  so  that  it 
cannot  again  lift  itself  up.  The  promises  of 
God  are  conditioned  by  our  not  tailing  back 
into  sin.     He  saith  to  Nineveh,  "  God  will 

evil  to  "  Pr.  xxiv.  8.  In  kal,  also,  n^tJ'n??  3K^n  is 
used  for  "  devising  against,"  alike  with  7^  Jer.  xi. 
19.  xviii.  11. 18.  xlix.  30,  and  with  '^K  Jer.  xlix.  20. 
1.  45 ;  and  with  7_jf  in  a  good  sense,  .Jer.  xxix.  11. 
2WXy  Is  used  also  of  "thinking  over"  the  past,  Ps. 
Ix.xvii.  6.  cxix.  59;  with  7  and  inf.  "thinking  over," 

in  order  to  know,  Ps.  Ixxiii.  16  ;  with  ace.  p.  "  take 
account  of"  Ps.  c.xliv.  3,  2  Kgs  xii.  16;  but  in  none 

of  these  cases  with  7X. 

18  The  use  of  the  pronoun  in  Heb.  is  again  em- 
phatic. i»  Is.  viii.  10. 

soothers  have  understood  this,  "  afftietion  shall 
not  rise  up  the  second  time,"  but  shall  destroy  at 
once,  utterly  and  finally  (comp.  1  Sam.  xxvi.  8.  2 

Sam.  XX.  10.):  but  1)  the  idiom  there,  'h  T\W  vh, 
"he  did  not  repeat  to  him,"  as  we  say,  "  he  did  not 
repeat  the  blow,"  is  quite  different":  2)  it  is  said, 
"  affliction  shall  not  rise  up,"  itself,  as  if  it  could 
not.    The  causative  of  the  idiom  occurs  in  2  Sam. 

xii.  11.  n;;"!  tS;J  D'pn  'J^n  "lo,  I  win  cause  evil 

to  rise  up  against  thee."  si  t.  12. 


];;(j 


>Aiir.M. 


10  For   while   ihey  bf 


Hof..rn 
CHRIST 

cir.  713.      folden  together  '  as  thorns, 


« 2  Sam.  23. 6, 7.  "  a  n  d  while   they   are 
drunken  as  drunkard; 


■  ch.  .3.  11. 


not  deliver  Judah  to  thee,  a.s  He  delivered 
tlie  ten  tribes  and  Samaria."  Judali  repented 
under  Hezekiali,  and  lie  not  only  delivered 
it  from  Sennacherib,  but  never  afflicted  them 
again  through  Assyria.  Renewal  of  sin 
brings  renewal  or  deepening  of  punishment. 
The  new  and  more  grievous  sins  under  Ma- 
nasseh  were  punished,  not  through  Assyria 
but  through  the  Chaldeans. 

The  words  have  passed  into  a  maxim, 
"  God  will  not  punish  the  same  thing  twice," 
not  in  tliis  world  and  the  world  to  come,  i.  e. 
not  if  repented  of.  For  of  tlie  impenitent  it 
is  said,  ^  destroy  them  with  a  double  destruction. 
Chastisement  here  is  a  token  of  God's  mei-cy  ; 
the  absence  of  it,  or  prosperous  sin,  of  perdi- 
tion ;  but  if  any  refuse  to  be  corrected,  the 
chastisement  of  this  life  is  but  the  beginning 
of  unending  torments. 

10.  For  while  they  be  folden  together  as 
thorns  '■',  i.  e.  as  confused,  intertwined,  sharp, 
piercing,  hard  to  be  touched,  rending  and 
tearing  whosoever  would  interfere  with  its 
tangled  ways,  and  seemingly  compact  to- 
gether and  strong  ;  and  while  they  are  drunken 
as  their  drinP,  not  "drinkers*"  only  but 
literally  "  drunken,"  swallowed  up,  as  it 
were,  by  their  drink  which  they  had  swal- 
lowed, mastered,  overcome,  powerless,  they 
shall  be  devoured  as  stubble  fully  dry  ",  rapidly, 
in  an  instant,  with  an  empty  crackling 
sound,  unresisting,  as  having  notliing  in 
them  which  can  resist.  Historically,  the 
great  defeat  of  the  Assyrians,  before  the  cap- 
ture of  Nineveh,  took  place  while  its  king, 
Hushed  with  success,  was  giving  himself  to 
listlessness ;   and  having    distributed  to  his 

1  Jer.  xvii.  18. 

^  D'TO  "^i?  lit-  "quite  up  to,"  so  as  altogether  to 
equal;  as  n'^DH  n>%  Job.  xi.  7,  mm'  'J3  HJ?,  1 
Chr.  iv.  27.  'X3b,  wine,  Is.  i.  22.  Hos.  iv.  18. 

*  As  elsewhere  DK30,  Deut.  xxi.  20,  Pr.  xxiii.  20, 
21,  'KniD  Chcth.  Ez.  xxiii.  42. 

5xSo  is  best  united  with  \i;2\  nx'^O  is  used  of 
ripe  corn,  Ex.  xxii.  28.  Dt.  xxii.  9;  but  tiiis  may  be 
80  called,  from  the  ear  being  full.    The  idiom,  m 

which  xS'S  is  joined  with  the  verb,  TinX  l^^'^P 

X"''0  Jer  xii.  C,  is  different,  being  derived  from  a 

phrase,  IK^O  IXlp  "cry  aloud,  fill,"  i.  e  with  a  full 

voice,  Jer.  iv.  5.  Schultcns   compares    Arab,  ij,^ 

X^'pi  "  he  did  and  filled  "—did  fully.    For  the  im- 

ngory  of  the  devouring  of  the  stubble  by  fire,  see 
Is.  v'.  -M.  xlvii.  14.  .lo.  ii.  S.  Ob.  18.     •  Diod.  Sic.  ii.  2)i. 

'  Dan.  V.  1-30.  *  1  Kings  xx.  16. 

»  Pr.  xi.  8.  >o  Run.  »  Jude  12,  13. 

"Those  who  explain  this  of  the  past,  render. 


Mhey  shall  be  (kvoured  a.'^    cheTst 

stubble  fully  dry.  __cir^7i3; 

11  There   is   one  comcWa'-'*-^- 

y2Kmgs  19.22, 

out  of  thee,  ^  that  imagin-  2!. 

soldiers  victims,  and  abundance  of  wine,  and 
otlier  necessaries  for  banqueting,  the  whole 
army  "  was  negligent  and  drunken."  In 
like  way  Babylon  was  taken  amid  the  feast- 
ing of  Belshazzar ' ;  Benhadad  was  smitten, 
while  ^^  drinking  himself  drunk  in  the  pavilions, 
he  and  the  kings,  the  thirty  and  two  kings  that 
helped  him.  And  so  it  may  well  be  meant 
here  too,  that  Sennacherib's  army,  secure  of 
their  prey,  were  sunk  in  revelry,  already 
swallowed  up  by  wine,  before  they  were  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  pestilence,  on  the  night 
when  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  went  out  to 
smite  them,  and,  from  the  sleep  of  revelry, 
they  slept  the  sleep  from  which  they  shall 
not  awake  until  the  Judgment  Day.  God 
chooseth  the  last  moment  of  the  triumph  of 
tlie  wicked,  when  he  is  flushed  by  his  suc- 
cess, the  last  of  the  helplessness  of  the 
righteous,  when  his  hope  can  be  in  the  Lord 
Alone,  to  exchange  their  lots.  "  The  righteous 
is  delivered  out  of  trouble,  and  the  icicked  conieth 
in  his  stead.  Spiritually,  "  '"  tlie  false  fullness 
of  the  rich  of  this  world,  is  real  leanness  ;  the 
greenness  of  such  grass  (for  all  flesh  is  grass)  is 
real  dryness.  Marvelous  words,  fully  dry. 
For  what  is  dryness  but  emptiness  ?  "  They 
are  perfected,  but  in  dryness,  and  so  perfectly 
prepared  to  be  burned  up.  "  The  thorns 
had,  as  far  as  in  tiiem  lay,  choked  the  good 
seed,  and  hated  the  Seed-corn,  and  now  are 
found,  like  stubble,  void  of  all  seed,  fitted 
only  to  be  burned  with  fire.  For  those  who 
feast  themselves  ivithoul  fear  is  ^^  reserved  the 
blackness  of  darkness  for  ever." 

11.  There  is  one  cone  out  of  thee  i.e.  Nineveh, 
that  imagineth  ^'^,  deviseth  '  ,  evil  '*,  against  the 

"  Out  of  thee,  Judah,  is  gone  away,  withdrawn,  he 
who  devised  evil  against  the  Lord."  But  a  person 
is  said  to  "  go  forth  "  out  of  that  which  is  his  abode, 
from  the  citj',  gate,  &c.  or,  to  war.  In  the  excep- 
tions, Is.  xlix  17,  "  thy  destroyers  and  wastors  shall 
KO  forth  from  thee,"  it  is  implied  that  thay  had 
l(>ng  sojourned  there,  and  were  to  give  place  to  the 
children,  who  should  return.  In  Jer.  xliii.  12, 
where  it  is  said  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  he  shall  qo 
forth  thence  in  peace,  it  is  first  said, /le  s/ia//  set  up  his 
throne  there  and  shall  arrnii  himself  with  the  land  of 
E'i'ipt,  "-5  a  shepherd  puttcth  on  liis' garment ;  i.  e.  ha 
shall  make  it  wholly  his  own. 

13  As  Ps.  xxxv.  4.  'n;,n  '3tyn. 

"Sj^'Sj  occurs  18  times,  combined  with  ^J?, 
p,  T\2,  'JD,  ty'H,  'lyjK,  DIK,  "a  son.  daughter, 
sons,  man,  men,  witness."  '3  V^V  i-"  a  similar  com- 
position. Else  it  only  occurs  with  im  Ps.  xli.  0,  oi. 
3,  and  as  an  adj.  Do.  xv.  9;  as  personal  2  Sam. 
xxiii.  6.  Nah.  ii.  1.  also  '3  ibXH  Job  xxxiv.  18. 
There  is  then  no  ground  to  take  it  here,  or  Ps. 

xviii.  5,  and  2  Sam.  xxii.  6,  with  '^n  J.  as  signifying 
"  destruction." 


CHAPTER  T. 


137 


Beforp 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


eth  evil  against  the  Lord, 
f  a  wicked  counsellor. 

1 2  Thus  saith  the  Lord  ; 
1 1  Though   they   he   quiet, 


fHeb.  a  counsel- 
lor of  Belial. 

II  Or,  If  they 
would  have 
been  at  peace,  i     i-i 

so  should  they  and  likewisc  many,  yet 
mnnf/,  and  so  thus  ^shall  they  be  fcut 
have  beenshorn,  down,  when  he  shall  "^  pass 

and  lie  should     ,<  ■,  mi  i      t    i 

have  passed      through,     ihough  i  have 

away.  »  2  Kings  19.  3.5,  37.  f  Heb.  shorn. 

•  Isa.  8.  8.  Dan.  11. 10. 


Lord,  Sennacherib,  '  the  rod  of  God^s  anger, 
yet  who  "  meant  not  so,"  as  God  meant.  "  And 
this  was  his  counsel,"  as  is  every  counsel  of 
Satan,  "  that  they  could  not  resist  him,  and 
so  should  withdraw  themselves  from  the  land 
of  God,  ^  i7ito  a  land  like  their  own,  but  whose 
joy  and  sweetness,  its  vines  and  its  fig-trees, 
should  not  be  from  God,  but  from  the  Assy- 
rian, i.  e.  from  Satan." 

12.  Though  they  be  quiet  and  lil-evise  many, 
yet  thus  shall  they  be  cut  down.  lit.  If  they  be 
entire^,  i.  e.  soinul,  unharmed,  unimpaired  in 
their  numbers,  unbroken  in  their  strength, 
undiminished,  perfect  in  all  which  belongeth 
to  war ;  and  thus  many,  even  thus  shall  they  be 
mown  down  (or  shorn),  and  he  passeth  away^. 
With  might  outwardly  unscathed,  without 
hand  ^,  and  thus  many  i.  e.  many,  accordingh', 
as  being  unweakened  ;  as  many  as  they  shall 
be,  .30  shall  they  be  mown  doivn  ®,  and  he,  their 
head  and  king,  shall  pa-^s  away  and  perish ''. 
Their  numbers  shall  be,  as  their  condition 
before,  perfect ;  their  destruction  as  their 
numbers,  complete.  It  is  wonderful  how 
much  God  says  in  few  words ;  and  how  it  is 
here  foretold  that,  with  no  previous  loss,  a 
mighty  host  secure  and  at  ease,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  prosperity,  all  are  at  one 
blow  mown  down,  like  the  dry  grass  before 
the  scythe,  are  cut  off  and  perish  ;  and  one, 
their  kin<j,  passeth  away,  first  by  flight,  and 
then  by  destruction.  As  they  had  shorn  the 
glory  of  others*,  so  should  they  be  shorn 
and  cut  down  themselves. 

Though  I  have  afflieted  thee,  Iivill  afflict  thee^ 
no  more,  unless  by  new  guilt  thou  comjijel  Me. 

1  Is.  X.  5-7.  2  Is.  xxxvi.  le,  17. 

^D/ty  is  used  of  physical  entireness,  complete- 
ness, or  mental  integrity.    In  one  place  only,  Gen. 

xxxiv.  21,  MP^H    D'O  'ty  is   doubtless   rendered 

rightly  "peaceable  with  us,"  as  'D/tJ'  Ps.  vii.  5, 

but  not  in  the   frequent   idiom    D/t!'   2l,  22^, 

whether  with  or  without  "  DJ7,  and  never  by  itself. 

*So  it  seems  better  to  render  it,  than,  as  in  the 
E.  v.,  and  he  shall  pass  through.  The  word  means 
alike  "pass  away"  or  "  pass  through,"  but  the  act 
spoken  of  is  later  than  the  cutting  down  of  the 
army,  and  so  probably  the  passing  away,  or  flight  of 
its  king,  to  his  destruction  or  final  passing  away. 

»Dan  li.  34. 


afflicted  thee,  I  will  afflict    ^  ^1^^  ■ 
thee  no  more.  cir-  '^la. 

13  For   now   will   I 
"break  his  yoke   from  off  i>jer.2. 20. 
thee,  and   will   burst  thy 

bonds  in  sunder. 

14  And  the  Lord  hath 
given  a  commandment 


God  always  relieves  us  from  trouble,  as  it 
were  with  the  words  ^'',  sin  no  more,  lest  a 
worse  thing  cnme  unto  thee.  In  the  end,  afflic- 
tions shall  le  turned  into  joy,  and  God  shall 
wipe  away  all  fears  from  their  eyes  ;  and  there 
shall  be  no  more  death,  nor  sorrow,  nor  crying, 
neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain  ^^. 

13.  For  now  will  I  break  his  yoke  from  off  thee. 
God,  lest  His  own  should  despair,  does  not 
put  them  off  altogether  to  a  distant  day,  but 
saith,  now.  Historically,  the  beginning  of 
the  fall  is  the  earnest  of  the  end.  By  the 
destruction  of  Sennacherib,  God  declared  His 
displeasure  against  Assyria ;  the  rest  was 
matter  of  time  only.  Thus  Haman's  wise 
men  say  to  him,  ^^  If  Mordecai  be  of  the  seed  of 
the  Jews,  before  whom  thou  hast  begun  to  fall, 
thou  shall  not  prevail  against  him,but  shall  surely 
fall  before  him  ;  as  He  saith  in  Isaiah,  ^^  I  will 
break  the  Assyrian  in  My  land,  and  upon  My 
mountains  tread  him  underfoot;  then  shall  his 
yoke  depart  from  off  them,  and  his  burden  depart 
from  off  their  shoulders.  "  ^*  In  that  He  saith, 
not  '  I  will  loose,'  '  will  undo,'  but  '  I  will 
break,'  '  will  burst,'  He  sheweth  that  He 
will  in  such  wise  free  Jerusalem,  as  to  pour 
out  displeasure  on  the  enemy.  The  very 
mode  of  speaking  shews  the  greatness  of  His 
displeasure  against  those  who,  when  for  the 
secret  purpose  of  His  judgments  they  have 
power  given  them  against  the  servants  of 
God,  feed  tliemselves  on  their  punishments, 
and  moreover  dare  to  boast  against  God,  as 
did  the  Assyrian,  ^^By  the  strength  of  my  hand 
I  have  done  it,  and  by  my  ivisdom." 

14.  And  the  Lord  hath  given  a  commandment 

6|"J  is  used  of  sheep-shearing,  cutting  off  the 
hair  in  sorrow;  IJ  is  "mown  grass,  fleece  cut." 
Here  alone,  it  is  a  metaphor,  like  that  of  n7J%  Is. 
vii.  20.  1  Comp.  Ps.  xlviii.  4.  » Is.  vii.  20. 

'  n^i?.  "  afflicted  "  relatively  to  God,  is  said  of 

His  chastisement  of  His  people  (Deut.  viii.  2.  2 
Kgs  xvii.  20)  or  of  individuals  (Ps.  Ixxxviii.  8.  xc. 
1.5.  cii.  24.  cxix.  75.  Job  xxx.  11.)  but  no  where  of 
the  enemies  of  God,  whose  destruction  moreover  is 
here  spoken  of.  It  cannot  then  refer  to  the  As- 
syrian, as  some  have  done.  The  double  omission 
of  the  '  in  Hni)^  was  probably  for  the  rhythm. 

10  S.  John  V.  14.     11  Rev.  xxi.  4.     «  Esth.  vi.  13. 
18  Is.  xiv.  25.  1*  Rup.  16  Is.  X.  13. 


1:38 


2^AIIL'.M. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


concerning  thee,  that  no 
more  of  thy  name  be  sown : 
out  of  the  house  of  thy 
gods  will   I   cut  off  the 


concei-niruf  thee,  O  Assyrian.  In  the  word  "I 
have  afflicted  </(«<■,"  tlie  land  of  Israel  is  ad- 
dressed, as  usual  in  Hebrew,  in  the  feminine; 
here,  a  change  of  gender  in  Hebrew  shews 
tlie  pei-son  addressed  to  he  diflferent.  "  '  By 
His  command  alone,  and  the  word  of  His 
power,  He  cut  off  the  race  of  the  Aasyrian,  as 
he  says  in  NV'isdom,  of  Egypt,  "^  Thine  Al- 
iiiUjhty  word  leaped  down  froni  Heaven,  out  of 
Thy  royal  throne  ;  as  a  fierce  man  of  war  into  the 
midst  of  a  land  of  destruction,  and  brought  Thine 
unfeigned  coniniandinent  as  a  sharp  suwd,  and 
.•itanding  up  filled  all  things  with  de/xth,"  or  else 
it  may  be,  He  gave  command  to  the  Angels 
His  Ministei-s.  God  commandeth  before- 
hand, that,  when  it  coraeth  to  pass,  it  may 
be  known  "^  that  not  by  chance,"  nor  by  the 
will  of  man,  "  nor  without  His  judgment  but 
by  the  sentence  of  God  "  the  blow  came. 

No  more  of  thy  nanie  be  sown,  as  Isaiah  saith, 
*  the  seed  of  evildoers  shall  ivever  be  renowned. 
He  prophesies,  not  the  inmiediate  but  the 
absolute  cessation  of  the  Assyrian  line.  If 
the  prophecy  wius  uttered  at  the  time  of  Sen- 
nacherib's invasion,  seventeen  years  before 
his  death,  not  Esarhaddon  only,  but  his  son 
Asshurbanipal  also,  whose  career  of  personal 
conquest,  the  last  glory  of  the  house  of  the 
Sargonides  and  of  tiie  empire,  began  immedi- 
ately upon  liis  father's  reign  of  thirteen 
years,  was  probably  already  born.  Asshur- 
banipal in  this  case  would  only  have  been 
thirty-one,  at  the  beginning  of  his  energetic 
reign,  and  would  have  died  in  his  fifty-second 
year.  After  him  followed  only  an  inglorious 
twenty-two  years.  The  prophet  says,  the 
Lord  hath  commanded.  Tlie  decree  as  to 
Ahab's  house  was  fullilled  in  the  person  of 
liis  second  son,  as  to  Jeroboam  and  Baaslia 
in  their  sons.  It  waited  its  appointed  time, 
but  was  fulfilled  in  the  complete  excision  of 
the  doomed  race. 

Out  of  the  house  of  thy  gods  will  I  cut  off 
graven  image  and  molten  image'' ;  as  thou  hast 
done  to  others*,  it  shall  be  done  to  thee. 
" '  And  when  even  the  common  objects  of 
worship  of  the  Assyrian  and  Chaldean  were 

'  Alb.     «  Wisd.  xviii.  15.  16.     «S.  Jer.    *  xiv.  20. 

^riDOOl  Spa  are  so  Joined  De.  xxvii.  15.  Jud. 
-xvii.  3,  4,  xviii.  14. 

« Is.  xxxvii.  19.  7  Rup.  8  s.  Jer. 

*  Is.  xxxvif.  .38. 

'"  He  doe.s  not  use  the  word  nty^'  "  made,"  hut 
D'ty  "appointed"  it,  set  it  to  be.  "There  I  will 
make  thy  Kravo."  Jon.  Even  Ew.  has  "malting 
them  thv  (trave." 

"  Ez.  "xxxli.  22,  23.  u  From  Dion. 

>«  I  Sam.  ii.  .30.     »  Oh.  2.     '«  lb.  3.     >»  Dan.  v.  '27. 

1"  .So  in  Joh'.s  confession  of  himself,  xl.  4,  whieh, 


graven  image  and  th 

ten  image :  "I  will  make  thy       c'r-  "i-^ 


^"'"^-    cHtilr 


grave ;  for  thou  art  vile.        "  2  Kin.  19. 37. 

*  Isa.  o2.  7. 

lo  Behold  ""upon   the      Roin.'io.'is. 


not  spared,  what  would  be  tlie  ruin  of  the 
whole  city!"  So  little  shall  thy  gods  help 
thee,  that '• '^tliere  shall  thou  be  punished, 
where  thou  hopest  for  aid.  Graven  and  mol- 
ten image  shall  be  thy  grave  ;  amid  altar  and 
oblations,  as  thou  worshipest  idols,"  thanking 
them  for  thy  deliverance,  ".shall  thy  unholy 
blood  be  shed,"  jis  it  was  by  his  sons  Adram- 
melech  and  .Sharezer  *.  /  u-ill  make  it  '"  thy 
grave;  '"what  God  maketh  remains  immov- 
able, cannot  be  changed.  But  He  "  maketh 
thy  grave  "  in  hell,  where  not  only  that  rich 
man  in  the  Gospel  hath  his  grave ;  but  all 
who  are  or  have  been  like  him,  and  especially 
thou,  O  Asshur,  of  whom  it  is  written, 
^^Asshur  is  there  and  all  her  company;  his 
graves  are  about  him:  all  of  them  slain,  fallen 
by  the  sword.  Whose  graves  are  set  in  the  sides 
of  the  pit  and  her  company  is  round  about  her 
grave:  all  of  them  slain, fallen  by  the  stvoid, 
which  eaui^ed  terror  in  the  kind  of  the  living. 
Graven  and  molten  image,  the  idols  which  men 
adore,  tlie  images  of  their  vanity,  the  created 
things  which  they  worship  instead  of  tiie 
true  God  (as  they  whose  god  is  their  belly),  in 
which  they  busy  themselves  in  this  life,  shall 
be  their  destruction  in  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

For  thou  art  vile.  Thou  honoredst  thy- 
self and  dishonoredst  God,  so  shalt  thou  be 
dishonored ''',  as  He  saith,  ^*  Them  that  honor 
Me  Twill  honor,  and  they  that  despise  Me  shcUl 
be  lightly  esteemed.  vSo  when  he  had  said  to 
Edom,  '^  thou  art  greatly  despised,  he  adds  the 
ground  of  it,  ^^  The  pride  of  thine  heart  hath 
deceived  thee.  For  thou  art  vile.  Great,  hon- 
ored, glorious  as  Assyria  or  its  ruler  were  in 
the  eyes  of  men,  the  prophet  tells  him,  what 
he  was  in  himself,  being  such  in  the  eyes  of 
(iod,  light,  empty,  as  Daniel  said  to  Belshaz- 
zar,  "•  Thou  art  iveighcd  in  the  balanees,  and 
found  wanting,  of  no  account,  vile  '". 

15.  Behold  upon  the  mountains,  the  feet  of 
hiin  that  bringeth  good  tidings,  that  publisheth 

i)eace.  From  mountain-top  to  mountain-top 
)V  beacon-fires  they  spread  the  glad  tidings. 
Suddenly  the  deliverance  comes,  sudden  its 
announcement.     Behold!  Judah,  l)efore  hin- 

as  addressed  to  God,  oan  only  be  said  of  his 
intrinsie  worthlessness.  It  stands  eontrnsted  with 
those  whom  God  honors  (133t<)  1  Sam.  ii.  30;   in 

Hif.  "held  eheap"  (2  Sam.  xix.  44,  Ez.  xxii.  7.)  put 
to  dishonor,  Is.  vHi.  23.  (eontrastod  with  n"33n). 
In  Gen.  xvi.  4.  .'>,  it  is  add<>d  "in  the  eyes  of" 
another;  it  is  used  of  a  thinir,  1  Sam.  xviii.  23.  2 
Kirs  iii.  18.  The  physical  sense  "were  lightened" 
(of  the  waters  ol  the  deluge,  Gen.  vlii.  11.)  does  not 
authorize  the  interpretation  of  some,  "art  lessened 
in  number;"  nor  would  this  be  a  ground  why  God 
should  make  its  grave. 


CHAPTER  T. 


].J9 


r. ^^4°,% T    mountains  the  feet  of  him 

^''f.  713.      that  bringeth  good  tidings, 

that  publisheth   peace!  O 

■fHeb. feast.      Judah,  f  keep  thy  solemn 


dered  by  armies  from  going  up  to  Jerusalem, 
its  cities  taken  \  may  now  again  keep  the 
feasts  there,  and  pay  the  vows,  which  "in 
trouble  she  promisea;"  for  tfie  wicked  one, 
the  ungodly  Sennacherib,  is  utterly  cut  off,  he 
shall  no  more  pass  through  thee;  "the  army 
and  king  and  empire  of  the  Assyrians  have 
perished."  But  the  words  of  prophecy  can- 
not be  bound  down  to  this.  These  large 
promises,  which,  as  to  this  world,  were  for- 
feited in  the  next  reign,  when  Manasseh  was 
taken  captive  to  Babylon,  and  still  more  in 
the  seventy  yeai"s'  captivity,  and  more  yet  in 
that  until  now,  look  for  a  fulfillment,  as  they 
stand.  They  sound  so  absolute.  "  I  will 
afflict  thee  iio  more,"  "the  wicked  shall  no 
inore  pass  through  thee,"  "  he  is  utterly  (lit. 
the  whole  of  him)  cut  off."  Nahum  joins  on 
this  signal  complete  deliverance  from  a 
temporal  enemy,  to  the  final  deliverance  of 
the  people  of  God.  The  invasion  of  Sen- 
nacherib was  an  avowed  conflict  with  God 
Himself.  It  was  a  defiance  of  God.  He 
would  make  God's  people,  his  ;  he  would  cut 
it  off,  that  it  be  no  more  a  people,  and  that  the 
name  of  Israel  may  be  no  more  in  remembrance  ^. 
There  was  a  more  "  evil  counsellor  "  behind, 
whose  agent  was  Sennacherib.  He,  as  he  is 
the  author  of  all  murders  and  strife,  so  has 
he  a  special  hatred  for  the  Church,  whether 
before  or  since  Christ's  Coming.  Before,  that 
he  might  cut  off  that  Line  from  whom  the 
Seed  of  the  woman  should  be  born,  which  should 
destroy  his  empire  and  crush  himself,  and  that 
he  might  devour  the  Child  who  was  to  be 
born  ^.  Since,  because  her  membei-s  are  his 
freed  captives,  and  she  makes  inroads  on  his 
kingdom,  and  he  hates  them  because 
he  hates  God  and  Christ  Who  dwells 
in  them.  As  the  time  of  the  birth  of 
our  Lord  neared,  his  hate  became  more  con- 
centrated. God  oveiTuled  the  hatred  of 
Edom  or  Moab,  or  the  pride  of  Assyria,  to 
His  own  ends,  to  preserve  Israel  by  chastis- 
ing it.  Their  hatred  was  from  the  evil  one, 
because  it  was  God's  people,  the  seed  of 
Abraham,  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  line  of 
David.  If  they  could  be  cut  off,  thej'  of 
whom  Christ  was  to  be  born  according  to  the 
flesh,  and  so,  in  all  seeming,  the  hope  of  the 
Avorld,  were  gone.  Sennacherib  then  was 
not  a  picture  only,  he  was  the  agent  of  Satan, 
Avho  used  his  hands,  feet,  tongue,  to  blaspheme 
God  and  war  against  His  people.  As  then 
we  have  respect  not  to  the  mere  agent,  but 


12  Kings  xviii.  13. 


3  Rev.  xii.  4. 


2P9.  lxxxiii.4. 


feasts,  perform  thy  vows:    cItKi%T 
for  t  *  the  wicked  shall  no      ^ir.  713. 


more   pass   through   thee ;    +  Heb.  nnin/. 

fi       .  1  «,  M-er.  n,  1-'. 

he  IS  utterly  cut  off.  -       - 


f  ver.  14. 


to  the  principal,  and  should  address  him 
through  those  he  employed  (as  Elisha  said 
of  the  messenger  who  came  to  slay  him,  *w 
7iot  the  sound  iff  his  master's  feel  behind  himf), 
so  the  Prophet's  words  chiefly  and  most  fully 
go  to  the  instigator  of  Sennacherib,  whose 
very  name  he  names,  Belial.  It  is  the  de- 
liverance of  the  Church  and  the  people  of 
God  which  he  foretells,  and  thanks  God  for. 
To  the  Church  he  says  in  the  Name  of  God, 
Though  I  have  afflicted  thee,  I  ivill  afflict  thee  no 
more  ^.  The  yoke  which  He  will  buret  is  the 
yoke  of  the  oppressor,  of  which  Isaiah  speaks, 
and  Avhich  the  Son,  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin, 
"  the  Mighty  God,  the '  Prince  of  Peace," 
was  to  break^  ;  the  yoke  of  sin  and  the  bands 
of  fleshly  pleasure  and  evil  habits,  wherewith 
we  were  held  captive,  so  that  henceforth  we 
should  walk  upright,  unbowed,  look  up  to 
heaven  our  home,  and  run  the  way  of  Thy  com- 
mandments when  Thou  hast  set  my  heart  at 
liberty.  Behold,  then,  upon  the  mountains,  i.e. 
above  all  the  height  of  this  world,  the  feet  of 
him  that  bringeth  good  tidings,  i.  e.  of  remission 
of  sins  and  sanctification  by  the  Spirit  and 
the  freedom  and  adoption  as  sons,  and  the 
casting  out  of  the  Prince  of  this  world,  that 
publisheth  peace.  0  Judah,  thou,  the  true 
people  of  God,  keep  thy  solemn  feasts,  the  sub- 
stance of  the  figures  of  the  law."  "  '  He  who 
is  ever  engaged  on  the  words,  deeds  and 
thoughts  of  Him,  Who  is  by  nature  Lord, 
the  Word  of  God,  ever  liveth  in  His  days, 
ever  keepeth  Lord's  days.  Yea  he  who  ever 
prepareth  himself  for  the  true  life  and  ab- 
staineth  from  the  sweets  of  this  life  which 
deceive  the  many,  and  who  cherislieth  not 
the  mind  of  the  flesh  but  chastens  the  body 
and  enslaves  it,  is  ever  keeping  the  days  of 
preparation.  He  too  who  thinketh  that 
Christ  our  Passover  was  sacrificed  for  us,  and 
that  we  must  keep  festival,  eating  the  flesh 
of  the  Word,  there  is  no  time  when  he 
keepeth  not  the  Passover,  ever  passing  over 
in  thought  and  every  word  and  deed  from 
the  affairs  of  this  life  to  God,  and  hasting  to 
His  city.  Moreover  whoso  can  say  truth- 
fully, loe  have  risen  together  with  Chi^ist,  yea  and 
also.  He  Iiath  together  raised  tis  and  together 
seated  us  in  the  heavenly  places  in  Christ, 
ever  liveth  in  the  days  of  Pentecost ;  and 
chiefly,  when,  going  up  into  the  upper  room 
as  the  Apostles  of  Jesus,  he  giveth  himself 
to  supplication  and  prayer,  that  he  may  be- 
come meet  for  the  rushing    mighty  wind 

*  2  Kings  vi.  32.  *  v.  12.  «  ix.  4.  and  6. 

7  Orig.  e.  Cels.  viii.  n.  22. 


1  10 


NAUr.M. 


CHRIST 
cir.  713. 


CHAPTER   II. 

1   The  fearful  and    victorious 
armies  of  God  against  Nineifeh. 


from  heaven,  which  mightily  eflliceth  the 
evil  in  men  and  its  fruits,  meet  too  for 
some  portion  of  the  liery  tongue  from  God." 
"  '  Such  an  one  will  keep  the  feast  excellently, 
having  the  faith  in  Christ  fixed,  hallowed 
by  the  Sjjirit,  glorious  with  the  grace  of 
adoption.  And  he  will  ofler  to  God  sjjiritual 
sacrifice,  consecrating  himself  for  an  odor  of 
sweetness,  cultivating  also  every  kind  of 
virtue,  temperance,  continence,  fortitude,  en- 
durance, ciiarity,  hope,  love  of  the  poor, 
goodness,  lungsuffering  :  for  with  smh  sacrifices 
God  is  well  pleased.  Every  power  of  the 
enemy,  which  before  had  dominion  over 
him,  shall  pass  through  no  more,  since  Christ 
commanded  the  unclean  spirits  to  depart  into 
the  abyss  and  giveth  to  tliose  who  love  Him 
power  to  resist  the  enemy,  and  subdue  the 
passions,  and  destroy  sin  and  tread  on  serpents 
and  scorpions  and  every  power  of  the  enemy." 

And  these  feasts  were  to  be  kept  "  ■^  in  the 
spirit  not  in  the  letter.  For  what  availeth  it 
to  keep  any  feast  without,  unless  there  be  the 
feast  of  contemplation  in  the  soul  ?  "  Where- 
fore he  adds,  and  pny  thy  voivs,  i.  e.  thyself, 
whom  in  Baptism  thou  hast  xowed :  for  tlie 
Wicked  One  shall  no  more  pass  through  thee. 
"^  For  from  what  time,  O  Judah,  Christ,  by 
dying  and  rising  again,  hallowed  thy  feasts, 
he  can  no  longer  pass  through  thee.  Thence- 
forth he  perished  wliolly.  Not  that  he  has, 
in  substance,  ceased  to  be,  but  that  tlie  death 
of  tlie  human  race,  whicli  through  his  envy 
came  into  this  wurkl,  the  two-fold  death  of 
body  and  soul,  wholly  perisheth.  Where 
and  when  did  this  Belial  perish  ?  Wiien 
died  the  death  which  lie  brought  in,  whence 
himself  also  is  called  Death  ?  When  Christ 
died,  then  died  the  death  of  our  souls  ;  and 
when  Christ  rose  again,  then  perished  the 
death  of  our  bodies.  When  then,  0  Judah 
thou  keepe.it  thy  fenxts,  remember  tliat  thy  very 
feast  is  He,  of  Whom  thou  sayest  that  by 
dying  He  conquered  deatli  and  by  rising  He 
restored  life.  Hence  it  is  said,  Bdial  shall 
no  more  pa<s  through  thee.  For  if  thou  look 
to  that  alone,  that  Sennacherib  departed,  to 
return  no  more,  and  j)erishcd,  it  would  not 
be  true  to  say,  Belial  hath  wholly  perished  ! 
For  after  him  many  a  Belial,  such  as  he  was, 
passed  through  thee,  and  hurt  thee  far  more. 
Fereliauce  thou  sa3'cst,  '  so  long  as  Nineveh 
standcst,  how  sayest  thou,  that  Belial  lias 
wholly  perislied  ?  So  long  as  the  world 
standeth,  how  shall  I  be  comforted,  tiiat 
death  hath  perished?  For  lo !  persecutors 
armed  with  death  have  stormed,  and  besides 


H 


» 3.  Cyr. 


2Rup. 


E  ll'that  da.<hc'th  in 
pieces  is  come  up  bc- 
thy  face :  "  keep   the 

'>Jer.  .01. 11,12.  ch.  3. 14. 


fore 

».Ter.  50.  23. 


CHRIST 
cir.  713. 

II  Or,  The  dis- 
perser,  or, 
hammer. 


them,  many  sons  of  Belial,  of  whom  Anti- 
Christ  will  be  the  woi-st.  How  then  sayest 
thou,  that  Belial  has  wholly  perished?'  It 
follows,  the  Scatterer  hath  gone  up  before  thee. 
To  Judah  in  the  flesh,  Nebuchadnezzar  who 
went  up  against  Nineveh,  was  worse  than 
Sennacherib.  Wiio  then  is  He  AVho  went 
up  before  thee,  and  dispersed  the  world,  that 
great  Nineveh,  that  thou  shouldest  have  full 
consolation  ?  Christ  who  descended,  Him- 
self ascended ;  and  as  He  ascended,  so  shall 
He  come  to  disperse  Nineveh,  i.  e.  to  judge 
the  world.  What  any  persecutor  doth  mean- 
while, yea  or  the  Devil  himself  or  Anti- 
Christ,  taketh  nothing  from  the  truth,  that 
Belial  hath  wholly  peri.ihed.  The  prince  of 
this  world  is  cast  out.  For  nothing  which  they 
do,  or  can  do,  liinders,  that  both  deaths  of 
body  and  soul  are  swallowed  up  in  His 
victory.  Who  hath  ascended  to  heaven  ? 
Belial  cannot  in  the  members  kill  the  soul, 
which  hath  been  made  alive  by  the  death  of 
the  Head,  i.  e.  Christ;  and  as  to  the  death 
of  the  body,  so  certain  is  it  that  it  will  perish, 
that  thou  mayest  say  fearlessly  that  it  hath 
perished,  since  Christ  the  Head  hath  risen." 

Each  fall  of  an  enemy  of  the  Church,  each 
recovery  of  a  sinful  soul  being  a  part  of  this 
victory,  the  words  may  be  applied  to  each. 
The  Church  or  the  soul  are  bidden  to  keep 
the  feast  and  pay  their  vows,  whatever  in  their 
trouble  they  promised  to  CJod.  "  ^  It  is  said 
to  souls,  which  confess  the  Lord,  that  the 
devil  wlio,  before,  wasted  thee  and  bowed 
thee  with  that  most  heavy  yoke  hath,  in  and 
with  the  idols  which  thou  niadest  for  thyself, 
l)erished ;  keep  thy  feasts  imd  pay  to  God  thy 
rows,  singing  with  the  Angels  continually, 
for  no  more  shall  Belial  pa.'^s  through  thee,  of 
whom  the  Apostle  too  saith.  What  concord 
luUh  Christ  with  Belial*  The  words  too. 
Behold  upon  the  mountains  the  feet  of  him 
that  bringeth  good  tidings,  that  piiblisheth 
peace  "  belong,  in  a  degree,  to  all  preachere 
of  the  Gospel.  "  *  No  one  can  preach  peace, 
who  is  himself  below  and  cleaveth  to  earthly 
things.  For  wars  are  for  the  good  things 
of  earth.  If  thou  wouldest  preach  peace  to 
thyself  and  thy  neighbor,  oe  raised  above 
the  earth  and  its  goods,  riches  and  glory. 
Ascend  to  the  heavenly  mountains,  whence 
David  also,  lifting  up  his  eyes,  hoped  that 
his  help  would  come." 

C.  II.  The  Prophet,  having  foretold  the 
destruction  of  Sennacherib,  and  in  him  iiow 
the  enemy  of  Judah  is  wholly  cut  of!',  goes  on 
to  describe  the  destruction  of  Nineven,  and 


»S.  Jer. 


t  Theoph. 


CHAPTER  II. 


141 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


munition,  watch  the  way, 
make  thy  loins  strong,  for- 
tify thy  power  mightily. 
2  Tor  the  Lord  hath 


» Isa.  10.  12. 

.ler.  25.  29. 
II  Or,  the  pride  of 

Jacob  as  the  , 

pride  of  Israel,  turned   awav      the   excel 


with  it  of  his  whole  kingdom,  and,  under  it, 
of  Anti-Christ  and  Satan. 

1.  He  that  dasheth  in  pieces,  rather,  the  Dis- 
perser ',  the  instrument  of  God,  whereby  he 
should  break  her  in  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel, 
or  should  scatter  her  in  all  lands,  is  come  up 
against  thy  face,  O  Nineveh,  i.  e.  either,  over 
against  thee  ^,  confronting  her  as  it  were,  face 
to  face,  or  directed  against  thee'^.  From  the 
description  of  the  peace  of  Judah,  the  Pro- 
phet turns  suddenly  to  her  oppressor,  to 
whom,  not  to  Judah,  the  rest  of  the  prophecy 
is  directed.  Jacob  and  Israel  are  spoken  of, 
not  to  *.  The  destroyer  of  Nineveh  vxnt  up 
against  the  face  of  Nineveh,  not  in  the  presence 
of  Judah  and  Jacob,  who  were  far  away  and 
knew  nothing  of  it.  Keep  the  munition. 
While  all  in  Judah  is  now  peace,  all  in 
Nineveh  is  tumult.  God  Whom  tiiey  had 
defied,  saying  that  Hezekiah  could  not  ^tiirn 
away  the  face  of  one  captain  of  the  lectst  of  his 
servants,  now  bids  them  prepare  to  meet  him 
whom  He  would  send  against  them.  Gii-d 
up  thy  loin^  now,  like  a  man^.  Thou  who 
woukiest  lay  waste  others,  now,  if  thou  canst, 
keep  thyself.  The  strength  of  the  words  is 
the  nie.'isui-e  of  the  irony.  They  had  chal- 
lenged God  ;  He  in  turn  challenges  them  to 
put  forth  all  their  might. 

Fence  thy  chfences  ^,  we  might  say.  Their 
strong  walls,  high  though  they  were,  unas- 
sailable by  any  then  known  skill  of  besiegers, 
would  not  be  secure. 

The  prophet  uses  a  kindred  and  allusive 
word,  that  their  protection  needed  to  be  itself 
protected  ;  and  this,  by  one  continued  watch- 
fulness. Watch,  he  adds,  the  way  :  espy  out  ^ 
(as  far  as  thou  canst),  the  coming  of  the  enemy ; 
strengthen  the  loin?,  the  seat  of  strength^. 
Elsewhere  they  are  said  to  be  girded  up  for 

^  yp^  is  a  partic.  used  as  a  proper  name.  V'iJ^ 
is  indeed  used  as  a  noun=|»3?3  as  united  witii  the 
sword  and  arrow,  and  so  an  instrument  of  war,  bat- 
tle axe  or  the  lilce  (Prov.  xxv.  18.),  like  VSD  (Jer.  li. 
20.),  used  of  Nebuchadnezzar  by  God.  Yet  the  like 
phrase  V"1£)n  hS^?  (Mic.  ii.  13.)  and  the  use  itself 
of  Til}?,  "  went  up,"  make  it  probable  that  an  agent 
is  meant.  V'SH  is  always  "  dispersed  ; "  the  sense, 
"  broke  in  pieces,"  occurs  only  in  VV13  Jer-  xxiii.  29, 
]'i?Vi)  Job.  xvi.  12,  ]*i*bnn  Hah.  iii.  0,  DD'HI^^ian 
,Ior.  xxv.  34,  and  in  ]'£)],  ViJ J. 

2A8  Gen.  xxxii.  22,  VJ3  '7_p  l^j-'H;  Job  iv.  15, 


lency  of  Jacob,  as  the  ex-    ^.  h  rTs  t 
cellency  of  Israel:  for  ^the      c-r-  vi'^- 
emptiers  have  emptieddps. so.  12. 
them  out,  and  marred  their 
vine  branches. 


any  exertion.  Fortify  thy  strength  exceedingly. 
The  expression  is  rare '" :  commonly  it  is 
said  of  some  part  of  the  human  frame,  knees, 
arms,  or  mind,  or  of  man  by  God. 

The  same  words  are  strong  mockery  to 
those  who  resist  God,  good  counsel  to  those 
who  trust  in  God.  Keep  the  munition,  for  He 
Who  keepeth  thee  will  not  sleep " ;  icafch  the 
ivay,  by  which  the  enemy  may  ajiproach  from 
ai'ar,  for  Satan  approacheth,  sometimes  sud- 
denly, sometimes  very  stealthily  and  subtly, 
tran^iformiug  himsdf  into  an  angel  of  light. 
"  ^^  Watch  also  the  way  by  which  thou  art  to 
go,  as  it  is  said,  '•*  Stand  ye  in  the  tcays,  and  see, 
and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  ivhere  is  the  good  way, 
and  walk  therein;  so  that,  having  stood  in 
many  ways,  we  may  come  to  that  Way  which 
saith,  I  am  the  Way.^'  Then  •*,  make  thy  loins 
strong,  as  the  Saviour  commaudeth  His  dis- 
ciples, Let  your  loins  be  girded  about^^,  aud 
the  Apostle  says,  ^'^  Stand  thei-efore,  having  your 
loins  girt  about  with  truth ;  for  nothing  so 
strengtheneth  as  the  Truth.  For  Christ 
being  the  Trutii,  wiioso  with  his  whole  heart 
hath  belived  in  Christ,  is  strong  against  him- 
self, and  hath  power  over  the  loins,  the  seat 
of  the  passions.  Then,  since  this  warfare  is 
hard,  he  adds,  be  strong,  fortify  thy  pouer 
mightily  ;  resist  not  listlessly,  but  vehemently  ; 
and  that,  in  His  strenuth  Who  hath  strength- 
ened our  nature,  taking  it  to  Himself  and 
uniting  it  with  the  (iodiiead.  For  without 
Him,  strong  though  thou  be,  thou  wilt  avail 
nothing. 

2.  For  the  Lord  hath  turned  away  (rather 
restoreth)  the  excellency  of  Jacob,  speaking  of 
what  should  come,  as  already  come.  For 
Nineveh  falls,  because  God  restores  His  peo- 
ple, whom  it  had  oppressed.  The  restora- 
tion of  God's  favor  to  His  Church  is  the  sea- 

3  As  Ps.  xxi.  13,  DTT'ja  Sjr  pon  which  is  sup- 
ported by  the  use  of  7j;  Tiiy,  "  went  up  against," 
as  2  Kgs  xvii.  3,  xviii.  2ri,  Jo.  i.  6. 

■*  ver.  2.  Jon.,  Rashi,  Kim.,  Abarb.  would  have  it, 
that  Judah  is  addressed. 

5  Is.  xxxvi.  9. 

6Job.  xl.  7. 

'  miVp  I'lyj  The  Imp.  myj  would  have  ex- 
pressed a  simple  command ;  the  Infin.  says,  what 
Iia.s  to  be  done. 

9 The  use  of  the  adj.  'jnOX  "strong"  Dan.  vii. 
7,  shows  that  the  meaning  of  the  root  was  not  lost, 
though  occurring  nnly  in  the  ;idj.  and  D'jnD. 

10  It  occiiis  Prov.  xxiv.  .'i,  of  the  man  of  under- 
standing, and  .\m.  ii.  14,  of  what  man  cannot  do. 

u  Ps.  exxi.  a.  '2  s.  Jer.  '^  .Jer.  vi.  IG. 

1*  From  s.  .7,T.      '&  Luke  xii.  u.j.      !'■  Eph.  vi.  14. 


112 


XAHl'M. 


c'hrTst        3  The   shield   of  his 

cir.  713.       mighty  men  is  made  ^red, 

•  isa.  63. 2,3.      the   valiant   men  are  ||in 

*""^  *■  scarlet :  the  chariots  shall 

I  Or,  fiery         be  with    llflaminsr  torches 

torches.  J  !•  I,- 

in  the  day  of  his  prepara- 


son  of  His  puinshment  of  their  enemies  ;  as, 
again,  His  displeasure  against  her  enemies  is 
a  token  of  His  favor  to  her.  When  Herod 
was  smitten  by  God,  '  the  ivord  of  God  grew 
and  midtiplkd.  A  long  captivity  was  still 
before  Judali, yet  the  destruction  of  the  Assy- 
rian was  the  earnest  that  every  oppremng  city 
should  cease  '^. 

The  excellency  of  Jacob.  Tlie  word,  excellency, 
is  used  in  a  good  or  bad  sense  ;  bad,  if  man 
takes  the  e.xtellenoy  to  himself;  good,  as 
given  by  God.  This  is  decisive  against  a 
modern  popular  rendering  ;  "  ^  Ims  relumed 
to  the  excellency  of  Jacob  ; "  for  Scripture 
knows  of  no  excelkni-y  of  Jacob,  except  God 
Himself  or  grace  from  God.  Jacob,  if 
separated  from  God  or  left  by  Him,  has  no 
excellency,  to  which  God  could  return. 

As  the  excellency  of  Israel.  Both  the  ten  and 
the  two  tribes  had  suffered  by  the  Assyrian. 
The  ten  had  been  carried  captive  by  Shal- 
manezer,  the  two  had  been  harassed  by 
Sennacherib.  After  the  captivity  of  the  ten 
tribes,  the  name  Jacob  is  used  of  .Judah  only. 
It  may  be  tlien,  that  the  restoration  of  God's 
I'avor  is  promised  to  eacli  separately.  Or, 
*  there  may  be  an  emphasis  in  the  names 
themselves.  Their  furefatlier  bore  the  name 
of  Jacob  in  his  troubled  days  of  exile ;  that 
of  Israel  was  given  him  on  his  return '.  It 
would  then  mean,  the  afflicted  people  (Jacob) 
shall  be  restored  to  its  utmost  glory  as  Israel. 
The  sense  is  the  same. 

For  the  emptiers  have  emptied  them  out.  Their 
chastisement  is  the  channel  of  their  restora- 
tion. Unlike  tlic  world,  their  emptiness  is 
their  fullness,  as  the  fullness  of  the  world  is 
its  emptiness.  The  world  is  cast  down,  not 
to  arise  ;  for  *  woe  to  him  that  is  alone  ivhen  lie 
faUeth :  for  he  hath  not  another  to  help  him  up. 
The  Church  faUcth,  but  to  ariose ' :  the  jieople 
is  restored,  because  it  had  borne  cha.stening"  ; 
for  the  Lord  hath  restored  the  excellency  of  Jacob  ; 

'  Acts  xii.  24.  *  I.s.  xxxiii.  1. 

3Seeab.  Intr.  p.  127.  n.  8. 

*  Sanct. 

•  Eccles.  iv.  10. 
9Ez.  xxxvi.  3,  fi,7. 

">U.  xiii.  3. 

"  The  form  DIX'D  is*  used  five  times  in  Exodus 

of  tiie  artificial  color  of  the  rived  ramskins.  But 
there  is  no  proof  of  auy  snoli  oustom  as  to  the 
shields.  If  reddened  tiy  actual  blood,  it  mu.-it  have 
been  in  a  previous  buttle,  since  Nahuni  i-t  thus  far 
describing  the  preparations,  IJ'DH  DV3,  The 
gleaming  of  the  brass  «>f  the  shields  in  the  sun 


6  Gen.  xxxii.  28. 
'  Micah  vii.  8. 
•See  P.s.  Ixxx.  12,13. 


tion,  and  the  fir  trees  shall 
be  terribly  shaken. 

4  The  chariots  shall 
rage  in  the  streets,  they 
shall  jiistle  one  against 
another  in  the  broad  ways : 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


for  the  emptiers  have  emptied  them  out  and  marred 
their  vinebranches^,  i.  e.  its  fruit-bearing 
branches,  that,  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  it 
should  not  bear  fruit  unto  Gotl  ;  but  to  cut 
the  vine  is,  by  God's  grace,  to  make  it  shoot 
forth  and  bear  fruit  more  abundantly. 

3,  4.  Army  is  arrayed  against  army  ;  the 
armies,  thus  far,  of  God  against  the  army  of 
His  enemy  ;  all  without  is  order  ;  all  within, 
confusion.  The  assailing  army,  from  its 
compactness  and  unity,  is  spoken  of,  both  as 
many  and  one.  The  might  is  of  many ;  the 
order  and  singleness  of  purpose  is  as  of  one. 
The  shield,  collectively,  not  shields.  His 
mighty  men;  He,  who  was  last  spoken  of,  was 
Almighty  God,  as  He  says  in  Isaiah;  ^'^  I  have 
commanded  My  consecrated  one-i ;  I  have  also 
called  My  mighty  ones,  than  that  rejoice  in  My 
h  ighness. 

Is  reddened,  either  with  blood  of  the  Assy- 
rians, shed  in  some  previous  battle,  before  the 
siege  began,  or  (which  is  the  meaning  of  the 
word  elsewhere ''),  an  artificial  color,  the 
color  ol"  blood  being  chosen,  as  expressive  of 
fiery  fierceness.  The  valiant  men  are  in  scar- 
let ;  for  beauty  and  terror,  as,  again  Ijeing  the 
color  of  blood  ^^.  It  was  especially  the  color 
of  the  dress  of  their  nobles  '■',  one  cliief  color 
of  the  Median  dress,  from  whom  the  Per- 
sians adopted  their's  ".  The  chariots  shall  be 
with  flaming  torches,  literally  with  tlie  fire  of 
steels  '*,  or  of  sharp  incisive  instruments. 
Either  way  the  words  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  chariots  were  in  some  way  armed  with 
steel.  For  steel  was  not  an  ornament,  nor  do 
the  chariots  appear  to  have  been  ornamented 
with  metal.  Iron  would  have  liindered  the 
primary  object  of  lightness  and  speed.  Steel, 
as  distinct  from  iron,  is  made  only  for  in- 
cisiveness.  In  either  way,  it  is  probable,  that 
scythed  chariots  were  already  in  use.  Against 
such  generals,  as  the  younger  Cyrus  '*  and 
Alexander  ",  they  were  of  no  avail ;  but  they 

(1  Mace.  vi.  39)  could  hardly  be  called  their  being 
reddened. 

12 /Elian  V.  H.  vi.  6.  Val.  Max.  ii.  6.  2. 

"Xenophon  (Cyrop.  viii.  3.  3)  implies  that  they 
were  costlv  treasures  which  Cvrus  distributed. 

".Strabo'xi.  13.  9. 

>6  0n  nnSs  spf  Introd.  pp.  127-129. 

•*  At  Cunaxa,  Xen.  .Vnab.  i.  8. 

'"  At  Arbela,  Arr.  iii.  13,  Q.  Curt.  iv.  51,  and,  upon 
experience,  by  Eumenes,  "baud  ignarus  puj^nre." 
Liv.  xxxvii.  41,  Appian  Syr.  33.  Diodorus  (xvii.  .W.) 
describes  thi'ir  terrible  vehemence,  \\\\>-\\  not 
evadi-cl.  Uneven  ground  naturally  disordered 
tlnni.    Tac.  Agr.  c.  30.  Vegetius  iii.  24. 


CHAPTER  II. 


143 


-    Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 

t  Heb.  their 

show. 


I  Or,  gallants. 


t  they  shall  seem  like 
torches,  they  shall  run  like 
the  lightnings. 

5  He  shall  recount  his 
11  worthies:    they  shall 


must  have  been  terrific  instruments  against 
undisciplined  armies.  The  rush  and  noise  of 
the  British  chariots  disturbed  for  a  time 
even  Csesar's  Roman  troops'.  They  were 
probably  in  use  long  before.'^  Their  use 
among  the  ancient  Britons*.  Gauls*  and 
Belgians^,  as  also  probably  among  the 
Canaanites*,  evinces  that  they  existed 
among  very  rude  people.  The"  objection 
that  the  Assyrian  chariots  are  not  represented 
in  the  monuments  as  armed  with  scythes  is 
an  oversight,  since  those  spoken  of  by 
Xahuni  may  have  been  Median,  certainly 
were  not  Assyrian.  /*(  the  day  of  His  pre- 
paration \  when  He  mustereth  the  hosts  for 
the  battle  ;  and  the  Jir-trees  shall  be  terribly 
■shaken;  i.e.  iir-spears"  (the  weapon  being 
often  named  from  the  wood  of  which  it  is 
made)  shall  be  made  to  quiver  through  the 
force  wherewith  they  shall  be  hurled. 

The  chariots  shall  rage  (or  madden^,  as  the 
driving  of  Jehu  is  said  to  be  furiously,  lit.  in 
madness)  in  the  .streets.  The  city  is  not  yet 
taken ;  so,  since  this  takes  place  in  the  streets  and 
brofMl  ivays,  they  are  the  confused  preparations 
of  the  besieged.  They  shcdl  jiistle  one  against 
another,  shall  run  rapidly  to  and  fro,  restlessly  ; 
their  show  (E.  M.)  is  like  torehes,  leaving 
streaks  of  tire,  as  they  pass  rapidly  along. 
They  shall  run  vehemently'",  like  the  light- 
nings, swift  but  vanishing. 

5.  Heshall  recount hisworthies.  The  Assyrian 
king  wakes  as  out  of  a  sleep,  lit.  "  he  remem- 
bers his  mighty  men  "  ;  "  they  stwnhle  in  their 

1  De  bell.  Gall.  iv.  33,  34. 

^Ctesias,  who  speaks  of  tlieni  as  long  prior 
(quoted  by  Diod.  Sic.  ii.  5.)  is,  on  Persian  matters, 
much  better  authoritj'  than  Xennphon  who  (Cyrop. 
vi.  1.  as  explained  by  Arrian,  Tactic,  c.  3.)  attributes 
their  invention  to  Cyrus.  For  Xenophon,  who  was 
a  good  witness  as  to  what  he  saw,  shews  himself 
ignorant  of  the  previous  history  (See  ab.  p.  123). 
He  himself  quotes  Ctesias  as  an  "authority  (Anab.  i.  j 
8.).  The  exaggerations  of  Ctesias  are  probably 
those  of  his  Persian  informants. 

3Sil.  Ital.  xvii.  417,  418.  Tac.  Agric.  35,36.  Mela  iii.   j 
6.  Jornandes  de  reb.  Goth.  c.  2.  j 

*Melaiii.  6.  | 

5  Lucan  i.  426.  S.  Jerome  in  Is.  ult. 

6  The  use  of  a  little  iron,  more  or  less,  in 
strengthening  the  wheels  &c.,  could  hardly  entitle 
them  to  be  called  "chariots  of  iron."  Jos.  xvii.  16, 
18.  Jud.  i.  19,  iv.  3, 13. 

'  ron  as  in  Jer.  xlvi.  14,  Ez.  vii.  14,  .xxxviii.  7. 

8  See  on  Hos.  xiv.  8.  vol.  i.  p.  140. 
'  The  words  are  adopted  by  Jeremiah  xlvi.  ii. 
W|>V'l  Intensive  from  |*n. 

11  As  iii.  18.  Jud.  v.  13.  Neh.  iil.  j. 
19  So  the  Eeb.  text.    Their  many  'vays  may  be  op-  j 
posed  to  the  oneness  of  the  armv  of  God  (See  v.  3). 
w  Is.  Ixiii.  13.  »S.  Cyr.  "  isKimchi. 


stumble   in   their   walk  ;    ,,  ^^^''^%  „ 
they  shall  make  haste  to^_£iL21L_ 
the  wall  thereof,  and   the 
t  defence   shall    be 
pared. 


Ijre- 1  Heb.  covering, 
or,  coverer. 


2valk,  lit.  paths  ^'^,  not  through  haste  only  and 
eager  fear,  but  irom  want  of  inward  might 
and  the  aid  of  God.  Those  whom  God 
leadeth  stumble  not  ''.  "  '*  Perplexed  every 
way  and  not  knowing  what  tiiey  ougiit  to 
do,  their  mind  wholly  darkened  and  almost 
drunken  with  ills,  they  reel  to  and  fro,  turn 
from  one  thing  to  another,  and  in  all  "  labor 
in  vain. 

They  shall  make  haste  to  the  walls  thereof,  and 
the  defence  (lit.  the  coveriug)  .^hall  be  prepared. 
The  Assyrian  monuments  leave  no  doubt 
that  a  Jewish  writer  "^  is  right  in  the  main, 
in  describing  this  as  a  covered  shelter,  under 
which  an  enemy  approached  the  city;  "a 
covering  of  planks  with  skins  upon  them  ; 
under  it  those  who  tight  against  the  city 
come  to  the  wall  and  mine  the  wall  under- 
neath, and  it  is  a  shield  over  them  from 
the  stones,  which  are  cast  from  oflf  the 
wall." 

The  monuments,  however,  exhibit  this 
shelter,  as  connected  not  with  mining  but 
with  a  battering  ram,  mostly  with  a  sharp 
point,  by  which  they  loosened  the  walls  "*. 
Another  covert  Mas  employed  to  protect 
single  miners  who  picked  out  single  stones 
with  a  pick-axe  ".  The  Assyrians  sculptures 
shew,  in  the  means  employed  against 
or  in  defence  of  their  engines,  how 
central  a  part  of  the  siege  they  formed  "*. 
Seven  of  them  are  represented  in  one  siege '". 
The  "  ram  ^^  "  is  mentioned  in  Ezekiel  as  the 
well-known  and  ordinary  instrument  of  a  siege. 

'•"See  in  Rawlinson's  .5  Empires  ii.  78.  ".UI  of  them 
[the  battering-ram  s]  were  covered  with  a  frame- work 
of  ozier,  wood,  felt,  or  skins,  for  the  better  protec- 
tion of  those  who  worked  the  implement ;— some 
appear  to  have  been  stationary,  other.-*  in  early 
times  had  six  wheels,  in  the  later  times  four  only. 
Sometimes  with  the  ram  and  its  framework  was  a 
moveable  tower,  containing  soldiers,  who,  at  once, 
fought  the  enemy  on  a  level  and  protected  the 
engine." 

"  See  picture  in  Rawl.  5  Emp.  ii.  82. 

18 "Fire  \vas  the  weapon  usually  turned  against 
the  ram,  torches,  burning  tow  or  other  inflammable 
substances  being  east  from  the  walls  upon  its  frame- 
work." To  prevent  this  [its  being  set  on  fire],  the 
workers  of  tlie  ram  were  sometimes  provided  with 
a  supply  of  water ;  sometimes  they  suspended  from 
a  pole  in  front  of  their  engine,  a  curtain  of  leather, 
or  some  otlier  non-inflammable  substance.  In  a  bas- 
relief  (Layard's  Monuments,  Series  ii.  PI.  21.)  where 
an  enormous  number  of  torches  are  seen  in  the  air, 
every  battering-ram  is  so  protected.  Or  the  be- 
sieged sought  to  catch  the  point  of  the  ram  by  a 
chain,  drawmg  it  upwards  ;  the  besieger  with  me'tal 
hooks  to  keep  it  down."  from  Rawl.  lb.  pp.  79,  80, 
referring  further  to  Layard's  Monuments,  Series  i. 
PI.  17,  19. 

I'Ib.  p.  79.  iWEzek.  iv.  2. 


144 


NAHUM. 


c  H  R?l  T        ^  ^^^®  gates  of  the  rivers 
cir.  713.      shall   be  opened,  and  the 


\OT,moiien.      palace  shall  be  1|  dissolved. 


Thus  V.  3.  describes  the  attack  ;  v.  4,  the 
defence  ;  the  two  first  clauses  of  v.  5,  tlie  de- 
fence ;  the  two  hist,  tlie  attack.  Tliis  quick 
interchange  only  makes  the  whole  more 
vivid. 

" '  But  what  availeth  it  to  build  the  house, 
unless  the  Lord  build  it?  What  helpeth  it 
to  siuit  the  gates,  which  the  Lord  unbar- 
reth?"  On  both  sides  is  put  forth  the  full 
stren2;th  of  man;  there  seems  a  stand-still  to 
see,  what  will  be,  and  God  brings  to  pass  His 
own  work  in  His  own  way. 

6.  27te  gates  of  the  rivers  shall  be  opened,  and 
the  palace  shall  be  dissolved.  All  gives  way  in 
an  instant  at  the  will  of  God ;  the  strife  is 
hushed  ;  no  more  is  said  of  war  and  death ; 
there  is  no  more  resistance  or  bloodshed ;  no 
sound  e.xcept  tiie  wailing  of  the  captives,  the 
fligiit  of  those  who  can  escape,  while  the 
conquerors  empty  it  of  the  sp  lil,  and  then 
she  is  left  a  waste.  The  swelling  of  the 
river  and  the  opening  made  by  it  may  have 
given  rise  to  the  traditional  account  of 
(Jtesias,  although  obviously  e.Kaggerated  as  to 
the  destruction  of  the  wall.  The  exagger- 
ated character  of  that  tradition  is  not  incon- 
sistent with,  it  rather  implies,  a  basis  of 
truth.  It  is  inconceivable  that  it  should 
have  been  tliought,  that  walls,  of  the  thick- 
ness which  Ctesias  had  described,  were  over- 
thrown by  the  swelling  of  any  river,  unless 
some  such  event  as  Ctesias  relates,  that  the 
siege  was  ended  by  an  entrance  afforded  to 
the  enemy  through  some  bursting-in  of  the 
river,  had  been  true.  Nahum  speaks  noth- 
ing of  the  wall,  but  simply  of  the  opening  of 
the  f/ates  of  the  rivers,  obviously  the  gates,  by 
which  the  inhabitants  could  have  access  to 
the  rivers '',  which  otherwise  would  be  useless 
to  them  except  as  a  wall.  These  rivers  corre- 
spond to  the  rivers,  the  artificial  divisions  of 
the  Nile,  by  which  No  or  Thebes  was  de- 
fended, or  "  the  rivers  of  Babylon  which  yet 
was  washed  by  the  one  stream,  the  Eu- 
phrates.    But  Nineveh  wa.s  surrounded  and 

» 8.  Jer. 

*Snoh  explanations  as  "gates  whereby  tho  enemy 
poured  in  as  rivers"  (Ros.),  or  "cates  of  Nineveh 
which  was  guarded  by  rivers"  (Ew.)  or  "of  the 
streets,  where  the  inhabitants  surged  like  rivers" 
(Hitz.)  are  plainly  not  literal. 

»Ps.  c.x.xxvii.  1. 

*See  Introd.  to  Jonah,  vol.  i. 

'  Kaswini,  quoted  by  Tuch  p.  .io. 

«  Ainsw.  Tr.  ii.  .^27. 

7  The  word,  which  occurs  18  times,  is  used  of  the 
melting  of  the  earth  at  the  voice  or  presence  or 
touch  of  Ood.Ps.  xlvi.  7,  Nah.  i.  ,'>,  Am.  ix.  ,5;  of  the 
"melting  away"  of  a  multitude,  1  Sam.  xiv.  IG;  of 
all  Philislia,  Is.  xiv.  31;  (act.)  of  God  working  the 
dissolution  c.f  i,up  being,  Job  xxx.  '22,  or  of  manv, 


7  And   IIHuzzab   shall    chrTst 
be  II  led  away  captive,  she      cir.  713. 


II  Or,  thatwhkh 


shall  be  brought  up,  Q.n^  wc^tstabiishad, 

II  Or,  discovered.  or,  there  was  a  stand  made. 


guarded  by  actual  rivers,  the  Tigris  and  the 
Khausser,  and,  (assuming  those  larger  di- 
mensions of  Nineveh,  which  are  supported 
by  evidences  so  various  *)  the  greater  Zab, 
which  was  ''  called  ^  the  frantic  Zab  '  on  ac- 
count of  the  violence  of  its  current."  "The 
Zab  contained  (says  Ainsworth"),  when  we 
saw  it,  a  larger  body  of  water  than  the  Tigris, 
whose  tributaries  are  not  supplied  by  so  many 
snow-mountains  as  those  of  the  Zab."  Of 
these,  if  the  Tigris  be  now  on  a  level  lower 
than  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  it  may  not  have 
been  so  formerly.  The  Khausser,  in  its 
natural  direction,  ran  through  Nineveh 
where,  now  as  of  old,  it  turns  a  mill,  and 
must,  of  necessity,  have  been  fenced  by  gates  ; 
else  any  invader  might  enter  at  will ;  as,  in 
modern  times,  Mosul  has  its  "gate  of  the 
bridge."  A  Ijreak  in  these  would  obviously 
let  in  an  enemy,  and  might  tiie  more  par- 
alyze the  inhabitants,  if  they  had  any  tra- 
dition, that  the  river  alone  could  or  would  be 
their  enemy,  as  Nahum  himself  prophesied. 
Subsequently  inacctiracy  or  exaggeration 
might  easily  represent  this  to  be  an  over- 
throw of  the  walls  themselves.  It  was  all 
one,  in  which  way  the  breach  was  made. 

The  palace  shall  be  dissolved.  The  prophet 
unites  the  beginning  and  the  end.  The  river- 
gates  were  opened  ;  what  had  been  the  fence 
against  the  enemy  became  an  entrance  for 
them :  with  the  river,  there  poured  in  also 
the  tide  of  the  people  of  the  enemy.  The 
palace,  then,  the  imperial  abode,  the  centre 
of  the  empire,  embellished  with  the  history 
of  its  triumphs,  sank,  was  dmohrd'',  and 
ceased  to  be.  It  is  not  a  physical  loosening 
of  the  sun-dried  briiks  by  the  stream  which 
would  usually  flow  harmless  by;  but  the  dis- 
solution of  the  empire  itself.  "  '  The  temple 
i.  e.  his  kingilom  was  destroyed."  The  pal- 
aces both  of  Khorsabad  and  Kouyunjik  lay 
near  the  Khausser*  and  both  bear  the  marks 
of  fire". 

7.  The  first  word  should  be  rendered.  And 

Is.  Ixiv.  6;  of  the  hearts  of  people,  melting  for 
fear,  Ex.  xv,  l."),  Jos.  ii. !),  24,  Ps.  Ixxv.  4,  cvii.  26.  Jer. 
xlix.  23,  Ez.  xxi.  20 :  once  only  it  is  used  physically 
of  water,  of  the  clods  softened  by  showers,  Ps.  Ixv. 
11;  and  in  the  ideal  image  "the  hills  shall  melt," 
being  dissolved,  as  it  were,  in  the  rich  stream  of  the 
abundant  vintage.    Am.  ix.  l.'i. 

8  See  Introduction  to  Jonah,  vol.  i.  Asshurhani- 
p.il,  the  last  great  monarch  of  Assyria,  built  his 
palace  on  the  mound  of  Kouyunjik.  (Rawl.  ."i  Kmp. 
li.  i'M').  "The  Khosr-su,  which  rims  on  this  side  of 
the  khorsabatl  ruins, often  overflows  its  hanks,and 
pours  its  waters  asiain'st  the  palace-mound.  The 
gaps,  N.  and  S.  of  the  mound,  may  have  been 
caused  by  its  violence."  lb.  i.  35». 

"Sc-e  ab.  p.  122  n.  c. 


CHAPTER  IL 


145 


c  H  R°i  s  T    ^^^  maids  shall  lead  her  as 
cir.  713.      vyith   the  voice  of  'doves, 


f  isa.  38. 14.       tabering  upon  their  breasts. 

&  59  11  . 

\\0v,  from  the        8  But  Nineveh  is   ||of 

days  t\\&t  she        ^  -i    ^•■^  i        /»  i 

hath  been.      Old  like  a  pool  01  Water : 

yet  they  shall   flee  away. 

Stand,  stand,  shall  they  cry; 

II  Or,  cause  them  but  none  shall  II  look  back. 

9  Take  ye  the  spoil  of 


it  is  decreed  ;  She  shall,  be  laid  bare.  It  is  de- 
creed^. All  this  took  place,  otherwise  than 
man  would  have  thought,  because  it  was  the 
will  of  God.  She  (the  people  of  the  city, 
under  the  figure  of  a  captive  woman)  shall  be 
laid  bare  ^,  in  shame,  to  her  reproach ;  she 
shall  be  brought  up^,  to  judgment,  or  from 
Nineveh  as  being  now  sunk  low  and  de- 
pressed ;  and  her  maids,  the  lesser  cities,  as 
female  attendants  on  the  royal  city,  and  their 
inhabitants  represented  as  women,  both  as 
put  to  shame  and  for  weakness.  The  whole 
empire  of  Nineveh  was  overthrown  by  Ne- 
bopalassar.  Yet  neither  was  the  special 
shame  wanting,  that  the  noble  matrons  and 
virgins  were  so  led  captives  in  shame  and 
sorrow.  They  shall  lead  her,  as  with  the  voice 
of  doves,  moaning,  yet,  for  fear,  with  a  sub- 
dued voice. 

8.  But  Nineveh  is  of  old  like  a  pool  of  water 
i.  e.  of  many  peoples  *,  gathered  from  all  quar- 
ters and  settled  there,  her  multitudes  being 
like  the  countless  drops,  full,  untroubled, 
with  no  ebb  or  flow,  fenced  in,  from  the  days 
that  she  hath  bem,  yet  even  therefore  stagnant 
and  corrupted ",  not  "  a  fountain  of  living 
waters,"  during  600  years  of  unbroken  em- 
pire ;  even  lately  it  had  been  assailed  in 
vain®;  now  its  hour  was  come,  the  sluices 
were  broken  ;  the  waters  poured  out.  It  was 
full  not  of  citizens  only,  but  of  other  nations 
poured  into  it.  An  old  historian  says', 
"  The  chief  and  most  powerful  of  those  whom 
Ninus  settled  there,  were  the  Assyrians,  but 
also,  of  other  nations,  whoever  willed."  Thus 
the  pool  was  tilled  ;  but  at  the  rebuke  of  the 
Lord  they  flee.  Stand,  stand,  the  Prophet 
speaks  in  the  name  of  the  widowed  city  ; 
"shut  the  gates, go  upon  the  walls,  resist  the 
enemy,  gather  yourselves  together,  form  a 

1  This  is  the  simple  rendering  of  35^n,  Hof.  of 

3yj.  In  Ch.  a'y,  "firm,"  Dan.  vi.  i:i;  "reliable," 
Dan.  ii.  45,  vii.  16;  X^'V  "certainly,"  Dan.  iii.  24, 
J'Jf '-| D  "  of  a  certainty,"  Dan.  ii.  8.  Also  in  Phoen. ; 

Ges.  Thes.  p.  06.  The  retention  of  Huzzab  as  a 
proper  name  for  the  queen,  is  derived  from  R. 
Samuel  Hannagid  in  Ibn  Ezra.  The  ground  for 
this,  alleged  in  Kashi,  viz.  the  use  of  n32fj  Ps.  xlv. 

10,  betrays  its  origin.  Kimchl,  with  the  same 
etymology,  explains  it  of  the  palace. 

10 


of         Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


silver,  take  the  spoil 

gold :    1 1  for  there  is  none 

end  of  the  store  and  glory  n  or,  and  their 

out  of  all  the  f  pleasant  *i;."'  ^  *  °^^' 

furniture. 

10  She  is  empty,  and 
void,  and  waste:  and  the 
''heart  melteth,  and   '' the « isa. is. 7. 

,  .  ,  .         ,  ''  Dan.  5. 6. 

knees  smite  together,  'and'Jer.  30. 6. 


t  Heb.  vessels  of 
desire. 


band  to  withstand,"  but  none  shall  look  back  to 
the  mother-city  wiiich  calls  them  ;  all  is  for- 
gotten, except  their  fear;  parents,  wives, 
children,  the  wealth  which  is  plundered, 
home,  worldly  repute.  So  will  men  leave  all 
things,  for  the  life  of  this  world.  ^  All  that  a 
man  hath,  will  he  give  for  his  life.  Why  not  for 
the  life  to  come  ? 

9.  Take  ye  the  spoil  of  silver,  take  the  spoil  of 
gold.  Nineveh  had  not  hearkened  of  old  to 
the  voice  of  the  Prophet,  but  had  turned 
back  to  sin  ;  it  cannot  hearken  now,  for  fear. 
He  turns  to  the  spoiler  to  whom  God's  judg- 
ments assigned  her,  and  who  is  too  ready  to 
hear.  The  gold  and  silver,  which  the  last 
Assyrian  King  had  gathered  into  the  palace 
which  he  fired,  was  mostly  removed  (the 
story  says,  treacherously)  to  Babylon.  Ar- 
baces  is  said  to  have  borne  this  and  to  have 
removed  the  residue,  to  the  amount  of  many 
talents,  to  Agbatana,  the  Median  capital*. 
For  there  is  none  end  of  the  store.  Nineveh 
had  stored  up  from  her  foundation  until  then, 
but  at  last  for  the  spoiler,  i"  '[Vhen  thou  shall 
cease  to  spoil,  thou  shall  be  spoiled.  Many  ^^ 
perish  and  leave  their  wealth  to  others.  ^^  The 
wealth  of  the  sinner  is  laid  up  for  the  just.  And 
glory  out  of  all  the  pleasant  furniture,  [lit.  as  in 
the  Margin,  "  glory  out  of  all  vessels  of  de- 
sire "]  i.  e.  however  large  the  spoil,  it  would 
be  but  a  portion  only;  yet  all  their  wealth, 
though  more  than  enough  for  the  enemy  and 
for  them,  could  not  save  them.  Her  "  glory," 
was  but  a  "  weight  "  to  weigh  her  down,  that 
she  should  not  rise  again  '^.  Their  wealth 
brought  on  the  day  of  calamity,  availed  not 
therein,  although  it  could  not  be  drawn  dry 
even  by  the  spoiler.  "  '*  They  could  not  spoil 
so  much  as  she  supplied  to  be  spoiled." 

10.  She  is  empty  and  void  and  waste.    The 

2  The  meaning  of  T\phi  (an.)  is  determined  by 
that  of  the  active  H  vJ,  which  is  always  "  laid  bare," 
not  "carried  captive." 

*As  in  c.  iii.  5.  Is.  xlvii.  2,  3. 

*  Rev.  xvii.  1.  s  gee  Jer.  xlviii.  11. 

»  By  Cyaxares  Hei-.  i.  100. 

'  Ctesias  ap.  Diod.  ii.  3.  «  Job  ii.  4. 

9  Diod.  Sic.  ii.  28.  w  jg.  xxxiii.  1, 

11  Ps.  xlix.  10.  12  Pr.  xiii.  22, 

"Zech.  v.  8.  Ex.  XV.  10.  i*9.  Jer. 


146 


NAHUM. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 

k  Joel  2.  6. 


I  Job  4. 10, 11. 
Ezek.  19.  2-7. 


much  pain  is  in  all  loins, 
.  and  "  the  faces  of  them  all 
gather  blackness. 

11  "Where  is  the  dwell- 
ing of  '  the  lions,  and  the 
feedingplace  of  the  young 
lions,  where  the  lion  even 
the  old  lion,  walked,  and 
the  lion's  whelp,  and  none 
made  them  afraid  ? 


completeness  of  her  judgment  is  declared  first 
under  that  solemn  number,  Three,  and  the 
three  words  in  Hebrew  are  nearly  the  same  ^, 
with  tlie  same  meaning,  only  each  word 
fuller  than  the  former,  as  picturing  a  growing 
desolation  ;  and  tlien  under  four  heads  (in  all 
seven)  also  a  growing  fear.  First  the  heart, 
the  seat  of  courage  and  resolve  and  high  pur- 
pose, melteth ;  then  the  knees  smite  together, 
tremble,  shake,  under  the  frame  ;  then,  much 
pain  is  in  all  loins,  lit.  "  strong  pains  as  of  a 
woman  in  travail,"  writhing  and  doubling  the 
whole  body,  and  making  it  wholly  powerless 
and  unable  to  stand  upright,  sliall  bow  the 
very  loins,  the  seat  of  strength  '^,  and,  lastly, 
the  faces  of  them  all  gather  blackness  ',  the  fruit 
of  extreme  pain,  and  the  token  of  approach- 
ing dissolution. 

11.  Where  is  the  dwelling  of  the  lions,  and  the 
feeding  place  of  the  young  lions  ?  Great  indeed 
must  be  the  desolation,  which  should  call 
forth  the  wonder  of  the  prophet  of  God.  He 
asks  "  where  is  it  ?  "  For  so  utterly  was  Nine- 
veh to  be  effaced,  that  its  place  should  scarcely 
be  known,  and  now  is  known  by  the  ruins 
which  have  been  Ijuried,  and  are  dug  up.  The 
messengers  of  her  king  had  asked,  *  Where 
are  the  gods  of  Hamath  and  of  Arpa/l  f  of  Sep- 
harvaim,  Hena,  and  Irah  f  And  now  of  her  it 
is  asked,  "  Where  is  Nineveh  ?  "  It  liad  de- 
stroyed utterly  all  lands,  and  now  itself  is  utterly 
destroyed.  The  lion  dwelt,  fed,  walked  there, 
up  and  down,  at  will ;  all  was  spacious  and 
secure ;  he  terrified  all,  and  none  terrified 
him  ;  lie  tore,  strangled,  laid  up,  as  he  willed, 
booty  in  store ;  but  when  he  had  filled  it  to 
the  full,  he  filled  up  also  the  meas\ire  of  his 
iniquities,  and  his  sentence  came  from  God. 
Nineveh  had  set  at  nought  all  human  power, 
and  destroyed  it ;  now,  therefore,  God  ap- 
pearetli  in  His  own  Person. 

13.  Behold  I,  Myself,  am  against  thee  [lit. 


1  Soe  ab.  p.  V2.5-fi.  hookah,  oo^nebookah.uoinehullakali. 
^Prov.  xxxi.  17.  *See  on  Joel  ii.  6. 

*  2  Kings  xviii.  :U.  '  As  in  Ps.  xxxvli.  20. 

«See  Rawl.  5  Empires  ii.  4-21. 
■:  Rnwl.  lb.  10.  11.  13. 

» Ijavard   .Monuments,  Beries  1.   Plate  18,  21,  '.^3, 
i:7,  28." 


12  The  lion  did  tear  in    chr°I8T 
pieces  enough   for   his __£iI:_Zl?:__ 
whelps,  and  strangled  for 

his  lionesses,  and  filled  his 
holes  with  prey,  and  his 
dens  with  ravin. 

13  ""Behold,    I    a  m    ^  Ezek.  29. 3. 

,  .  ,      ,         4  38. 3.  &  39. 

against  thee,  saith  the     ich. 3. 5. 

Lord  of  hosts,  and  I  will 

burn   her   chariots  in  the 


toward  thee"].  God,  in  His  long-suffering,  had, 
as  it  were,  looked  away  from  him  ;  now  He 
looked  toward '  him,  and  in  His  sight  what 
wicked  one  should  stand  ?  Saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts,  Whose  power  is  infinite  and  He  chang- 
eth  not,  and  all  the  armies  of  heaven,  the 
holy  angels  and  evil  spirits  and  men  are  in 
His  Hand,  whereto  He  directs  or  overrules 
them.  And  I  will  burn  her  chariots  in  the 
smoke.  The  Assyrian  sculptures  attest  how 
greatly  their  pride  and  strength  lay  in  their 
chariots.  They  exhibit  the  minute  embel- 
lishment of  the  chariots  and  horses  ^  Al- 
most inconceivably  light  for  speed,  they  are 
pictured  as  whirled  onward  by  the  two '  or, 
more  often,  three  **  powerful  steeds  with  eye 
of  fire  **,  the  bodies  of  the  slain '"  (or,  in  peace, 
the  lion  ")  under  their  feet,  the  mailed  war- 
riors, with  bows  stretched  to  the  utmost, 
shooting  at  the  more  distant  foe.  Sennach- 
erib gives  a  terrific  picture  of  the  fierceness 
of  their  onslaught.  "  The  armor,  the  arms, 
taken  in  my  attacks,  swam  in  the  blood  of 
my  enemies  as  in  a  river ;  the  war-chariots, 
which  destroy  man  and  beast,  had,  in  their 
course,  crushed  the  bloody  bodies  and  limbs  "." 
All  this  their  warlike  pride  should  be  but 
fuel  for  fire,  and  vanish  in  smoke,  an  emblem 
of  pride,  swelling,  mounting  like  a  column 
toward  heaven,  disappearing.  Not  a  brand 
shall  then  be  saved  out  of  the  burning  ;  noth- 
ing half-consumed ;  but  the  fire  shall  burn, 
until  there  be  nothing  left  to  consume,  as,  in 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  ''',  the  smoke  of  the  couniry 
vxnt  up  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace.  And  the 
sword  of  the  vengeance  of  God  shall  devour  the 
young  lion.%  his  hope  for  the  time  to  come,  the 
flower  of  his  youth  ;  and  I  will  cut  off  thy  prey, 
what  thou  hast  robbed,  and  so  that  thou 
shouldest  rob  no  more,  but  that  thy  spoil 
should  utterly  cease  from  the  earth,  and  the 
voice  of  thy  messengers  .nhall  be  no  more  heard, 

"See  a  striking  illustration  in  Rnwl.  ii.  l.""!.  (from 
Bonteher.) 

JO  Lavnrd  Ser.  i.  27.  28.  ii.  4.'->.  4C>. 

"  Rawl.  lb.  13.  Laynrd  Ninev.  ii.  77. 

>8  In  Oppert  Sargdnides  p.  fd.  The  general  aceu- 
racy  of  tne  deciphering  is  alone  presupposed. 

>3  Gon.  xix.  28. 


CHAPTEK  II. 


147 


Before 

CHKIST 

eir.  713. 


smoke,  and  the  sword  shall 
devour  thy  young  lions : 
and  I  will  cut  off  thy  prey 


such  as  Rabshakeh,  whereby  they  insulted 
and  terrified  the  nations  and  blasphemed 
God. 

In  the  spiritual  sense,  Nineveh  being  an 
image  of  the  world,  the  pi-ophecy  speaks  of 
the  inroad  made  upon  it  through  the  Gospel, 
its  resistance,  capture,  desolation,  destruction. 
First,  He  that  rideth  with  a  rod  of  iron,  came 
and  denounced  woe  to  it  because  of  offenses; 
then  His  mighty  ones  ^  in  His  Name.  Their 
shield  is  red,  the  shield  of  faith,  kindled  and 
glowing  with  love.  Their  raiment  too  is  red, 
because  they  wash  it  in  the  Blood  of  the 
Lamb,  and  conquer  througli  the  Blood  of 
the  Lamb,  and  many  shed  their  own  blood 
for  a  ivitness  to  them.  The  day  of  His  prepara- 
tion is  the  whole  period,  until  the  end  of  the 
world,  in  which  the  Gospel  is  preached,  of 
which  the  prophets  and  apostles  speak,  as 
the  day  of  salvation  ^  ;  to  the  believing  world 
a  day  of  salvation ;  to  the  unbelieving,  of 
preparation  for  judgment.  All  which  is 
done,  judgments,  mercy,  preaching,  miracles, 
patience  of  the  saints,  martyrdom,  all  which 
IS  spoken,  done,  suflTered,  is  part  of  the  one 
preparation  for  the  final  judgment.  Tlie 
chariots,  flashing  with  light  as  they  pass,  are 
^  the  chariots  of  salvation,  bearing  the  bright- 
ness of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  the  glory 
of  His  truth  throughout  the  world,  enlight- 
ening while  they  wound;  the  "spears "are 
the  word  of   God,  slaying  to  make  alive. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  resisting,  the  world 
clashes  with  itself.  It  would  oppose  the  Gos- 
pel, yet  knows  not  how ;  is  "  maddened  with 
rage,  and  gnashes  its  teeth,  that  it  can  pre- 
vail nothing*."  On  the  broad  ivays  which 
lead  to  death,  where  Wisdom  idtereth  her  voice 
and  is  not  heard,  it  is  hemmed  in,  and  can- 
not find  a  straight  path  ;  its  chariots  dash 
one  against  another,  and  j'et  they  breathe 
their  ancient  fury,  and  nin  to  and  fro  like 
lightning,  as  the  Lord  saith,  I  beheld  Satan,  as 
lightning,  fall  from  Heaven^.  Then  shall  they 
remember  their  mighty  ones,  all  the  might  of 
this  world  which  they  ascribed  to  their  gods, 
their  manifold  triumphs,  whereby  in  Heathen 
times  their  empire  was  established ;  they 
shall  gather  strength  against  strength,  but  it 
shall  be  powerless  and  real  weakness.  While 
they  prepare  for  a  long  siege,  without  hand 
their  gates  give  way  ;  the  kingdom  falls,  the 
world  is  taken  captive  by  a  blessed  captivity, 
suddenly,  unawares,  as  one  says  in  the  second 
century  ;  "  "  Men  cry  out  that  the  state  is  be- 
set, that  the  Christians  are  in  theii-  fields,  in 

1  From  Dion.  2  jig.  xlix.  8.  2  Cor.  vi.  2. 

»  Habak.  iii.  8.  <S.  Jer.  6  g.  Luke  x.  18. 

»Tert,  .'Vpol.  c.  1.  and  p.  :i  not.  9.  Oxf.  Tr. 


from  the   earth,   and   the 


Before 
CHRIST 

voice   of  °thy  messengers       ^'r-  7i3. 
shall  no  more  be  heard.       "ig.  &^i9^^9,^23. 


their  forts,  in  their  islands  !  "  These  mourn 
over  their  past  sins,  and  beat  their  breasts,  in 
token  of  their  sorrow  ;  yet  sweeter  shall  be 
the  plaint  of  their  soitow,  than  any  past  joy. 
So  they  shall  mourn  as  doves,  and  their 
mourning  is  as  melody  and  the  voice  of 
praise  in  the  ear  of  the  Most  High.  One 
part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  being 
thus  blessedly  taken,  the  rest  are  fled.  So  in 
all  nearness  of  God's  judgments,  those  who 
are  not  brought  nearer,  flee  further.  "  They 
flee,  and  look  not  back,  and  none  heareth  the 
Lord  speaking,  Return,  ye  backsliding  children, 
and  I  will  heal  your  backslidings '.  So  then, 
hearing  not  His  Voice,  stand,  stand,  they  flee 
away  from  His  presence  in  Mercy,  into  dark- 
ness for  ever.  Such  is  the  lot  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  world  ;  and  what  is  the  world 
itself?  The  prophet  answers  what  it  has 
been.  A  pool  of  water,  into  which  all  things, 
the  riches  and  glory,  and  wisdom,  and  pleas- 
ures of  this  world,  have  flowed  in  on  all  sides, 
and  which  gave  back  nothing.  All  ended 
in  itself.  The  water  came  from  above,  and 
became  stagnant  in  the  lowest  part  of  the 
earth.  "  ^  For  all  the  wisdom  of  this  world, 
apart  from  the  sealed  fountain  of  the  Church, 
and  of  which  it  cannot  be  said,  the  streams 
thereof  make  glad  the  city  of  God  nor  are  of  those 
waters  which,  above  the  heavens,  praise  the 
Name  of  the  Lord,  however  large  they  may 
seem,  yet  are  little,  and  are  enclosed  in  a  nar- 
row bound."  These  either  are  hallowed  to 
God,  like  the  spoils  of  Egypt,  as  when  the 
eloquence  of  S.  Cyprian  was  won  through 
the  fishermen  *,  or  the  gold  and  silver  are 
offered  to  Him,  or  they  are  left  to  be  wasted 
and  burned  up.  All  ivhich  is  in  the  world,  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the 
pride  of  life,  all  under  the  sun,  remain  here. 
"  '  If  they  are  thine,  take  them  with  thee. 
When  he  dieth,  he  shall  cany  nothing  aivay,  his 
glory  shcdl  not  descend  after  him  '".  True  riches 
ax-e,  not  wealth,  but  virtues,  which  the  con- 
science carries  with  it,  that  it  may  be  ricli 
for  ever."  The  seven-fold  terrors  ",  singly, 
may  have  a  good  sense  *,  that  the  stony  heart 
shall  be  melted,  and  the  stiff'  knees,  which 
before  were  not  bent  to  God,  be  bowed  in  the 
Name  of  Jesus.  Yet  more  fully  are  they 
the  deepening  horrors  of  the  wicked  in  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  when  men's  hearts  shall  fail 
them  for  fear  and  for  looking  after  those  things 
ivhich  are  coming  on  the  earth  ",  closing  with 
the  everlasting  confusion  of  face,  the  shame 
and  everlasting  coiitempt,  to  wliich  the  wicked 

f  Jer.  iii.  22.  8  The  Apostles.  S.  Aug. 

»S.  Bern,  in  Adv.  Serni.  i.         >0Ps.  xlix.  17. 
"v.  10.  i«S.  Luke  xxi.  2tJ. 


148 


XAHUM. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  "13. 

t  Heb.  city  of 

Moods. 
•  Ezek.  22.  2,  3. 

&  24.  6.  9. 

Hab.  2. 12. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1   The  miserable  ruin  of  Nineveh. 

^OE  to  the  t"  bloody 

city !  it  is  all  full  of 


shall  rise.  As  the  vessel  over  the  fire  is  not 
cleansed,  but  blackened,  so  through  the  judg- 
ments of  God,  whereby  the  righteous  are 
cleansed,  the  wicked  gather  but  fresh  defile- 
ment and  hate.     Lastly,  the   Prophet  asks, 

Where  is  the  dwellinr/  of  those  iiho  had  made  the 
world  a  den  of  ravin,  where  the  lion,  even  the 
devil  who  is  a  roaring  lion,  and  all  Anti- 
christs \  destroyed  at  will;  where  Satan 
made  his  dwelling  in  the  hearts  of  the 
worldly,  and  tore  in  pieces  for  his  uhelp.<,  i.  e. 
slew  souls  of  men  and  gave  them  over  to  in- 
ferior evil  spirits  to  be  tormented,  and  filled 
his  holes  with  prey,  the  pit  of  hell  with  the 
souls  which  he  deceived  '•'  ?  The  question 
implies  that  they  shall  not  be.  *  They  which 
have  seen  him  shcUl  saif,  Where  is  he?  God 
Himself  answers,  that  He  Himself  will  come 
against  it  to  judgment,  and  destroy  all  might 
arrayed  against  God  ;  and  Christ  *  shall  miite 
the  Wicked  one  with  the  rod  of  His  Mouth,  and 
the  ''sharp  two-edr/ed  sword  out  of  His  mouth 
shall  smite  all  natiom,  and  the  smoke  of  their 
torment  ascendeth  up  for  ever  and  ever^;  and  it 
should  no  more  oppress,  nor  "  any  messenger 
of  Satan  "  go  forth  to  harass  the  saints  of 
God. 

C.  ni.  The  prophecy  of  the  destruction 
in  Nineveh  is  resumed  in  a  dirge  over  her ; 
yet  still  as  future.  It  pronounces  a  woe,  yet 
to  come  ^. 

1.  Woe  to  the  bloody  city,  lit.  city  of  bloods'^, 
i.  e.  of  manifold  bloodshedding,  built  and 
founded  in  blood  *,  a.s  the  prosperity  of  the 
world  ever  is.  Murder,  oppression,  wrest- 
ing of  judgment,  war  out  of  covetousness, 
grinding  or  neglect  of  the  poor,  make  it  a 
city  of  bloods.  Nineveh,  or  the  world,  is  a 
city  of  the  devil,  as  opposed  to  the  "  city  of 
God."  "  '°  Two  sorts  of  love  have  made  two 
sorts  of  cities;  the  earthly,  love  of  self  even 
to  contempt  of  God ;  the  Heavenly,  love  of 
God  even  to  contempt  of  self.  The  one 
glorieth   in   itself,  the   other  in  the  Lord." 

"  Amid  the  manifold  ditterences  of  the  hu- 

1 1  John  ii.  18.  2  Dion.  3J(iljxx.7. 

*  Is.  xi.  4.    6  Rev.  i.  10,  xix.  15.  21.    «  Rev.  xiv.  II, 

'  'in,  whpn  siRnifyint;  "  woe,"  is  always  fif  future 
woe,  as  lies  in  tlie  word  itself.  It  is  used  of  classes 
of  persons  2;»  times;  against  people,  .Samaria,  Jeru- 
salem or  foreign  nations,  13  tunes;  of  the  past  only 
as  to  the  waitings  at  funerals.  1  Kgs  xiu.-Vt,  Jer. 
xxii.  18,  xxxiv.  5. 

*.\s  in  E.  M.  The  phrase  occurs  Ezek.  xxii.  2, 
xxiv.  f,.9.  So  'T  IJ?'X,  'K'iX,  n'3,  "a  man"  (2 Sam- 
xvi.  7,  8.  Ps.  V.  7)  "men"  (Ps.  xxvi.  0,  Iv.  24,  lix.  3, 
cxxxix.  19,  Pr.  xxix.  lo)  "a  house"  (2  Sam.  xxi.  1) 
"'>f  bloods,"  guiltv  of  ninuif  >ld  bloodshed. 

wjlab.  ii.  12,  Jer.' xxii.  i:!, 


lies  and  robbery ; 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


the  prey 
departeth  not ; 

2  The  noise  of  a  whip, 
and  "the   noise   of   the    >'Jer. 47. a. 


man  race,  in  languages,  habits,  rites,  arms, 
dress,  there  are  but  two  kinds  of  human 
society,  which,  accorfling  to  our  Scriptures, 
we  may  call  two  cities.  One  is  of  such  as 
wish  to  live  according  to  the  flesh  ;  the  other 
of  such  as  will  according  to  the  Spirit."  "Of 
these,  one  is  predestined  to  live  for  ever  with 
God ;  the  other,  to  undergo  everlasting 
torment  with  the  devil."  Of  this  city,  or 
e\il  world,  Nineveh,  the  city  of  bbods,  is  the 
type. 

It  is  all  full  of  lies  and  robbery,  better,  it  is 
all  lie;  it  is  full  of  robbery  [rapine].  Lie  in- 
cludes all  falsehood,  in  word  or  act,  denial  of 
God,  hypocrisy ;  toward  man,  it  speaks  of 
treachery,  treacherous  dealing,  in  contrast 
with  open  violence  or  rapine  ''^.  The  whole 
being  of  the  wicked  is  one  lie,  toward  God 
and  man ;  deceiving  and  deceived  ;  leaving 
no  idace  for  God  Who  is  the  Truth  ;  seeking 
through  falsehood  things  which  fail.  Man 
^^lovcth  vanity  and  seeketh  after  leasing.  All 
were  gone  out  of  the  way.  "  "  There  were 
none  in  so  great  a  multitude,  for  whose  sake 
the  mercy  of  God  might  spare  so  great  a 
city."  It  is  full,  not  so  much  of  booty  as  of 
rapine  and  violence.  The  sin  remains,  when 
the  profit  is  gone.  Yet  it  ceaseth  not,  but 
persevereth  to  the  end  ;  the  prey  departeth  '^ 
not ;  they  will  neither  leave  the  sin,  nor  the 
sin  them  ;  they  neither  repent,  nor  are  weary 
of  sinning.  Avarice  especially  gains  vigor 
in  old  age,  and  grows  by  being  fed.  The 
prey  departeth  not,  but  continues  as  a  witness 
against  it,  as  a  lion's  lair  is  defiled  by  the 
fragments  of  his  jirey. 

2.  llie  noi.<e  [lit.  voice']  of  the  whip.  There 
is  cry  against  cry ;  the  voice  of  the  enemy, 
brought  upon  them  through  the  voice  of  the 
oppressed.  Blood  hath  a  voice  which  <•)•(>//('* 
to  heaven  ;  its  echo  or  coimterpart,  as  it  were, 
is  the  cry  of  the  destroyer.  All  is  urged  on 
with  terrific  speed.  The  chariot-wheels 
quiver''  in  the  nipid  onset;  the  chariots 
bound,  like  living  things '" ;  the  earth  echoes 

10  S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  D.  xiv.  28.  "  lb.  c.  1. 

'2  pis  dn.    The  verb  is  used  of  the  merciless 

"tearing  "  of  the  lion,  "rending  and  there  is  na 
deliverer."  Ps.  vii.  3.  'a  Ps.  iv.  2.  •<  Alb. 

'^ty'D'  is  intrans.  exoept  in  Mic.  ii.  3,  \. 

1"  Gen.  iv.  lo. 

"  IS^J?1  of  the  chariots,  Jer.  xlvii.  3,  of  the  war- 
horse,  Job.  xxxix.  24,  of  the  loud  tumult  of  battle. 
I.s.  ix.  4,  Jer.  x.  22. 

'"IpT  is  used  of  the  dancing  of  children,  Job 

xxi.  11,  iif  David  before  tlie  ark.  1  Chr.  xv.  29,  of  thf 
liutvrs,  Is.  xiii.  21.    Even  when  u.sed  '>(  the  tnmti- 


CHAPTER  III. 


149 


, ,  H  r'Ys  t    I'^ttling  of  the  wheels,  and 

^''"-  '^'■^-      of  the  pransmg  horses,  and 

of  the  jumping  chariots. 

3  The  horseman  lifteth 

tHeb.  the  flame  UT)  both  tthe  bright  sword 

of  the  sword,  ,° 

and  the  lic/ht-    and  the   ghtterma;  spear : 

ning  of  the  ,     ,  °  ,   .       •, 

spear.  and  there  is  a  multitude  of 

slain,  and  a  great  number 
of  carcases ;  and  there  is 
none  end  of  their  corpses; 


with  the  whirling  swiftness '  of  the  speed  of 
the  cavalry.  The  Prophet  within,  with  the 
inwai'd  ear  and  eye  which  heareth  the  viys- 
ieries  of  the  Kingdom  of  God'^  and  seeth 
things  to  come,  as  they  shall  come  upon  the 
wicked,  sees  and  hears  the  scourge  coming, 
with  ^  a  great  noise,  impetuously  ;  and  so  de- 
scribes it  as  present.  Wars  and  rumors  of 
wars  are  among  the  signs  of  tlie  Day  of  Judg- 
ment. The  scourge,  though  literally  relating 
to  the  vehement  onset  of  the  enemy,  suggests 
to  the  thoughts,  the  scourges  of  Aluiighty 
God,  wherewith  He  chastens  the  penitent, 
punishes  the  impenitent;  the  icheel,  the  swift 
changes  of  man's  condition  in  the  rolling-on 
of  time.  *  0  God,  make  them  like  a  rolling  thing. 
3.  The  horseman  lifteth  up,  rather,  leading 
up  * :  the  flash  of  the  sword,  and  the  lightning 
of  the  spear.  Thus  there  are,  in  all,  seven  in- 
roads, seven  signs,  before  tlie  complete  de- 
struction of  Nineveh  or  the  world ;  as,  in 
the  Revelations,  all  the  forerunners  of  the 
Judgment  of  the  Great  Day  are  summed  up 
under  the  voice  of  seven  trumpets^  and 
seven  vials.  " '  God  shall  not  use  horses  and 
chariots  and  other  instruments  of  war,  such 
as  are  here  spoken  of,  to  judge  the  world, 
yet,  as  is  just,  His  terrors  are  foretold  under 
the  name  of  those  things,  wherewith  this 
proud  and  bloody  world  hath  sinned.  For 
so  all  they  that  take  the  sivord  shall  perish  with 
the  sroord^."  They  who,  abusing  their  power, 
have  used  all  these  weapons  of  war,  especially 

ling  of  the  mountains  before  God,  they  are  com- 
pared to  living  things,  a  calf,  Ps.  xxix.  6,  rams,  Ps. 
cxiv.  4.  6.  It  is  used  also  of  the  locusts,  Jo.  ii.  5. 
[all].    Mostly,  as  here,  it  is  intensive.    lu  Syr.  Pa. 

is  "danced;"  in  Arabic  the  insulated  JNlDT  is 

used  of  "  bounding  as  a  kid."  See  Lane  s.  v. 

1  The  root  only  occurs  beside  Jud.  V.  22.  "Then 
smote  [the  earth]  the  horse-hoofs  from  the  whirl- 
ings, tlie  whirlings  [probably  "whirling  speed" 
irn  i.  q.  in]  of  his  mightv  ones  "  [i.  e.  steeds.  Jer. 
viii.  16.  xlvii.  3.  1.  11.].         '    ^S.  Matt.  xiii.  11.16. 

'■'2  Pet.  iii.  10.  The  words  in  Hebrew  are  pur- 
posely chosen  with  rough  sounds,  (r)  "  ra'ash, 
doher-,  merakkedah."  *  Ps.  Ixxxiii.  14. 

^This  division  is  the  more  likely,  because  the 
words  stand  very  broken,  mostly  in  pairs,  describ- 
ing, as  it  were,  by  the  veryorder  of  the  word.s,  the 
successive  onsets,  wherewith  the  destruction  from 
God  should  break  in  upon  them. 


they   stumble    upon    their 
corj^ses : 

4  Because  of  the  multi- 
tude of  the  whoredoms  of 
the  wellfavored  harlot, '  the 
mistress  of  witchcrafts, 
that  selleth  nations  through 
her  whoredoms,  and  fami- 
lies through  her  witch- 
crafts. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


=  Isa.  47.  9. 12. 
Kev.  18.  2,  3. 


against  the  servants  of  God,  shall  themselves 
perish  by  them,  and  there  shall  be  none  end 
of  their  corpses,  for  they  shall  be  corpses  for 
ever :  for,  dying  by  an  everlasting  death, 
they  shall,  without  end,  be  without  the  true 
life,  which  is  God."  And  there  is  a  multitude 
of  slain.  Death  follows  on  death.  The  Pro- 
phet views  the  vast  field  of  carnage,  and 
everywhere  there  meets  him  only  some  new 
form  of  death,  slain,  carcases,  corpses,  and 
these  in  multitudes,  an  oppressive  heavy  number, 
without  end,  so  that  the  yet  living  stumble  and 
fall  upon  the  carcases  of  the  slain.  So  great 
the  multitude  of  those  who  perish,  and  such 
their  foulness ;  but  what  foulness  is  like  sin  ? 
4.  Because  of  the  multitude  of  the  whoredoms 
of  the  ivell-favored  harlot.  There  are  multi- 
tudes of  slain,  because  of  the  multitude  of  whore- 
doms and  love  of  the  creature  instead  of  the 
Creator.  Soto  Babylon  Isaiah  saith,  "^they 
[loss  of  children  and  widowhood]  shall  come 
upon  thee  in  their  perfection  for  the  multi- 
tude of  thy  sorceries,  for  the  great  abundance 
of  thine  enchantments."  The  actual  use  of 
enchantments^'^,  for  which  Babylon  was  so  in- 
famous, is  not  elsewhere  attributed  to  the 
Assyrians.  But  neither  is  the  word  elsewhere 
used  figuratively ;  nor  is  Assyria,  in  its 
intimate  relation  to  Babylon,  likely  to  have 
been  free  from  the  longing,  universal  in 
Heathendom,  to  obtain  knowledge  as  to  the 
issue  of  events  which  would  affect  her.  She 
is,  by  a  rare  idiom,  entitled  ''mistress^^  of 

6  Rev.  vi.  viii.  The  foreboding  cry  "  woe  I  woe ! " 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  an  image  also 
of  the  Day  of  Judgment,  was  also  seven-fold.  See 
above  on  c.  ii.  10. 

7  Rup.  8  s.  Matt.  xxvi.  52.  » Is.  xlvii.  9. 
iOQ'£3jy2)  (always  plural)  are  spoken  of  as  to  Jeze- 
bel, 2  Kgs  ix.  22;  Babylon,  Is.  1.  c.  and  as  to  be 
abolished  by  God  in  Judah;  Micah  v.  11.  Those 
who  used  them,  D'StJ^DD,  were  employed  by  Pha- 
raoh, Ex.  vii.  11,  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  Dan.  ii.  2; 
were  strictly  forbidden  to  Israel  (Ex.  xxii.  17.  De. 
xviii.  10.) ;  their  employment  was  one  chief  offence 
of  Manasseh.  (2  Chr.  xxxiii.  6.) 

11  r\Sj?3  (fem.)  only  occurs  beside  in  1  Kgs  xvii. 
17,  of  the  widow  of  Zarephath,  who,  as  being  a 
widow,  was  the  mistress  of  the  house,  and  of  the 

witch  of  Endor,  as  31X  phy2, 1  Sam.  xxviii.  7. 


150 


KAHl\M. 


Before 

CHRIST 

';ir.  713. 

«  ch.  2.  13. 
•  Isa.  47.  2,  .3. 

Jer.  13.  22,  2G. 

Ezek.  16.  36. 

Mic.  1. 11. 


5  ''Beholij,  I  "»?  again.«t 
thee,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts ;  and  "^  I  Avill  discover 
thy  skirts   upon  thy  face, 


enchantments,"  having  them  at  her  com- 
mand, as  instruments  of  power.  Mostly, 
idolatries  and  estrangement  from  God  are 
spoken  of  as  ukoredoni.%  only  in  respect  of 
those  who,  having  been  taken  by  God  as  His 
own,  forsook  Him  for  false  gods.  But  Jezebel 
too,  of  whose  oflences  Jehu  speaks  under  the 
same  two  titles  \  was  a  heathen.  And  such 
sins  were  but  part  of  that  larger  all-compre- 
hendini;  sin,  that  man,  being  made  by  God 
for  Himself,  when  he  loveth  the  creature 
instead  of  the  Creator,  divorceth  himself 
from  (Tod.  Of  tiiis  sin  world-empires,  such 
as  Nineveh,  were  the  concentration.  Their 
being  was  one  vast  iiiolatry  of  self  and  of  the 
(jod  of  thu^  v-oiid.  All,  art,  fraud,  deceit,  pro- 
tection of  the  weak  against  the  strong^, 
prnmises  of  gond^,  were  employed,  together 
with  open  violence,  to  absorb  all  nations  into 
it.  The  one  end  of  all  was  to  form  one  great 
idol-temple,  of  which  the  centre  and  end  was 
man,  a  rival  worship  to  God,  which  should 
enslave  all  to  itself  and  the  things  of  this 
world.  Nineveh  arid  all  conquering  nations 
used  fraud  as  well  as  force,  enticed  and  en- 
tangled others,  and  .so  sold  and  deprived 
them  of  freedom*.  Nor  are  people  less 
sold  and  enslaved,  because  they  have  no 
visible  master.  False  freedom  is  the  deepest 
and  most  abject  slavery.  All  sinful  nations 
or  persons  extend  to  others  the  infection  of 
their  own  sins.  But,  chiefly,  the  "wicked 
•world,"  manifoldly  arrayed  with  fair  forms, 
and  "  beautiful  in  the  eyes  of  those  wlio  will 
not  think  or  weigh  how  much  more  beauti- 
ful the  Lord  and  Creator  of  all,"  spreads  her 
enticements  on  all  sides,  the  Imt  of  the  fiesh, 
and  the  lui't  of  the  eye,  atul  the  pride  of  life,  "  her 
pomps  and  vanities,"  worldly  happiness  and 
glory  and  majesty,  and  ease  and  abundance, 
deceives  and  sells  mankind  into  the  power  of 
Satan.  It  is  called  wdl-famred  [lit.  good  of 
</race],  because  the  world  has  a  real  beauty, 
nor,  "°  unless  there  were  a  grace  and  beauty 
in  the  things  we  love,  could  they  draw  us  to 
them."  They  have  their  beauty,  because 
from  God;    then  are  they  deformed,  when 

»2Kgsix.  22. 

«2  Kgs  xvi.  7-fl,  2  Chr.  x.xviii.  20,  21. 

»Is.  xxxvi.  10,  17. 

*See  Joel  iil.  3.    The  word  13D,  as  the  act  of 

Helling,  Implies  elsewhere,  "(o  part  with  into  the 
liandi)  of  another."  Tliis  is  imfilied,  even  where 
(as  in  De.  zxxii.  30,  Ps.  xliv.  13)  it  i^  not  expressed 
to  whom  they  wore  sold.  But  here  the  nations 
wore  not,  as  nations,  sold  by  Assyria  into  the  hands 
of  others,  but  retained  in  its  own  power.  Yet  since 
1^0  occurn  Siitimp"ihroii'.;houtthe  O.  T.  In  theone 


I  ^and     I     will    shew     the 
nations    thy    nakedness, 


Before 

C  H  R  I .«;  T 

cir.  713. 


and    the 
shame. 


kingdoms    thv    fHab. ; 


"^things  hold  us  back  from  God,  which, 
imless  they  were  in  (iod,  were  not  at  all." 
AVe  deform  them,  if  we  love  them  for  our 
own  sakes,  not  in  Him ;  or  for  the  intima- 
tions they  give  of  Him.  " '  Praise  as  to 
things  foul  has  an  intensity  of  blame.  As  if 
one  would  speak  of  a  skilled  thief,  or  a  cour- 
ageous robber,  or  a  clever  cheat.  So  thougli 
he  calls  Nineveh  a  well-favored  harlot,  this  will 
not  be  for  her  praise,  (far  from  it !)  but  con- 
veys the  heavier  condemnation.  As  theij, 
when  tiiey  would  attract,  use  dainty  babblings, 
so  was  Nineveh  a  skilled  artificer  of  ill-doing, 
well  provided  with  means  to  capture  cities 
and  lands  and  to  persuade  them  what  pleased 
herself."  She  selleth  not  vations  only  but 
familii-s,  drawing  mankind  both  as  a  mass, 
and  one  by  one  after  her,  so  that  scarce  any 
escape. 

The  adultery  of  the  soul  from  God  is  the 
more  grievous,  the  nearer  God  has  brought 
any  to  Himself,  in  priests  worse  than  in  the 
people,  in  Christians  than  in  Jews,  in  Jews 
than  in  Heathen ;  yet  God  espoused  man- 
kind to  Him  when  He  made  him.  His 
dowry  were  gifts  of  nature.  If  this  be  adul- 
tery, how  much  sorer,  when  betrothed  by  the 
Blood  of  Christ,  and  endowed  with  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit ! 

5.  Behold  lam  against  thee,  saith  the  Lord 
of  Hosts.  "  *  I  will  not  send  an  Angel,  nor 
give  thy  destruction  to  others;  I  Myself  will 
come  to  destroy  thee."  " '  She  has  not  to  do 
with  man,  or  war  with  man :  He  Who  is 
angered  with  her  is  the  Lord  of  hosts.  But 
who  would  meet  God  Almiglity,  Who  hath 
power  over  all,  if  He  would  war  against 
him?"  In  the  Med es  and  Persians  it  was 
God  who  was  against  them.  Behold  I  am 
against  thee,  lit.  toivard  thee.  It  is  a  new 
thing  which  God  was  about  to  do.  Behold  f 
G&d  in  His  long-sufi'ering  had  seemed  to 
overlook  her.  Now,  He  says,  /  ain  toivard 
thee,  looking  at  her  with  His  all-searching 
eye,  as  her  Judge.  Violence  is  punished  by 
suflering;  deeds  of  shame  by  shame.  All 
sin  is  a  whited  sepulchre,  fair  without,  foul 

sense  "sell,"  and  its  derivatives  "l^OIp,  TT^DOD. 
130,  14  times,  it  is  against  all  idiom  to  assume 
that,  in  this  one  eane,  it  meant  "  deoeived  "  (as  the 
Arab. -^30,  with  ace.  p.  and  2  of  thg.);  nor  were 
the  enchantments  an  instrument  of  deceit;  the 
word  then  must  liere  too  retain  its  sense  of  depriv- 
ing of  libert V,  "  selling  "  to  slavery  or  death. 

6S.  Aug.  cOuf.  iv.  13. 

«  lb.  X.  27  and  iv.  12  and  note  m. 

'  S.  Cyr.  •  9.  Jer. 


CtlAPTKR  TIT. 


lol 


teefore 

CHRIST 

cir.  71.^ 

«Mal.2.  9. 
k  Heb.  10.  33. 


6  And  I  will  cast  abom- 
.  inable  filth  upon  thee,  and 

^  make  thee  vile,  and  will 
set  thee  as  ''  a  gazingstock. 

7  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass  that  all  they  that  look 


within.  Grod  will  strip  oil'  the  outward  fair- 
ness, and  lay  bare  the  inward  foulness.  The 
deepest  shame  is  to  lay  bare,  what  the  sinner 
or  the  world  veiled  within.  /  vAll  discover 
thy  skirts  ^,  i.  e.  the  long  flowing  robes  which 
were  part  of  her  pomp  and  dignity,  but 
which  were  only  the  veil  of  her  misdeeds. 
Through  the  greatness  of  thine  iniquity  have  thy 
>ikirts  been  discovered,  saj's  Jeremiah  in  answer 
to  the  heart's  question,  why  have  these  things 
come  upon  me  ?  Upon  thy  face,  where  shame 
is  felt.  The  conscience  of  thy  foulness  shall 
be  laid  bare  before  thy  face,  thy  eyes,  thy 
memory  continually,  so  that  thou  shalt  be 
forced  to  read  therein,  whatsoever  thou 
hast  done,  said,  thought.  /  will  sheiv  the 
nations  thy  nakedness,  that  all  may  despise, 
avoid,  take  example  by  tliee,  and  praise 
God  for  His  righteous  judgments  upon 
thee.  The  Evangelist  heard  much  people  in 
heaven  saying  Alleluia  to  God  that  He  hath 
judged  the  whore  which  did  corrupt  the  earth 
with  her  fornication'^.  And  Isaiah  saith.  They 
shall  go  forth  and  look  iipon  the  carcases  of  the 
men  thai  have  traiigsressed  against  Me  ^. 

6.  And  I  will  cast  abominable  filth  upon  thee, 
"*like  a  weight,  that  what  thou  wouldest 
not  take  heed  to  as  sin,  thou  mayest  feel  in 
punishment."  Abominable  things  had  God 
seen^  in  her  doings ;  with  abominable  things 
would  he  punish  lier.  Man  would  fain  sin, 
and  forget  it  as  a  thing  past.  God  maketh 
him  to  possess  the  iniquities  of  his  youth%  and 
bindeth  them  around  him,  so  that  they  make 
him  to  appear  what  they  are,  i'(7e '.  ^ These 
things  hast  thou  done  and.  I  kept  silence  ; — I  will 
reprove  thee  and  set  them  in  order  before  thine 
eyes.  And  will  set  thee  as  a  gazingstock,  that 
all,  while  they  gaze  at  thee,  take  warning 
from  thee  *.  ^^  I  will  cast  thee  to  the  ground  ; 
before  kings  will  I  give  thee,  for  them  to  gaze 

^  VlW  always  plural,  for  their  profuseness,  as 

we  speak  of  "  robes."  It  is  the  word  used  in  the 
same  image,  Jer.  xiii.  22.  26;  Isaiah  has  the  lilfe, 

Sati'.  Is.  xlvii.  2. 

•-'  Rev.  xix.  1.  2.  8  Ixvi.  24.  *  Alb. 

5  Jer.  xiii.  27.  «  Job.  xiii.  26. 

'  Comp.  Wisdom  iv.  18.  8  Ps.  l.  21. 

9  Comp.  2  Chron.  vii.  20.  lo  Ezek.  xxviil.  17. 

"  Ptol.  Prov.  ap.  Alb.  w  Rev.  xviii.  15. 

i°Comp.  Ps.  xxxi.  11.  Ixiv.  8.     i«  Comp.  Job  xvi.  4,5. 
"  '2a'Pt,  for  '^a^n,  as  Ip;;  Ps.  Ixxii.l4,  HdVk 
Mic.  i.'s.  '  '    " 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


Upon  thee  '  shall  flee  from 
thee,  and  say,  Nineveh  is 
laid  waste :  ^  who  Avill  be- 
moan her  ?  whence  shall  I 
seek  comforters  for  thee  ? 

8  '  Art  thou  better  than    '  Amos  6.  a 


i  Rev.  18. 10. 
k  Jer.  15.  5. 


upon  thee.  "  "  Whoso  amendeth  not  on  occa- 
sion of  othei-s,  othei-s  shall  be  amended  on 
occasion  of  him." 

7.  All  they  that  look  upon  thee  shall  flee  from 
thee  through  terror,  lest  they  should  share 
her  plagues,  as  Israel  did,  when  the  earth 
swallowed  up  Corah,  Dathan  and  Ablram ; 
and  they  who  ^'^  had  been  made  rich  by  Babylon, 
staml  afar  off,  for  the  fear  of  her  torment.  All 
they  who  look  on  thee.  She  was  set  as  a  thing 
to  he  gazed  at  ^'^.  He  tells  the  eflect  on  the 
gazers.  Each  one  who  so  gazed^^  at  her  should 
flee;  one  by  one,  they  should  gaze,  be  scared, 
flee  '*.  Not  one  should  remain.  Who  will 
bemoan  her?  Not  one  should  pay  her  the 
passing  tribute  of  sympathy  at  human  calam- 
ity, the  shaking  of  the  head  at  her  woe  ^^ 
Who  had  no  compa-ssion,  shall  find  none. 

8.  Art  thou  better  ",  more  populous  or  more 
powerful,  than  the  popidous  No?  rather  than 
No-Ammon,  so  called  from  the  idol  Ammon, 
worshiped  there.  No-Ammon,  (or,  as  it  is 
deciphered  in  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions, 
Nia),  meaning  probably  "the  portion  of  Am- 
mon **,"  was  the  sacred  name  of  the  capital 
of  Upper  Egypt,  which,  under  its  common 
name,  Thebes,  was  far-famed,  even  in  the 
time  of  Homer,  for  its  continually  accruing 
wealth,  its  military  power,  its  20,000  chariots, 
its  vast  dimensions  attested  by  its  100  gates  ^®. 
Existing  earlier,  as  the  capital  of  Upper 
Egypt,  its  grandeur  began  in  the  18th  dynasty, 
after  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos,  or  Semitic 
conquerors  of  Egypt.  Its  Pharaohs  were 
conquerors,  during  the  18th-20th  dynasties, 
B.  C.  1706-1110,  about  six  centuries.  It 
was  then  the  centre  of  a  world-empire. 
Under  a  disguised  name"^°,  its  rulers  were 
celebrated  in  Geek  story  also,  for  their  world- 
wide conquests.  The  Greek  statements  have 
in  some  main  points  been  verified   by  the 

18  As  the  LXX.  (from  their  acquaintance  with 
Egypt)  render,  m«P's  'A-ixij.u>v.  The  Coptic  MSS. 
Martyrologies  mention  "the  place  of  Ammon," 
(Jablonski  0pp.  i.  1G3)  and  the  Hieroglyphics.  Lep- 
sius,  Chronol.  d.  JEg.  i.  272.  The  common  name 
Aip-i  or  T-ap  was  the  original  of  the  name  Thebes, 
by  which  it  became  known  to  the  West  through 
the  Greeks. 

19 II.  ix.  381-4,  [all  the  wealth]  "  as  much  as  comes 
to  the  Egyptian  Thebes,  where  most  possessions 
are  laid  up  in  the  houses,  which  hath  a  hundred 
gates,  and  from  each,  200  men  go  forth  with  horses 
and  chariots." 

20Sesostris.  Herod,  ii.  102-110,  and  notes  in  Rawl. 
Her. ;  Diod.  i.  53-59,  Strabo  xv.  1.  6.  xvi.  4.  and  7, 
xvii.  1.  5. 


152 


NAlll'M. 


^o,  that  was 


chrTst    lit  populous 
cir.  713.      situate  among  the   rivei-s, 


[Or,  nourishing,  ^j^^^  j^^  ^^^   ^^.^^^^^  ^^^^^ 
So  Amon.       "  Jer.  46.  25,  20.  Ezek.  30. 14-16 


decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphics.  The 
monuments  relate  their  victories  in  far  Asia, 
and  mention  Nineveh  itself  among  the  peo- 
ple who  paid  tribute  to  them.  They  warred 
and  conquered  from  the  Soudan  to  Mesopo- 
tamia. A  monument  of  Tothmosis  I.  (lUOG 
B.  C.)  still  exists  at  Kerman,  between  the 
20th  and  19th  degrees  latitude,  boasting, 
in  language  like  that  of  the  Assyrian  con- 
queroi-s ;  "  All  lands  are  subdued,  and  bring 
their  tributes  for  the  first  time  to  the 
gracious  god'."  "The  frontier  of  Egypt," 
they  say^,  "extends  Southward  to  the 
mountain  of  Apta  (in  Abyssinia)  and  North- 
ward to  the  furthest  dwellings  of  the  Asiat- 
ics." The  hyperbolic  statements  are  too 
undefined  for  "history^,  but  widely-conquer- 
ing monarchs  could  alone  have  used  them. 
"*At  all  periods  of  history,  the  possession 
of  the  country  which  we  call  Soudan  (the 
Black  country)  comprising  Nubia,  and  which 
the  ancients  called  by  the  collective  name  of 
Kous  [Cush]  or  Ethiopia,  has  been  an 
exhaustless  source  of  wealth  to  Egypt. 
Whetlier  by  way  of  war  or  of  commerce,  barks 
laden  with  flocks,  corn,  hides,  ivory,  precious 
woods,  stones  and  metals,  and  many  other 
products  of  those  regions,  descended  the  Nile 
into  Egypt,  to  lill  thetreasuresof  the  temples 
and  ofthe  court  of  the  Pharaohs:  and  of  metals, 
especially  gold,  mines  whereof  were  worked 
by  captives  and  slaves,  whose  Egyjitian  name 
noub  seems  to  have  been  the  origin  of  the 
name  Nubia,  the  first  province  S.  of  Egypt." 
"The  conquered  country  of  Soudan,  called 
Kous  in  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  was 
governed  by  Egyptian  princes  of  the  royal 
family,  who  bore  the  name  of  '  prince  royal 
of  Kous.'  " 

But  the  prophet's  appeal  to  Nineveh  is  the 
more  striking,  because  No,  in  its  situation, 
its  commerce,  the  sources  of  its  wealth,  its 
relation  to  the  country  which  lay  between 
them,  had  been  another  and  earlier  Nineveh. 
Only,  as  No  had  formerly  conquered  and  ex- 
acted tril)ute  froui  all  those  nations,  even  to 
Nineveh  itself,  so  now,  under  Sargon  and 
Sennacherib,  Nineveh  bad  reversed  all  those 
successes,  and  displaced  the  Empire  of  Egypt 
by  its  own,  an  1  taken  No  itself.  No  had, 
under  its  Tothmoses,  Amenophes,  Sethos,  the 

1  Brugsoh  Hist.  d'Eg.  p.  88. 

*  IV).  and  n'othmosi.s  iii.)  p.  109. 

'"Notwitnstfttidini;  the  lenpth  ofthe  like  texts, 
renordine  the  victories  gained  liy  the  Pharaohs,  tlie 
hi.itorieal  subject  is  (reati>d  as  accessory,  a-^  an  oc- 
casion of  repcatinjj,  for  the  thou.sandth  time,  tlie 
same  formulas,  the  same  hyperbolic  words,  the 
bame  ideas."  Brugsch  pp.  89. 


about    it,  whope 

%vas  the  sea,  and  her  wall 

was  from  the  sea  ? 


ramparts    ,,$tl%T 


Ousertesens,  sent  its  messengers  ^,  the  leviers 
of  its  tribute,  had  brought  ofl"  from  Asia  that 
countless  mass  of  human  strength,  the  cap- 
tives, who  (as  Israel,  before  its  deliverance, 
accomplished  its  hard  laborsj  completed  those 
gigantic  works,  which,  even  alter  2U00  yeai-s 
of  decay,  are  still  the  marvel  of  the  civilized 
world.  Tothmosis  I.,  after  subduing  the 
Sasou,  brought  back  countless  captives  from 
Naharina*  ^ Mesopotamia) ;  Tothmosis  111., 
in  19  years  of  conquests,  (lOOS-1585  B.  C. ) 
" '  raised  the  Egyptian  empire  to  the  height 
of  its  greatness.  Tothmosis  repeatedly  at- 
tacked the  most  powerful  people  of  Asia,  as 
the  Routen  (Assyrians?)  with  a  number  of 
subordinate  kingdoms,  such  as  Asshur, 
Babel,  Nineveh,  Singar ;  such  as  the  Eeme- 
nen  or  Armenians,  the  Zahi  or  Phoenicians, 
the  Cheta  or  Hittites,  and  many  more.  We 
learn,  by  the  description  of  the  objects  of  the 
booty,  sent  to  Egypt  by  land  and  sea,  counted 
by  number  and  weight,  many  curious  details 
as  to  the  industry  of  the  conquered  peoples 
of  central  Asia,  which  do  honor  to  the  civili- 
zation of  that  time,  and  verify  the  tradition 
that  the  Egyptian  kings  set  up  stelae  in  con- 
quered countries,  in  memory  of  their  vic- 
tories. Tothmosis  III.  set  up  his  stele  in 
^lesopotamia,  '  for  having  enlarged  the  fron- 
tiers of  Egypt.'  "  Amenophis  too  is  related 
to  have  '"'taken  the  fortress  of  Nenii  (Nine- 
veh)." "*He  returned  from  the  country  of 
the  higher  Routen,  Avhere  he  had  beaten  all 
his  enemies  to  enlarge  the  frontiers  of  the 
land  of  Egypt :  "  ""he  took  possession  of  the 
l)eople  of  the  South,  and  chastised  the  people 
of  the  North  :  "  "  at  Abd-el-Kournah  "  he 
was  represented  as  " '  having  for  his  foot- 
stool the  heads  and  backs  of  five  peoples  of 
the  S.  and  four  peoples  of  the  N.  or  Asiat- 
ics." ""Among  the  names  of  t be  peoples, 
who  submitted  to  Egypt,  are  the  Nubians, 
tiie  Asiatic  shepiierds,  the  inhabitants  of  Cy- 
prus and  Mesopotamia."  "'"The  world  in 
its  length  and  its  breadth  "  is  promised  by 
the  sjihinx  to  Tothmosis  IV.  lie  is  repre- 
sented as  "  "  subduer  of  the  negroes."  Under 
Amenophis  III.,  the  Memnon  ofthe  Greeks, 
"  '^tiie  Egyptian  empire  extended  Northward 
to  Mesopotamia,  Soutiiward  to  the  land  of 
Karou."     He  enlarged  and    beautified  No, 

♦  Brugsch  ib.  p.  89-107.  *  Nah.  ii.  13. 

•  Brugsch  p.  90. 

'  Ih.  p.  104,  the  summary  of  pp.  96-103. 

8  III.  p.  111. 

oih.  112. 

I"  On  the  sphinx  of  Gizeh  Ib.  p.  113. 
n  In  the  Isle  of  Konosso  near  Philee  Ib.  p.  114, 
"  Ib.  pp.  114,  115. 


CHAPTEE  lit. 


153 


which  had  from  him  the  temple  of  Louksor, 
and  his  vocal  statue,  "  '  all  people  bringing 
their  tributes,  their  children,  their  liorses,  a 
mass  of  silver,  of  iron  and  ivory  from  coun- 
tries, the  roads  whereto  we  know  not."  The 
king  Horus  is  saluted  as  "'^  the  sun  of  the 
nine  people ;  great  is  thy  name  to  the 
country  of  Ethiopia  ;  "  "  '^  the  gracious  god 
returns,  having  subdued  the  great  of  all 
people."  Setj  I.  (or  Sethos)  is  exhibited*,  as 
reverenced  by  the  Armenians,  conquering 
the  Sasou,  the  "  Hittites,  Xaharina  (Mesopo- 
tamia), the  Eouten  (Assyrians?)  the  Fount, 
or  Arabs  in  the  S.  of  Arabia,  the  Amari 
or  Amorites,  and  Kedes,  perhaps  Edessa." 
Rameses  II.,  or  the  great  *  (identified  with 
the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus^),  conquered 
the  Hittites  in  the  N. ;  in  the  S.  it  is  recorded, 
"  *  the  gracious  god,  who  defeated  the  nine 
people,  who  massacred  myriads  in  a  moment, 
annihilated  the  peojile  overthrown  in  their 
blood,  yet  was  there  no  other  with  him." 
The  20th  Dynasty  (B.  C.  1288-1110)  began 
again  with  conquests.  " '  Rameses  III. 
triumphed  over  great  confederations  of  Lib- 
yans and  Syrians  and  the  Isles  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. He  is  the  only  king  who,  as  the 
monuments  shew,  carried  on  war  at  once  by 
land  and  sea."  Beside  many  names  un- 
known to  us,  the  Hittites,  Amorites,  Circe- 
sium,  Aratus,  Philistines,  Phoenicia,  Sasou, 
Pount,  are  again  recognized.  North,  South 
East  and  West  are  declared  to  be  tributary 
to  him,  and  of  the  North  it  is  said,  '"^The 
people,  who  knew  not  Egypt,  come  to  thee, 
bringing  gold  and  silver,  lapis-laziili,  all 
precious  stones."  He  adorned  Thebes  with 
the  great  temple  of  Medinet-Abou"  and  the 
Ramesseum '".  The  brief  notices  of  follow- 
ing Rameses'  speak  of  internal  prosperity 
and  wealth  :  a  fuller  account  of  Rameses  XII. 
speaks  of  his  "  ^^  being  in  Mesopotamia  to 
exact  the  annual  tribute,"  how  "  the  kings  of 
all  countries  prostrated  themselves  before 
him,  and  the  king  of  the  country  of  Bouchten 
[it  has  been  conjectured,  Bagistan,  or  Ecba- 
tana]  presented  to  him  tribute  and  his 
daughter."  "  '^  He  is  the  last  Pharaoh  who 
goes  to  Mesopotamia,  to  collect  the  annual 
tributes  of  the  petty  kingdoms  of  that  coun- 
try." On  this  side  of  the  Euphrates,  Egypt 
still  retained  some  possessions  to  the  time  of 
Necho  ;  for  it  is  said,  "  ^*  the  king  of  Babylon 
had  taken  from  the  river  of  Egypt  unto  the 
river  Euphrates   all  that  pertained  to   the 


1  In  Brugsch  p.  116. 
-  lb.  pp.  124,  12o. 
*  lb.  pp.  1.37  sqq. 
'  lb.  p.  183. 
10  lb.  pp.  197, 198. 
1*2  Kgs  xxiv.  7. 
16  lb.  pp.  224-227. 
18  lb.  p.  244. 

18  XV.  1.  6.  He  mentions  him  again  for  his  exten- 
sive removals  of  people,  which  implies  extensive 
oonquests.  i.  3.  21.  20  Joanne  et  Isambert, 

Jtin^raire  de  1'  Orient,  p.  1039. 


3  lb.  pp.  128-132. 
6  lb.  p.  156.  6  lb.  p.  158. 

8  lb.  p.  190.  9  lb.  p.  191. 

11  lb.  p.  207.         12  lb.  p.  210. 
"  Brugsch  p.  212. 
i«  lb.  p.  223.         "  lb.  p.  235. 


king  of  Egyjit."  Thebes  continued  to  be 
embellished  alike  by  "  the  high-priests  of 
Aminon,"  avIio  displaced  the  ancient  line  '*, 
and  kings  of  the  Bul>astite  Dynasty,  Sesonchis 
I.  or  Sisak  '^,  Takelothis  II.  1*,  and  Sesonchis 
III ''.  The  Ethiopian  dynasty  of  Sabakos 
and  Tearko  or  Tirhaka  in  another  way  illus- 
trates the  importance  of  No.  The  Ethiopian 
conquerors  chose  it  as  their  royal  city. 
Thither,  in  the  time  of  Sabakos,  Syria 
brought  it  tribute  ^^ ;  there  Tirhaka  set  up 
the  records  of  his  victories '®;  and  great  must 
have  been  the  conqueror,  whom  Strabo  put 
on  a  line  with  Sesostris  i".  Its  site  marked  it 
out  for  a  great  capital ;  and  as  such  the 
Ethiopian  conqueror  seized  it.  Tlie  hills  on 
either  side  retired,  encircling  the  plain, 
through  the  centre  of  which  the  Nile  brought 
down  its  wealth,  connecting  it  with  the  un- 
told riches  of  the  south.  "  ™  They  formed  a 
vast  circus,  where  the  ancient  metropolis  ex- 
panded itself.  On  the  "West,  the  Lylian 
chain  presents  abrupt  declivities  which 
command  this  side  of  the  plain,  and  which 
bend  away  above  Bab-el-molouk,  to  end  near 
Kournah  at  the  very  bank  of  the  river.  On 
the  East,  heights,  softer  and  nearer,  descend 
in  long  declivities  toward  Louksor  and  Kar- 
nak,  and  their  crests  do  not  approach  the 
Nile  until  after  Medamout,  an  hour  or  more 
below  Karnak."  The  breadth  of  the  valley, 
being  about  10  miles  ^^  the  city  (of  which, 
Strabo  says,  "  ^^  traces  are  now  seen  of  its 
magnitude,  80  stadia  in  length  ")  must  have 
occupied  the  whole.  "  ^^  The  Cam  city  em- 
braced the  great  space,  which  is  now  com- 
monly called  the  plain  of  Thebes  and  which 
is  divided  by  the  Nile  into  two  halves,  an 
Eastern  and  a  Western,  the  first  bounded  by 
the  edge  of  the  Arabian  wilderness,  the  latter 
by  the  hills  of  the  dead  of  the  steep  Libyan 
chain."  The  capital  of  Egypt,  which  was 
identified  of  old  with  Egj^pt  itself^*,  thus  lay 
under  the  natural  guardianship  of  the  encir- 
cling hills  which  expanded  to  receive  it, 
divided  into  two  by  the  river  which  was  a 
wall  to  both.  The  chains  of  hills,  on  either 
side  were  themselves  fenced  in  on  East  and 
West  by  the  great  sand-deserts  unapproach- 
able by  an  army.  The  long  valley  of  the 
Nile  was  the  only  access  to  an  enemy.  It 
occupied  apparently  the  victorious  army  of 
Asshur-banipal  '^  "  a  month  and  ten  davs  " 
to  march  from  Memphis  to  Thebes.  "^^At 
Thebes  itself  there  are  still  remains  of  walls 

21  Smith  Bibl.  Diet.  v.  Thebes.  22  xvii.  1.  46. 

23  Brugsch  Geogr.  d.  Alt.  ^g.  p.  176. 

2* "In  old  times  Thebes  [the  Thebais]  was  called 
Egypt."  Herod,  ii.  15.  "  Formerly  Egypt  was  called 
Thebes."    Aristot.  Meteor,  i.  14. 

25  Inscr.  in  Oppert,  Rapports,  pp.  74,  78,  85. 

26  Miss  Harris,  the  learned  daughter  of  a  learned 
Egyptologist;  "In  several  hieroglyphical  inscrip- 
tions and  notably  in  a  papyrus  in  Miss   Harris' 

Sossession,  partly  deciphered  by  her  I'atlier  and 
erself,  there  are  minute  accounts  of  fortre.sses 
existing  at  that  date,  about  the  time  of  the  Exodus^ 


154 


-NAIIIM. 


and  fort ifi'\Tt ions,  strong,  skillfully  con- 
btructed,  and  in  good  preservation,  as  there 
are  also  in  other  Egyptian  towns  above  and 
below  it.  The  crescent-sliuped  ridge  of  hills 
approaches  so  close  to  the  river  at  eacii  end 
as  to  admit  of  troops  defiling  past,  but  not 
spreading  out  or  niananivering.  At  each  of 
these  ends  is  a  small  old  fort  of  the  purely 
Egyptian,  i.  e.  the  Ante-Hellenic  period. 
Buth  above  and  below  there  are  several 
similar  crescent  sweeps  in  the  same  chain 
of  hills,  and  at  each  angle  a  similar  fort." 

All  successive  monarchs,  during  more  cen- 
turies than  have  passed  since  our  Lord 
came,  successively  beautified  it.  Everything 
is  gigantic,  bearing  witness  to  the  enormous 
mass  of  human  strength,  which  its  victorious 
kings  had  gathered  from  all  nations  to  toil 
for  its  and  their  glorification.  Wonderful  is 
it  now  in  its  decay,  desolation,  death ;  one 
great  idol-temple  of  its  gods  and  an  apotheo- 
sis of  its  kings,  as  sons  of  its  gods.  "  '  What 
spires  are  to  a  modern  city,  what  the  towers 
of  a  cathedral  are  to  the  nave  and  choir,  Oud 
the  statues  of  the  Pharaohs  were  to  the 
streets  ami  temples  of  Thebes.  The  ground 
is  strewed  with  their  fragments  ;  the  avenues 
of  them  towered  high  above  plain  and 
houses.  Three  of  gigantic  size  still  remain. 
One  was  the  granite  statue  of  Rameses  him- 
self, who  sat  on  the  right  side  of  the  entrance 
to  his  palace. — The  only  part  of  the  temple  or 
palace,  at  all  in  proportion  to  him,  must 
have  been  the  gateway,  which  rose  in  pyra- 
midal towers,  now  broken  down  and  rolling 
in  a  wild  ruin  down  to  the  plain."  It  was 
that  self-deifying,  against  which  Ezekiel  is 
commanded  to  prophesy  ;  "^  Speak  and  say  ; 
thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ;  Behold,  I  am  against 
thee,  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  tlie  great  dragon 
that  liMh  in  the  midst  of  Aw  rivers,  ivhich  hath 
said,  My  river  is  mine  cum,  and  I  have  made  it 
for  myself.  "  ^  Everywhere  the  same  colossal 
proportions  are  preserved.  Everywhere  the 
king  is  conquering,  ruling,  worshiping,  wor- 
shiped. The  palace  is  the  temple.  The 
king  is  priest.  He  and  his  horses  are  ten 
times  the  size  of  the  rest  of  the  army.  Alike 
in  battle  and  in  worehip,  he  is  of  the  same 
stature  as  the  gods  themselves.  Most  strik- 
ing is  the  familiar  gentleness,  with  which, 

slie  suppo.ses,  and  of  their  armamonts  and  carri- 
sons."  Thebes  then  was  fortified,  as  well  as  Nine- 
veh, and  Homer  is  confirmed  by  the  Hieroglyphical 
inscriptions. 

'Stanley  Sin.  and  Pal.  Introd.  p.  xx.wiii.. 

2  Ezek.  x.xi.x.  .3.  astanl.  lb.  p.  xxxix. 

*  Wilkinson  Anc.  Eg.  iii.  2fir.. 

''"about  887  tons,  5>^  hundred  weight."  Wilkin- 
son Mod.  Eg.  if.  14r>. 

""The  obelisks,  transported  from  the  quarries  of 
Svene  ut  the  first  cataract,  in  latitude  24°  ,'>'  2.1"  to 
Thebes  and  Heliopolis,  vary  in  size  from  70  to  O.'J 
feet  in  length.  They  are  of  one  single  stone,  and 
the  largest  in  Egypt  (that  of  the  great  temple  at 
Karnak)  I  calculate  to  weigh  297  tons.  This  was 
brought  about  138  miles  from  the  quarry  to  where 
it  now  stands ;  those  taken  to  Heliopolis,  more  than 


one  on  each  side,  they  take  him  hy  each 
hand,  as  one  of  their  own  order,  and  then,  in 
the  next  compartment,  introduce  him  to  Am- 
nion, and  tlie  lion-headed  goddess.  Every 
distinction,  except  of  degree,  between  divin- 
ity and  royalty  is  entirely  levelled."  Gigantic 
dimensions  picture  to  the  eye  the  ideal  great- 
ne.ss,  wliich  is  the  key  to  the  architecture  of 
Xo.  "  •'  Two  other  statues  alone  remain  of 
an  avenue  of  eighteen  similar  or  nearly 
similar  statues,  some  of  whose  remnants  lie 
in  the  Held  behind  them,  which  led  to  the 
palace  of  Amenophis  III.,  every  one  of  the 
statues  being  Amenophis  himself,  thus  giv- 
ing in  multiplication  what  Rameses  gained 
ill  .solitary  elevation."  "*  Their  statues  were 
all  of  one  piece."  Science  still  cannot  explain, 
how  a  mass  of  nearly  890  tons' of  granite 
was  excavated  at  iSyene,  transported  ®  and  set 
up  at  Thebes,  or  how  destroyed". 

"*'The  temper  of  the  tools,  which  cut 
adamantine  stone  as  sharply  and  closely  as  an 
ordinary  scoop  cuts  an  ordinary  cheese,  is 
still  a  mystery."  Everything  is  in  propor- 
tion. The  two  sitting  colossi,  whose  "  breadth 
across  the  shoulders  is  eighteen  feet,  their 
height  forty-seven  feet,  fifty-three  above  the 
plain,  or,  with  the  half-buried  pedestal,  sixty 
feet,  were  once  connecteil  by  an  avenue  of 
sphinxes  of  eleven  hundred  feet  with  what  is 
now  '  Kom-el-Hettan,'  or  '  the  mound  of 
sand-stone,'  which  marks  the  site  of  another 
palace  and  temple  of  Amenophis  III.;  and, 
tojudge  from  the  little  that  remains,  it  must 
have  held  a  conspicuous  rank  among  the 
finest  monuments  of  Thebes.  All  that  now 
exists  of  the  interior  are  the  bases  of  its 
columns,  some  broken  statues,  and  Syenite 
sphinxes  of  the  king,  with  several  lion- 
headed  figures  of  black  granite  ^"  The  four 
villages,  where  are  the  chief  remaining 
temples,  Karnak,  Luksor,  Medinet-Abou, 
Kournah,  form  a  great  quadrilateral  ^'^  each 
of  whose  sides  is  about  one  and  a  half  mile, 
and  the  whole  compass  accordingly  si.x  miles. 
The  avenue  of  six  hundred  sphinxes,  which 
joined  the  temple  of  Luksor  with  Karnak 
must  have  been  one  and  a  half  mile  long  "  : 
one  of  its  obelisks  is  a  remarkable  ornament 
of  Paris.  Mostly  massiveness  is  the  charac- 
teristic, since  strength  and  might  were  their 

800  miles.  The  power,  however,  to  move  the  mass 
was  the  same,  whatever  might  be  the  distance,  and 
the  mechanical  skill  whicli  transported  it  tive  or 
oven  one,  would  suffice  for  any  number  of  miles. 
The  two  colossi  of  Amenophis  iii.,of  a  single  block 
each,  47  feet  in  height,  wliich  contain  about  11,.')(X) 
cubic  feet,  are  made  of  a  stone  not  known  within 
several  days  journey  of  the  place;  and  at  the 
Memnonium  is  another  of  Rameses  which,  when 
entire,  weighed  upwards  of  887  tons,  and  was 
brought  from  E'.«5ooan  to  Thebes,  138  miles."  Wilk. 
Anc.  Eg.  iii.  .'VJO,  :J3(».      '  See  Wilk.  Mod.  Eg.  ii.  144. 

8  Nozrani  in  Eg.  and  Svr.  p.  278. 

'Wilkinson  Mod.  Eg.  ii.  l.'-.7,  158.  160.  1G2. 

10  Joanne  et  Isambert,  Itiner.  de  1'  Orient  pp. 
1039, 1040. 

u  Two  kilometres,  Joan,  et  Isanib.  p.  1060. 


CHAPTER  III. 


1; 


ideal.  Yet  the  massive  columns  still  pre- 
served, as  in  the  temple  of  Kameses  II. ', 
are  even  of  piercing  beauty  ^.  And  for  the 
temple  of  Kai-nak  !  Its  enclosure,  Avhich  was 
some  two  miles  in  circumference '-',  bears  the 
names  of  Monai'chs  removed  from  one  an- 
other, according  to  the  Chronology,  by  above 
two  thousand  years'.  "*A  stupendous 
colonnade,  of  which  one  pillar  only  remains 
erect,  once  extended  across  its  great  court, 
connecting  the  W.  gate  of  entrance  with  that 
at  its  extremity.  The  towers  of  the  Eastern 
gate  are  mere  heaps  of  stones,  poured  down 
into  the  court  on  one  side  and  the  great  hall 
on  the  other  ;  giant  columns  have  been  swept 
away  like  reeds  before  the  mighty  avalanche, 
and  one  hardly  misses  them.  And  in  that 
hall,  of  170  feet  by  329  feet,  134  columns 
of  colossal  proportions  supported  its  roof; 
twelve  of  them,  62  feet  high  and  about  35  in 
circumference,  and  on  each  side  a  forest  of 
66  columns,  42  feet  5  in.  in  height.  Beyond 
the  centre-avenue  are  seen  obelisks,  gateways 
and  masses  of  masonry ;  every  portion  of 
these  gigantic  ruins  is  covered  with  sculpture 
most  admirably  executed,  and  every  column 
has  been  richly  painted." 

"*  Imagine  a  long  vista  of  courts  and 
doorways  and  colonnades  and  halls  ;  here  and 
there  an  obelisk  shooting  up  out  of  the  ruins, 
and  interrupting  the  opening  view  of  the 
forest  of  columns. — This  mass  of  ruins,  some 
rolled  down  in  avalanches  of  stone,  others 
perfect  and  painted,  as  when  they  were  fii-st 
built,  is  approached  on  every  side  by  avenues 
of  gateways.  E.  and  W.,  N.  and  S.,  these 
vast  approaches  are  found.  Some  are  shat- 
tered, but  in  every  approach  some  remain  ; 
and  in  some  can  be  traced,  beside,  the 
further  avenues,  still  in  parts  remaining  by 
hundreds  together,  avenues  of  ram-headed 
sphinxes.  Every  Egyptian  temple  has,  or 
ought  to  have,  one  of  those  grand  gateways, 
formed  of  two  sloping  towers,  with  the  high 
perpendicular  front  between."  Then,  over 
and  above,  is  "  their  multiplied  concentra- 
tion.— Close  before  almost  every  gateway  in 

1  Memnonium.  See  Hoskins,  Winter  in  upper 
and  lower  Eg.  Frontispiece. 

2 13  Stadia.  (Diod.  S.  i.  46.)  "  It  will  be  found  to 
surpass  the  measurement  of  the  historian  by  at 
least  two  or  three  stadia."    Wilkins.  ii.  249. 

3  Osirtasen  i,  placed  at  2803.  B.  C.  to  Tirhaka,  693. 
B.  C,  Wilkinson  Mod.  Eg.  ii.  250.  252. 

■*  Lord  Lindsay  Letters  on  Egypt,  &c.,  pp.  98,  99. 

5  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Pal.  p.  xli.    «  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  GO. 

^  In  Zech.  i.  11,  this  is  brought  out  by  the  addition 
of  the  word  P\l2pW)  "  and  at  rest ; "  in  Zech.  vii.  7, 

by  riwtJ'^,  "and  tranquil."  In  Rev.  xviii.  7,  "I  sit 
a  queen,"  the  addition,  "  as  a  queen  "  points  to  the 
other  meaning,  of  31^',  "sat  enthroned." 

8  Yeorim. 

9  Is.  xviii.  2,  xix.  5.  In  Arabic,  the  Nile  is  called 
"  the  sweet  sea "  in  contrast  with  "the  salt  sea,"  or 
"  the  encircling  sea ;  "  a  title  given  by  Egyptian 
writers  to  the  Mediterranean,  as  being  connected 
with  the  Ocean.    Egyptian  writers  mostly  add  an 


this  vast  array  were  the  colossal  figures;,  usu- 
ally in  granite,  of  the  great  Kameses,  some- 
times in  white  and  red  marble,  of  Amenophis 
and  of  ThoUimes.  Close  by  them,  were  })airs 
of  towering  obelisks,  which  can  generally  be 
traced  by  pedestals  on  either  side. — You 
have  only  to  set  up  again  the  fallen  obelisks 
Avhich  lie  at  your  feet ;  to  conceive  the 
columns,  as  they  are  still  seen  in  parts,  over- 
spreading the  whole  ;  to  reproduce  all  the 
statues,  like  those  which  still  remain  in 
their  august  niches,  to  gaze  on  the  painted 
walls  and  pillars  of  the  immense  hall,  which 
even  now  can  never  be  seen  without  a  thrill 
of  awe,  and  you  have  ancient  Thebes  before 
you."  And  most  of  those  paintings  were 
records  of  their  past  might.  ""There 
remained  on  the  massive  buildings  Egyptian 
letters,  recording  their  former  Avealthiness  ; 
and  one  of  the  elder  priests,  bidden  to  inter- 
pret his  native  language,  related  that  of  old 
700,000  of  military  age  dwelt  there ;  and 
witii  that  army  king  Rhamses  gained  pos- 
session of  Libya,  Ethiopia,  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  the  Bactrian  and  Scythian ;  and 
held  in  his  empire  the  countries  which  the 
Syrians  and  Armenians  and  neighboring 
Cappadocians  inhabit,  the  Bithynian  also 
and  Lycian  to  the  sea.  There  were  reatl  too 
the  tributes  imposed  on  the  natives,  the 
weight  of  silver  and  gold  ;  the  number  of 
arms  and  horses,  and  the  gifts  to  the  temples, 
ivory  and  frankincense,  and  what  supplies  of 
corn  and  utensils  each  nation  should  pay,  not 
less  magnificent  than  are  now  enjoined  by 
Parthian  violence  or  by  Roman  power." 

That  ivas  situate  lit.  the  dweller,  she  that 
dwelleth.  Perhaps  the  Prophet  wished  to 
express  the  security  and  ease ',  in  which  she 
dwelt  among  the  rivers.  They  encircled,  folded 
round  her,  as  it  were,  so  that  she  was  a  little 
world  in  herself,  secluded  from  all  who 
would  approach  to  hurt  her.  The  Prophet's 
word,  rivers  **,  is  especially  used  of  the 
branches  or  canals  of  the  Nile,  which  is  also 
called  the  sea^.  The  Kile  passed  through 
No,   and  doubtless    its   canals  encircled  it. 

epithet  to  '1113 /H,  to  designate  the  sea,  because 

'inDyK,  simply,  is  the  Nile ;  as  in  India  it  is  the 

Ganges;  in  Mesopotamia,  the  Euphrates.  De  Sacy 
Chrest.  Arab.  ii.  14,  15.  ed.  2.  The  "  white  Nile  "  is 
called  "Bahr-el-Abiad,"  the  "blue  Nile"  Bahr-el- 
Azrek,and  the  great  Ethiopian  triljutaryto  the 
Nile,  the  Albara,  "  Bahr-el-Aswad,"  "  the  black  sea." 

Baker,  Nile  tributaries,  p.  91.     'in^Sx  is  also  used 

of  the  Tigris.  Lane  sub  v.  At  Thebes,  the  Nile  is 
usually  about  half  a  mile  in  width,  but,  at  the  in- 
undation, overflowing  the  plain,  especially  upon  the 
western  bank,  for  a  breadth  of  two  or  more  miles. 
Smith  Bib.  Diet.  v.  Thebes.  "When  the  Nile  over- 
flows the  country,  the  cities  alone  appear,  sur- 
mounting it,  like  the  islands  in  the  jEgean  ;  the  rest 
of  Egypt  becomes  a  sea."  Herod,  ii.97.  "The  water 
of  the  Nile  is  like  a  sea."  Plin.  H.  N.  xxxv.  11. 
"  Homer  gives  to  the  river,  the  name  '  Ocean,'  496- 
cause  the  Egyptians  in  their  own  language  call  tha 
r«le,  Ocean."    Diod.  S.  i.  96. 


loO 


N  A^^^f. 


Beforf 

CHRIST 

fir.  713. 


t  Heb.  in  thy 
help. 


9  Ethiopia   and    Egypt 
.ivere   her  sti-ength,  and 

it  was  infinite ;    Put  and 
Lubim  were  f  thy  helpers. 

10  Yet  was  she  carried 


Egypt  is  said  by  a  Heathen  to  be  "  ^  walled 
by  the  Nile  as  an  everlasting  vail."  Whose 
rampart  was  Irampart  is]  the  se/t.  Wall  and 
rampart  ^  are,  properly,  the  outer  and  inner 
wall  of  a  city,  the  wall  and  foiewall,  so  to 
speak.  For  "all  walls  and  all  defences,  her 
enfolding  walls  of  sea  would  suffice.  Strong 
she  was  in  herself;  strong  also  in  her  helpers. 
9.  Ethiopia  and  Erjypl  were  her  streiujlh  ;  lit. 
Egypt  was  strenr/th^,  and  Ethiopia,  and  bound- 
less. He  sets  forth  first  the  imperial  niiglit 
of  No  ;  then  her  strength  from  foreign,  sub- 
dued power.  The  capital  is  a  sort  of  imper- 
sonation of  the  might  of  tlie  state  ;  No,  of 
Egypt,  as  Nineveh,  of  Assyria.  When  the 
head  was  cut  off  or  the  heart  ceased  to  l)eat, 
all  was  lost.  The  might  of  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia  was  the  might  of  No,  concentrated 
in  her.  They  were-ttrength,  and  that  strengtli 
unmeasured  by  any  human  standard.  Bound- 
less was  the  strength,  which  Nineveh  had 
subdued :  boundless,  the  store  *  which  she 
had  acoimulated  for  the  spoiler  ;  boundless  ' 
the  carcases  of  her  slain.  And  it  was  infinite. 
"  The  people  that  came  up  with  the  king  out 
of  Egyi)t,  were  without  number"."  The 
Egyptians  connected  with  Thebes  are  counted 
by  a  heathen  author '  at  seven  millions. 
JPut  or  Phat  *  is  mentioned  third  among  the 
sons  of  Ham,  after  Cush  and  Mizraim  ^. 
They  are  mentiimed  with  the  Ethiopians  in 
Pharaoh's  army  at  the  Euphrates  '°,  as  joined 
with  them  in  the  visitation  of  Egypt  "  ;  witli 
Cush  in  the  army  of  Gog'^;  with  Lud  in 
that  of  Tyre^*;  a  country  and  river  of  that 
name  were,  Josephus  tells  us  '*,  "  frequently 
mentioned  by  Greek  historians."  They 
dwelt  in  the  Libya,  conterminous  to  the 
Canopic  mouth  of  the  Nile  ^*. 

1  isocr.  Busir.  ap.  Boch.  Phal.  i.  1.  p.  7. 

*  Vn  and  no'in,  joined  Lam.  ii.  8,  nomi  Sp. 

It  included  the  space  between  tlie  two  walls  (pom- 
cerium)  2  Sam.  XX.  1.5, 1  Kgs  xxi.  2.3.  It  is  the  wliole 
circuit  of  the  wall  as  contra-^ted  with  the  palaces 
of  Zion,  in  P.s.  xlviii.  14,  cxxii.  7.  As  is  common  in 
Hebrew  poetry,  "  wall  and  forewalk,"  which  tofjether 
make  one  subject,  are  placed  in  tlio  parallel 
columns.  "Murus  et  antemurale"  S.  Jer.  on  Is. 
xxvii.  "the  lesser  wall,  which  is  before  the 
greater,"  Kabb.  ap.  Kim.  "the  wall  and  the  son 
of  the  wall."  R.  (Ihanina.  IV). 

»  .Not  lit.  "her  Htrcngth."  It  is  PlO^fJ?,  not  nOVj' ; 
the  abstract  for  the  concrete,  a.s  HD'X  Job  xli.  6, 
niXJIb.  7.  '  «ii.  10. 

ti'ii.  3.  riirp  !'K1  in  each. 

•  2  Chron.  xii.  3. 

I  Cato  in  Staph.  Byz.  ap.  Boch.  iv.  27. 


awa},  she  went  into  cap- 
tivity :  °  her  young  chil- 
dren also  were  dashed  in 
pieces  "at  the  top  of  all 
the  streets :  and  they  ^  cast 


And  Lubim.  These  came  up  again-st 
Judah  in  the  army  of  Shishak"  against 
Kehoboam,  and  with  tlie  Ethiopians,  "  a  huge 
host"  under  Zerah  the  Ethiopian  against 
Asa  *®.  The  Kibou  or  Libou  api^ear  on  the 
monuments  as  a  people  coiKjuered  by  Me- 
nephthes  "  and  Rameses  III. "  They  were 
still  to  be  united  with  Egypt  and  tlie  Ethio- 
pians in  the  times  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes '" ; 
so  their  connection  witli  Egypt  was  not 
broken  by  its  fall.  Those  unwearied  enemies 
bad  become  incorporated  with  her;  and 
were  now  her  help.  These  were  (E.  M.)  in 
thy  help  ;  set  upon  it,  given  up  to  it'-".  The 
prophet  appeals  to  No  herself,  as  it  were, 
"  Thou  hudst  strength."  Then  he  turns  away, 
to  speak  of  her,  unwilling  to  look  on  the 
miseries  which  he  has  to  portray  to  Nine- 
veh, as  the  preludes  of  her  own.  Without 
God,  vain  is  the  help  of  man. 

10.  Yet  was  she  [_ako  ^']  carried  away,  lit. 
She  also  became  an  exile  '^^  band,  her  people 
were  carried  away,  with  all  the  liarbarities  of 
Heathen  war.  All,  through  whom  she 
miglit  recover,  were  destroyed  or  scattered 
abroad  ;  the  young,  the  hope  of  another  age, 
cruelly  destroyed  '■^ ;  her  honorable  men  en- 
slaved^*, all  her  great  men  prisoners.  God's 
judgments  are  executed  step  Ijy  step.  Assy- 
ria herself  was  the  author  of  this  captivity, 
which  Isaiah  prophesied  in  the  first  years  of 
Hezekiah  when  Judah  was  leaning  upon 
Egypt  '^^.  It  was  repeated  by  all  of  the 
house  of  Sargon  ^*.  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel 
foretold  fre.sh  desolation  by  Nebuchadnez- 
zar '^'.  God  foretold  to  His  people  ^'',  /  gave 
Egypt  for  thy  ran,som,  Ethiopia  and  Seba  for 
thee ;  and  the  Persian  monarchs,  who  ful- 
filled prophecy  in  the  restoration  of  Judah, 

8  Translated  Lybian?  Jer.  xlvi.  9,  Ez.  xxx.  5, 
xxxviii.  5.  9(jen.  X.  G.  >o  Jer.  I.e. 

u  Ez.  xxx.  5.  12  lb.  xxxviii,  15. 

»8  lb.  xxix.  10.  14  Jos.  Ant.  i.  6.  2. 

15  See  Ges.  Thes.  s.  v. 
i«  2  Chron.  xvi.  8.  coll.  lb.  xiv.  0. 
17  B.  C.  1341-1321  (Brugsch  p.  172). 
18 12.S8  B.  C.  lb.  181'.,  lyo,  191.  i»  Dan.  xi.  43. 

*'"mT|0  n01p  Ps-  xxjcv.  2.  nT;,0  Ex.  xviii.4. 

21  The  word  is  emphatic;  "  She  also,"  her  young 
children  also.    The  same  word  aho  is  repeated. 

^ri/ljn  might  be  either  "captivity"  or  "the 

captives."     But  H/U?  "iSn  occurs  5  times,  X3 

n^U3,  3  times;  but  hS'Ij'?  with  neither. 

23  .See  Hos.  xiv.  Is.  xiii.  16.  2  Kgs  viil.  12. 
«See  Joel  iii.  3.  »3eels.  xx. 

«Seeab.  pp.  117,  118. 
"Jer.  xlvi.  25,  2G.  and  Ezekiel  xxx.  14-lG. 
»l8.  xliii.  3. 


CHAPTER   III. 


15; 


c  H  R?s  T    ^^^^  ^°^"  ^^®^'  l^o^orable  men, 
c'r.  713.      and  all  her  great  men  were 


bound  in  chains. 

11  Thou   also  shalt  be 

<Jer. 25. 17,27.  1  drunken:    thou  shalt  be 

hid,  thou  also  shalt  seek 

strength   because  of   the 

enemy. 


fulfilled  it  also  in  the  conquest  of  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia.  Both  perhaps  out  of  human 
policy  in  part.  But  Cambyses'  wild  hatred 
of  Egyptian  idolatry  fulfilled  God's  word. 
Ptolemy  Lathyrus  carried  on  the  work  of 
Cambyses  ;  the  Romans,  Ptolemy's.  Camby- 
ses burnt  its  temples  ^ ;  Lathyrus  its  four-or 
five-storied  private  houses  '■^ ;  the  Roman 
Gallus  levelled  it  to  the  ground  *.  A  little 
after  it  was  said  of  her,  "  *  she  is  inhabited  as 
so  many  scattered  villages."  A  little  after 
our  Lord's  Coming,  Germanicus  went  to  visit, 
not  it,  but  "  ^  the  vast  traces  of  it."  "  ^  It 
lay  overwhelmed  with  its  hundred  gates " 
and  utterly  impoverished.  Ko  was  powerful 
as  Nineveh,  and  less  an  enemy  of  the  peo- 
ple of  God.  For  though  these  often  sufiered 
from  Egypt,  yet  in  those  times  they  even 
trusted  too  nuicli  to  its  help  '.  If  then  the 
judgments  of  God  came  upon  No,  how  much 
more  upon  Nineveh  !  In  type,  Nineveh  is 
the  image  of  the  world  as  oppressing  God's 
Church  ;  No,  rather  of  those  who  live  for 
this  life,  abounding  in  Mealth,  ease,  power, 
and  forgetful  of  God.  If,  then,  they  were 
punished,  who  took  no  active  part  against  God, 
fought  not  against  God's  truth,  yet  still  were 
sunk  in  the  care-?  and  riches  and  pleasures  of 
this  life,  what  shall  be  the  end  of  those  who 
openly  resist  God  ? 

11.  Tlwu  also.  As  thou  hast  done,  so  shall 
it  be  done  unto  thee.  The  cruelties  on  No, 
in  the  cycle  of  God's  judgments,  draw  on  the 
like  upon  Nineveh  who  inflicted  them.  Thou 
also  *  shalt  be  drunken  v.ith  the  same  cup  of 
God's  anger,  entering  within  thee  as  wine 
dotli,  bereaving  thee  of  reason  and  of  counsel 
through  the  greatness  of  thy  anguisli,  and 
bringing  shame  on  thee  ^,  and  a  stupefaction 
like  death.    Thou  shalt  be  hid,  a  thing  hidden '° 

>  Diod.  Sic.  i.  46.  Strabo  xvii.  1.  45. 

2  They  had  been  destroyed  shortly  before  Dio- 
dorus  Sic.  lb.  45,  46. 

3 "She  was  destroyed  to  the  ground."  S.  Jer. 
Chron.  Eus.  A.  1989. 

*  Strabo  1.  c.  6  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  62. 

«Juv.  Sat.  XV.  6.  rgee  Is.  xxx.  &c. 

*riX-DJ  takes  up  J<"n-DJ  v.  10. 

9  The  two  images  are  united  in  Ob.  10. 

'*'  The  t'oree  of  the  substantive  verb  with   the 

pass.  part.  nDSj,»J  Tl/I  as  in  Zech.  iii.  3;  as,  with 

the  act.  part.,  it  expresses  continued  action  ;  Gen. 
i,  0,  xxxvii.  2,  L>e.  ix.  7,  22,  24,  xxviii.  29,  2  Sam.  iii.  G,  ^ 


12  All  thy  strongholds 
shall  he  like  ^  fig  trees  with . 
the  firstripe  figs :  if  they 
be  shaken,  they  shall  even 
fall  into  the  mouth  of  the 
eater. 

13  Behold,  Hliy  people 
in    the  midst  of  thee  are 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  71.3. 

'  Rev.  6. 13. 


»Jer.  50.  37. 
&  51.  30. 


from  the  eyes  of  men,  as  though  thou  hadst 
never  been.  Naiium  had  foretold  her  com- 
jjlete  desolation :  he  had  asked,  where  is 
she?  Here  he  describes  an  abiding  condi- 
tion ;  strangely  fulfilled,  as  perhaps  never  to 
that  extent  besides;  her  palaces,  her  monu- 
ments, her  records  of  her  glorious  triumphs 
existed  still  in  their  place,  but  hidden  out  of 
sight,  as  in  a  tomb,  under  the  hill-like 
mounds  along  the  Tigris.  Thou  also  shalt  seek 
strength,  or  a  strong-hold  from  the  enemy  ^^,  out 
of  thyself,  since  thine  own  shall  be  weakness. 
Yet  in  vain,  since  God,  is  not  such  to  thee  '^. 
"  They  shall  see/c,  but  not  find."  "  For  then 
shall  it  be  too  late  to  cry  for  mercy,  when  it 
is  tlie  time  of  justice."  He  shall  have  judgment 
li'ithout  mercy,  that  hath  shelved  no  mercy  ^^ 

12.  All  thy  strong-holds  shall  be  like  figtrees, 
tcith  the  Jirst  ripe  Jigs,  hanging  from  them  '* ; 
eagerly  sought  alter  '^,  to  be  consumed. 
Being  ripe,  they  are  ready  to  fall  at  once  ;  if 
they  be  shaken  ;  it  needeth  but  the  tremulous 
motion,  as  when  trees  wave  in  the  wind  ^®, 
they  shall  even  fall  into  the  mouth  of  the  eater,  not 
costing  even  the  slight  pains  of  picking  them 
from  the  ground  ".  So  easy  is  their  destruc- 
tion on  the  part  of  God,  though  it  cost  more 
pains  to  the  Babylonians.  At  the  end  of  the 
world  it  shall  be  yet  more  fulfilled  '•*,  for 
then  God  will  use  no  human  instrument, 
but  put  forth  only  His  own  Almighti- 
ness ;  and  all  strong-holds  of  man's  pride, 
moral  or  spiritual,  shall,  of  themselves,  melt 
away. 

13.  Behold,  thy  people  in  the  midst  of  thee  are 
women.  Fierce,  fearless,  hard,  iron  men,  such 
as  their  warriors  still  are  portrayed  by 
themselves  on  their  monuments,  they  whom 
no  toil  wearied,  no  peril  daunted,  shall  be, 
one  and  all,  their  whole  people,  women.     So 

Job  i.  14,  Ps.  x.  14,  cxxii.  2,  Is.  xxx.  20.    See  Ew. 
Lebrb.  n.  168<=. 
"  3'iXD  fiyo,  as  Is.  XXV.  4,  D"*TD  HDnO,  "a  re- 

■  ■'     T  11  •  V    -:    - 

fuge  from  the  storm." 
12  i.  7.  13  s.  Jas.  ii.  13. 

'<  Dnn3  D  V  D'JKH,  as  Cant.  iv.  13,  Dl'  D'JIDI 

15  See  ab.  p.  CO  on  Mie.  v.  1.  It  is  not  here  the 
specific  word,  71^133,  but  D"1133,  "the  first- 
fruits,"  iu  the  same  sense,  as  in  Mu.  xiii.  20,  '1103 
DOJJ'  "  the  first  ripe  grapes." 

'*J,'1J  is  ustcl  ot  this,  Is.  vii.  2;  here,  as  in  Ain. 
ix.  y.  Nif.  17  S.  Jer.  '»  Rev.  vi.  la, 


158 


>'AHIM. 


CHrTst     ^Omen;     uic    gmt-s   ui    my    ji 

c'*"-  '^^3-      laud  shall  be  set  wide  open  I 


the   gates  of  thy   j  unto   thiue   eneiuieb 


tlu>  Before 

^      CHRIST 


fire  shall  devour  thy  '  bars.      c''"-  '^^3. 


«P8. 147. 13.  Jer.  51.  30. 


Jeremiah  to  Babylon,  "  ^  they  shall  become, 
became,  women."  He  sets  it  before  the  eyes. 
Behold,  thy  people  are  ivomen  ;  against  nature 
they  are  such,  not  in  tenderness  but  in  weak- 
ness and  fear.  Among  the  signs  of  the  Day 
of  Judgment,  it  stands,  vien's  hearts  failing 
them  for  fear^.  Where  sin  reigns,  there  is 
no  strength  left,  no  manliness  or  nobleness  of 
soul,  no  power  to  resist.  In  the  midst  of  thee, 
where  thou  seemest  most  secure,  and,  if  any 
where,  there  were  hope  of  safety.  The  very 
inmost  self  of  the  sinner  gives  way. 

To  thine  enemies  (this  is,  for  emphasis, 
prefixed)  not  for  any  good  to  thee,  but  to  thine 
enemies  shall  be  set  wide  open  the  gates  of  thy 
land,  not,  thy  gates,  i.  e.  the  gates  of  their 
cities,  (which  is  a  distinct  idioni),  but  the  gates 
of  the  land  itself,  every  avenue,  which  might 
have  been  closed  against  the  invader,  but 
which  was  laid  open.  The  Easterns  *,  as 
well  as  the  Greeks  and  Latins*,  used  the 
word  "  gate  "  or  "  doors  "  of  the  mountain- 
passes,  which  gave  an  access  to  a  land,  but 
which  might  be  held  against  an  enemy.  In 
the  pass  called  "  the  Caucasian  gates,"  there 
were,  over  and  above,  doore  fastened  with 
iron  bars*.  At  Thermopylae  or,  as  tlie  in- 
habitants called  them,  Pylfe^,  "gates,"  the 
narrow  pass  was  further  guarded  by  a  wall '. 
Its  name  recalls  the  brilliant  history,  how 
such  approaches  might  be  held  by  a  devoted 
handful  of  men  against  almost  countless  mul- 
titudes. Of  Assyria,  Pliny  says,  "  ®  The 
Tigris  and  pathless  mountains  encircle  Adia- 
bene."  When  those  gates  of  the  land  gave 
way,  the  whole  land  was  laid  open  to  its 
enemies. 

The  fire  shall  devour  thy  bars.  Probably,  as 
elsewhere,  the  bam  of  the  gates,  which  were 
mostly  of  wood,  since  it  is  added  expressly  of 

1  Jer.  1.  37,  li.  30.  a  S.  Luke  xxi.  26. 

3  Freytag  (sub.  v.  3J<3)  says  that  the  Pyrenees 

are  called  in  Arab.  ^Xl^KStt  ^3 J  "the  mountain 
of  gates,"  and  that  the  Porta  Caspise  are  called 
JXOKSk  3X3.  ''Bab  Bmaria"  is  the  name  of  a 
pass  in  Libanon  to  the  Litany,  Ritter  Erdk.  xvii. 
93.  04.  138.  218;  "  Bab-el-Howa "  "gate  of  the 
winds"  is  said  to  be  a  mountain  gorge  (Ritter xviii. 
849.  Buokineharn  gives  the  name  to  a  gate  of 
Bosra.  Travels  among  Arabs  ii.  2(J()).  Bab-el-.Mardin 
is  the  name  of  a  mountain-pass  in  the  Masius  chain 
(Ritter  xi.  'iW.  3!t3. 4U4),  "a  remaakablo  gap  or  notch 
in  the  chain  of  Mt.  .Masius,  behind  which  is  situ- 
ated the  city  of  Mardin."  Forbes  on  the  Sinjar 
Hills,  Mem.  R.  Geogr.  Soc.  18.39  p.  4-21.  The  name 
"  Bab-ol-mandeb"  shews  that  the  name  "door" 
is  given  to  narrow  straits  also,  as  is  that  of  iruAai 
(See   Lidd.  and  Scott  Lex.  v.  iriiA>)).     The   Arab. 

*1^J1  only  incidentally  Illustrates  the  idiom,  being, 

uoi  a  "  gate  "  (a.s  R6d.  in  Ges.  Thes.)  but  "  a  gup. 
Interstice,  hence  a  mountain-pass,  an  access  to  a 

countrv,"  andspecltii'idly  "a  border  country  toward 


some,  that  they  were  of  the  iron  '■'  or  bra.ss  "'. 
"'*  Occasionally  the  efforts  of  the  besiegei-s 
were  directed  against  the  gate,  which  tliey 
endeavored  to  break  open  with  axes,  or  to  set 
on  fire  by  application  of  a  torch. — In  the  hot 
climate  of  S.  Asia  wood  becomes  so  dry  by 
exposure  to  the  sun,  that  the  most  solid  doors 
may  readily  be  ignited  and  consumed."  It 
is  even  remarked  in  one  instance  that  the 
Assyrians  "  ^-  have  not  set  fire  to  the  gates  of 
this  city,  as  appeared  to  be  their  usual  prac- 
tice in  attacking  a  fortified  place." 

So  were  her  palaces  buried  as  they  stood, 
that  the  traces  of  prolonged  fire  are  still  visi- 
ble, calcining  the  one  part  and  leaving 
othei-s  which  were  not  exposed  to  it,  uncal- 
cined.  "  '^  It  is  incontestable  that,  during  the 
excavations,  a  considerable  quantity  of  char- 
coal, and  even  pieces  of  wood,  either  half- 
burnt  or  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation, 
were  found  in  many  places.  Tlie  lining  of 
the  chambers  also  bears  certain  marks  of  the 
action  of  fire.  All  these  things  can  be  ex- 
plained only  by  supposing  the  fall  of  a  burn- 
ing roof,  which  calcined  the  slabs  of  gypsum 
and  converted  them  into  dust.  It  would  be 
absurd  to  imagine  that  the  burning  of  a  small 
quantity  of  furniture  could  have  left  on  the 
walls  marks  like  these  which  are  to  be  seen 
through  all  the  chambers,  with  the  exception 
of  one,  which  was  only  an  open  passage.  It 
must  have  been  a  violent  and  prolonged  fire, 
to  be  able  to  calcine  not  only  a  few  places, 
but  every  part  of  these  slabs,  which  were  ten 
feet  high  and  several  inches  thick.  So  com- 
plete a  decomposition  can  be  attributed  but 
to  intense  heat,  such  as  would  be  occasioned 
by  the  fall  of  a  burning  roof. 

"  Botta  found  on  the  engraved  flag-stones 
scoria  and  half-melted  nails,  so  that  there  is  no 

an  enemy,"  and  in  the  idiom  "IJ^'n^K  ^ty,  "stopped 
the  gap,"  like  rna3  HDJ?  Ez.  xxii.  30.  The  phrase, 
yiXn  '1^'ty,  recurs  Jer.  xv.  7. 

<The  K<i<r»riai  nvKax  (Strabo  xi.  12.  13),  the 
Ai'Siai  lb.  xiii.  G5).  See  further  Lidd.  and  Sc.  1.  c.) 
the  jruAai  T^s  KiAtKt'af  icai  t^s  Supios,  Xen.  Anab.  i. 
4. 14,  the  "  Amanicaj  Pylte  "  (Q.  Curt.  iii.  20).  Pliny 
speaks  of  the  "portie  Caucasite"  (H.  N.  vi.  11)  or 
"Iberise"  (Albanue  Ptol.  v.  12.)  lb.  15. 

""After  these  are  the  Caucasian  gates  (bj' miiuy 
very  erroneously  called  the  Caspian  gates'),  a  va.*^! 
work  of  nature, "the  mountains  being  suddenly  in- 
terrupted, whore  arc  doors,  &c."  Plin.  H.  N.  vi.  11. 

«  Herod,  vii.  201 .  t  lb.  176.  208. 

*  Plin.  N.  H.  vi.  U.  quoted  l.v  Tuch  ii.  1. 

»  Ps.  cvii.  Hi,  Is.  xlv.  2.  101  Kgs  iv.  13. 

"  Rawl.  .5  Emp.  ii.  K.'{.  wlm  relates  how  "the  city 
of  Candahar  was  ignited  from  the  outside  by  the 
Affghances,  and  was  entirely  consumed  in  less  than 
an  nour."  Note. 

>^  BouuKii  Niu.  p.  205.  ed.  2.  on  Botta  plate  93.  See 
also  lb.  p.  221,  222.  225. 

"  lb.  Sect.  Iv.  c.  1,  pp.  245-247. 


CHAPTEK   III. 


159 


chrTIt        -^"^  Draw   thee  waters 
cir.  713.      for  the  siege,  "fortify  thy 
strong  holds :  go  into  clay, 
and  tread   the    mortar, 
make  strong;  the  brickkiln. 


'ch.  2.  1. 


doubt  that  these  appearances  had  been  pro- 
duced by  the  action  of  intense  and  long-sus- 
tained heat.  He  remembers,  beside,  at  Khor- 
sabad,  that  when  lie  detached  some  bas-reliefs 
from  the  earthy  substance  which  covered  them, 
in  order  to  copy  the  inscriptions  that  were  be- 
hind, he  found  there  coals  and  cinders,  which 
could  have  entered  only  by  the  top,  between 
the  wall  and  the  back  of  the  bas-relief.  This 
can  be  easily  understood  to  have  been  caused 
by  the  burning  of  the  roof,  but  is  inexpli- 
cable in  any  other  manner.  What  tends 
most  positively  to  prove  that  the  traces  of 
fire  must  be  attributed  to  the  burning  of  a 
wooden  roof  is,  that  these  traces  are  percep- 
tible only  in  the  interior  of  the  building. 
The  gypsvmi  also  that  covers  the  wall  inside 
is  completely  calcined,  while  the  outside  of 
the  building  is  nearly  everywhere  untouched. 
But  wherever  the  fronting  appears  to  have 
at  all  suffered  from  fire,  it  is  at  the  bottom  ; 
thus  giving  reason  to  suppose  that  the  dam- 
age has  been  done  by  some  burning  matter 
falling  outside.  In  fact,  not  a  single  bas- 
relief  in  a  state  to  be  removed  was  found 
in  any  of  the  chambers,  they  were  all 
pulverized." 

The  soul  which  does  not  rightly  close  its 
senses  against  the  enticements  of  the  world, 
does,  in  fact,  open  them,  and  death  is  come  up 
into onr windows \  and  then"'^  whatever  natural 
good  there  yet  be,  which,  as  bars,  would  hinder 
the  enemy  from  bursting  in,  is  consumed  by 
the  fire,"  once  kindled,  of  its  evil  passions. 

14.  I)raiv  thee  ivatersfor  the  siege  ;  fortify  thy 
strongholds.  This  is  not  mere  mockery  at 
man's  weakness,  when  he  would  resist  God. 
It  foretells  that  they  shall  toil,  and  that, 
heavily.  Toil  is  added  upon  toil.  Nineveh 
did  undergo  a  two  years'  siege.  Water  stands 
for  all  provisions  within.  He  bids  them, 
as  before^,  strengthen  what  was  already 
strong ;  stronghokh,  which  seemed  to  "  cut 
off"  all  approach.  These  he  bids  them 
strengthen,  not  repairing  decays  only  but 
making  them  exceeding  strong*.  Go  into 
clay.     We   seem  to  see  all  the  inhabitants, 


2S.  .Jer. 


»ii.  1. 


>  Jer.  ix.  21. 
<2Chr. -xi.  12. 
5  Is.  xliv.  12,  sqq. 

*"10n  and  6'D  are  united  as  synonj'ines  Is.  xli. 
25,  where  the  O'CD  is  that  which  the  potter  treadeth, 

1  Rawl.  5  Emp.  i.  476. 

8  Wilk.  Anc.  Eg.  ii.  99.  »  Anab.  iii.  4,  4. 

wSee  Is.  xxvii.  10, 11.  "  Ps.  xlix.  11. 

i«  S.  Luke  xii.  19,  20. 

'■'133nn  expresses    more   tliau   mere  number. 


15  There  shall  the  fire    (^j^'^j^^flx 

cir.  713. 


devour  thee;    the   sword 
shall  cut  thee  off,  it  shall 
eat  thee  up  like  "  the  can-    ="  Joel  i.  4. 
kerworm :   make  thyself 


like  ants  on  their  nest,  all  poured  out,  every 
one  busy,  every  one  making  preparation  for 
the  defence.  Why  had  there  been  no  need 
of  it  ?  What  needed  she  of  towers  and  for- 
tifications, whose  armies  were  carrying  war 
into  distant  lands,  before  whom  all  which 
Avas  near  was  hushed  ?  Now,  all  had  to  be 
renewed.  As  Isaiah  in  his  mockery  of  the 
idol-makei-s  begins  with  the  forging  of  the 
axe,  the  planting  and  rearing  of  the  trees, 
which  were  at  length  to  become  the  idol  *, 
Nahum  goes  back  to  the  beginning.  The 
neglected  brick-kiln,  useless  in  their  prosper- 
ity, was  to  be  repaired;  the  clay®,  which 
abounded  in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris^,  was 
to  be  collected,  mixed  and  kneaded  by  tread- 
ing, as  still  represented  in  the  Egyptian 
monuments.  The  conquering  nation  was  to 
do  the  work  of  slaves,  as  Asiatic  captives  are 
represented,  under  their  taskmasters",  on 
the  monuments  of  Egypt,  a  prelude  of  their 
future.  Xenophon  still  saw  the  massive  brick 
wall,  on  the  stone  foundation ". 

Yet,  though  stored  within  and  fenced  with- 
out, it  shall  not  stand  '". 

15.  There,  where  thou  didst  fence  thyself, 
and  madest  such  manifold  and  toilsome  pre- 
paration, shall  the  fire  devour  thee.  All  is  toil 
within.  The  fire  of  God's  wrath  falls  and 
consumes  at  once.  Mankind  still,  with  mire 
and  clay,  build  themselves  Babels.  They  go 
into  clay,  and  become  themselves  earthly  like 
the  mire  they  steep  themselves  in.  They 
make  themselves  strong,  as  though  they 
thought  that  their  houses  shall  continue  forever  ^^, 
and  say,  '^  Soul,  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and 
be  merry.  God's  wrath  descends.  Thou  fool, 
this  night  thy  sotd  shall  be  required  of  thee.  It 
shall  eat  thee  up  like  the  canker-ivorm.  What  in 
thee  is  strongest,  shall  be  devoured  with  as 
much  ease  as  the  locust  devours  the  tender 
grass.  The  judgments  of  God,  not  only  over- 
whelm as  a  whole,  but  find  out  each  tender 
part,  as  the  locust  devours  each  single  blade. 

Make  thyself  many  as  the  cankerworm,  as 
though  thou  wouldest  equal  thyself  in  oppres- 
sive  number'^  to  those  instruments  of  the 

n33  retains  always  the  idea  of  weight,  gravity  or 

oppres.«iveness.  We  say  "heavy  hail"  Ex.  ix.  IK, 
24.  It  is  u.'^ed  ol'the  plague  offiies,  lb.  viii.  20,  and. 
as  here,  of  the  locusts,  lb.  x.  14;  of  the  host,  with 
which  Esau  opposed  Isriiel,  Nu.  xx.  20,  (adding 
nptn  T3M  ;  of  that  sent  with  Rabshakeh  to  Jeru- 
salem, Is.  xxxvi.  2.  and  of  the  great  train  of  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,  camels  laden  with  very  much  gold 
and  precious  stunes,  1  Kgs  x.  2. 133  occurs  above 


i<;o 


>*AHUM. 


c  H  R*i  s  T    °^^^y  ^s  ^^^  cankerworm, 
g'r-  "^13.       make  thyself  many  as  the 
locusts. 

16  Thou  hast  multiplied 

vengeance  of  God,  gathering  from  all  quarters 
armies  to  help  thee;  yea,  though  thou  make 
thy  whole  self'  one  oppressive  multitude, 
yet  it  shall  not  avail  thee.  Nay,  He  saith, 
thou  hast  essayed  to  do  it. 

16.  Thou  hast  multiplied  thy  merchants  above 
the  stars  of  Heaven;  not  numerous  only  but 
glorious  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and,  as 
thou  deemest,  safe  and  inaccessible ;  yet  in 
an  instant  all  is  gone. 

The  commerce  of  Nineveh  Avas  carried  back 
to  pnehistoric  times,  since  its  rivers  bound 
together  tlie  mountains  of  Armenia  with  the 
Persian  gulf,  and  marked  out  the  line,  by 
which  the  distant  members  of  the  human 
family  should  supply  each  others'  needs. 
"Semiramis,"  tliey  say  ^,  "built  other  cities 
on  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  wliere  she 
placed  emporia  for  tliose  wlio  convey  their 
goods  from  Media  and  Parfetaiene.  Being 
mighty  rivers  and  passing  through  a  popu- 
lous country,  they  yield  many  advantages  to 
those  employed  in  commerce ;  so  tliat  the 
places  by  the  river  are  full  of  wealthy  em- 
poria." The  Phoenicians  traced  back  their 
Assyrian  commerce  (and  as  it  seems,  truly)  to 
those  same  prsehistoric  times,  in  which  they 
alleged,  that  they  themselves  migrated  from 
the  I'ersian  gulf.  They  commenced  at  once, 
they  said*,  the  long  voyages,  in  which  they 
transjjorted  the  wares  of  Egypt  and  Assyria. 
The  building  of  "Tadmor  in  the  wilder- 
ness*" on  the  way  to  Tiphsach  (Thapsacus) 
the  utmost  bound  of  Solomon's  dominions  *, 
connected  Palestine  with  that  commerce. 
The  great  route  lor  couriers  and  for  traffic, 
extending  for  fifteen  hundred  or  sixteen 
hundred  miles  in  later  times,  must  have  Iain 
through  Nineveh,  since,  although  no  mention 
is  made  of  the  city  which  had  perished,  the 
route  lay  across  the  two  rivers  ^  the  greater 
and  lesser  Zab,  of  which  the  greater  formed 
the  Southern  limit  of  Nineveh.  Those  two 
rivers  led  up  to  two  mountain-passes  which 
opened  a  way  to  Media  and  Agbatana  ;  and 
pillars  at  the  summit  of  the  N.  pass  attest  the 
use  of  this  route  over  the  Zagros  chain  about 

iii.  3.  of  the  heavy  mass  of  corpses.  In  Ex.  ix.  3. 
it  is  used  of  a  grievous  pestilence  (Gesenius 
instances  Thes.  s.  v.). 

•  The  two  genders,  H^^nn.  'HDDnn.  are  proba- 
cy joined  together,  the  more  strongly  to  express 
universality,  as  njJ/'K/OI  IJ^i^P>  '^-  ''■•  '  '<  ''"•^ 
N.'ihum  himself  unites    H'^p  and  713*^0  in  two 

parallel  clftusf«<,  ii.  1.3.  "  [»iod.  ii.  11. 

3  Herod,  i.  1.  '•I  Kgs  ix.  18.  '  lb  v.  4.  (iv.  2\.) 
«  Herod,  ii.  5J.  '  See  Rawl.  5  Emp.  Ii.  180, 181. 
»lb.  181,182.  «lb.  182,  is:i. 


Before 


thy   merchants   above  the    c  h  r  i  s  t 
stars  of  heaven  :   the  can-      °'''-  ~^^- 


kerworm  1 1  s  p  o  i  1  e  t  h ,  and  1  pi",  spreadeth 

"     ^  '  hitiiself. 

fleeth  away. 

700  B.  C  Yet  a  third  and  easier  pass  was 
used  by  Nineveh,  as  is  evidenced  by  an  ither 
monument,  of  a  date  as  yet  undetermined  ®. 
Two  other  lines  ccmnected  Nineveh  with 
Syria  and  the  West.  Northern  lines  led 
doubtless  to  Lake  Wan  and  the  Blaik  Sea". 
The  lists  of  plunder  or  of  tribtite,  carried  off 
duriug  the  world-empire  of  Egypt,  before  it 
was  displaced  by  Assyria,  attest  the  exten- 
sive importsor  manufactures  of  Nineveh'" ;  the 
titles  of  "  Assyrian  nard,  Assyrian  amoraum, 
A.ssyrian  odors,  myrrh,  frankincense ",  in- 
volve its  trade  with  the  spice  countries: 
domestic  manufactures  of  hers  apparently 
were  purple  or  dark-blue  cloaks  '^,  embroid- 
ery, brocades  ",  and  these  conveyed  in  chests 
of  cedar ;  her  metallurgy  was  on  principles 
recognized  now  ;  in  one  practical  point  of 
combining  beauty  with  strength,  she  has 
even  been  copied'*. 

A  line  of  commerce,  so  marked  out  by 
nature  in  the  history  of  nations,  is  not 
changed,  unless  some  preferable  line  be  dis- 
covered. Empires  passed  away,  but  at  the 
end  of  the  13th  century  trade  and  manufac- 
ture continued  their  wonted  course  and  hab- 
itation. The  faith  in  Jesus  had  converted 
the  ancient  heathenism  ;  the  heresy  of  Mo- 
hammedanism disputed  with  the  faith  for 
the  souls  of  men  ;  but  tlie  old  material  pros- 
perity of  the  world  held  its  way.  5lan- 
kind  still  wanted  the  productions  of  each 
others'  lands.  The  merchants  of  Nineveh 
were  to  be  dispersed  and  were  gone  :  itself 
and  its  remembrance  were  to  be  efliiced  Irom 
the  earth,  and  it  was  so  ;  in  vain  was  a  new 
Nineveh  built  by  the  Romans;  that  also  dis- 
appeared ;  but  so  essential  was  its  possession 
for  the  necessities  of  commerce,  that  Mosul, 
a  large  and  populous  town,  arose  over  against 
its  mounds,  a  city  of  the  living  over-against 
its  buried  gluries;  and,  as  our  goods  are 
known  in  China  by  the  name  of  our  great 
manufacturing  capital,  so  a  delicate  nuinu- 
facture  imposed  on  the  langu.iges  of  Europe 
(Italian,  S]>anish,  French,  English,  German) 
the  name  of  Mosul  '*. 

I*"  Dishes  of  silver  with  their  covers  ;  a  harp  of 
brass  inlaid  with  gold;  82:!  p<iiinds  of  perfumes  " 
(Brugsch  Hist,  d'  Eg.  p.  Kki);  "  in  pounds  of  true 
lapis  lazuli,  24  pounds  of  artificial  lapis  lazuli;  vessels 
laden  with  ebony  and  ivory,  precious  stones,  vase.s, 
(lb  p.  203);  bc'side-  many  other  articles,  which 
cannot  yet  be  made  out. 

"See  Rawl.  5  Emp.  ii.  101, 192. 

''■=nSpn  'Di^j  Ez.  xxvii.24.  "D*Dn3 

1*  Lavnrd  Nin.  and  Bab.  p.  191. 

ii".\ll  those  clot  lis  of  gold  ftudof  silk  which  W6C»11 


CHAPTER  III. 


161 


CHRiaT 
cir.  713. 

y  Rev.  9.  7. 


17  ^  Thy  crowned  are  as 
the  locusts,  and  thy  cap- 
tains as  the  great  grass- 


Even  early  in  this  century,  under  a  mild 
governor,  an  important  commerce  passed 
through  Mosul,  from  India,  Persia,  Kurdis- 
tan, Syria,  Natolia,  Europe  ^  And  when 
European  traffic  took  the  line  of  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez,  the  communication  with  Kurdistan 
still  secured  to  it  an  important  and  exclusive 
commerce.  The  merchants  of  Nineveh  were 
dispersed  and  gone.  The  commerce  con- 
tinued over-against  its  grave. 

The  cankerworm  spoileth  and  fleeth  away ; 
better,  the  locust  hath  spread  itself  abroad 
(marauded)  and  isfloum.  The  prophet  gives, 
in  three  words  ^,  the  whole  history  of  Nine- 
veh, its  beginning  and  its  end.  He  had 
before  foretold  its  destruction,  though  it 
should  be  oppressive  as  the  locust ;  he  had 
spoken  of  its  commercial  wealth ;  he  adds  to 
this,  that  other  source  of  its  wealth,  its 
despoiling  warfares  and  their  issue.  The 
heathen  conqueror  rehearsed  his  victory,  "  I 
came,  saw,  conquered."  The  prophet  goes 
farther,  as  the  issue  of  all  human  conquest,  "I 
disappeared."  The  locust  [Nineveh]  spread 
itself  abroad  (the  word  is  always  used  of  an 
inroad  for  plunder"),  destroying  and  wasting, 
everywhere :  it  left  the  world  a  desert,  and 
was  gone  *.  Ill-gotten  wealth  makes  poor, 
not  rich.  Truly  they  who  traffic  in  this 
world,  are  more  in  number  than  they  who, 
seeking  treasure  in  Heaven,  shall  shine  as  the 
stars  for  ever  and  ever.     For  many  are  called, 


'  muslins '  (Mossulini)  are  of  manufacture  of  Mosul." 
Marco  Polo,  Travels  c.  C.  p.  37.  ed.  1854.  "  The  man- 
ufactures from  fine  transparent  white  cotton,  like 
the  stuffs  now  made  in  India  under  that  name  and 
like  the  bombazines  manufactured  at  Arzingan, 
received  in  the  following  centuries  the  name  '  mus- 
lins;' but  not  the  silk  brocades  interwoven  with 
gold,  which  had  their  name  Baldachini  from 
Baldak  i.  e.  Bagdad,  and  perhaps  were  manufac- 
tured at  that  time  at  Mosul,  unless  indeed  this  name 
'  muslin '  was  then  given  to  gold-brocades  as  wares 
of  Mosul."  Ritter  Erdk.  x.  2"4,  27.5.  "There  is  a 
very  large  deposition  of  merchandise  [at  Mosul]  be- 
cause of  the  river,  wherefore  several  goods  and  fruits 
are  brought  thither  from  the  adjacent  countries, 
both  by  land  and  water,  to  ship  them  for  Bagdad." 
Rauwdlf 's  Travels  P.  2,  e.  9.  p.  205.  A.  1573.  Niebuhr 
still  witnessed  "  the  great  traffic  carried  on  there, 
as  also  linen  manufactures,  dyeing  and  printing 
[of  stuffs]." 

1  Olivier  Voyage  (1808)  ii.  359.  In  1766,  one  cara- 
van, in  which  Niebuhr  travelled,  had  1300  camel- 
loads  of  gall-apples  from  Kurdistan.  It  supplied 
yearly  2000  centners  of  them.  Nieb.  ii.  274. 

3  Jud.  ix.  44  bis,  1  Sam.  xxiii.  27,  xxvii.  8, 10,  xxx. 
1, 1  Chr.  xiv,  9,  13,  2  Chr.  xxv.  1.3,  xxviii.  18.  The 
object,  against  which  the    attack  is  directed,  is 

Joined  on  with  Sk  Jnd.  xx.  37, 1  Sam,  xxvii.  8, 10, 
xxx.  1,  or  ^p,  Jud.  Ix.  33, 44, 1  Sam.  xxlil.  27,  xxvii. 
10;  even  as  totheobjectof  plunder, "camels"  Job  i. 

11 


hoppers,  which  camp  in 
the  hedges  in  the  cold  day, . 
but  when  the  sun  ariseth 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


but  few  are  chosen.  And  when  all  the  stars  of 
light  "  shall  abide  and  praise  God^,  these  men, 
though  multiplied  like  the  locust,  shall,  like 
the  locust,  pass  away,  destroying  and  de- 
stroyed. They  abide  for  a  while  in  the  chill- 
ness  of  this  world  ;  when  the  Sun  of  right- 
eousness ariseth,  they  vanish.  This  is  the 
very  order  of  God's  Providence.  As  truly  as 
locusts,  which  in  the  cold  and  dew  are  chilled 
and  stiffened,  and  cannot  spread  their  wings, 
fly  away  when  the  sun  is  hot  and  are  fdund 
no  longer,  so  shalt  thou  be  dispersed  and  thy 
place  not  any  more  be  known®.  It  was  an 
earnest  of  this,  v.hen  the  Assyrians,  like 
locusts,  had  spread  themselves  around  Jeru- 
salem in  a  dark  day  of  trouble  and  of  rebuke 
and  of  blasphemy'',  God  was  entreated  and 
they  were  not.  Midian  came  up  like  the  grass- 
hopper for  multitude'^.  In  the  morning  they 
had  fled*.  What  is  the  height  of  the  sons  of 
men?  or  how  do  they  spread  tliemselves 
abroad?"  At  the  longest,  after  a  few  years 
it  is  but  as  the  locust  spreadeth  himself  and 
fleeth  away,  no  more  to  return. 

17.  Thy  crowned  are  as  the  locust,  and  thy 
captains  as  the  great  locusts.  What  he  had  said 
summarily  under  metaphor,  the  prophet  ex- 
pands in  a  likeness.  The  eroumed '"  are  prob- 
ably the  subordinate  princes,  of  whom  Sen- 
nacherib said  ",  Are  not  my  princes  altogether 
kings  f  It  has  been  observed  that  the  head- 
dress of  the  Assyrian  Vizier  has  the  orna- 

17.  The  place  (Hos.  vi.  1)  or  country  (1  Chr.  xiv.  9. 
13,  2  Chr.  xxv.  13,  xxviii.  18)  is  joined  with  3,  and 
once  (1  Sam.  xxx.  14)  stands  in  the  accus.  The 
idiom  VTJ3  DtyS.  "put  off  his  clothes,"  is  distinct. 
The  object  of  the  verb  is  always  added  Lev.  vi.  4, 
xvi.  23, 1  Sam.  xix.  24,  Cant.  v.  3,  Ez.  xxvi.  IG,  xliv.  19, 
Neh.  iv.  17 ;  except  that,  in  Is.  xxxii.  11,  it  is 
implied  by  the  context,  "strip  ye,  make  ye  bare." 
Credner's  theory  then  (followed  by  Ewald  Proph. 
iii.  14.  ed.  2.)  that  p7''  signifies  the  locust  in  its  last 
moulting,  which  strips  off  the  involucra  of  its  wings, 
is  contrary  to  the  use  of  DK'B,  as  well  as  to  that  of 
Tih".  See  on  Joel  vol.  i.  p.  149.  Gesenius,  under  £31^3, 
contradicts  the  explanation  which  he  had  given 
under  pS'  from  Credner. 

*  P|1J?  is  used  of  shortness  of  human  life ; "  like  a 
dream  he  flieth  away,"  (HIJ^')  Job  xx.  8;  "and  we 
fly  away  "  n3J?  J1,  Ps.  xc.  10.  "  Ephraim,  like  a  bird, 
their  glory  flieth  awaj',"  f]£31J,»r\\  Hos.  ix.  11,  add 

Pr.  xxiii.  5,  of  unjust  wealth. 

6  Ps.  cxlviii.  3.        6  See  c.  i.  8.        '  Is.xxxvii.  3. 

8  Judg.  vi.  4,  5,  vii.  12.  »  Judg.  vii.  21. 

^^  The  punctuation  of  T^TJp  is  compared  by  Jew- 
ish grammarians  too  to  Wy?^  Ex.  xv.  17;  TTIJDD 
Jo.  i.  17.  "Is.  x.V. 


]62 


>'AHI-M. 


chrTst    *^^y  ^®®  away,  and  their 

cir.  713. place  is  iiol  known  where 

they  are. 

•  Ex.  15.  16.  •' 

Ps.76.  6.  18  'Thy  shepherds 

•Jer.  50. 18.  ,        ,  A       ^  •  n    L 

Ezek.  31.  .3,  Ac.  slumber,  O   '  king   oi  As- 


ment  which  " '  throughout  the  whole  series 
of  sculptures  is  the  distinctive  mark  of  royal 
or  quasi-royal  authority."  "  ^  All  higli  offi- 
cers of  state,  the  crov.'ned  captains,  were  adorned 
with  diadems,  closely  resembling  the  lower 
band  of  the  royal  mitre,  separated  from  the 
cap  itself  Such  wiis  tliat  of  the  vizier, 
which  was  broader  in  front  than  behind,  was 
adorned  with  rosettes  and  compartments,  and 
terminated  in  two  ribbons  with  embroidered 
and  fringed  ends,  which  hung  down  his 
back."  Captain  is  apparently  the  title  of 
some  military  office  of  princely  rank.  One 
such  Jeremiah  ^,  in  a  prophecy  in  which  he 
probably  alludes  to  this,  bids  place  over  tlie 
armies  of  Ararat,  Minni,  and  Ashchenaz,  to 
marshall  them  against  Babylon,  against 
which  he  summons  the  cavalry  like  the  romjh 
locust.  The  captains  are  likened  to  the  great 
caterpillars*,  either  as  chief  in  devastation, 
or  as  including  under  them  the  armies  under 
their  command,  who  moved  at  their  will. 
These  and  their  armies  now  sub.sided  into 
stillness  for  a  time  under  the  chill  of  calam- 
ity, like  the  locust  "^  whose  nature  it  is,  that, 
torpid  in  the  cold,  they  fly  in  the  heat."  The 
stiffness  of  the  locusts  through  the  cold, 
when  they  lie  motionless,  heaps  upon  heaps, 
hidden  out  of  sight,  is  a  striking  image  of 
the  helplessness  of  Nineveh's  mightiest  in 
the  day  of  her  calamity  ;  then,  by  a  different 
part  of  their  history,  he  pictures  their  en- 
tire disappearance.  *'^The  locusts,  are  com- 
monly taken  in  the  morning  when  they  are 
Jigglomerated  one  on  another,  in  the  places 
where  they  passed  the  night.  As  soon  as  the 
sun  warms  them,  they  fly  away."  When  the 
.s«n  arketh,  they  flee  away'',  lit.  it  is  chased 
away".  One  and  all;  all  as  one.  As  at 
Goa's  command  the  plague  of  locusts,  which 

'  Rawl.  5.  Enipire.H  i.  115. 

*Gos.se,  Assyria  p.  463,  who  rernitik.-i  that  "  the 
Ten  Thousand  in  Xerxes'  army,"  crossed  the  Hel- 
lespont "  crowned  with  garlands."    Herod,  vit.  55. 

8Jer.  11.  27.  On  the  word,  "103C3,  see  ab.  p.  107. 
n.  e. 

■•OIJ  3U,  doul>tlei<s  the  common  superlative, 
like  D'H^j:?  13;?  Gen.  ix.  25. 

6S.  .ler.  copied  by  H.  Cyr.  and  Theod. 

•Casalis,  on  the  proverb  of  the  Bassouto,  "lo- 
custs are  taken  in  the  heap."  Etudes  sur  la  languc 
Hechuana  ] .  k7.  Paris  \Hi-2,  referred  to  by  Kwaid  ad 
!i)0.  who  also  rcf.rs  to  Il)n  Babuta  (in  the  Jdurn. 
As.  1843,  March,  p.  240.)  "  The  chase  of  locusts  is 
made  before  sunrise;  for  tb(>n  they  are  benumbed 
by  the  cold  and  cannot  fly." 

'iTJp  DV,  "the  cold  day,"  (als.i  Prov.  xxv.  Jo), 
of  course  d<ii-s  n<>t   uHiin  "  iiij.'ht,"  (as  llitzig  Ac.) 


Syria:  thy  ||  nobles  shall 
dwell  in  the  dust:  thy  peo- 
ple is  ''scattered  upon  the 
mountains,  and  no  man 
gathereth  them. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 

K  Or,  valiant 

ones. 
^1  Kin.  22.  17. 


He  had  sent  on  Egypt,  was  removed  • ;  there 
remained  not  one  lociwit  in  all  the  coasts  of  Egypt; 
so  the  mighty  of  Nineveh  were  driven  forth, 
with  no  trace  where  they  had  been,  where 
they  were.  The  wind  carried  them  auai/'°; 
the  uind  passefh  over  him  and  he  is  not,  and  his 
place  hnoweth  him  nomore*^.  The  trittmphing 
of  the  wicked  is  short,  and  the  joy  of  the  ungodly 

for  a  moment:  though  his  excellency  mount  up 
to  the  heavens,  and  his  head  reach  unto  the  clouds, 
yet  he  shall  perish  for  ei'cr ;  they  which  have  seen 
him  shall  say,  where  is  hef  He  shall  fly  away,  as 
a  dream,  and  shall  not  be  found;  neither  shall 
hit  place  any  more  behold  him^^. 

Where  they  are.  So  Zechariah  asks,  Your 
fathers,  where  are  they  '*  ?  History,  experience, 
human  knowledge  can  answer  nothing.  They 
can  only  say,  where  they  are  not.  God 
Alone  can  answer  that  much-containing  word, 

Where-they^*.  They  had  disappeared  from 
human  sight,  from  their  greatness,  their  visi- 
ble being,  their  place  on  earth. 

18.  Thy  shepherd.%  i.e.  they  who  should 
counsel  for  the  people's  good  and  feed  it,  and 
keep  watch  over  their  flochi  by  night,  but  are  now 
like  their  master,  the  King  of  As.'^yria,  are  his 
shepherds  not  the  shepherds  of  the  people 
whom  they  care  not  for;  these  slumber,  at 
once  through  listlessness  and  excess,  and  now 
have  fallen  a.sleep  in  death,  as  the  Psalmist 
says'^.  They  have  slept  their  sleep.  The  pro- 
phet speaks  of  the  future,  as  already  past  in 
effect,  as  it  was  in  the  will  of  God.  All  "the 
shepherds  of  the  people'*,"  all  who  couKi 
shepherd  them,  or  hold  them  together,  them- 
selves sleep  the  sleep  of  death;  their  mighty 
men  dwelt  "  in  that  abiding-place,  where  they 
shall  not  move  or  rise'*,  the  grave;  and  so 
as  Micaiah,  in  the  vision  predictive  of 
Ahab's  death  "*,  saw  all  Israel  .scattered  on  the 

nor  (as  Ew.  &c.)  does  B'ptSTI  IT^f  mean  anything 
but  "  siuirise,"  of  which  it  is  used  8  times  beside. 
Gen.  xxxii.  32,  Ex.  xxii.  2,  .lud.  ix.  .33,  2  .Sam.  xxiii. 
4,  2  Kgs  iii.  22,  Ps.  civ.  22,  Eocl.  i.  5,  Jon.  iv.  8 ;  but 
the  locusts,  havini;  been  benumbed  by  a  cold  day, 
plainly  would  not  be  warmed  till  the  sunrise  of  the 
following  day. 

*  Til  J,  passive.      »Ex.  x.  19.  i»Is.  xli.  ic. 

"  Ps.  ciii.  IG.  •«  Job  XX.  .5-9.  "  Zeeh.  i. 

'*  D'X,  contracted  for  DH  n'K- 

>6P8.  Ixxvi.  6,  ODWmi. 

"Homer,  passim.       "Comp.  |3B^  Is.  xxii.  16. 

""They  cannot  rise"  Rashi.  "  It  means  the  rest 
of  death,  and  so  'B'SJ  HOn  TMDW  Ps.  xciv.  r., 
pty  "ISJ'S  '1133  Ps.  vii.  r>.'  Sal.  Ben  Mel.  "are 
still  and  move  not."    A.  E.  '»  1  Kgs  xxii.  17. 


CHAPTER  III. 


163 


c  H  r7s  t        1^   ^^^^^  ^  ""  t  healing 
__cii\jn3^__  yf  tiiy  bruise ;  "  thy  wound 

f  Ueh.  wrinkling.  «Mie.  1.9. 


hills,  as  sheep  that  have  not  a  shepherd,  so  the 
people  of  the  Assyrian  monarch  shall  be 
scattered  on  the  riiountains,  shcpherdless,  and 
that  irretrievably  ;   no  man  gathereth  them. 

19.  There  is  no  healin<j  [lit.  dulling]  of  thy 
bruise;  it  cannot  be  softened  or  mitigated; 
and  so  thy  ivound  is  grievous  [lit.  sickl,  incur- 
able, for  when  tlie  wound  ever  anew  inflames, 
it  cannot  be  healed.  The  word,  bruise,  is  the 
more  expressive,  because  it  denotes  alike  the 
abiding  wound  in  the  body ',  and  the  shatter- 
ing of  a  state,  which  God  can  heal'',  or 
which  may  be  great,  incurable  ^.  When  the 
passions  are  ever  anew  aroused,  they  are  at 
last  without  remedy  ;  when  the  soul  is  ever 
swollen  witli  pride,  it  cannot  be  healed ;  since 
only  by  submitting  itself  to  Christ,  "  broken 
and  contrite"  by  humility,  can  it  be  healed. 
Nineveh  sank,  and  never  rose ;  nothing 
soothed  its  fall.  In  tlie  end  there  shall  be 
nothing  to  mitigate  the  destruction  of  the 
world,  or  to  soften  the  sufferings  of  tlie 
damned.  The  rich  man,  being  m  torments, 
asked  in  vain  that  Lazarus  might  dip  the  tip 
of  his  finger  ill  water  and  cool  my  tongue. 

All  that  hear  the  bruit  of  thee  shall  clap  the 
Jumds  over  thee,  for  none  can  grieve  at  thv 
fall. 

Nineveh  sinks  out  of  sight  amid  one  uni- 
versal, exulting,  exceeding  joy  *  of  all  who 
heard  the  report  of  her.  For  upon  whom  huth 
not  thy  luickedness  pmsed  continually  f  "  In 
that  he  asketh,  upon  vjhom  hath  not  thy  wicked- 
ness passed  continually?  he  affirmeth  most 
strongly  that  his  evil  did  pass  upon  all  con- 
tinually." His  wickedness,  like  one  continual 
flood,  which  knew  no  ebb  or  bound,  had 
passed  upon  the  whole  world  and  each  one  in 
it ;  now  at  length  it  had  passed  away,  and 
the  whole  earth  is  at  rest,  is  quiet ;  they  break 
forth  into  singing^. 

It  is  not  without  meaning,  that  having 
throughout  the  prophecy  addressed  Nineveh 
(in  the  feminine),  now,  in  the  close  "^j  the 
prophet  turns  to  him  in  whom  all  its  wicked- 
ness is,  as  it  were,  gathered  into  one,  the  soul 
of  all  its  evil,  and  the  director  of  it,  its  king. 
As  Nineveh  is  the  image  of  the  world,  its 
pomps,  wealth,  luxury,  vanity,  wickedness, 
oppression,  destruction,  so  its  king  is  the 
image  of  a  worse  king,  the  Prince  of  this 
world.  " '  And  this  is  the  song  of  triumph 
of  those,  over  whom  his  wickedness  has  passed, 
not  rested,  Imt  they  have  escaped  out  of  his 
hands.     Nahuui,  '  the  comforter,'  had  rebuked 


*Ps.  Ix.  4,  Is.  XXX.  20. 


is  grievous  :  ^  all  that  hear    ^  jf  r^I  j 
the  bruit  of  thee  shall  claj)      c'r-  ^is. 


*  Lam.  2. 15.  Zeph.  ii.  15.    See  Isa.  14.  8,  &c. 


joy 


'  Lev.  xxi.  ly. 
sjer.  XXX.  12. 
*'\2  1J/'pn>  only  ht^ie  and  Ps.  xlvii.  2,  expressing 


the  world  of  sin  ;  now  he  pronounces  that  the 
prince  of  this  world  is  judged.  His  shepherds 
are  they  who  serve  him,  who  feed  the  flock  of 
the  slaughter,  who  guide  them  to  evil,  not  to 
good.  These,  when  they  sleep,  as  all  man- 
kind, dwell  there;  it  is  their  abiding-place; 
their  slieep  are  scattered  on  the  mountains,  in 
the  heights  of  their  pride,  because  they  are 
not  of  the  sheep  of  Christ ;  and  since  they 
would  not  be  gathered  of  Him,  they  are  scat- 
tered, where  none  gathereth."  "The  king  of 
Assyria  (Satan)  knoweth  that  he  cannot  de- 
ceive the  sheep,  unless  he  have  first  laid  the 
shepherds  asleep).  It  is  ever  the  aim  of  the 
devil  to  lay  asleep  souls  that  watch.  In  the 
Passion  of  the  Lord,  he  weighed  down  the 
eyes  of  the  Apostles  with  heavy  sleep,  whom 
Christ  arouseth  *,  Watch  and  pray,  lest  ye  enter 
into  temptation ;  and  again.  What  I  say  unto 
you,  I  say  unto  all,  watch  !  And  no  man  gather- 
eth them,  for  their  shepherds  themselves  can- 
not protect  themselves.  In  the  Day  of  God's 
anger,  the  kings  of  the  earth  and  the  great  men, 
and  the  rich  men  and  the  chief  captains,  and  the 
mighty  men,  and  every  bondman,  and  every  free 
man,  hid  themselves  in  the  dens  and  in  the  rocks 
of  the  mountains^.  Such  are  his  sliepherds, 
and  his  sheep;  but  what  of  himself?  Truly 
his  bndse  or  breaking  can  not  be  healed ;  his 
wound  or  smiting  is  incnrable ;  that  namely 
whereby,  when  he  came  to  Him  in  Whom  he 
found  nothing '",  yet  bruised  His  heel,  and  ex- 
acted of  Him  a  sinner's  death,  his  own  head 
wcis  bruised."  And  hence  all  ivho  have  ears  to 
hear,  who  hear  not  with  the  outward  only, 
but  with  the  inner  ears  of  the  heart,  clap  the 
hands  over  thee,  i.  e.  give  to  God  all  their  souls' 
thanks  and  praise,  raise  up  their  eyes  and 
hands  to  God  in  heaven,  praising  Him  Who 
had  bruised  Satan  under  their  feet.  Ever  since, 
through  the  serpent,  the  evil  and  malicious 
One  lied,  saying,  ye  shall  not  surely  die,  eat  and 
ye  shall  be  c(s  gods,  hath  his  evil,  continually 
and  unceasingly,  from  one  and  through  one, 
passed  upon  all  men.  As  the  Apostle  saith. 
As  by  one  man,  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and 
death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men, 
for  that  all  have  sinned^'-.  Upon  whoin  then 
hath  not  his  sin  passed  ?  Who  hath  not  been 
shapen  in  iniquity  f  and  whom  did  not  h is 
mother  conceive  in  sin  f  Yet,  it  passeth  only, 
for  the  ivorld  itself  cdso  passeth  away,  and  we 
pass  away  from  it,  and  all  the  evil  it  can  do 
us,  unless  we  share  in  its  evil,  is  not  abiding, 
but  passing.     This  then  is  the  cause,  and  a 


6  Ls.  xiv.  7. 
'  S.  Jer.  Rup. 
8S.  Mat.  xxvi.  41. 
i"S.  John  xiv.  30. 


»v.  18,  ly. 

»  Rev.  vi.  15. 
"  Rom.  V.  12. 


164 


5AHUM. 


the  hands   over  thee:   for 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  713.       iipnn  whom  hath  not  thy 


great  cause,  why  all  that  hear  the  bruit  of  thee 
should  clap  the  hands  over  thee  ;  because  thee, 
whose  wickedness  passed  through  one  upon  all, 
One  Man,  Who  Alone  was  without  sin,  con- 
temned and  bruised,  while  He  freed  and 
justified  from  wickedness  them  who  hearing 
rejoiced,  and  rejoicing  and  believing,  clapped 


wickedness  passed  contin- 
ually ? 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  713. 


the  hands  over  thee.  Yet  they  only  shall  be 
glad,  upon  whom  his  icicl-cdtiess,  although  it 
passed,  yet  abode  not,  but  in  prayer  and  good 
deeds,  by  the  grace  of  God,  they  I'ifted  up  their 
liands  to  Him  Who  overcame,  and  Who,  in 
His  own,  overeoraeth  still,  to  W'hom  be  praise 
and  thanksgiving  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen. 


INTEODUOTIOlSr 


THE    PROPHET 


HABAKKUK. 


/ 


Habakkxjk  is  eminently  the  prophet  of 
reverential,  awe-filled  faith.  This  is  the  soul 
and  centre  of  his  prophecy.  One  word  alone 
he  addresses  directly  to  his  people.  It  is 
of  marvel  at  their  want  of  faith.  ^Behold 
among  the  heathen  and  gaze  attentively,  and 
marvel,  mai'vel;  for  I  am  working  a  work  in 
your  days  ;  ye  will  not  believe,  when  it  is  declared 
■nto  you.  He  bids  them  behold,  and  gaze,  for 
God  is  about  to  work  in  their  own  days ;  he 
bids  them  prepare  themselves  to  marvel,  and 
marvel  on;  for  it  was  a  matter,  at  which 
political  wisdom  would  stagger ;  and  they, 
since  they  had  not  faith,  would  not  believe 
it.  The  counterpart  to  this,  is  that  great 
blessing  of  faith,  which  is  the  key-stone  of 
his  whole  book,  '"the  just  shall  live  by  his  faith. 

Isaiah  had  foretold  to  Hezekiah  that  his 
treasures  should  be  carried  to  Babylon,  his 
sons  be  eunuchs  in  the  palace  of  its  king ". 
He  had  foretold  the  destruction  of  Babylon 
and  the  restoration  of  the  Jews  ^.  Prophecy 
in  Habakkuk,  full  as  it  is,  is  almost  subordi- 
nate. His  main  subject  is,  that  which  oc- 
cupied Asaph  in  the  73d  Psalm,  the  afflic- 
tions of  the  righteous  amid  the  prosperity  of 
the  wicked.  The  answer  is  the  same ;  the 
result  of  all  will  be  one  great  reversal,  tiie  i 
evil  drawing  upon  themselves  evil,  God 
crowning  the  patient  waiting  of  the  righteous 
in  still  submission  to  His  holy  Will.  The 
just  shall  live  by  his  faith,  occupies  the  same 
)ilace  in  Habakkuk,  as  /  kiiow  that  my  Re- 
deaner  liveth,  does  in  Job  ^,  or  Thou  shcdt  guide 
me  with  Thy  counsel,  and  after  that  receive  me 
into  glory,  in  Asaph '. 

His  first  subject  8  is,  faith  struggling  under 


»1. 5.  >>ii.  4. 

d  la.  xii.  xiiL  xlvii. 


•Is.  xxxix.  6,  7. 
•  Job  xix.  25. 


the  oppressive  sight  of  the  suflferings  of  the 
good  from  the  bad  within  God's  people  ;  the 
second  ^,  the  sufierings  at  the  hands  of  those 
wiio  are  God's  instruments  to  avenge  that 
wickedness.  The  third ',  that  of  his  great 
hymn,  is  faith,  not  jubilant  until  the  end, 
yet  victorious,  praying,  believing,  seeing  in 
vision  what  it  prays  for,  and  triumphing  in 
that,  of  which  it  sees  no  tokens,  whose  only 
earnest  is  God's  old  loving-kindnesses  to  His 
people,  and  His  Name,  under  which  He  had 
revealed  Himself,  "  He  Who  Is,"  the  Un- 
changeable. / 
The  whole  prophecy  is,  so  to  speak,  a  col-  *^ 
loquy  between  the  prophet  and  God.  He 
opens  it  with  a  reverential,  earnest,  ajjpeal 
to  God,  like  that  of  the  saints  under  the 
heavenly  Altar  in  the  Revelations",  Hov 
long?  The  prophet  had  prayed  to  God  to 
end  or  mitigate  the  violence,  oppressions, 
strife,  contention,  despoiling,  powerlessness 
of  the  law,  crookedness  of  justice,  entrapping 
of  the  righteous  by  the  wicked  ^  God 
answers  ■",  that  a  terrible  day  of  retribution 
was  coming,  that  He  Himself  would  raise  up 
the  Chaldees,  as  the  instruments  of  His 
ii^ chastisements,  terrible,  self-dependent,  own- 
^'  ing  no  law  or  authority  but  their  own  will, 
deifying  their  own  power,  sweeping  the 
whole  breadth  of  the  land,  possessing  them- 
selves of  it,  taking  every  fenced  city,  and 
gathering  captives  as  the  sand.  Tliis 
answers  the  one  half  of  Habakkuk's  ques- 
tion, as  to  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked 
among  his  people.  It  leaves  the  other  half, 
as  to  the  condition  of  the  righteous,  unan- 
swered.    For  such  scourges  of  God  swept 


fPs.  Ixxili.  24. 
k  Rev.  vi.  10, 


sc.  1. 
1 1.  2-4. 


"c.  li. 


'  c.  iii. 
»  ib.  6-11. 


166 


IGG 


INTROnCi  TION   TO 


away  the  righteous  with  the  wicked.  Hahak- 
kuk  then  renews  the  question  as  to  them. 
But,  as  Asaph  began  by  declaring  his  faith, 
"^ All-good  is  God  to  Israel,  the  true  Israel,  the 
pure  of  heart,  so  Habakkuk,  "  Israel  would 
not  die,  because  He,  their  God,  is  Unchange- 
able." "Art  not  Thou  of  old,  0  Lord,  my  God, 
my  holy  One  f  we  shall  not  die;  Thou,  0  Lord, 
ha^t  set  him  [the  Chaldee]  for  judgment,  and 
Thou,  0  Rock;  haM  founded  him  to  chasten. 
Then  he  appeals  to  God,  "  Why  then  is 
this?  Thou  art  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold 
evil — wherefore  ke^pest  Thou  silence,  when  the 
nicked  devoureth  him  who  is  more  righteous  than 
he  f  "  This  closes  the  first  chapter  and  the  first 
vision,  in  which  he  describes,  with  the  vivid- 
ness of  one  who  saw  it  before  him,  the  irresist- 
ible invasion  of  the  Chaldreans.  Israel  was 
meshed  as  in  a  net;  should  that  net  be 
emptied  p  ? 

The  second  chapter  exhibits  the  prophet 
waiting  in  silent  expectation  for  the  answer. 
This  answer  too  dwells  chiefly  on  those  retri- 
butions in  this  life,  Avhich  are  the  earnest 
of  future  judgments,  the  witness  of  the 
sovereignty  of  God.  But  although  in  few 
words,  it  does  answer  the  question  as  to  the 
righteous,  that  he  has  abiding  life,  that  he 
lives  and  shall  live.  God  impresses  the  im- 
portance of  the  answer  in  the  words  *•,  Write 
the  vision  i.  e.  the  prophecy,  and  make  it  plain 
on  the  tables,  whereon  the  prophet  was  wont 
to  write ',  that  he  may  run  who  reads  it.  He 
says  also,  that  it  is  for  a  time  fixed  in  the 
mind  of  God,  and  that  however,  in  man's 
sight,  it  might  seem  to  linger,  it  would  not  be 
aught  behind  the  time^  Then  he  gives  the 
answer  itself  in  the  words,  *^eAoW  his  soul 
which  is  puffed  up  is  not  upright  in  him ;  and 
the  just  shall  live  by  his  faith.  The  swelling 
pride  and  self-dependence  of  the  Chaldee 
stands  in  contrast  with  the  trustful  submis- 
sion of  faith.  Of  the  one  God  says,  it  has  no 
ground  of  uprightness,  and  consequently  will 
not  stand  before  God  ;  of  faith,  he  says,  the 
nghteous  shall  live  by  it.  But  the  life  plainly 
is  not  the  life  of  the  body.  For  Habakkuk's 
ground  of  complaint  was  the  world-wasting 
cruelty  of  the  Chaldees.  The  woe  on  the 
Chaldee  which  follows  is  even  chiefly  for 
bloodshed,  in  which  the  righteous  and  the 
wicked  are  massacred  alike.  The  simple 
word,  shall  live,  is  an  entire  denial  of  deatli,  a 
denial  even  of  any  interruption  of  life.  It 
stands  in  the  same  fullness  as  those  words  of 
our  Lord,  "  because  I  live,  ye  .shall  live  also. 
The  other  side  of  the  picture,  the  fall  of  the 

"Ps.  Ixxili.  1.  »Hab.  i.  12. 

pib.  17.  <iii.  2.  'nin'^nb^. 

■  il.  3.  Mi.  4.               «  8.  John  xiv.  19. 

'  il.  6.  8.  » ii.  9-11.           J  ii.  12-14. 

•  li.  16-17.  'ii.  18-20.          >>c.  iii. 

•There  is  no  other  form  exactly  like  p^p3n. 

Yet  It  Is  manifestly  intensive.    It  most  resembles 


(.halileiN,  is  given  in  grpatf-r  fullness,  becau3P 
the  fulfillment  of  God's  word  in  things  seen 
was  the  pledge  of  the  fulfillment  of  those 
beyond  tlie  veil  of  sense  and  time.  In  a 
measured  dirge  he  pronounces  a  five-fold  woe 
on  the  five  great  sins  of  the  Chaldees,  their 
ambition^,  covetousness ",  violence -^  inso- 
lence ',  idolatry  ".  It  closes  with  the  power- 
lessness  of  the  Chaldee  idols  against  God, 
and  bids  the  whole  world  be  hushed  before 
the  presence  of  the  One  God,  its  Maker, 
awaiting  His  sentence. 

Then  follows  the  prayer  ^  that  God  would 
revive  His  work  for  Israel,  which  now  seemed 
dead.  He  describes  the  revival  as  coming, 
under  the  images  of  God's  miraculous  deliver- 
ances of  old.  The  division  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  Jordan,  the  standing-still  of  the  sun 
and  moon  under  Joshua,  are  images  of  future 
deliverances;  all  nature  shakes  and  quivers 
at  the  presence  of  its  Maker.  Yet  not  it, 
but  the  wicked  were  the  object  of  His  dis- 
pleasure. The  prophet  sees  his  people 
delivered  as  at  the  Red  Sea,  just  when  the 
enemy  seemed  ready  to  sweep  them  away, 
as  with  a  whirlwind.  And,  in  sight  of  the 
unseen,  he  closes  with  that  wondrous  declara- 
tion of  faith,  that  all  nature  should  be  deso- 
late, all  subsistence  gone,  everything,  con- 
trary to  God's  promises  of  old  to  His  people, 
should  be  around  him,  and  I  will  rejoice  in 
the  Lord,  Iivill  exult  for  joy  in  the  God  of  my 
salvation. 

This  prophecy  is  not  less  distinct,  because 
figurative.  Rather  it  is  the  declaration  of 
God's  deliverance  of  His  people,  not  from 
the  Chaldees  only,  but  at  all  times.  The 
evil  is  concentrated  in  one  Evil  one,  who 
stands  over  against  the  One  anointed.  Thou 
art  gone  forth  for  the  salvaiioii  of  Thy  people  ; 
for  salvation  with  Thine  anointed  One.  Thou 
crushedst  the  head  out  of  the  house  of  the  wicked 
One,  laying  bare  the  foundation  unto  the  neck, 
i.  e.  smiting  the  house,  at  once,  above  and 
below  ;  with  an  utter  destruction.  It  belongs 
then  the  more  to  all  times,  until  the  closing 
strife  between  evil  and  good,  Christ  and 
Antichrist,  the  avofioc  and  the  Lord.  It  in- 
cludes the  Chaldee,  and  each  great  Empire 
which  opposes  itself  to  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  declares  tliat,  as  God  delivered  His 
people  of  old,  so  He  would  unto  the  end. 

It  may  be  that  Habakkuk  chose  this  name    / 
to  express  the  strong  faith,  whereby  he  em- 
braced  the   promises   of  God.     At   least,  it 
means  one  who  "strongly  enfolds"." 

Perhaps  too  it  is  on  account  of  the  form  in 

the  form  3n3nX  "loved  intensely."  This  form, 
in  1D"<t3n,  ■^y^Vr''  '^ changed  into no'ion  IViyPI. 
Equally  pOp^n  might  be  pronounced  Habakkuk, 

the  .second  3  beint,as  Delitzsnh  suRgesfed.  merged 
in  the  p,  for  greater  facility  of  pronunciation.  The 

}  is  a  form  like  r\nn;?p*k;/,  n"yn;:i^  y^^if.i/ 


HABAKKUK. 


167 


which  his  propliecy  is  cast,  as  being  spoken 
(with  the  exception  of  that  one  vei-se)  to 
God  or  to  tlie  (Jhalda?au,  not  to  liis  own 
people,  that  he  added  the  title  of  Prophet  to 
liis  name.  The  burden  which  Habakkulc  the 
prophet  did  see^.  For,  however  the  name 
"prophet"  includes  all  to  wliom  revelations 
from  God  came,  it  is  nowhere,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  added  as  the  name  of  an  office  to 
any  one,  who  did  not  exercise  the  practical 
,)ffice  of  the  Prophet.  Our  Lord  quotes 
David  as  the  Prophet^,  and  God  says  to 
Abimelech  of  Abraham  \  He  is  a  Prophet, 
and,  in  reference  to  this,  the  Psalmist  speaks 
of  the  Patriarchs,  as  Prophets  «.  He  reproved 
kings  fm-  their  sakes,  saying,  Touch  iwt  Mine 
anointed  and  do  My  prophet^  no  harm,  and 
Hosea  speaks  of  Moses  as  a  prophet  ^,  and 
St.  Peter  says  of  David',  He  being  a  prophet. 
But  the  title  is  nowhere  in  the  Old  Testa- 
juent  added  to  the  name  as  it  is  here,  Habak- 
kuk  the  prophet,  and  as  it  is  elsewhere  ISamuel 
the  prophet'',  the  prophet  Gad',  Nathan  the 
prophet"",  Ahijah  the  prophet",  the  prophet 
Jehu  °,  Elijah  the  prophet  p,  Elisha  the  pro- 
phet \  Shemaiah  the  prophet  ^,  the  prophet 
Iddo',  the  prophet  Obed',  Isaiah  the  pro- 
phet", Jeremiah  the  prophet^,  Haggai  the 
prophet  ^,  unless  any  have  exercised  the 
prophetic  office.  The  title  of  the  Prophet  is 
not,  in  the  Old  Testament,  added  to  the 
names  of  Jacob  or  even  of  Moses  or  David  or 
Solomon  or  Daniel,  although  they  all  pro- 
phesied of  Christ. 

Since  Holy  Scripture  often  conveys  so 
much  incidentally,  it  may  be  that  a  large 
range  of  ministerial  office  is  hinted  in  the 
words  "write  on  the  tables;"  for  "  the  tables" 
must  have  been  well-known  tables,  tables 
upon  which  prophets  (as  Isaiah)  and  proba- 
bly Habakkuk  himself  was  accustomed  to 
write.  The  writing  of  a  few  emphatic  un- 
explained words  in  a  public  place,  which 
should  arouse  curiosity,  or  startle  passers-by, 
would  be  in  harmony  with  the  symbolical 
actions,  enjoined  on  the  prophets  and  used 
by  them.  The  Mene,  Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin, 
had,  from  their  mysteriousness,  an  impres- 
siveness  of  their  own,  apart  from  the  mira- 
cle of  the  writing. 

The  words  appended  to  the  prophecy,  to 
the  chief  singer,  (as  we  should  say,  "  the  leader 
of  the  band")  with  or  on  my  stnnged  instru- 
tnents,  imply,  not  only  that  the  hymn  became 
part  of  the  devotions  of  the  temple,  but  that 
Habakkuk  too  had  a  part  in  the  sacred  music 

^p3DX ;  yet  it  is  impossible  that  the  reduplication 
should  be  meaningless,  (as  Ew.  157.  a.  p.  405.  ed.  7.) 

d  i.  1.  add  iii.  1.  •  S.  Matt.  xiii.  35. 

'Gen.  XX.  7.         sPs.  cv.  14-15.         ^  Hos.  xii.  13. 

'Acts  ii.  30.  k2  Chr.  xxxv.  18. 

>lSam.  xxii.5.        "IKgsi.  32.      "iRgsxi.  29. 

•  lb.  xvi.  7, 12.  Pib.  xviii.36.     <i2Kgsvi.  12. 

» 2  Chr.  xii.  5.  "lb.  xiii.  22.       » lb.  xv.  8. 

u2  Kgsxix.  2,  XX.  1. 


which  accompanied  it.  The  word  so  ren- 
dered, neginothai,  could  only  mean  my  stringed 
instruments,  or  "  my  song  accompanied  with 
music,"  as  Hezekiah  says^,  we  will  sing  my 
songs  on  the  stringed  instruntent%  nenaggen 
neginothai.  But  in  Habakkuk's  subscription, 
"To  the  chief  musician  binginnthai,"  neginoth 
can  have  no  other  meaning  than  in  the 
almost  identical  inscription  of  Psalms,  "  "=  To 
the  chief  nuisician  binginoth,"  nor  this  any 
other  than  with  stringed  instrvments,  "  instru- 
ments struck  with  the  hand  *."  The  addi- 
tion, "  with  my  stringed  instruments,"  shews 
that  Habakkuk  hiuiself  was  to  accompany 
his  hymn  with  instrumental  music,  and  since 
the  mention  of  the  chief  musician  marks  out 
that  it  was  to  form  part  of  the  temple-service, 
Habakkuk  must  have  been  entitled  to  take  y 
pai't  in  the  temple-music,  and  so  must  have  ^ 
been  a  Levite.  The  Levitical  order  then 
had  its  prophet,  as  the  sacerdotal  in  Jere- 
miah and  Ezekiel.  The  tradition  in  the 
title  to  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  whatever  its 
value,  agrees  with  this;  """from  the  pro- 
phecy of  Ambakum,  son  of  Jesus,  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi." 

This,  however,  does  not  give  us  any  hint 
as  to  the  time  when  Habakkuk  prophesied. 
For,  bad  as  were  the  times  of  Manasseh  and 
Amon,  their  idolatry  consisted  in  associating 
idols  with  God,  setting  them  up  in  His 
courts,  bringing  one  even  into  His  temple  °, 
not  in  doing  away  His  service.  They  set 
the  two  services,  and  the  two  opinions  *,  side 
by  side,  adding  the  false,  but  not  abolishing 
the  true,  "  consenting  to  differ,"  leaving  to 
the  worshipers  of  God  their  religion,  while 
forcing  them  to  endure,  side  by  side,  what 
seemed  an  addition,  but  what  was,  in  fact,  a 
denial.  Habakkuk  then  might  have  been 
allowed  to  present  his  hymn  for  the  temple- 
service,  while  the  king  placed  in  the  same 
temple  the  statue  of  Astarte,  and  required 
its  devil's  worship  to  be  carried  on  there. 
The  temple  was  allowed  to  go  into  some 
degree  of  decay,  for  Josiah  had  it  repaired ; 
but  we  read  only  of  his  removing  idols  *,  not 
of  his  having  to  restore  the  disused  service 
of  God.  Of  Ahaz  it  is  recorded,  that '  he  shut 
up  the  doors  of  the  home  of  the  Lord,  which 
Hezekiah  had  to  open*.  Nothing  of  this 
sort  is  told  of  Manasseh  and  Amon.  X 

Habakkuk,  however,  has  two  hints,  which 
determine  his  age  within  a  few  years.  He 
says  that  the  invasion  of  the  Chaldseans  was 
to  be  in  the  days  of  those  to  whom  he  speaks  ; 

»  Jer.  xxviii.  6,  xxxvi.  26,  2  Chr.  xxxvi.  12. 

•  Ezr.  V.  1,  vi.  14.  J  Is.  xxxviii.  20. 
« Ps.  iv.  vi.  liv.  Iv.  Ixi.  Ixvii.  Ixxvi. 

•  Coll.  1  Sam.  xvii.  16,  23,  xviii.  10,  xix.  9,  2  Kgs 
iii.  15. 

>>  Cod.  Chis.  of  LXX  from  Origen's  Tetraplar  and 
the  Syro-Hexaplar. 
'!2Kgsxxi.  7.  41  Kgs  xviii.  21. 

•  2  Kgs  xxiii.  6.  »2  Chr.  xxxviii.  24. 
t  lb.  xxix.  3. 


1G8 


INTRr)T)r(TION  TO 


t7i  V'"""  ''"V?''.  Ac(Dn1ingly  he  must  hnvc 
spoken  to  adults,  many  of  whom  would  sur- 
vive that  inva.sion  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  the 
4th  year  of  Jehoiakim  B.  C.  605.  He  can 
liardly  have  prophesied  before  B.  C.  645, 
about  the  close  of  Manasseh's  reign;  for  at 
this  date,  those  who  were  20  at  the  time  of 
the  prophecy,  would  have  been  tiO,  at  the  time 
of  its  txjmnienced  fultillment  at  the  battle  of 
Carchemish.  On  the  other  hand,  in  that  he 
speaks  of  that  invasion  as  a  thing  incredible 
to  those  to  whom  he  was  speaking,  he  must 
have  prophesied  before  Babylon  became  in- 
dependent by  the  overthrow  of  Nineveh, 
B.  C.  625.  For  when  Babylon  had  displaced 
Nineveh,  and  divided  the  Empire  of  the  East 
with  Media  and  Egypt,  it  was  not  a  thing  in- 
credible, that  it  would  invade  Judah  in  their 
own  days,  although  it  was  beyond  human 
knowledge  to  declare  that  it  certainly  would. 
The  Babylonian  Empire  itself  lasted  only 
eighty-nine  years ;  and,  to  human  sight, 
Judah  had  as  much  or  more  to  fear  from 
Egypt  as  from  Babylon.  The  Meilian  Empire 
also  might  as  well  have  swallowed  up  Judah 
for  the  time,  as  the  Babylonian. 

The  relation  of  Zephaniahto  Habakkuk 
coincides  with  this.  Zephaniah  certainly 
adopted  the  remarkable  words ',  lit.  ^  Hash  at 
the  presence  of  the  Lord  God,  from  Habakkuk's 
fuller  form ',  the  Lord  is  in  His  holy  temple ; 
hush  at  His  presence  all  the  earth. 

But  Zephaniah  prophesied  under  Josiah, 
before  the  destruction  of  Nineveh  B.  C.  625, 
which  he  foretold  ™,    Habakkuk  was  also,  at 

hi.  5. 
'  Dr.  Davidson  says, "  Delitzsch  [with  many  others] 
maintains  from  a  comparison  of  Hab.  ii.  20,  with 
Zeph.  i.  7,  that  the  former  preceded  the  latter. — The 
premises  are  by  no  means  safe  or  valid "  [and, 
following  Umbreit,]  "  '  Be  silent  before  the  Lord 
God'  (Zeph.  i.  7.)  sounds  like  a  proverb:  part  of  it 
having  been  already  used  by  Amos  (vi.  10),"  iii.  304. 
305.  Amos  has  only  the  single  word  on  "  hush  !" 
which  is,  of  course  no  fragment  of  a  proverb.  Nor 
was  there  any  lank  of  expressions  to  bid  men  be 
still  before  their  Maker.    Delitzsch  (ad.  loc.  p.  102.) 

puts  together  the  following;  Ps.  xcvi.  9.  VJ3D  I'lTI 

yiKH-SD;  xiv.  7.  inx  'Sin  \MH  'J£3^»D  1  Chr. 

xvi.    30,  ]n«n-SD   VJdSd  iS'H;  Ps.  xxxiii.  8, 

|'"l«n  hj  ""O  1XT1,  and  the  Psalm  of  Asaph," 

ntDpK'i  nxT  y^H  p  nj^otyn  d-ob'O;  not  to 

8p3ak  of  other  possible  combinations,  with  T^U^\ 
DOl,  ly'inn,  (which  is  thought  to  be  only  a 
stronger  pronunciation  of  it.  Kim.  also  explains 
on  by  pniy.)    When    then    a    writer,  who  uses 

much  the  language  of  those  before  him,  has  an 
idiom  which  occurs  once  beside  in  Holy  Scripture, 
there  being  many  other  expressions  which  might 
equally  have  been  used,  any  one  unbiassed  would 
think  that  he  adopted  the  language  of  the  other. 
Stahelin  admits  the  connection,  but  inverts  the 
argument,  contrary  to  the  character  of  both 
prophets. 
k  Zeph.  i.  7.       >  Hab.  11.  20.       »  Zeph.  il.  13,  aqq. 

» Hab.  1. 8, 3"j;j.  '3Kp  nni  yj^>o  onwrj  iSp. 


latest,  an  earlier  cnntomporary  of  Jeremi.ih 
who,  in  one  place,  at  least,  in  his  earlier 
prophecies,  used  his  language ",  as  he  does 
so  often,  of  set  pm-pose,  that  ef  the  prophets 
before  him,  in  order  to  shew  that  the  fullness 
of  their  prophecies  was  not  yet  exhausted. 
But  Jeremiah  liegan  to  prophe^v  in  the 
thirteenth  year  of  Josiah  B.  C.  629°.  Hab- 
akkuk, on  the  otiier  hand,  joins  himself  on 
with  the  old  prophets  and  Psalms  by  the  em- 
ployment of  language  of  Isaiah  p  and  per- 
haps of  Micah  *»,  by  the  use  of  language  of 
Deuteronomy  ■■,  and  by  the  expansion  of  a 
Psalm  of  Asaph  in  his  own  Psalm  ',  but  does 
not  systematically  renew  their  prophecies 
like  Jeremiah  '  or  Zephaniah  ". 

The  ministry  then  of  Habakkuk  falls  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  reign  of  Manasseh  or  the 
earlier  half  of  that  of  Josiah,  (for  the  reign 
of  Amon,  being  of  two  years  only,  is  too  short 
to  come  into  account),  and  there  is  no  de- 
cisive evidence  for  either  against  the  other. 
In  the  reign  of  Manasseh,  we  are  expressly 
told,  that  there  were  prophets,  sent  to  foretell 
a  destruction  of  Jerusalem  as  complete  as 
that  of  Samaria,  on  account  of  the  exceeding 
wickedness,  into  which  Manasseh  seduced  his 
people.  The  Lord  spake  b>/  His  servants,  the 
prophets,  saying,  Because  Manasseh  king  of 
Judah  hath  done  these  abominations,  and  hath 
made  Judah  also  to  sin  with  his  idols.  Therefore 
thus  saith  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  Behold,  I  am 
bringing  such  evil  upon  Jerusalem  and  Judah, 
that  whosoever  heareth  of  it,  both  his  ears  shall 
tingle.     And  I  will  stretch  over  Jerusalem  the 

seems  to  have  suggested  the  like  description  of  tho 
Chaldee  cavalry,  Jer.  iv.  13,  VD1D  D'^'l^JO  iSp, 

although,  with  the  slight  variation,  which  he  com- 
monly used,  Jeremiah  has  D'">iyJ0,  after  David 
probably  on  Saul  and  Jonathan,  19 p  D'Tt^iip  2  Sam. 
i.  23,  the  remaining  instance  of  this  likeness. 
2"?.i'  '??<(  recurs  in  Zeph.  iii.  3,  and  n'l3Ty_  '^X? 
in  Jer.  v.  6,  only.  Jer.  xxii.  13,  in  the  reign  of 
Jehoiakim,  is  also  a  reminiscence  of  Habakkuk  ii. 
12;  and  Jer.  Ii.  68,  in  the  4th  year  of  Zedekiah,  of 
Hah.  ii.  13. 

oJer.  i.  2,  xxv.  3. 

pHah.  ii,  14,  is  from  Is.  xi.  9;  the  form  of  Hab.  i. 
."i,  seems  suggested  by  Is.  xxix.  9;  the  standing  on 
the  watch-tower  Hab.  ii.  1,  occurs  in  Is.  .xxi.  8;  the 
writing  on  tables  occurs  in  Is.  viii.  1,  xxx.  8,  and 
Hab.  il.  2 ;  the  imagery,  "  he  hath  enlarged  his  de- 
sire as  hell,"  OiyQi  h)WD  3imn)  Hab.  ii.  5,  was 
probably  suggested  by  Is.  v.  14.  VlXI^  n3"rnn; 
riE'ilJ  the  introduction  of  a  St^D,  Hab.  ii.  C,  as' Is. 
xiv.  4,  both  over  Babylon  ;  the  union  of  nSn  and 
"13^^  Is.  viii.  8,  and  Hab.  i.  11 ;  from  KCiper  Jcrem. 
p.  153.  Havernick  Symb.  ad  defend,  authontiam 
vat.  les.  c.  xiii.— xiv.  Zi.  p.  37  sqq.  in  Delitzsch 
Hah.  p.  viii. 

1  Hab.  ii.  12.  and  Mic.  iii.  10. 

'  From  Deut.  xxxii.  xxxiii.  See  below. 

•  Ps.  Ixxvii.  17-21,  in  Hab.  iii.  io-l5. 

'On  tho  relation  of  Joromiah  to  Obadiah  ami 
Isaiah,  see  Introd.  to  Obad.  vol.  i.  pp.  344-348. 

•See  Introd.  to  Zephaniah,  below. 


HABAKKUK. 


169 


line  of  Samaria  and  the  plummet  of  the  house 
of  Ahab;  and  I  will  wipe  Jerusalem  as  a  man 
wipeth  a  dish,  wiping  it  and  turning  it  upside 
dov.'n;  and  I  will  forsake  the  remnant  of  their  in- 
heritance, and  dclicer  them  into  the  hand  of  their 
enemies,  ami  they  shall  become  a  prey  and  spoil 
to  all  their  enemies  ". 

The  sinful  great  men  of  Maniisseh's  and 
Amon's  court  and  judicature  are  but  too  likely 
to  have  maintained  their  power  in  the  early 
years  of  the  reign  of  Josiali.  For  a  boy  of 
eight  years  old  (at  which  age  Josiah  suc- 
ceeded his  father  ' )  lould,  amid  whatsoever 
sense  of  right  and  p  fty.  ilo  little  to  stem  the 
established  wrong  and  ungodliness  of  the  evil 
counsellors  and  judges  of  his  father  and  grand- 
father. The  sins,  which  Jeremiah  de- 
nounces, as  the  cause  of  the  future  captivity 
of  Jerusalem,  are  the  very  same,  of  which 
Habakkuk  complains,  "  oppression,  violence, 
spoil  ^."  Jeremiah  speaks,  in  the  concrete, 
of  total  absence  of  right  judgment  %  as  Hab- 
akkuk, in  the  abstract,  of  the  powerlessuess 
of  the  law ''.  Zephaniah  gives  the  like  pic- 
ture of  those  earlier  3'^ears  under  Josiah  ". 
But  Habakkuk's  description  would  not  suit 
the  later  years  of  Josiah,  when  judgment  and 
justice  were  done.  Did  not  thy  father,  Jere- 
miah appeals  to  Jehoiakim  ^,  eat  and  drink, 
and  do  judgment  and  justice,  and  then  it  was 
well  uith  him;  he  judged  the  cause  of  the  poor 
and  needy,  then  it  was  well  with  him;  was  not 
this  to  know  Mef  saith  the  Lord^.  But  while 
there  is  nothing  to  preclude  his  having  pro- 
phesied in  either  reign,  the  earlie.st  tradition 
places  him  in  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Ma- 
nasseh  K 

Modern  critics  have  assigned  an  earlier  or 


»  2  Kgs  xxi.  11-14.    y  Ih.  xxii.  1,  2  Chr.  xxxiv.  1. 

•Iti'l  Don  Jer.  vi.  7,  as  Hab.  i.  3,  DOni  "lii*; 
Zeph.  speaks  of  710101  DOH,  i-  9- 

»  Jer.  vi.  19.  "  My  law  they  have  despised  it ; "  v. 
28.  "  they  have  not  judged  the  cause,  the  cause  of 
the  fatherless,  and  they  prosper ;  and  the  judg- 
ment of  the  poor  have  they  not  judged." 

•>  Hab.  i.  4,  "the  law  is  chilled,  and  judgment 
will  never  go  forth;  for  the  wicked  eneompasseth 
the  just;  therefore  judgment  goeth  forth  per- 
verted." 

0  Zeph.  i.  9.  where  he  too  foretells  the  punishment 
of  those,  "which  till  their  masters'  nouses  with 
violence  and  deceit,  HOIOI  DOfl  "  and  iii.  1-4. 

*  Jer.  xxii.  15, 16. 

« Dr.  Davidson  rightly  says,  "  the  spoiling  and 
violence,  there  (i.  2,  .S.J  depicted,  refer  to  the  inter- 
nal condition  of  the  tlieocracy,  not  to  externa!  in- 
juries" (p.  305) ;  hut  then  he  contradicts  himself 
and  Jeremiah,  when  he  says,  (p.  305)  following 
Ewald  (Proph.  ii.  30.),  "Thesafest  conclusion  re- 
specting the  time  of  the  prophet,  is  that  he  lived 
in  the  time  of  Jehoiakim  (606-004.  B.  C),  when  the 
kingdom  of  Judah  was  in  a  r/ood  moral  condition,  jus- 
tice a7id  7'i'ghteousness  having  entered  into  the  life  of  the 
people  after  Jusiah's  reforms,  and  idolatry  having 
almost  disappeared." 

'"Seder  01am,  from  which  Abarbanel,  R.  Dav. 
Ganz  in  Zemach  David,  p.  21,  and  Rabbins  drew 
their  opinion."    CarpzofF  Introd.  P.  iii.  p.  410. 


later  date  to  Habakkuk,  accordingly  at  I  hey 
believed  that  God  did,  or  did  not,  reveal  the 
future  to  man,  that  there  was  or  was  not, 
superhuman  prophecy.  Those  who  denied 
that  God  did  endow  His  prophets  with  knowl- 
edge above  nature,  fell  into  two  classes ;  1) 
Such  as  followed  Eichhorn's  unnatural 
hypothesis,  that  propliecies  were  only  his- 
tories of  the  past,  spoken  of,  as  if  it  were  still 
future,  to  which  these  critics  gave  the  shame- 
less title  of  "  vaticinia  post  eventum  V  These 
plainly  involved  the  prophets  in  fraud.  2) 
Those  who  laid  down  that  each  prophet 
lived  at  a  time,  when  he  could,  with  human 
foresight,  tell  what  would  happen.  Would 
that  those  who  count  certainty,  as  to  even 
a  near  future,  to  be  so  easy  a  thing,  would  try 
their  hands  at  predicting  the  events  of  the 
next  few  years  or  months,  or  even  days  ^,  and, 
if  they  fail,  acknowledge  God's  Truth  !  This 
prejudice,  that  there  could  be  no  real  pro- 
phecy, ruled,  for  a  time,  all  German  criticism. 
It  cannot  be  denied,  that  "  the  unbelief  was 
the  parent  of  the  criticism,  not  the  criticism 
of  the  unbelief."  It  is  simple  matter  of  his- 
tory, that  the  unbelief  came  first ;  and,  if 
men,  a  priori,  disbelieved  that  there  could 
be  prophecy,  it  must  needs  be  a  postulate 
of  their  criticism,  that  what  seemed  to  be 
prophecy  could  not  have  belonged  to  a  date, 
when  human  foresight  did  not  suffice  for 
positive  prediction.  I  will  use  the  words  of 
Delitzsch  rather  than  my  own  ; 

"  '  The  investigation  into  the  age  of  Habak- 
kuk could  be  easily  and  briefly  settled,  if  we 
would  start  from  the  prejudice,  which  is  the 
soul  of  modern  criticism,  that  a  prediction  of 
the  future,  which  rested,  not  on  human  in- 


e  Eichhorn  (Einl.)  Bertholdt  (Einl.)  Justi  Habak- 
kuk neu  ubersetzt  1841.  Wolf,  der  Proph.  Hab. 
&c.  1822. 

•■  At  every  early  stage  of  the  great  conflict 
(August  1870)  it  was  remarkable  how  day  after  day 
journalists  professed  themselves  to  be  "at  fault,  as 
to  the  most  immediate  future.  On  one  point  only 
they  were  agi'eed  that  the  war  would  be  "  long  and 
severe."  Then  it  was  thought  that  one  month 
would  see  its  beginning  and  its  end.  "The  course 
of  the  present  war,"  says  a  journal  not  wanting  in 
self-reliance,  "  has  goiie  far  to  verify  the  paradox, 
that  nothing  is  certain  but  the  unexpected.  At  any 
rate,  nothing  has  happened  but  the  unforeseen.  Neither 
king  nor  Emperor,  neither  French  nor  German 
government  or  people  had  formed  any  anticipation 
of  the  events  of  the  month  now  ending.  The 
French  expected  to  invade  Germany,  and  they 
have  been  invaded  themselves.  Ttie  Germans, 
though  confident  of  ultimate  success,  expected  a 
long  and  toilsome  conflict,  whereas  a  month  has 
brought  them  almost  to  the  gates  of  Paris.  The 
calculation  of  all  parties  as  to  the  political  effects 
of  the  war  have  been  equally  mistaken."  The  Times, 
Aug.  31st.  And  yet  men,  wlio,  with  our  full  inform- 
ation, would  not  risk  a  prediction  as  to  the  issue  of 
things  immediately  before  their  eyes,  think  it  so 
easy  for  Jewish  prophets,  living  in  "their  own  small 
insulated  country,  to  foretell  certainly  that  Babylon 
would  prevail  over  Egypt,  when  they  knew  either 
country  only  as  their  own  superior,  and  political 
sa-jaeity  and  feeling  was  on  the  side  of  Egypt. 

I  Der  'Proph.  Habakkuk  Einleit.  pp.  iv-vi. 


Mi) 


INTRODLLTloX  TO 


ferences  or  un  a  natural  ^'itt  of  divination,  but 
on  supernatural  illumination,  is  impossible. 
P'or  since  Ilabakkuk  foretokl  the  invasion  of 
the  Chaldees,  he  m\ist,  in  such  case,  have 
come  forward  at  a  time,  at  which  natural 
ucuteness  couKl,  with  certainty,  determine 
beforehand  that  sad  event  ;  accordin^dy  in  or 
after  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Carcliendsh  in 
the  4th  year  of  JehoiakimJ  606  B.  C.  In 
this  decisive  battle  Nebuchadnezzar  defeated 
Pharaoh  Xecho,  and  it  was  more  than  prob- 
able that  the  king  of  Babylon  would  now  turn 
against  Judfea,  since  Jehoiakim,  the  son  of 
Josiah,  had  been  set  on  the  throne  by 
Pharaoh  Neeho ",  and  so  held  with  Egypt. 
And  this  is  in  reality  the  inference  of  modern 
critics.  They  bring  the  Chaldajans  so  close 
under  the  eyes  of  the  prophet,  that  he  could, 
l)y  way  of  nature,  foresee  their  invasion  ;  and 
so  much  the  closer  under  his  eyes,  the  more 
deeply  the  prejudice,  that  there  is  no  pro- 
phecy in  the  Biblical  sense  of  the  woid,  has 
taken  root  in  them,  and  the  more  consistently 
they  follow  it  out.  'Habakkuk  prophesied 
under  Jehoiakim,  for,'  so  Jiiger  expresses 
himself,  'since  Jehoiakim  was  on  the  side  of 
t  he  Egyptians,  it  was  easy  to  foresee,  that ' ;  &c.' 
J  ust  so  Ewald  ;  '  ^  One  might  readily  be 
tempted  to  think,  that  Habakkuk  wrote, 
while  the  pious  king  Josiah  was  still  living  ; 
but  since  the  first  certain  invasion  of  the  Chal- 
dteans,  of  which  our  account  speaks  ",  falls 
within  the  reign  of  king  Jehoiakim,  some- 
what between  608-604  B.  C.  we  must  abide 
by  this  date.'  Hitzig  defines  the  dates  still 
more  sharply,  acconling  to  that  principle  of 
principles,  to  which  history  with  its  facts 
must  adapt  itself  unconditionally.  'The  pro- 
phet announces  the  arrival  of  the  Chaldfeans 
in  Juda?a,  as  something  marvelous.'  Well 
then,  one  would  imagine,  that  it  would  follow 
from  this,  that  at  that  time  they  had  not  yet 
come.  But  no !  '  Habakkuk,'  says  Hitzig, 
'  introduces  the  Chaldajansas  a  new  phsenome- 
non,  as  yet  entirely  unknown  ;  he  prophesied 
accordingly  at  their  first  arrival  into  Palestine. 
But  this  beyond  question  falls  in  the  reign  of 
Jehoiakim".  In  Jehoiakim's  fourth  year, 
i.  e.  606,  they  had  fought  the  battle  at  Car- 
chemish  ;  in  605  the  Chaldcpaa  army  seems  to 
hiivc  been  on  its  march  ;  the  writing  of  Hab- 
akkuk is  placed  most  correctly  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  604/  accordingly,  at  the 
time,  when  the  Chaldseans  were  already 
marching  with  all  speed  straight  on  Jerusa- 
lem, and  (as  Hitzig  infers  from  Ilab.  i.  9.) 
after  they  had  come  down  from  the  North 
along  the  coast,  were  now  advancing  from 
the  West,  when  they,  as  Ewald  too  remarks 
(resting,  like  Maurer  on  i.   2-4j,  '  p  already 


J  Jer.  xl vi.  2.  k  2  Kgs  xxiii.  34,  35. 

'"Facile  erat  prtevldere  fore  ut  4c."  Jiiger  de 
ord.  proph.  minor,  clironol'.  ii.  18.  sqq. 
»  Proph.  iii.  3(i.  ed.  2. 


Stood  in  the  l^dy  land,  trampling  everything 
under  foot  with  irresistible  might,  and  allow- 
ing their  own  right  alone  to  count  as  right." 
Holding  f.isl  to  that  naturalist  cl  priori,  we  go 
yet  further.  In  ii.  17,  the  judgment  of  God 
is  threatened  to  the  Chaldican,  on  account  of 
the  violence  practiced  on  Lel)anon,  and  the 
destruction  of  its  animals.  Lebanon  i.s,  it  is 
said,  the  holy  land  ;  the  aninials,  its  inhabit- 
ants :  in  iii.  14,  17,  the  prophet  sees  the 
hostile  hordes  storming  in :  the  devastation 
wrought  tiirough  the  warstands  clearly  before 
his  eyes.  This  is  not  possible,  unless  the  Chal- 
danui  were  at  that  time  already  established 
in  Judsea.  However,  then,  c.i.  was  written 
before  their  invasion,  yet  c.  ii.,  iii.  must  have 
been  written  after  it.  '  Wherefore,'  says 
Maurer,  '.since  it  is  evident  from  Jer.  xlvi.2, 
and  xxxvi.  9,  that  the  Chaldteans  came  in 
the  year  B.  C.  605,  in  the  9th  month  of  the 
5th  year  of  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim,  it  follows 
that  c.  i.  was  written  at  that  very  time,  but 
c.  ii.  iii.  at  the  beginning  of  B.  C.  604,  the  6th 
of  Jehoiakim.' 

"Turn  we  away  from  this  cheap  pseudo- 
criticism,  with  its  ready-made  results,  which 
sacrifices  all  sense  for  historical  truth  to  a 
prejudice,  which  it  seems  to  have  vowed  not 
to  allow  to  be  shaken  by  anything.  It  seeks 
at  any  cost  to  disburden  itself  of  any  pro- 
phecy in  Scripture,  which  can  only  be  ex- 
plained through  supernatural  agency  ;  and 
yet  it  attains  its  end,  neither  elsewhere  nor 
in  our  prophet.  Chapter  ii.  contains  a  pre- 
diction of  the  overthrow  of  the  Chalda?an 
empire  and  of  the  sins  whereby  that  over- 
throw was  effected,  which  has  been  so  re- 
markably confirmed  by  history  even  in  de- 
tails, that  that  criticism,  if  it  would  be  true 
to  its  principles,  must  assume  that  it  was 
written  while  Cyrus,  advancing  against  Baby- 
lon was  employed  in  punishing  the  river 
Gyndes  by  dividing  it  off  into  360  channels." 

This  major  premiss,  "  there  can  be  no  super- 
human prediction  of  the  future,"  (in  other 
words,  "Almighty  God,  if  He  knows  the 
future,  cannot  disclose  it !  ")  still  lurks  under 
the  assumptions  of  that  modern  school  of  so- 
called  criticism.  It  seems  to  be  held  no  more 
necessary,  formally  to  declare  it,  than  to 
enounce  at  full  length  any  axiom  of  Euclid. 
Yet  it  may,  on  that  very  ground,  escape  no- 
tice, while  it  is  the  unseen  mainspring  of  the 
theories,  put  forth  in  the  name  of  criticism. 
"That  Habakkuk  falls  at  a  later  time,"  says 
Stiihelin,  "is  clear  out  of  his  prophecy  itself; 
for  he  speaks  of  the  Chaldo'ans,  and  the  contro- 
versy IS  only,  whether  he  announces  their 
invasion,  as'  Knobel,  Umbrcit,  ^  Delitzsch, 
Keil  "i  hold,  or  presupposes  it,  as  Ewald,  Hit- 

»2Kg9xxiv.  1.  "lb.  2. 

pPropii.  Iii.  29.  ed.  2.  ,  ^  „      ^     , 

•iStiilielin  mixed  up  Delitzsch  and  Keil,  who  D«- 
lleved  in  superhuman  prediction,  and  Knobel  Ac- 


HABAKKUK. 


171 


zig,  E.  Meier  maintain.  To  me  the  Hrst 
opinion  appears  the  right,  since  not  only  do 
i.  5.  sqq.  plainly  relate  to  the  future,  but  the 
detailed  description  of  the  Chaldseans  points 
at  something  which  has  not  yet  taken  place, 
at  something  hitherto  unknown,  and  the  ter- 
ror of  the  prophet  in  announcing  their  com- 
ing, i.  12.  sqq.,  recurs  also  iii.  1,  16,  17 ;  and 
so,  I  think,  that  the  time  of  Habakkuk's 
activity  may  be  placed  very  soon  after  the 
battle  of  Carchemish,  in  the  first  half  of  the 
reign  of  Jehoiakim,  and  so  his  prophecy  as 
contemporary  with  Jeremiah  xxv."  "  Hab- 
akkuk,"  says  De  Wette,  "  lived  and  prophe- 
sied in  the  Chaldee  period.  It  is,  however, 
matter  of  dispute  at  what  point  of  time  in 
this  period  he  lived,  i.  5.  sqq.  clearly  points 
to  its  beginning,  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim. 
Even  ch.  iii.  seems  to  require  no  later  point 
of  time,  since  here  the  destruction  of  Judah 
is  not  yet  anticipated.  He  was  then  Jere- 
miah's younger  contemporary.  Rightly  do 
Perschke,  Ranitz,  Stickel,  Knobel,  Hitzig, 
Ewald,  let  the  prophet  prophesy  a  little  be- 
fore the  invasion  of  the  Chaldseans  in  Judah, 
which  the  analogy  of  prophecy  favors  ; "  for 
prophecy  may  still  be  human  at  this  date, 
since  so  far  it  foretells  only,  what  any  one 
could  foresee.  A  prophet  of  God  foretells, 
these  critics  admit,  an  invasion  which  all 
could  foresee,  and  does  ncjt  foretell,  what 
could  not  humanly  be  foreseen,  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem.  The  theory  then  is  saved, 
and  within  these  limits  Almighty  God  is  per- 
mitted to  send  His  prophet.  Condescending 
criticism ! 

Mostly  criticism  kept  itself  within  these 
limits,  and  used  nothing  more  than  its  axiom, 
"there  was  no  prophecy."  The  freshness 
and  power  of  prophetic  diction  in  Habakkuk 

who  denied  it,  joining  himself  on  to  the  class  in 

general  and  ignoring  the  radical  difference.  Dr. 
lavidson  assumes  tne  same  principle.  "As  he 
mentions  the  Chaldseans  by  name,  and  his  oracle 
refers  to  them,  he  lived  in  the  Chaldsean  period. — 
The  safest  conclusion  respecting  the  time  of  the 
prophet  is  that  he  lived  in  the  time  of  Jehoiakim 
606-604.  B.  C."  "To  put  the  prophet  in  Manasseh's 
reign  is  incorrect  because  the  Chaldseans  were  not  a 
people  formidable  to  the  Jews  at  that  time."  (In- 
trod.  iii.  pp.  304,  3u.5.)  And  so  Habakkuk,  without 
superhuman  knowledge,  could  not  foretell  it ! 

'"Thus  the  verb  0/p  occurs,  only  beside  in  the 
books  of  Kings  and  in  Ezeklel."  Stahelin.  "The 
diction  is  pure  and  classical.    Yet  he  has  some  late 

words,  as  oSp  i-  10,  which  appears  only  in  Kings 

and  Ezekiel."  Dr.  Davidson.    The  primitive  form 

oSp,  which  is  alleged,  does  not  occur  at  all ;  only 

D-?p  Ez.  xvi.  31.  and  DSpnn  with  2,  "mock  at," 

2  Kgs  ii.  23,  Hab.  i.  10,  Ez.  xxii.  5,as  denominatives 

from  dSd  Ps.   xliv.  14.  Ixxix.  4,  and  Jer.   xx.  8. 

There  is  nothing  to  show  that  it  is  a  late  word, 
though  occurring  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  Elisha.  In  Aramaic,  (not  in  Onk.  or  Jon.  it  has 
the  opposite  meaning,  "praised."    In  the  excep- 


deterred  most  from  that  f)th«r  expedient  of 
picking  out  some  two  or  tiiree  words  as  indica- 
tive of  a  later  style.  Stahelin  however  says ; 
"  His  language  too,  although  on  the  vhoir  pure 
and  without  Aramaisms,"  (truly  so  I  since 
there  is  not  even  an  alleged  or  imagined 
Aramaism  in  his  prophecy,)  "still  betrays, 
in  single  cases,  the  later  period."  And  then 
he  alleges  that  1)  one  verb'  "only  occui-s  be- 
side in  the  books  of  Kings  and  in  Ezek- 
iel ; "  2)  another  M'ord,  "  '  luith  the  eoxeptlon  of 
Nahum,  only  in  Jeremiah  and  Malachi ; "  3) 
"  the  image  of  the  cup  of  destiny  only  occurs 
in  prophecies  subsequent  to  Jeremiah." 
Marvelous  precision  of  criticism,  which  can 
infer  the  date  of  a  book  from  the  facts,  1) 
that  a  verb,  formed  from  a  noun,  occurs  four 
times  only  in  Holy  Scripture,  in  2  Kings, 
Habakkuk,  and  Ezekiel,  whereas  the  nmm 
from  which  it  is  derived  occurs  in  a  Psalm, 
which  fits  no  later  time  than  David's ' ;  2)  that 
a  word,  slightly  varied  in  pronunciation  from 
a  common  Hebrew  word  ",  occurs  only  in  Na- 
hinn,  Habakkuk,  Jeremiah,  and  Malachi, 
once  in  each,  when  that  word  is  the  basis  of 
the  name  of  the  river  Pishon,  mentioned  in 
Genesis,  and  Stahelin  himself  places  Nahum 
in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah  ;  or  that  3 )  no  pro- 
phet before  Jeremiah  speaks  of  the  image  of 
the  "  cup  of  destiny  '',"  whereas  the  portion 
given  by  God  for  good  ^  or  for  il)  '^,  occurs 
under  that  same  image  in  Psalms  of  David 
and  Asaph ;  and  if  the  question  is  to  be 
begged  as  to  the  date  of  Isaiah  li.  17,  22,  the 
corresponding  image  of  "  drinking  wine,  of 
reeling,"  occurs  in  a  Psalm  of  David  ^,  and 
being  "  drunk,  but  not  with  wine  "  is  imagery 
of  an  earlier  chapter  in  Isaiah  ' ;  the  image 
occurs  fully  in  Obadiah  *. 
Such  criticism  is  altogether  childish.    No 

tions  in  Chaldee,  Ges.  seems  rightly  to  conjecture, 
that  it  signifies  ironical  praise,  as  in  Shem.  rabba  s. 

27.    In  Ps.  xliv.  14.  KDvp  is  retained  for  the  Heb. 

»"iyi£)  i.  8.  with  the  exception  of  Nah.  iii.  18. 
only  besides  in  Jeremiah  and  Malachi."  Stahelin, 
"tJ.'1i3  i.  8.  in  Jeremiah  and  Malachi  besides;"  Dr. 
Davidson ;  who  avoids  the  absurdity  of  arguing 
relative  lateness  of  diction  from  a  word,  occurring 
in  Nahum,  by  omitting  this  fourth  instance,  but 
therewith  falsifying  the  facts  before  him. 

« Ps.  xliv.  14. 

"lyiS  (whence  ^W^Q  Gen.  ii.  11.)  an  early  varia- 
tion of  V13,  iy  for  y,  as  Rashi  observes  on  Nah. 
iii.  18.     '  ' 

»"The  image  of  'the  cup  of  destiny'  ii.  16,  first 
occurs  in  the  prophets  after  Jeremiah  ;  and  Hab. 
ii.  16.  itself  seems  to  refer  to  Jerem.  xlix.  12." 
Stahelin  pp.  288,  289.  "  The  cup  of  judgment  (ii.  16.) 
does  not  occur  in  the  prophets  before  Jeremiah ; 
whether  Habakkuk  refers  in  ii.  IG.  to  Jer.  xlix.  12. 
is  doubtful,  though  Stahelin  ventures  to  assert  it;" 
Dr.  Davidson  (iii.  303)  acknowledging,  as  usual,  the 
source  of  his  statements,  where  he  dissents  in  one 
of  them. 

"  David,  Ps.  xi.  6.  Asaph,  Ixxv.  8. 

»  David.  Ps.  xvi.  5.  xxiii.  5.      J  Ps.  Ix.  5.  [3  Eng.] 

2 1?,  xxix.  9.  »ver.  16. 


172 


INTRODLXTION  TO 


one  would  tolerate  it,  except  that  it  is  adduced 
to  support  a  popular  and  loregone  conclusion. 
It  would  be  laughed  to  scorn,  were  it  used  by 
believers  in  revelation.  In  the  small  remains 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  and  language,  an 
induction,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  value,  must  be 
very  distinct.  The  largeness  of  Greek  litera- 
ture enables  critics  to  single  out  Homeric, 
Herodotean,  ^fechylean,  Pindaric  words.  In 
Hebrew  we  meet  with  drraf  /.eydjiEva  in  per- 
haps every  prophet,  in  many  Psalms;  but  it 
requires  far  more  than  the  occurrence  of  the 
word  in  one  single  place,  to  furnish  any  even 
probable  inference,  that  it  was  framed  by  the 
Prophet  or  Psalmist  himself.  Still  less  can 
it  be  inferred  safely  that  because,  in  the 
scanty  remains  of  Hebrew,  a  word  does  not 
occur  before  e.  g.  a  certain  historical  book,  it 
did  not  exist  before  the  date  of  that  book. 
Rather  the  occurrence  of  any  word  in  lan- 
guage so  simple  as  that  of  the  historical 
books,  is  an  evidence  that  it  did  exist  and 
was  in  common  use  at  the  time.  Poets  and 
orators  coin  words,  in  order  to  give  full 
expression  for  their  thoughts.  The  charac- 
teristic of  the  sacred  historians,  both  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  is  to  relate  the 
facts  in  most  absolute  simplicity.  It  would 
be  a  singular  "history  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage," which  should  lay  down  as  a  principle, 
that  all  those  are  later  words,  which  do  not 
happen  to  occur  before  the  books  of  Kings, 
Habakkuk,  or  any  other  prophet,  whom  this 
criticism  is  pleased  to  rank  among  the  later 
books.  What  are  we  to  do  with  Habakkuk's 
own  axaf  'Aeydfieva  f  Granted,  that  he  framed 
some  of  them,  yet  it  is  impossible  that  he 
framed  them  all.  As  specimens  of  the  re- 
sults of  such  a  critical  principle,  that  words, 
occurring  for  the  first  time  in  any  book,  are 
characteristic  of  the  date  ot  that  word,  let  us 
only  take  roots  beginning  with  s.  Had  then 
the  Hebrew  no  name   for  nails  (as  distinct 

•  DnODO    Is.    xli.   7,    D"10pp   1    Chr.  xxil.  3, 

nnra?-?',  Jer.  x.  4,  nnoDo,  2  chr.  iii.  9.  nnotyo 

Eccl.  xii.  11. 

d  |3D,  1  Kg9  vi.  9,  pj3D  1  Kgs  vii.  3,  7,  Jer.  xxii. 
14,  Hagg.  i.  4,  (n£)D  Dt.  xxxiii.  21.  piJE;  lb.  19,  is  i. 
q.  pDX).  tnX,  "  hold  together,"  occurs  1  Kgs  vi.  6, 
10,  Ezek.  xli.  6;  770  lit.  "overshadowed"  Neh.  iii. 
16 ;  pVi^  occurs  also  1  Kgs  vi.  5,  6, 10. 

*U"\Dhv,  Gen.  vi.  IG,  as  in  1  Kgs  vi.  8.  Ez.  xlil.  3. 

'rrjp  Gen.  xix.  8.  as  being  "  beamed."  Conf.  n">P 

"laid  beams,"  (met.)Ps.  civ. .T  else  2  Chr.  xxxiv.  11, 
Neh.  li.  8,  iii.  3,  6 ;  mip  beam  2  Kgs  vi.  2,  5,  2  Chr. 

iii.  7.  Cait.  i.  17.  TT^pO  Eccl.  x.  18. 

«  n^'Sp  an,  Jon.  i.  5.  See  vol.  I.  p.  376. 

i"  See  ab.  on  Micnh  iv.  p.  62. 

'1  Kgs -wiii.  21.  As  "branches,"  D'fl I'D  first  oc- 
oura  in  Isaiah,  (xvii.  6.  xxvll.  10)  and  the  denom. 


!  from  hooks,  pegs '',)  before  those  whom  these 
I  critics  would  make  late  writers",  as  Ecclesi- 
astes  and  Isaiah  xli?  Or  had  they  none  for 
ceiling  a  building  before  the  book  of  Kings'* ; 
although  the  ark  had  a  third  story  *,  and  Lot 
speaks  of  "the  shadow  of  my  roof'?"  Or 
had  they  none  for  a  "  decked  vessel "  before 
Jonah  8,  although  the"  Indian  names  of  Solo- 
mon's imports  show  that  Ophir,  whither  his 
navy  sailed,  was  in  India,  Ophir  itself  being 
Abhira  in  the  province  of  Cutch  ^  ?  Or  had 
they  no  name  for  "divided  opinions"  before 
Elijah '  ?  Seed  shed,  which  sprang  up  in  the 
second  year,  was  known  in  the  Pentateuch  '' ; 
but  that  of  the  third  year  would,  on  that 
hypothesis,  remain  unknown  till  Hezekiah ' ; 
nor  did  the  Hebrews  express  to  "drag 
along  the  ground,"  till  Hushai™,  and,  after 
him,  Jeremiah.  They  had  no  name  for  win- 
ter, as  distinct  from  autumn,  until  the  Can- 
ticles", and,  but  for  the  act  of  the  Philistines 
in  stopping  up°  Abraham's  wells,  it  might 
have  been  said  that  Hebrew  had  no  word  for 
this  act,  tiU  the  time  of  Jehoshaphat  p. 

Or  as  to  the  criticism  itself,  O/p  is  to  be  a 

later  word,  because,  except  in  that  Psalm  of 
the  sons  of  Corah,  it  occurs  first  in  the  his- 
tory of  Elishai.  Perhaps  it  is  so  rare  (and 
this  may  illustrate  the  history  of  Elisha)  be- 
cause, as  used,  it  seems  to  have  been  one  of 
tlie  stronge.'it  words  in  the  language  for  "  de- 
rision ;  "  at  least  the  verb  is  used  in  an  inten- 
sive form  only,  and  always  of  strong  derision '. 
But  then,  did  the  old  Helirews  never  use  de- 
rision ?  Happy  exception  ibr  one  nation,  if 
they  never  used  it  wrongly  or  had  no  occa- 
sion to  use  it  rightly  !  Yet  even  though  (by 
a  rare  exception)  Ewald  allows  the  second 
Psalm  to  be  David's,  (Job  however  being 
placed  about  the  7th  century  B.  C.)  the  evi- 
dence for  J>'7,  as  strong  a  word,  would  be  of 
the  time  of  David '.     "Scorning"  "scoffing," 

n;»D,  lb.  X.  33.  and  n'l3j;D,  niSJ-Hp  in  Ezek.  xxxi. 

6.  6.  8. 
^n'30  Lev.  XXV.  5. 11.  Else  only  with  C^'nO  or 

D'nK?. 

'ty'riD  2  Kgs  xix.  29,  D'HE^.  lb.  xx.xvii.  30. 

"  3n0  2  Sam.  xvii.  13.  Jer.  xv.  ,3,  xxii,  19,  xlix.  20. 
So  nnO  "swept"  occurs  only  Ezek.  xxvi.  4.  'nO 

Lam.  iii.  45.  but  nnD  is  used  by  Solomon  Prov. 

xxviii.  3. 

"inDCant.  li.  11. 

»  oKip  Gen.  xxvi.  15. 18. 

p  DJID  2  Kgs  iii.  19.  25.  2  Chr.  xxxii.  3. 4.  Nlf.  of 

closing  breaches  in  a  wall,  Neh.  iv.  1. 
Q  2  Kgs  ii.  23. 
'  Pih.  Ez.  xvi.  31.  Hithp.  2  Kgs  1.  c,  Hab. ..  c,  Ez. 

xxil.  6,  who  has  also  DDvp. 

•  J^S.  The  verb  occurs  Ps.  ii.  4,  xxii.  8,  llx.  9, 
Ixxx.  7,  Prov.  1.  26,  xvii.  \  xxx.  17.  Job  ix.  23,  xi.  3, 
xxi.  3,  x.x.i.  10,  la.  xxxiii.  19.  xxxvii.  22,  Jer.  xx.  7, 


HABAKKUK. 


173 


(unless  Psalm  i.  be  allowed  to  be  David's)  | 
did  not  begin  till  Solomon's  time'.     "Mock- 
ing" was  yet  later".    As  belongs  to  a  rude 
people,   insult  was  only   shewn   in   acts,  of 

which  7  7;^r>n  is  used  ^ ;  and  from  those  sim- 
ple times  of  the  Patriarchs,  they  had  no 
stronger  word  than  "  to  laugh  at '"."  For 
this  is  the  only  word  used  in  the  Penta- 
teuch ". 

But  to  what  end  all  this  ?  To  prove  that 
Habakkuk  had  no  superhuman  knowledge  of 
what  he  foretold  ?  Prophecy  occupies,  as  I 
said,  a  subordinate  place  in  Habakkuk.  He 
renews  the  "burden"  of  former  prophets, 
both  upon  his  own  people  and  upon  the 
Chaldseans ;  but  he  does  not  speak  even  so 
definitely  as  they.  His  office  is  rather  to  en- 
force the  connection  of  sin  and  punishment : 
he  presupposes  the  details,  which  they  had 
declared.  Apart  from  those  chapters,  which 
pseudo-criticism  denies  to  Isaiah  y, on  account 
of  the  distinctness  of  the  temporal  prophe- 
cies, Isaiah  had,  in  plainest  words,  declared 
to  Hezekiah  the  carrying  away  of  all  the 
royal  treasures  to  Babylon,  and  that  his  ofl- 
spring  should  be  eunuchs  there' ;  Micah  had 
declared  not  only  the  complete  desolation  of 
Jerusalem  %  but  that  the  people  should  be 
""carried  to  Babylon,  and  there  delivered, 
there  redeemed  from  the  hands  of  the  enemy." 
In  the  1.3th  year  of  Josiah,  B.  C.  628,  and  so, 
three  years  before  the  fall  of  Nineveh,  while 
Babylon  was  still  dependent  on  Nineveh  and 
governed  by  a  vice-roy,  and  while  Nabopo- 
lassar  was  still  in  the  service  of  the  king  of 
Nineveh,  Jeremiah  foretold,  that "  evil  should 
break  forth  from  the  North  upon  all  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  land,  and  all  the  families  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  North  shall  come  and  set  every 
one  his  throne  at  the  entering  of  the  gates  of  Je- 
rusalem, and  against  all  the  tvalls  thereof  round 
about  and  against  oil  the  cities  of  Judah,  to  exe- 
cute the  judgments  of  God  against  them  for 
their  wickedness.  This  was  his  dirge  over  his 
country  for  twenty-three  years  %  ere  yet  there 
was  a  token  of  its  fulfillment.  Babylon  had 
succeeded  to  Nineveh  in  the  West  and  South- 

2  Chr.  XXX.  10,  Neh.  il.  19,  iil.  33.  JJ^S  Job.  xxxiv.  7, 
Ps.  cxxiii.  4,  Hos.  vii.  16,  Ez.  xxiii.  32,  xxxvi.  4.  with 
oSd  Ps.  xliv.  19.  Ixxix.  4. 

'  yj  part,  occurs  14  times  in  Prov.  Ps.  i.  1.  and  Is. 
xxix.  20.  y  f  (the  verb),  Pr.  ix.  12.  D'^f^^lS  Hos.  vi. 
5.  yxibnn  is.  xxviii.  22.  ■["Sn  Ps.  cxlx.  51  Pr.  iii. 
34,  xiv.  9,  xix.  28. 

"  Snn  Job  xvii.  2, 1  Kgs  xviii.  27. 

^S"7j?r\n  with  3  of  the  pers.  Num.  xxii.  29,  of 
Balaam's  ass ;  1  Sam.  xxxi.  4,  Jer.  xxxviii.  19, 1  Chr. 
X.  4,  of  apprehended  insult  from  an  enemy. 

"  pnV  C^^"^-  •''^'•''-  1*>  x^''  9.  insult    in  act,  lb. 

xxxix.  14, 17,  revived  from  Genesis,  Ez.  xxiii.  32, 
elsewhere  pr\\if. 


West,  and  Judah  had  fallen  to  the  share  of 
Babylon ;  but  the  relation  of  Josiah  to  Na- 
bopolassar  was  of  a  tributary  sovereign,  which 
rebellion  only  could  disturb.  The  greater 
p^rt  of  Nabopolassar's  21  year's  reign  are 
almost  a  blank  ^  Chastisement  had  come, 
but  from  the  South,  not  from  the  North. 
Eighteen  years  had  passed  away,  and  Josiah 
had  fallen,  in  resisting  Pliaraoh-Necho  in 
discharge  of  his  fealty  to  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon. Pharaoh-Necho  had  taken  away  one 
king  of  Judah,  Jehoahaz,  the  people's  choice, 
whose  continued  fealty  to  Babylon  represents 
their  minds,  and  had  set  up  another,  .Jehoia- 
kim.  For  three  years  Judah's  new  allegiance 
was  allowed  to  continue.  Who,  but  God, 
could  tell  the  issue  of  the  conflict  of  those 
two  great  armies  at  Carchemish?  Egypt 
with  her  allies,  the  Ethiopians,  Phut  and 
Lud,  were  come,  rising  up  like  aflood\  covering 
the  earth  with  her  armies,  as  her  rivers,  when 
swollen,  made  her  own  land  one  sea.  Necho 
had  apparently  in  his  alliance  all  the  kings 
of  the  countries  West  of  the  Euphrates  :  for 
to  them  all,  in  connection  with  Egypt  and 
subordinate  to  her,  does  Jeremiah  at  that 
moment  give  to  drink  the  cup  of  the  wrath 
of  God ;  to  *  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  and  his 
servants  and  his  princes  and  all  his  people,  and 
all  the  mingled  people  [his  auxiliaries]  and  all 
the  kings  of  the  la.nd  of  Uz,  and  all  the  kings  of 
the  land  of  the  Philistines  and  Ashkelon  and 
Azzah  and  Ekron  and  the  remrumt  of  Ashdod  ; 
Edom  and  Moab  and  the  children  of  Amman ; 
and  all  the  kings  of  Tyrus,  and  all  the  kings  of 
Zidon  and  the  kings  of  the  isle  beyond  the  sea 
[probably  Caphtor'',  or  Crete,  or  Cyprus] 
Dedan  and  Tema  and  Buz,  and  those  whose  hair 
is  shorn  [Arabians ']  aiid  all  the  kings  of  Arabia 
and  all  the  kings  of  the  mingled  people  that  dwell 
in  the  desert,  and  all  the  kings  of  Zimri  \^  de- 
scendants of  Abraham  and  Keturah.]  It 
was  a  mighty  gathering.  All  the  kings  of 
Elam,  all  the  Icings  of  the  Medes,  all  the  kings 
of  the  North  far  and  near,  all  was  hostile  to 
Babylon  ;  for  all  were  to  drink  of  the  cup 
beforehand,  at  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon, and  then  the  king  of  Sheshach  [Babylon] 

»The  exact  meaning  of  HVOtJ'  (Ex.  xxxii.  25)  is 
uncertain.  The  E.  v.  "shame"  follows  most  of 
the  Heb.  Tntt.,  yet  with  an  improbable  et3'mol. 
"Whisper"  seems  the  most  probable  meaning  of 
Job  iv.  12.  xxvi.  14,  from  which  that  of  "ill-report" 
is  possible.  The  Arabic  gives  nothing  nearer  than 
"hurried  in  speech." 

y  Is.  xiii.  xiv.  1-23,  xl.  sqq. 

« Is.  xxxix.  6,  7.  »  Mic.  iii.  12. 

bib.  iv.  10.  » Jer.  i.  14-16. 

d  lb.  XXV.  3.  see  also  v.  1.5-17,  vi.  1.  22-25,  x.  22. 
Also  in  the  collection  of  all  his  prophecies  from  the 
time  of  Josiah,  which  God  bade  him  make  in  the 
4th  year  of  Jehoiakim,  Jer.  xxxvi.  2.  20,  he  pro- 
vides them  also  with  a  saying  against  idolatry  (in 
Chaldee)  for  their  use  in  their  captivity  in  Chaldtea. 
x.  11.  «  Rawl.  5  Emp.  iii.  484. 

f  Jer.  xlvi.  8.  9.  «Ib.  xxv.19-24. 

b  Jer.  xlvii.  4.  'Herod,  ill.  8. 

tGen.  XXV.  2. 1  Chr.  i.  .32.  ('"^pi  for  'JIDl.) 


174 


INTRODUCTIOX  TO 


was  to  drinh  ajler  them.  Necho  was  one  of  the 
most  enterprising  monarchs'.  Nabopolassar 
haxl  shewn  no  signs  of  enterprise.  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, the  lirst  and  last  conqueror  of  the 
Babylonian  empire,  though  the  alliance  with 
Media  and  his  father's  empire  had  been 
cemented  by  his  marriage,  had,  as  far  as  we 
know,  remained  inactive  during  20  years  of 
his  father's  life '".  lie  w:vs  as  yet  untried.  So 
little  did  he  himself  feel  secure  as  to  his  in- 
heritance of  the  tlirone,  even  after  his  success 
at  the  head  of  his  fathe:-'s  army,  that  his 
rapid  march  across  the  desert,  with  light 
troops,  to  secure  it,  and  its  preservation  for 
him  by  the  chief  priest,  are  recorded  in  a 
very  concise  history  °.  Neither  Egypt  nor 
Jehoiakira  foresaw  the  issue.  Defeat  taught 
neither.  Two  voices  only  gave,  in  God's 
name,  one  unheeilcd  warning.  Pharaoh  Ho- 
phra,  the  Apries  of  Herodotus,  succeeded 
Pharaoh  Necho  in  his  self-confidence,  his 
aggressions,  his  defeat.  "  I  am  against  tliee," 
God  says",  "Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  the 
great  dragon  that  lieth  in  the  midst  of  his 
rivers,  whkh  kalh  said,  My  river  is  mine  own 
and  I  have  nuide  it  for  viyself."  "  It  is  said," 
relates  Herodotus p,  "that  Apries  believed 
that  there  was  not  a  god  which  could  cast 
him  down  from  his  eminence,  so  firmly  did 
he  think  that  he  had  established  himself  in 
liis  kingdom." 

Kor  a  time,  Nebuchadnezzar  must  have 
been  hindered  by  Eastern  wai-s,  since,  on 
.Jehoiakim's  rebellion  and  perjury,  he  sent 
only  bands  of  the  Chaldces,  with  bands  of  tribu- 
tary nations,  tlie  Syrians,  Moabites,  Ammon- 
ites, against  him  **.  But  not  in  his  time 
only,  even  after  the  captivity  under  his  son 
.Jehoiachin  and  his  men  of  might  "■,  the  con- 
viction tliat  Nebuchadnezzar  could  be  re- 
sisted, still  remained  in  the  time  of  Zedekiah 
both  in  Egypt  and  Judah.  Judah  would 
have  continued  to  hold  under  Babylonia 
that  same  position  toward  Egypt  which  it 
did  under  Persia,  only  with  subordinate 
kings  instojid  of  governors.  Apart  from 
God's  general  promise  of  averting  evil  on 
repentance,  Jeremiah,  too,  expressly  tells 
Israel,  "  '  If  thou  wilt  put  away  tliine  abom- 
inations out  of  My  sight,  thou  shalt  not 
remove ;  "  "'Then  will  I  cause  you  to  dwell 
in  this  place,  in  the  land  that  I  gave  to  your 
fathers,  for  ever  and  ever."  And  "  in  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim"," 
" "  The  Ijord  sent  me  to  prophesy  against 
this  house  and  against  this  city  all  the 
words   which    ve    have    heanl.      Therefore 


'As  shown  in  his  utti'nipt  to  make  ii  (.•anul  across 
I  lie  isthmus  of  Suoz  f  Herod,  ii.  158.)  and  in  the 
liroumnavigation  of  AtVica.  lb.  iv.  42. 

™  The  battle  of  Carcheinish  was  in  the  4th  of 
.Ichoiakinn.  .ler.  .xlvi.  1.  2. 

"  Hero.su.s  in  Jonuph.  c.  Ap.  i.  19.  Opy.  ii.  4.iO. 

"Ezek.  xxix.  ^.  p  Ilerod.  ii.  10. 

•Ii  Ki??  xxiv.  Ii.  'lb.  M-K;.  "Jit.  iv.  1. 


now  amend  your  ways  and  your  doings  and 
obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord  your  God,  and  the 
Lord  icill  repent  Him  of  the  evil  that  He  hath 
pronounced  against  you."  Still  later,  to 
Zedekiah,  " "  The  nations  that  bring  their 
neck  under  the  yoke  of  the  king  of  Babylon 
and  serve  him,  them  icill  I  kl  remain  stUl  in 
their  own  land,  saith  the  Lord;  and  they  shall 
till  it  and  diceU  therein."  "  *  I  have  sent  unto 
you  all  My  servants  the  prophets,  rising  up 
early  and  sending  them,  saying,  Return  ye 
now  every  man  from  his  evil  way  and 
amend  your  doings,  and  go  not  after  other 
gods  to  serve  them,  and  ye  shall  dwell  in  the 
land  which  I  have  given  to  you  and  to  your 
fathers."  Even  on  the  very  verge  of  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem,  Jeremiah  promised  to 
Zedekiah  >' ;  "  If  thou  wilt  go  forth  to  the 
king  of  Babylon's  princes  ; — this  city  shall  not 
be  burned  with  fire."  Pharaoh  Hophra  was 
still  strong  enough  to  raise  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
salem, when  invested  by  the  Chaldtean  army  ^ 
Jeremiah  had  the  king,  his  princes,  his  pro- 
phets, all  the  people  of  tlie  land  against  him, 
because  he  prophesied  that  Jerusalem  should 
be  burned  with  fire,  that  those  already  taken 
captives  should  not  return,  until  the  whole 
had  l)een  carried  away,  and  the  seventy  years 
of  captivity  were  accomplislied  *.  The  warn- 
ing and  the  promise  of  Jeremiah's  Inaugural 
vision  had  its  accomplishment.  "  ''  I  have 
made  thee  a  defenced  city,  and  an  iron  pillar, 
and  brazen  walls,  against  tlie  king  of  Judah, 
against  the  princes  thereof  and  against  the  people 
of  the  land  ;  and  they  shall  fight  against  thee, 
but  they  shall  not  prevail  against  thee  ;  for 
I  am  with  thee,  saith  the  Lord,  to  deliver 
thee."  Had  it  been  matter  of  human  fore- 
sight, how  was  it,  that  all  nations,  all  their 
politicians,  all  their  wise  men,  all  their  pro- 
phets, all  Judah,  kings,  priests,  princes,  people, 
were  blinded,  (as  in  Him  of  Whom  Jeremiah 
was  a  shadow,)  and  Jeremiah  alone  .saw '.' 
"  Vaticinia  post  eventum  "  are,  in  one  sense, 
easy  ;  viz.  to  imagine,  after  an  event  has  taken 
place,  that  one  could  have  foreseen  it.  And 
yet  who,  after  the  retreat  to  Corunna,  couM 
have  foreseen  the  victories  of  the  Peninsular 
war?  Or,  when  that  tide  of  647,000  men" 
was  rolling  on  toward  Russia,  who  could 
imagine  that  only  a  small  fraction  of  those 
hosts  should  return,  that  they  should  capture 
Moscow,  but  find  it  a  tomb  ;  and  hunger  and 
cold,  reaching  at  last  to  36  degrees  below 
Zero,  should  destroy  more  than  the  sword? 
"''What  was  the  principal  adversary  of  this 
tremendous  power  ?  By  whom  was  it  cliecked 


'  Il>.  vii.  7,  add  xvii.  a."),  iti.  xxii.  2-5. 
"  lb.  XX vi.  1.  »  xxvi.  12.  add  ib.  2,  3. 

"xxvii.  11.  «  XXXV.  15.  Txxxviii.  17. 

•  .ler.  xxxvii.  5.  »  xxv.  11,  12.  xxix.  lo. 

>>  Jer.  i.  18, 19,  renewed  xv.  2o. 
«"  Imperial  muster  rolls  in  Chanibruy  \'ul.  i.  A|ip. 
No.  2."  Alison  Hist,  of  Europe  x.  629. 
•I  Dr.  Arnol.l  lect.  on  Hi.st.  li.  139. 


HABAKKUK. 


175 


and  resisted  and  put  down  ?  By  none  and  by 
nothing  but  the  direct  and  manifest  inter- 
position of  God." 

The  distinctness  and  perseverance  of  tlie 
prophecy  are  the  more  remarkable,  because 
the  whole  of  the  greatness  of  the  Chaldsean 
empire  was  that  of  one  man.  Assyria,  in 
this  one  case,  overreached  itself  in  its  policy 
of  transporting  conquered  populations.  It 
had,  probably  to  check  the  rebellions  of 
Babylon,  settled  there  a  wild  horde,  which  it 
hoped  would  neither  assimilate  with  its  peo- 
ple, nor  itself  rebel.  Isaiah  relates  the  fact 
in  simple  words  :  *  Behold  tlie  land  of  the  Chal- 
dceans;  this  people  was  not;  the  Assyrian 
founded  ^  it  for  them  thai  dwelt  in  the  wilderness. 
This  does  not  seem  to  me  necessarily  to  im- 
ply, that  the  wild  people,  for  whom  Assyria 
founded  it,  were  Chaldseans  ^  or  Curds,  whom 
the  king  of  Assyria  had  brought  from  their 
Northern  dwellings  in  the  Ca/c?uchtean 
mountains ''  near  Armenia,  where  Senna- 
cherib conquered.  Isaiah  simply  uses  the 
name,  tlie  land  of  the  Chaldceans,  as  does  Jere- 
miah '  after  him,  as  the  name  of  Babylonia  ; 
the  word  Babylonia,  had  it  existed,  might 
have  been  substituted  for  it.  Of  this,  he 
says,  that  it  u>as  not,  i.  e.  was  of  no  account  ", 
but  that  Assur  founded  it  for  wild  tribes, 
whom  he  placed  there.  Whence  he 
brought  those  tribes,  Isaiah  does  not  say. 
^schylus  (altliough  indeed  in  later  times)  as 
well  as  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  speak  of  the 
population  of  Babylon,  as  mingled  of  various 
nations ;  and  the  language  is  too  large  to  be 
confined  simply  to  its  merchant-settlers.  In 
^Eschylus',  "  the  all-mingled  crowd,"  wliich 
"  it  sends  out  in  long  array,"  are  its  military 
contingents.  It  is  its  whole  population,  of 
which  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  say,  it  will  flee, 
each  to  his  own  land.  "  It  [Babylon]  shall 
be  us  a  chased  roc,  and  as  o  sheep  which  no  man 
yathereth  ;  they  shall,  every  man,  turn  to  his  own 
people,  and  flee  every  man  to  Ai,s  oicn  land.  For 
fear  of  the  oppressing  sword  they  shall  turn  every 
one  to  his  people :  °  And  they  .ihall  flee,  every 
one  to  his  own  land. 

Thus  Babylonia  received  that  solid  acces- 
sion of  strength  which  ultimately  made  it  a 

« Is.  xxiii.  13. 

'Jon.  unites  Asshur  with  the  preceding  D^TI  HI 

lltyK  riTI  kS  and  so  Syr.  and  Oxf.  Arab.  S.  Jer. 
divides  as  the  E.  V.,  though  with  an  opposite  sense. 
"Talis  populus  non  fuit."  The  E.  V.  is  from  Kim. 
The  rendering,  "  This  people  was  not  Asshur,"  i.  e. 
no  longer  Asshur,  or  not  like  Asshur,  is  very 
obscure ;  and  nD'  is  everywhere  "  grounded  it, 
that  it  might  be,"  (Comp.  Ps.  civ.  8,  Hab.  i.  12.  and 
the  common  use  of  HO'  "  founded  a  city,  building, 
temple,")  not  that  it  should  cease  to  be. 

!  With  this  the  only  objection  to  the  simple  ren- 
dering falls  away,  that  Jeremiah  speaks  of  the 
Chaldees,  as  aa  ancient  nation.  Jer.  v.  15. 

>■  Xen.  Ovrop.  iii.  2.  7  and  12.  Anab.  iv.  3,  i.  v. .').  9. 
vii.  8. 14. 

i  Jer.  xxiv.  o,  1.  8.  25,  li.  4;  and,  united  with  the 
name  Babylon,  xxv.  12,  1.  1.  45,  Ezek.  xii.  l:i,  as 
Isaiah  doe.s  Chasdim  alone,  xlviii.  14,  20. 


powerful  people,  sixty  years  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  reign  of  Josiah  ;  its  ancient 
and  new  elements  would  take  some  time  to 
blend :  they  did  not  assume  importance  until 
the  capture  of  Nineveh  ;  nor  had  Judah  any 
reason  to  dread  anything  from  them,  until 
itself  rebelled,  early  in  the  reign  of  Jehoia- 
kim.  But  18  years  before  the  death  of 
Josiah,  while  Judah  was  a  trusted  and  faith- 
ful tributary  kingdom,  Jeremiah  foretold 
that  evil  should  come  upon  them  from  the 
North,  i.  e.  as  he  himself  explains  it,  from 
the  Chaldees".  Even  then  if  Habakkuk 
were  brought  down  to  be  a  contemporary  of 
Jeremiah,  still  in  the  13th  year  of  Josiah, 
there  was  nothing  to  fear.  Judah  was  not 
in  the  condition  of  an  outlying  country, 
whicli  Babylonian  ambition  might  desire  to 
reduce  into  dependence  on  itself.  It  was 
already  part  of  the  Babylonian  empire,  hav- 
ing passed  into  it,  in  the  partition  with  Assy- 
ria, and  had  no  more  to  fear  from  it,  than 
any  of  the  conquered  nations  of  Europe  have 
now  from  those  who  have  annexed  them, 
unless  they  rebel.  God  alone  knew  the  new 
ambition  of  the  kings  of  the  smitten  and  sub- 
dued Egypt,  their  momentary  success,  Jo- 
siah's  death,  Judah's  relapse  into  the  old 
temptation  of  trusting  in  Egypt — all,  condi- 
tions of  the  fuliillment  of  Habakkuk's  and 
Jeremiah's  prophecies.  Edom,  Moab,  Am- 
nion, Tyre,  Zidon,  sent  embassadors  to  Zede- 
kiah,  to  concert  measures  of  resistance 
against  Nebuchadnezzar  p  ;  they  were  encour- 
aged by  their  ''  diviners,  dreamers,  enchanters, 
sorcerers,  which  spake  to  them,  ye  shall  not  servi- 
the  king  of  Babylon.  One  alone  told  thera  that 
resistance  would  but  bring  upon  them  de- 
struction, that  submission  was  their  only 
safety ;  there  was  prophecy  against  pro- 
phecy *■,  among  these  nations,  in  Jerusalem, 
in  Babylon  * ;  the  recent  knowledge  of  the 
political  aspect  of  Babylon  deterred  not  the 
false  prophets  there ;  all,  with  one  voice, 
declared  the  breaking  the  yoke  of  the  king 
of  Babylon  :  Jeremiah  only  saw,  that  they 
were  framing  for  themselves'  yokes  of  iron. 
Had  Jehoiakim  or  Zedekiah,  their  nobles, 
and  their  people  possessed  that  human  fore- 

kColl.  oy  t^S  Deut.  xxxii.  21,  B?'X  J<S  Ps.  xxii. 
7.  See  the  like  in  the  Classics  in  Perizon.  Orig.  Bab. 
e.  vi.  p.  70.  sqq.  and  from  him  in  Vitr. 

•  JEsch.  Pers.  52,  53,  .54.  "  Is.  xiii.  14. 

n  Jer.  1. 16. 

0  There  ought  to  be  no  question  as  to  the  identity 
of  the  invasion  from  the  north,  Jer.  i.  15,  vi.  22,  x. 
22,  and  Jeremiah's  own  summary  of  his  prophecies 
from  the  ISth  of  Josiah,  xxv.  3-9  when  he  names 
Nebuchadnezzar;  only  then  there  would  be  definite 
prediction.  Hence  the  mare's  nest  as  to  the  dread 
of  the  Sej'thians,  who  marched  down  the  sea  coast 
and  returned,  being  bought  off  by  Psammetichus, 
doing  no  harm  to  Judah  by  this  passing  expedition. 

pjer.  xxvii.  3.  q  lb.  9. 

'Jer.  v.  12-14.  xiv.  14-16.  xxiii.  16,  17,  21,  25-27,  3() 
.sqq.  xxvii.  14, 15-18,  xxviii. 

'  Jer.  xxix.  8,  9,  15,  21,  24,  sqq. 

t  xxviii.  13,  14. 


176 


INTEODUCTION  TO 


light  which  that  pseudo-critical  school  holds 
to  be  80  easy,  Judah  had  never  gone  into 
captivity  to  Babylon.  But  He  Who  fashion- 
eth  the  heart  of  man  knoweth  alone  the  issue 
of  the  working  of  those  hearts,  which  He 
over-rules. 

From  the  necessity  of  its  case,  the  pseudo- 
critical  school  lowers  down  the  words,  in 
wliich  Hiibakkuk  declares  the  niarvelousncss 
of  the  event  which  he  foretells,  and  the  un- 
belief of  his  people.  "Look  well,"  he  bids 
them,  "  marvel  ye,  marvel  on ;  for  I  will  work 
a  work  in  your  days  which  ye  will  not  believe, 
when  it  shall  be  told  you."  It  is  "  .some- 
thing which  had  not  hitherto  been,  some- 
thing hitherto  unknown,"  says  Stahelin  ". 
Yet  things  hitherto  unknown,  are  not  there- 
fore incredible.  "  It  is  clear  from  the  con- 
tents," says  Bleek  ",  "  that  the  Chaldees  had 
at  that  time  already  extended  to  the  West 
their  expeditions  of  conquest  and  destruction, 
and  on  the  other  side,  that  this  had  only  lately 
begun  and  that  they  were  not  yet  come  to 
Judah  and  Jerusalem,  so  that  here  they 
were  hitherto  little  known."  "The  appear- 
ance of  the  Chaldees  as  world-conquerors 
wivs,  in  Judah,  then  a  quite  new  phenom- 
enon," says  Ewald  ".  "  The  description  of 
the  Chaldees  altogether  is  of  such  sort,  that 
they  appear  as  a  people  still  little  known  to 
the  Jews,"  says  Knobel  ".  "  That  which  is 
incredible  for  the  people  consists  therein, 
that  God  employs  just  the  Chaldees,  such  as 
they  are  described  in  what  follows,  for  the 
unexpected  chastisement  of  Isi-ael,"  says  even 
Umbreit  ^.     .. 

What  was  there  incredible,  that,  when  the 
king  of  Jerusalem  had  revolted  from  Baby- 
lon, and  had  sided  with  Egypt,  its  chief 
enemy,  the  Chald?eans,  should  come  against 
it  ?.  As  soon  might  it  be  said  to  be  incredible 
that  France  should  invade  Prussia,  when  its 
hundred  thousands  were  on  their  march 
toward  the  Rhine.  During  the  reign  of 
Manasseh  it  was  incredible  enough,  that  any 
peril  should  impend  from  Babylon ;  for 
Babylon  was  still  subordinate  to  Assyria : 
in  the  early  years  of  Josiah  it  was  still  in- 
credible, for  his  thirty -one  years  were  years 
of  peace,  until  Pharaoh  Necho  disi>uted  the 
cis-Euphratensian  countries  with  Babylon. 
When  the  then  East  and  West  came  to 
Carchemish,  to  decide  whether  the  empire 
should  be  with  the  East  or  with  the  West, 
nothing  was  beyond  human  foresight  but 
the  result.  Expectation  lately  hung  sus- 
pended, perplexed  between  the  forces  of 
Europe.  None,  the  most  sagacious,  could 
predict  for  a  single  day.     Men  might  sur- 


•  Einl.  p.  218.  »  EInl.  ins.  A.  T.  pp.  645,  646. 

•Die  Froph.  11.  29.  see  also  Delltzscn's  quotation 
from  him  ab.  p.  170. 

« Die  Proph.  u.  Hebr.  il.  292.  Dr.  Davidson's 
.sentences  nro  nliiefly  gleaned  from  him. 


mi>e ;  God  only  could  predict.  For  three 
and  twenty  years  Jeremiah  foretold,  that  the 
evil  would  come  from  the  North,  not  from 
the  South.  The  powers  were  well-balanced. 
Take  Habakkuk's  prophecy  as  a  whole — 
not  that  the  Chaldseans  should  invade 
Judaea,  (which  in  Jehoiakim's  time  was 
already  certain)  but  that  Egypt  shoulu  be  a 
vain  help,  and  that  the  Chaldseans  should 
mesh  its  people  like  the  Jish^s  of  the  sea,  yet 
they  should  still  have  to  disgorge  them, 
because  God's  judgment  would  come  upon 
thera  also.  This  too  were  incredible.  In- 
crediijle  it  was  to  the  kings,  the  wise,  the 
politicians,  the  political  prophets  of  Judaea, 
that  Jerusalem  itself  should  be  taken.  In- 
credible it  was,  and  there  was  much  human 
reason  for  the  incredulity.  Egypt  and  Assy.- 
ria  had  been  matched  during  centuries. 
Until  the  tSargonides,  Egypt  had,  during 
centuries,  the  unbroken  advantage.  But  the 
Sargonides  had  passed  away.  Yet  Chaldsea 
had  not,  alone,  prevailed  against  Assyria. 
Why  should  the  yet  untried  Babylonian  be 
so  certain  of  success,  when  the  whole  West 
of  the  Euphrates  was  banded  together  against 
him,  and  fought  within  their  own  ground  ? 
The  kings  of  Elam  and  the  k-ings  of  the  Medes  * 
were  now,  as  under  Cyrus,  enemies  of  Baby- 
lon. Babyhm  had  enemies  before  and  be- 
hind. But  God  had  raised  up  Nebuchadnezzar 
to  be  the  hammer  of  the  whole  earth  %  and  had 
given  those  cis-Euphratensian  lands  which 
leagued  against  him  into  the  hands  of  Ne- 
buchadnezzar the  king  of  Babylon,  My  servant, 
God  says  ^,  and  all  nations  shall  serve  him  and 
his  son  and  his  son's  son,  until  the  very  time 
of  his  land  come ;  and  then  many  nations  and 
great  kings  shall  serve  themselces  of  h  im.  Whence 
this  combination  of  almost  superhuman  but 
short-lived  might,  this  certainty  of  wide 
sway  down  to  the  third  generation,  this  cer- 
tainty of  its  cessation  afterward  '.'  There  was 
no  time  for  decay.  Alexander's  empire  was 
yet  more  short-lived,  but  it  was  divided 
among  his  successors.  Alexander  had,  by  his 
genius,  founded  his  own  empire,  which  the 
able  generals,  whom  he  had  trained,  divided 
among  themselves.  In  the  Chaldean  em- 
pire, we  have  an  enterprising  conspirator, 
who  seizes  an  occasion,  i>ut  docs  little  beside 
which  is  recorded,  nothing  alone,  nothing, 
beside  that  fii-st  grasp  at  power,  for  himself. 
He  appears  only  as  the  ally  of  Media" :  then 
a  .son,  a  world-wide  conqueror,  with  a  genius 
for  consolidating  the  empire  which  he  in- 
herited, forming  an  imjtreguable  city,  which 
should  also  be  a  province,  tilling  his  empire 
with  fortres.ses  **,  but  leaving  none  after  him 


7  Kl.  Proph.  p.  286. 

•  Jer.  XXV.  26.  "lb.  1.23 

1'  lb.  xxvll.  6.  7.  •  Herod.  1.  74 

<>8ee  Daniel   the  Prophet  pp.   118.   122.   Ra^l. 
Rmpip^"  Mi   iW  aqq. 


HABAKKUK. 


17 


to  maintain  what  he  had  so  consolidated.  By 
whom  could  this  be  foreknown  save  by  Him, 
with  Whom  alone  it  is,  to  root  out  and  to  pull 
doicn  and  to  destroy  and  to  throw  dovm,  to  build 
and  to  plant  ^  ? 

It  has  been  common  to  praise  the  outside 
of  Habakkuk's  prophecy,  the  purity  of  his 
language,  the  sublimity  of  his  imagery. 
Certainly  it  is,  humanly  speaking,  magnifi- 
cent :  his  measured  cadence  is  impressive  in 
its  simplicity.  He  too  has  words  and  forms, 
which  are  peculiar  to  him  among  the  re- 
mains of  Hebrew'.  But  his  eminence  is 
ratlier  the  condensed  thought,  expressed 
often  in  the  simplest  words ;  as  when,  having 
carried  on  the  tide  of  victory  of  the  Chal- 
dsean  to  its  height,  everything  human  sub- 
dued before  him,  all  resistance  derided,  he 
gathers  up  his  fall  and  its  cause  in  those 
eight  words,  "  ^  Then  sweeps-he-by,  wind, 
and-passes,  and-is-guilty ;  this  his-strength 
(is)  his-god."  Yet  more  striking  is  the  reli- 
gious greatness,  in  which  he  sums  up  the 
meaning  of  all  this  oppressiveness  of  man. 
"  ••  Thou,  Lord,  has  placed  him  for  judgment, 

•  .Jer.  i.  10. 

'The  most  remarkable,  have,  of  course,  been 
singled  out  of  old;  as,  HOJO,  i.  9,  £0"t33i%  ii-  6, 
TlSp'p  ii.  16.  Others  are  partly  emphatic  forms, 
as  j,'ri?IO,  ii-  7,  or  are  in  some  way,  even  though 
slight,  peculiar  to  him.  vDj^D,  i.  4  (not  in  the 
verb),  inonn  i.5.  jn'TT  ii.  n  (the  form),  HDOD 

ii.  18.  S"\;;n  ii.  16.  miD,  piann,  lii.  6.  ii_};r\  iii. 

12 


and,  O  Rock,  has  founded  him  to  correct." 
Or,  take  the  picture,  prolonged  relatively  to 
his  conciseness,  of  the  utter  helplessness  (( 
God's  people,  meshed,  hooked,  dragged  in 
their  net ;  their  captors  worshiping  the  in- 
strument of  their  success,  revelling  in  their 
triumph,  and  then  the  sudden  question, 
" '  Shall  they  therefore  empty  their  net  f  "  He 
waits  to  hear  the  answer  from  God.  Or,  again, 
the  antiphonal  dirge  of  the  materials  of  the 
blood-built  city  over  him".  Or  the  cutting 
ofi'  of  every  stay,  sustenance,  hope,  promise  of 
God,  and,  amid  this  universal  crash,  what 
does  he  ?  It  is  not  as  the  heathen,  "  '  fear- 
less will  the  ruins  strike  him:"  but,  "™And 
I,"  as  if  it  were  the  continuance  and  conse- 
quence of  the  failure  of  all  human  things ; 
"  I  would  exult  in  the  Lord,  I  would  bound 
for  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation."  His 
faith  triumphs  most,  when  all,  in  human 
sight,  is  lost. 

"  111  which  Thou  blessest  is  most  good, 
And  unblest  good  is  ill ; 
And  all  is  right  which  seems  most  wrong, 
So  it  be  Thy  sweet  Will." 

9.  nix^S;;  m.  i4.  ni^p  ii.  lo.  nSiJjr  li.  4.  nu  n.  5. 

jV^n  iii,  4.  IJ'I  iii,  2.  mSPt  ii.  19,  Q'^^yr2  ii.  15. 

mn  i.  8,  U?'i33  ii.  11.  niDtyO  ii,  7.  Dm  iii.  2, 
77]f  quiver  (of  the  lips)  iii.  16,  TDfl  (of  sea)  iii.  15. 
They  will  recur  for  notice  in  the  Coram. 

B  Hab.  i.  11.  «>  lb.  12.  « lb.  17.       ^  ii.  11. 

>  Hor.  Od.  iii.  3.  8.  ■  iii.  10. 


HABAKKUK. 


^J^rf^/^m  CHAPTEK    I. 

CHKIST 
cir.  626.  1  JJnto  Habakkuk,  complaining 
of  the  iniquity  of  the  land,  5 
is  shelved  the  fearful  vengeance 
by  the  Chaldeans.  12  He  com- 
plaineth  that  vengeance  should 
be  executed  by  them  who  are  far 
vm'se. 


Chap.  I.,  Ver.  1.  The  burden"^  which  Ha- 
bakkuk the  prophet  did  see.  The  prophet's 
name  signifies  "  strong  embrace."  The  word 
in  its  intensive  form  is  used  both  of  God's 
enfolding  the  soul  in  His  tender  supporting 
love  ^,  and  of  man  clinging  and  holding  fast 
to  Divine  wisdom^.  It  fits  in  with  the  sub- 
ject of  his  prophecy,  faith,  cleaving  fast  to 
God  amid  the  perplexities  of  things  seen. 
"*  He  who  is  spiritually  Habakkuk,  cleaving 
fast  to  God  with  the  arms  of  love,  or  enfold- 
ing Him  after  the  manner  of  one  holily 
wrestling,  until  he  be  blessed,  enlightened, 
and  heard  by  Him,  is  the  seer  here."  "  Let 
him  who  would  in  such  wise  fervidly  em- 
brace God  and  plead  with  Him  as  a  friend, 
praying  earnestly  for  the  deliverance  and 
consolation  of  himself  and  others,  but  who 
sees  not  as  yet,  that  his  prayer  is  heard, 
make  the  same  holy  plaint,  and  appeal  to  the 
clemency  of  the  Creator."  "  ^  He  is  called 
'  embrace '  either  because  of  his  love  to  the 
Lord  ;  or  because  he  engages  in  a  contest  and 
strife  and  (so  to  speak)  wrestling  with  God." 
For  no  one  with  words  so  bold  ventured  to 
challenge  God  to  a  discussion  of  His  justice 
and  to  say  to  Him,  "  Why,  in  human  aftairs 
and  the  government  of  this  world  is  there  so 
great  injustice  ?  " 

The  prophet.  The  title,  the  prophet,  is  added 
only  to  the  names  of  Habakkuk,  Haggai, 
Zecharjah.  Habakkuk  may  the  rather  have 
added  it  to  his  name,  because  prominently  he 
expostulates  with  God,  like  the  Psalmists, 
and  does  not  speak  in  the  name  of  God 
to  the  people.  The  title  asserts  that  he 
exercised  the  pastoral  office  of  the  prophets, 
although  not  directly  in  this  prophecy  ®. 

Did  see.  " '  God  multiplied  visions,  as  is 
written  *,  and  Himself  spake  to  the  prophets, 
disclosing  to  them  beforehand  what  should 

1  On  the  word  burden  see  on  Nah.  i.  1.  p.  129.  n.  1. 

2  pan  Cant.  ii.  6.  viii.  3.       a  Prov.  iv.  8.    *  Dion. 

5S.  Jer.  Abarbanel  has  the  like,  "  He  strengthens 
himself  in  pleading  his  cause  with  God  as  to  the 
prosperity  of  Nebuchadnezzar  as  if  he  was  joined 
with  God  for  the  cause  of  his  people."  Pref  to 
Ezek.  pp.  123,  4, 124.  1. 

8  See  ab.  p.  20.  '  S.  Cyr.  «  Hos.  xii.  10. 

*J}W  only  occurs  in  the  intensive  form,  and 

always  of  the  cry  to  God,  expressed  by  7K.  or 
Implied,  except  perhaps  Job  xxxv.  9. 

io'ri;'riy  njK-i;'.,  as  ps.  ixxx.  b.  r^wy/m—^]; 


THE  burden  which  Ha- 
bakkuk the  prophet  did 

see. 

2  O  Lord,  how  long 

shall  I  cry, "  and  thou  wilt 

not  hear !  even  cry  out  un- 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


»Lam.  3.  8. 


be,  and  all  but  exhibiting  them  to  sight,  as 
if  already  present.  But  that  they  determined 
not  to  speak  from  their  own,  but  rather 
transmit  to  us  the  words  from  God,  he  per- 
suades us  at  the  outset,  naming  himself  a 
Prophet,  and  shewing  himself  full  of  the 
grace  belonging  thereto." 

2.  0  Lord,  how  long  shall  I  cry,  lit.  how  long 
have  I  cried  so  intensely  to  Thee  '  ?  For  it  is 
ever  the  cry  of  the  creature  to  Him  Who 
alone  can  hear  or  help,  its  God  ^.  Of  this 
cry  the  Prophet  expresses  that  it  had  already 
lasted  long.  In  that  long  past  had  he  cried 
to  God  and  no  change  had  come.  There  is 
an  undefined  past,  and  this  still  continues '". 
How  long,  as  Asaph  cries,  how  long  hast  Thou 
been,  and,  it  is  implied,  wilt  Thou  be  wroth 
against  the  prayer  of  Thy  people  ?  as  we  should 
say,  hoiv  long  shall  Thy  wrath  continue  ?  The 
words  which  the  Prophet  uses  relate  to 
domestic  strife  and  wrong  between  man  and 
man ;  violence  ",  iniquity,  strife,  contention ''', 
nor  are  any  of  them  used  only  of  the  oppres- 
sion of  a  foreign  enemy.  He  complains  too 
.of  injustice  too  strong  for  the  law,  and  the 
perversion  of  justice '".  And  on  this  the 
sentence  is  pronounced.  The  enemy  is  to  be 
?,ewt  {or  judgment  a.ndL  correction^*.  They  are 
then  the  sins  of  Judah  which  the  Prophet 
rehearses  before  God,  in  fellow-suflering  with 
the  oppressed.  God  answers  that  they  shall 
be  removed,  but  by  the  punishment  of  the 
sinners. 

Punishment  does  not  come  without  sin, 
nor  does  sin  endure  without  punishment.  It 
is  one  object  of  the  Old  Testament  to  exhi- 
bit the  connection  between  sin  and  punish- 
ment. Other  prophets,  as  commissioned  by 
God,  first  denounced  the  sins  and  then  fore- 
told the  punishment  of  the  impenitent.  Ha- 
bakkuk appeals  to  God's  justice,  as  requiring 

and  Exod.  xvi.  28.  On^JjtO  HJX-n^!  and  Ex.  x.  3, 

njKr?  'no-nj;  [aii.] 

^  "  Tij/l  OOn  are  united  of  individual  internal 
violence,  Jer.  vi.  7.  xx.  8.  Ez.  xlv.  9.  Am.  iii.  10  :  even 
13jyi  Ity  Is.  lix-  7.  and  liy  alone  Ps.  xii.  6.  Job 
xxiv.  9.  Pr.  xxi.  7.  xxiv.  2.  Hab.  ii.  17.  IB'I  2ID  Hos. 

xii.  2.  Sdj^I  pX  occur  Ps.  Iv.  11,  in  Habakkuk* 
order;  inverted  in  Ps.  x.  7.  JIK,  So^',  ^W  occur 
in  three  clauses  in  Is.  lix.  4.  7D^'>  TIN,  with  HDID 
Job  XV.  35. 
12  i.  3.  18  i.  4.  1*  i.  12, 

179 


180 


HABAKKUK. 


Before         fn 
CHRIST     ''" 

<'''••  ^'^^-      thou  wilt  not  save  ! 


thee  of   violence,  and 

nc 
3  Why  dost  thou  shew 


me  iniquity,  and  cause  )ne    ^  ^  R°f  g  ^ 
to   behold   grievance?  for      ^'r-  626. 
spoiling  and   violence  are 


its  infliction.  On  this  ground  too  this  open- 
ing of  the  prophecy  cannot  be  a  complaint 
against  the  Chaldees,  because  their  wrong 
would  be  no  ground  of  the  punishment  which 
the  prophet  denounced,  but  the  punishment 
itself,  requiting  wrong  to  man  through  human 
wrong. 

" '  The  prophet  considers  the  person  of  the 
oppressed,  enduring  the  intolerable  insolence 
and  contumely  of  those  wonted  to  do  wrong, 
and  very  skillfully  doth  he  attest  tlie  unutter- 
al)le  loving  kindness  of  God.  For  he  exliibits 
Him  as  very  forbearing,  though  wont  to  hate 
wickedness.  But  that  He  doth  not  forthwitli 
bring  judgment  on  the  ofTenders,  he  showed 
clearly,  saying  that  so  great  is  His  silence 
and  long-suliering,  that  tiiere  needeth  a 
strong  cry,  in  that  some  practise  intolerable 
covetousness  against  others,  and  use  an  un- 
bridled insolence  against  the  weak.  For 
his  very  complaints  of  God's  endurance  of 
evil  attest  the  immeasurable  loving  kindness 
of  God." 

" '  You  may  judge  hence  of  the  hatred  of 
evil  in  the  Saints.  For  they  speak  of  the 
woes  of  others  as  their  own.  So  saith  the 
most  wise  Paul,  '■'  who  is  weak  and  I  am  not 
weak  f  who  is  offend<id,  and  I  burn  not  ?  and 
bade  us  ^  weep  with  those  who  weep,  shewing  that 
sympathy  and  mutual  love  are  especially  be- 
coming to  the  saints." 

The  Prophet,  through  sympathy  or  fellow- 
suffering  with  the  sufferers,  is  as  one  of  them. 
He  eripji  for  help,  as  himself  needing  it,  and 
being  in  the  misery,  in  behalf  of  which  he 
prays.  He  says,  How  long  shdl  I  cry  f  stand- 
in,',  as  it  were,  in  the  place  of  all,  and  gath- 
ering all  their  cries  into  one,  and  presenting 
them  bef  )re  God.  It  is  the  cry,  in  one,  of 
all  which  is  wronged  to  the  God  of  Justice, 
of  all  suffering  to  the  God  of  love.  "  When 
shall  this  scene  of  sin,  and  confusion,  and 
wrong  be  at  an  end,  and  the  harmony  of 
God's  creation  be  restored  ?  How  long  shall 
evil  not  e.xist  only,  but  prevail  ?  "  It  is  the 
cry  of  the  souls  under  the  altar*.  How  Ion;/, 
0  Lord,  Hobj  and  True,  dost  Thou  not  judge 
and  avenge  our  Mood  on  them  that  dwell  on 
the  earth*  It  is  the  voice  of  the  o])pressed 
against  the  oppressor  ;  of  the  Church  against 
tlie  world  ;  weary  of  hearing  the  Lord's  Name 


1  8.  Cyr. 

*  Rom.  xii.  15. 

6  P8.  xxii.  2. 


»2  Cor.  .xi.  2ri. 

«Rev.  vi.  in. 

•Dion. 


'OOn  pi'TN  as  X-ipx  "MO)  DOH  Jer.  xx.  8.  p 

DOn  pJ^^K  Jf'l>-  xix.  7.  [all  of  this  construction] 

"Pince  t3'3n,  occurring  07  times,  is  certniiily  no 
wluTi.'  elip  usofl  cauoHiivolv  of  its  common  menn- 
lag,  Miul'l,  luok,  Hud  lliiljakkuk  liimseU  uses  it  four 


blasphemed,  of  seeing  wrong  set  up  on  high, 
holiness  trampled  under  foot.  It  is  in  its 
highest  sense  His  Voice,  Who,  to  sanctify 
our  longings  for  deliverance,  said  in  the  days 
of  His  Flesh,  *  /  cry  in  the  daytime,  but  Thou 
hearest  not. 

Even  cry  out  aloud  (it  is  the  cry  of  an- 
guish). "®  We  cry  the  louder,  the  more  we 
cry  from  the  heart,  even  witiiout  words ;  for 
not  the  moving  of  the  lips,  but  the  love  of 
the  heart  sounds  in  the  ears  of  God."  Even 
cry  out  unto  'Thee.  W^hether  as  an  exclama- 
tion or  a  continuance  of  the  question,  How 
long?  the  prophet  gathered  in  one  the  pro- 
longed cry  of  past  and  future.  He  had  cried ; 
he  should  cry  on,  Violence''.  He  speaks  as  if 
the  one  word,  jerked  ont,  as  it  were,  wrung 
foi-th  from  his  inmost  soul,  was,  Violence,  as 
if  he  said  this  one  word  to  the  God  of  Jus- 
tice and  love. 

3.  Why  dost  Thou  shew  me  iniquity,  and 
cau^e  me  to  behold,  or  rather,  Why  beholdest 
Thou^  grievance?  God  seemed  to  reverse 
what  He  had  said  by  Balaam,  "  He  hath  not 
beheld  iniquity  in  Jacob,  and  hath  not  seen 
grievousness  in  Israd;  and  in  the  Psalm, 
"'"Thou  hast  seen,  for  Tliou  [emph.]  be- 
holdest grievousness  and  wrong,  to  put  it  in 
Thy  hand,"  i.e.  Thou  layest  it  up  in  Thy 
hand,  to  cast  it  back  on  the  head  of  the  evil- 
doer. Now  He  seemed  to  behold  it  and 
leave  it  unpunished,  which  yet  Habakkuk 
says  to  God  below,  He  could  not  do;  ''  Thou 
canst  not  look  upon  iniquity.  What  then  did 
this  mean  ?     What  was  the  solution  ? 

All  forms  and  shapes  of  sin  are  multi- 
plied ;  oppressive  violence  ^'^,  such  as  covered 
the  earth  before  the  flood,  and  brought  it 
down  ;  which  Nineveh  had  to  put  away  '^ 
and  it  was  spared ;  iniquity,  i.  e.  what  is  un- 
equal and  contrary  to  truth,  falsehood  ;  griev- 
ance lit.  burdensome  wearisome  toil;  spoiling, 
or  open  robbery ;  strife  ami  contention,  both 
through  perversion  of  the  law  and,  without 
it,  tiirougli  endless  jarrings  of  man  with  man. 
Sin  recoils  on  the  sinner.  So  what  he  be- 
holds is  not  iniquity  only,  but  (in  the  same 
word)  vanity;  grievance;  which  is  a  burden 
both  to  him  who  suffers,  and  yet  more  to  him 
who  inflicts  it.  For  nothing  is  so  burden- 
some as  sin,  nothing  so  empty  as  wickedness. 

times  beside  in  that  meaning  ID'^H,  "look,"  i.  5. 
with  Sk,  i.  13.  with  Sj?  ii- 13.  with  ace.  pers.  i.  13.  it 
is  wholly  improbal)le  that  it  should  be  used  hero 
of  "causing  to  look;"  the  more,  since  he  has  not 
marked  the  supposed  exceptional  use  by  adding 
the  affi.x,  'JD'3n-  There  is  no  ground  to  assunio 
a  cjiiisntive  of  a  causative. 

vNu.  xxiii.  21.  loPs.  X.  14.  »' j.  13. 

'"  D'Dn  <jf  11.  vi.  11, 13.  '"  Jonah  iii.  s, 


CHAPTER  T. 


181 


chr'Yst    before  me:  and  there  are 
'''''•  ^^^-      that  raise  up  strife  and  con- 
tention. 

4  Therefore  the   law  is 
slacked,   and  judgment 


And  while  to  him  who  suffers,  the  suflering 
is  temporal,  to  him  who  intlicts  it,  it  is  eter- 
nal. And  yet  the  prophet  and  whoso  prays 
against  ungodliness,  "  ^  must  commiserate 
him  who  doth  wrong  yet  more,  since  they 
hurt  what  is  most  precious,  their  own  soul, 
and  that  eternally."  All  then  is  full  of  evil. 
Whithersoever  the  Prophet  looks,  some  fresh 
violence  is  before  him ;  it  confronts  him  on 
every  side ;  strife  hath  arisen  '■',  come  up,  ex- 
ists H  here  it  was  not  before ;  contention  lifteth 
itself^  on  high,  bowing  down  all  beside. 

4.  Therefore,  i.  e.  Because  God  seemed  not 
to  awake  to  avenge  His  own  cause,  men 
promised  themselves  that  they  might  sin  on 
with  impunity.  Sin  produces  sin,  and 
wrong,  wrong ;  it  spreads  like  an  infectious 
disease,  propagating  itself,  and  each,  to 
whom  it  reaches,  adds  to  its  poison.  At  last, 
it  reached  those  also,  who  should  be  in  God's 
stead  to  restrain  it.  The  Divine  law  itself  is 
silenced,  by  the  power  of  the  wicked,  by  the 
sin  of  the  judge,  the  hopelessness  of  all. 
When  all  around  is  evil,  even  tliose  not  yet 
lost  are  tempted  to  think ;  "  Why  should  I 
be  other  than  they?  what  evil  befalls  them? 
Why  stand  alone?"  Even  a  Psalmist* 
speaks  as  if  tempted  to  speak  even  as  they. 
These  are  the  ungodly  who  prosper  in  the  ivorld  ; 
they  increase  in  ridtes ;  verily  I  have  cleansed 
my  heart  in  vain,  and  washed  my  hands  in 
innocency;  and  Solomon^,  Because  sentence 
against  an  evil  ivork  is  not  executed  speedily, 
therefore  the  heart  of  the  sons  of  men  is  fully  set 
in  them  to  do  evil. 

The  law  is  slacked,  lit.  is  chilled^  (as  we  say, 
"  is  paralyzed,")  through  lack  of  the  fire  of 
love.  This  is  what  our  Lord  says,  ^  Because 
iniquity  shall  abound,  the  love  of  many  shall  wax 
cold.  The  Divine  law,  the  source  of  all  right, 
being  chilled  in  men's  hearts,  jiulgment,  i.  e. 
the  sentence  of  human  justice,  as  conformed 

1  Theoph. 

2  The  Lxx.  Syr.  S.  .Jer.  so  divide ;  yeyove  icpicris 
Kai  6  xpiTrjs  Aan(3auet,  "  et  factum  est  judicium  et 
contradir-tio  potentior."  So  Tanchum.  The  E.  V. 
iias  followed  Jon.  Kim.  Aben  Ezra. 

^  Xil/j  intrans.,  as  in  Ps.  Ixxxix.  10;  Nah.  i.  5. 

•t  Pp.  Ixxiii.  15,  12,  13.  6  Eccl.  viii.  11. 

6  It  is  used  of  Jacob's  heart,  who  could  not  be- 
lieve the  good  tidings,  Gen.  xlv,  26;  the  numbing 
of  the  comfortless  heart  of  the  penitent  through 
grief  (Nif.)  Ps.  xxxviii.  9.  The  Psalmist,  holding  on 
in  prayer,  denies  it  of  himself.  Ps.  xxvii.  3.  Tliey 
quote  "  friget  lex."  7  s.  Matt.  xxiv.  12. 

8 According  to  the  uniform  use  of  Hi'J;,  31 
times  and  ni'J  6  times.  This  uniform  usage  can- 
not be  overborne  by  the  analogy  of  Is.  xlii.  3.  jlOX/ 


doth    never   go  forth  :  for    ^  ^  rTI  t 
the  "  wicked  doth  compass      '^^^-  626. 


about  the  righteous ;  there-  *  Job.  21. 7. 
«       1 1             .J          ,  Ps.  94. 3,  &c. 

tore  1 1  wrong  judgment  pro-      jer.  12. 1. 

Ceedeth.  n  Or,  wrested. 


to  Divine,  doth  never  go  forth  *.  Human 
sense  of  right  is  powerless,  when  there  is  not 
the  love  of  God's  law.  It  seems  ever  ready 
to  act,  but  ever  falls  short,  like  an  arrow 
from  an  unstrung  bow.  The  man  seems  ever 
about  to  do  right ;  he  judges,  sees,  aright  ;  all 
but  does  it ;  yet  at  last  always  fails.  It  goes 
not  forth.  The  children  are  come  to  the  birth, 
and  there  is  not  strength  to  bring  forth  *, 

For  the  wicked  doth  compass  about  ^^  the 
righteous,  laying  snares  for  him,  as  the  Jewa 
for  our  Lord ;  evil  is  too  strong  for  a  weak 
will  to  do  right,  and  overbears  it.  Pilate 
sought  in  many  ways,  how  he  might  deliver 
Jesus,  yet  at  last  did  deliver  Him  into  theii 
hands. 

Therefore  wrong  judgment  proceedeth,  lit. 
judgment  proceedeth  wrested  ^K  He  had  said, 
"  it  never  goes  forth  ; "  never,  that  is,  in  its 
true  character  ;  for,  when  it  does  go  forth,  it 
is  distorted.  "  ^'^  For  gifts  or  favor  or  fear  or 
hate  the  guiltless  are  condemned  and  the 
guilty  acquitted,  as  saith  the  Psalmist,  ^^  How 
long  will  ye  judge  unjustly  and  accept  the  per- 
sons of  the  ungodly  ?"  "  ^*  Judgment  goes  forth 
perverted  in  the  seat  of  man's  judgment  (the 
soul),  wlien,  bribed  by  the  pleasures  of  sense, 
it  leans  to  the  side  of  things  seen,  and  the 
Ungodly  one,  the  rebel  angel,  besets  and 
overpowers  him  who  has  the  sense  of  right ; 
for  it  is  right  that  things  seen  should  give 
way  to  things  unseen ;  ^^for  the  things  which 
are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  ivhich  are 
not  seen  are  eternal."  Why  then  all  this  ? 
and  how  long  ?  Why  does  God  biing  it  be- 
fore him  and  He  Who  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to 
behold  iniquity,  behold  grievance,  which  His 
Holy  Eyes  could  not  endure  ?  Neither  the 
Unseen  Presence  of  God  nor  the  mission  of 
the  Prophet  checks.  If  he  rebuke,  no  one 
hearkened ;  if  he  intercedes  for  sinners,  or 
against  sin,  God  made  as  though  He  would 

£3£3iyD  N'Yr,  "He  shall  bring  forth  judgment  to 
truth,"  as  Syr.  here,  "with  sincerity,"  Rashi,  "ac- 
cording to  truth." 

*Is.  xxxvii.  3. 

'"T'DDn,  "encompass  for  hostile  end,"  as  "^^2 
Jud.  XV.  43.  Ps.  XX.  13.  "  The  wicked,"  ^t^^  is  col- 
lective, as  implied  by  the  word  "  encompass."  "  The 
righteous  "  is,  in  contrast,  determined,  p'12f H  r\H. 

11  7pJ.*0.  The  root  occurs  only  in  intensive  forms ; 

in  the  verb  here  only;  crooked  ways  are  ril  7p7pJ? 

Jud.  v.  6.  Ps.  cxxv.  5.  the  Serpent  is  called  nr\7p^', 

Isa.  xxvii.  1.  HDion.  i»Ps.  Ixxxii.  2. 

1*  Theoph.  16  2  Cor.  iy.  18. 


182 


HAltAKKUK. 


chrTst        '^  I^^Bcliuld   vf  ainoug 
cir.  ()2<i.       the   heathen,  and  regard, 


•Is.  20.U. 
Acts  13.  41. 


and  wonder  marvellously ; 
for  I  will  work  a  work  in 


not  hear.  God  answers  that,  though  to 
man's  impatience  the  time  seems  long,  judg- 
ment shall  come,  and  that,  suddenly  and 
speedily.  While  the  righteous  is  enquiring, 
how  lonrjf  and  the  wicked  is  saying^.  My 
Lord  dekujeth  His  coming,  He  is  come,  and 
seen  in  the  midst  of  them. 

The  whole  tone  of  the  words  suddenly 
changes.  The  Jews  flattered  themselves  that, 
being  the  people  of  God,  He  would  not  ful- 
fill His  threats  upon  tliem.  They  had  be- 
come like  tlie  heathen  in  wickedness ;  God 
bi  Is  them  lonk  out  among  them  for  the  in- 
strument of  His  disjjleasure.  It  was  an  ag- 
gravation of  tlieir  punishment,  that  God, 
\Vho  had  •  once  chosen  them,  would  now 
choose  thase  whom  He  had  not  cliosen,  to 
chasten  tliein.  So  Moses  had  foretold ; 
'■'  Ti'i^y  have  moved  Me  to  jealousy  by  that  which  is 
not  God;  they  hdve  provoked  Me  to  aivjer  with 
their  vanities  ;  and  I  will  move  them  tojadousy 
ivith  not-a-people,  I  will  provoke  them  to  anger 
with  afool'ish  nation.  There  were  no  tokens 
of  the  storm  which  should  sweep  them  away, 
yet  on  tlie  horizon.  No  forerunners  yet. 
And  so  He  bids  them  gaze  on  among  the  na- 
tions, to  see  whence  it  should  come.  They 
might  have  expected  it  from  Egypt.  It 
should  come  whence  they  did  not  expect, 
with  a  fierceness  and  terribleness  which  they 
imagined  not.  Regard,  look  narrowly,  weigh 
well  what  it  portends;  and  wonder  vuirvel- 
ously ;  lit.  be  amazed,  amazed.  The  word  is 
doulded  *,  to  express  how  amazement  should 
follow  upon  amazement ;  when  the  first  was 
passing  away,  new  source  of  amazement 
should  come ;  for  *  /  will  work  a  work  in  your 
days,  which  ye  wiU  not  believe,  though  it  be  told 
you.  So  incredible  it  will  be,  and  so  against 
their  wills !  He  does  not  say,  "ye  would 
not  believe  if  it  were  told  you  ;  "  nnich  less, 
"if  it  were  toll  you  of  others;"  in  which 
case  the  chief  thouglit  would  be  left  unex- 
pressed. No  condition  is  expressed.  It  is 
simply  foretold,  what  was  verified  by  the 
whole  history  of  their  resistance  to  theChal- 
dees  until  the  capture  of  the  city  ;  "  Ye  will 
not  believe,  wlien  it  shall  be  told  you."     So 

1  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  48.  2  Dent,  xxxii.  21. 

«As  in  Ps.  cxviii.  11,  'jn3D  DJ  'JUO.  Ilos.iv.  18, 

nnonx, zoph.  ii.  i.  mipi  n:/t!/ipnn.  if  sug- 

jCfstefl  by  Is.  xxix.  9,  IHOni  IHOnonn  "lie  per- 
plexed and  marvtO,"  Habakkuk  changed  the  phrase, 
IiroservinK  the  alliteration. 

*  The  "  I  "  is  omitted  in  the  Hebrew,  probably  for 
conciseness,  as  if  it  were  the  finite  verb.  Del. 
quotes  as  omissions  of  the  3d  person,  Ps*.  xxii.  29. 
l\r.  20 ;  of  the  second  1  Sam.  ii.  24.  vi.  3.  Ps.  vii.  10. 


your  days,  which  ye  will  not 
believe,  though  it  be  told 
you. 

6  For,  lo. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  62fi. 


<i  Deut.  28.  49.  50. 
Jer.  5.  15. 
T        •  II  fulfilled. 

I  raise  up  '  2  chr.  so.  e. 


it  ever  is.  Man  never  believes,  that  God  is 
in  earnest,  until  His  judgments  come.  So  it 
was  before  the  flood,  and  to  Sodom,  and  Lot's 
sons-in-law  ;  so  it  was  to  Ahab  and  Jezebel ; 
so  as  to  this  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
Chaldieans,  and  that  which  is  shallowed 
foi'th,  by  the  Romans.  So  Jeremiah  com- 
plained, "  They  have  belied  the  Lord,  and 
said,  it  ii  not  He;  neither  shall  evil  contr 
upon  us ;  neither  sluUl  we  see  sword  nor 
famine,  and,  */  am  in  derision  daily;  every 
one  mocketh  me.  For  since  I  spake,  I  cried 
out,  I  cried  violence  and  spoil;  beiame  the 
word  of  the  Lord  was  made  a  reproach  unto  me, 
and  a  derkion  daily  ;  and  Isaiah,  ^  Who  hath 
believed  our  report  f  and  St.  Jolin  Baptist 
speaks  as  tliough  it  were  desperate ;  ®  0 
generation  of  vipers,  who  hath  warned  you  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come  f  and  our  Lord  tells 
them,  "  Your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate. 
And  yet  they  believed  not,  but  delivered 
Him  up  to  be  put  to  death,  lest  that  should 
be,  which  did  come,  because  they  put  Him  to 
death.  ^*'  If  we  let  Him  thus  alone,  all  men  will 
believe  on  Him;  and  the  Momans  shall  come, 
and  take  away  both  our  place  and  nation.  St. 
Paul  ^^,  tlien,  applies  these  words  to  the  Jews 
in  his  day,  because  the  destruction  of  the  first 
temple  by  Nebuchadnezzar  was  an  image  of 
the  destruction  of  the  second  (which  by  Di- 
vine appointment,  contrary  to  man's  inten- 
tion, took  place  on  the  same  day  '*),  and  the 
Chaldseans  were  images  of  the  Romans,  that 
second  Babylon,  heathen  Rome ;  and  both 
foreshowed  the  worse  destruction  by  a  fiercer 
enemy,  tlie  enemy  of  souls,  the  spiritual 
wasting  and  desolation  wliicii  came  on  the 
Jew  first,  and  wliicli  shall  come  on  all  who 
disobey  the  Gospel.  So  it  shall  be  to  the 
end.  Even  now  tlie  Jews  believe  not,  Whose 
work  their  own  dispersion  is ;  His,  Who  by 
them  was  crucified,  but  Who  hat  ii  ^^all  pewcr 
in  heaven  and  in  earth.  Tlie  Day  of  Judg- 
ment will  come  like  a  thief  in  the  night  to 
those  who  believe  not  or  obey  not  our  Lord's 
words. 

6.  For  lo.    So  God  announces  a  future,  in 
which   His  Hand  shall  be  greatly   visible, 

Hab.  ii.  10.  Ewald  adds  "after  r\iT}  Gen.  xli.  1.  Ex. 
vii.  1.5.  viii.  10,  and  without  it,  Ps.  xxii.  29,  xxxiii. 
5.  7.  Ixvi.  7.  xcvi.  13.  Lohrb.  p.  51G.  ed.  7. 

6.Jer.  V.  12.  «Ib.  XX.  7,  8. 

Us.  liii.  1.  «S.  Matt.  iii.  7. 

» lb.  xxiii.  38.  8.  Luke  xiii.  35.     "S.  John  xi.  48. 
u  Some  of  the  words  as  there  quoted  (from  th« 
then  received  translation,  the  LXX.)  differ;   th« 
sense  is  the  same. 

12  Jos.  de  B.  J.  vii.  14.  "S.  Matt,  xxvlii.  II. 


CHAPTER  1. 


183 


chrTst    ^^®  Chaldeans,  that  bitter 
cir.  626.      and   hasty   nation,    which 


shall  march  through  the 
tHeb.6r«<Kf«/!«. -j- breadth  of  the  land,  to 

possess  the  dwellingplaces 
„  ^   ^      ^,      that  are  not  their's. 

II  Or,  from  them 

shall  proceed        7  They  are  terrible  and 

the  judgment  of  ,       .         . 

these,  and  the '  dreadful :   lltheir   iudg- 

captivityof  1     !,     .       J-  .f 

these.  ment  and  their  dignity 


whether  more  or  less  distant.  In  His  sight 
it  is  present.  I  raise  up.  God  uses  the  free- 
will and  evil  passions  of  men  or  devils  to  His 
own  ends ;  and  so  He  is  said  to  raise  up  ^ 
those  whom  He  allows  to  be  stirred  up 
against  His  people,  since  the  events  Which 
His  Providence  permits,  favor  their  designs, 
and  it  rests  with  Him  to  withhold  them. 
They  lift  themselves  up  for  some  end  of 
covetousness  or  pride.  But  there  is  a  higher 
order  of  things,  in  which  God  orders  their 
actions  to  fulfill  by  their  iniquities  His 
righteousness.  The  Chaldceans,  that  bitter^ 
and  hasty  *  nntion.  "  *  To  its  might  and 
warlike  boldness  almost  all  the  Greeks  who 
have  written  histories  of  the  barbarians,  w^it- 
uess."  Which  slmll  march  through  the  breadth 
of  the  land,  rather,  the  earth,  lit.  ."to  the 
breadtlis  of  the  earth,"  reaching  to  its  whole 
length  and  breadth,  all  its  dimensions  ^,  as  in 
the  description  of  Gog  and  Magog,  ®  the  num- 
ber of  whom  is  as  the  sand  of  the  sea  ;  and  they 
went  up  on  the  breadth  of  the  earth ;  unhin- 
dered, not  pent  up,  but  spreading  abroad, 
where  they  will,  over  the  whole  earth.  All 
before  it,  is  one  wide  even  plain  which  it 
overspreads  and  covers,  like  a  flood,  and  yet 
is  not  spent  nor  exhausted.  To  possess  the 
dwelling-places  that  are  not  theirs.  As  God's 
people  had  done,  so  should  it  be  done  to 
them.  Spoiling  and  violence  within  '  at- 
tract oppression  from  without.  The  over- 
charged atmosphere  casts  down  the  lightning 
upon  them.  They  had  expelled  the  weak 
from  their  dwelling  ® ;  others  shall  possess 
theirs.  Yet  this  scourge  too  shall  pass  by, 
since,    although    the    Chaldaean  did  God's 

^  D  pn  is  so  used,  1  Kings  xi.  14,23.  Am.  vi.  14, 

and  of  evil  (in  the  abstract)  2  Sam.  xii.  11.  Zech.  xi. 
16,  as  also  '\^)?T\  Ezek.  xxiii.  22.  2  Chr.  xxi.  16.  and 
against  Babylon,  Is.  xiii.  17.  xli.  2,  25.  Jer.  1.  9. 
li.  1. 11. 

«^D.  In  Jud.  xviii.  25.  2  Sam.  xvii.  8,  the  less 
concise  ty3J  *^0  is  used. 

*  inn  J  as  Is.  xxxii.  4.  ■•  S.  Jer. 

^OmO  (plur.)  occurs  here  only.  Isaiah  has 
"  the  fullness  of  the  breadth  of  Thy  land,  O  Im- 

manuel "  viii.  8,  and  in  the  same  sense  v.  9.  i2 
T*"^K  'pniO  "all  the  far  places  of  the  earth."  (also 

iiir.) 


shall   proceed   of   them-    chr°ist 

selves.  cir.  626. 

8  Their  horses  also  are 
swifter  than  the  leopards, 
and  are  more  f  fierce  than    t  Heb.  sharp. 
the  *  evening  wolves:  and    'jer.  5. 6. 
their  horsemen  shall  spread       ^p  .  .  . 
themselves,  and   their 
horsemen  shall  come  from 


Will,  he  willed  it  not,  but  his  own  ^.  The 
words,  not  theirs,  lit.  not  to  him  [lo-lo  ^"j  stand 
with  a  mysterious  fullness  of  meaning.  The 
dwelling  places  not  being  his  by  right,  shall 
not  remain  his,  although  given  to  him,  while 
God  wiUs. 

7.  They  are  terrible "  and  dreadful.  He 
describes  them,  first  in  themselves,  then  in 
act.  They  are  terrible,  and  strike  fear 
through  their  very  being,  their  known  char- 
acter, before  they  put  it  forth  in  act.  Their 
judgment  and  their  dignity  shall  proceed  of  them- 
selves. Judgment  had  gmie  forth  in  God's  peo- 
ple wrested^"^ ;  now  shall  it  go  forth  against 
them  at  the  mere  will  of  their  master,  who 
shall  own  no  other  rule  or  Lord  or  source  of 
his  power.  His  own  will  shall  be  his  only 
law  for  himself  and  others.  His  elevation  ^^ 
too  is,  in  his  own  thought,  from  himself.  He 
is  self-sufficing;  he  holds  from  no  other, 
neither  from  God  nor  man.  His  dignity  is 
self-sustained  ;  his  judgment  irresponsible,  as 
if  there  were  none  ^*  higher  than  he.  He  has, 
like  all  great  world-powers,  a  real  dignity 
and  majesty.  He  infuses  awe.  The  dignity 
is  real  but  faulty,  as  being  held  independ- 
ently of  God.  This  is  a  character  of  Anti- 
christ '*,  a  lawless  insolence,  a  lifting  up  of 
himself. 

8.  Their  horses  are  swifter  [lit.  lighter,  as  we 
say,  "light  of  foot"]  than  leopards.  The 
wild  beast  intended  is  the  panther,  the  lightest, 
swiftest,  fiercest,  most  blood-thirsty  of  beasts 
of  prey.  "  ^®  It  runs  most  swiftly  and  rushes 
brave  anfl  straight.  You  would  say,  when 
you  saw  it,  that  it  is  borne  through  the  air." 
"  "  It  bounds  exceedingly  and  is  very  exceed- 

«  Rev.  XX.  8.  9.  J  i.  2-4.  »  Mic.  ii.  9. 

«SeeIsa.  X.  6,7.  ^I^  kS. 

n  DVX  occurs  here  only  and  Cant.  vi.  4. 10.  com- 
pared with  the  "bannered  host,"  but  the  root  is 
common  in  riD'K.  121.4. 

^^  rsi^ip  is  not  in  itself,  "  sey-elevation  "  (as  Kim. 

"  that  he  will  exalt  himself  above  the  nations  ") 
but  simply  "elevation;"  from  God,  Gen.  iv.  7,  or 
His  Providence,  lb.  xlix.  3,  P.s.  Ixii.  5.  It  is  used  of 
the  majesty  of  God,  Job  xiii.  23. 

1*  Eccl.  v.  8.  1*  Dan.  xi.  36.  2  Thess.  ii.  4. 

!•  Oppian  Cyneg.  iii.  76.  sq. 

"  S.  Cyv.  See  more  fully  in  Daniel  the  Prophet 
p.  77.  n.  3. 


184 


HABAKKIK. 


chrTst  ^^*"'  '^^^y  ^^^^^  ^y  ^  ^^^® 

cir.  fi^f).      eagle  that  hasteth  to  eat. 
lOr^the'supping     9  They   shall   come  all 
faces,  L"or,     for  violence :  1 1  f  their  faces 
up  as  the  east 


their  faces  shall    ,     -,■» 
look  toward  the  Sliail 


eaU. 


sup 


+  iieb.  the  oppo-  wind,  and  they  shall  gath- 

sUion  of  their  faces  toward  the  east. 


er  the  captivity  as  the 
sand. 

10  And  they  shall  scoff 
at  the  kings,  and  the 
princes  shall  be  a  scorn 
unto  them :  they  shall  de- 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  6■^6. 


ingly  light  to  spring  down  on  whatever  it 
pursues."  More  fierce  ^  than  the  evening  wolves  ^, 
i.  e.  than  they  are  when  tiercest,  going  forth 
to  prey  when  urged  to  rabidness  by  hunger 
the  whole  day  through.  Such  had  their 
own  judges  been ',  and  by  such  should  they 
be  punished.  The  horse  partakes  of  tiie 
fierceness  of  his  rider  in  trampling  down  the 
foe*.  Iheir  horsemen  shall  spread  themselves 
[lit.  widespread  are  their  horsemen'],  and  their 
horsemen  from  far  shall  come.  ICeither  dis- 
tance of  march  shall  weary  them,  nor  dif- 
fusion weaken  them.  So  should  Moses'  jjro- 
pheiy  be  again  fulfilled.  *  The  Lord  shall 
raise  ac/ainst  thee  a  riation  from  far,  from  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  as  the  eagle  Jiieth ;  a  naiion  whose 
tongue  thou,  shall  not  understand;  a  nation  of 
fierce  countenance,  which  shaU  not  regard  the 
person  of  the  old,  nor  show  favor  to  the  young. 

They  shall  fiy  as  the  eagle  that  hai^teth  [lit. 
habiting  ^]  to  eat,  "  '  not  to  fight,  for  none  shall 
withstand  ;  but  with  a  course  like  the  eagle's, 
to  whom  all  fowl  are  subdued,  hasting  but  to 
eat."  Behold,  Jeremiah  says  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar *,  he  shall  fly  as  an  eagle  and  spread  his 
wings  over  Moab;  and,  he  repeats  the  words, 
®  over  Bozrah.  Our  pursuers,  Jeremiah  says '", 
are  swifter  than  the  eagles  of  the  heavens. 
Ezekiel   likens   him   to   "  a  great  eagle  with 

1  lit.  g^arp  "acer."  "TTH  (except  of  the  scales  of 
the  crocodile  Job  xii.  2i)  is  used  elsewhere  only  of 
the  sharpening  of  iron  against  iron  (Hif )  Pr.  xxvii. 
17;  (Hof.),  of  the  sword  Ezek.  xxi.  14,  15,  26.  rnn 
as  an  epithet  of  the  sword  (iv.  times).    In  Arabic 

^n,  conj.  i.  ii.  iv.  x.  is  to  "sharpen  ;"  nXlhilXin 

"sharp,"  of  a  knife,  sword  ;  THPI  met.,  "sharp  of 
intellect,"  &c.  also  of  sword. 

a  Com  p.  Jer.  v.  G.  8  Zeph.  iii.  .3. 

*The  horse  and  his  rider  are  regarded  as  one. 
Nahum  had  spoken  of  the  cavalrv  in  the  armies 
against  Nineveh  (Nah.  iii.  2);  in  Judith  they  are 
numbered  in  the  proportion  of  one-tenth  to  the 
footmen  of  Hnloferncs  (.ludith  ii.  r>,  Ifi.).  They  were 
the  more  formidable  to  Jud.ih  which  had  footmen 
only.  Under  Persian  rule  Babylonia  wa-^  a  groat 
breeding  place  for  horses.  Rawl.  5  Empires  iii.  317. 

6Deut.  xxviii.  49,  50.  pimo  occurs  in  both. 

•  tyn  as  partic.    In  the  finite  verb,  it  had  been 

B'lrr'like  1DD'  ii.  14,  ^Jh^n^'  iii.  11,  tVltO'  Job  ix. 
20.  Del.     '.S.  Jer.     «Jer.  xlviii.  40.      »  lb.  xlix.  22. 

in  Lam.  iv.  19.       "  Ezek.  xvii.  3.        '»  Dan.  vii.  4. 

>3  V.  3.  4. 

"As  1^73  Ps.  xxix.  9,  Is.  1.  23,  ix.  IG,  Jer.  vi.  13, 
viii.  6.  ID,  XV.  10.  TlhD  Jer.  xx.  7. 

"nOJ'Di  «"■•  A«y.  The  sense  "swallowinK"  is 
given  by  Jos.  Kimchi,  A.  E.,  Rashi,  Ob.  Sip.,  Mena- 
nem  B.  Saruk,  taking  DOJ  as  i.  q.  KOJ,  quoting 


great  wings  full  of  feathers;  in  Daniel's  vision 
he  is  '■'a  lion  icith  eagles  wings. 

9.  They  shall  come  all  for  violence.  Violence 
had  been  the  sin  of  Judah  ^*,  and  now  shall 
be  her  punishment.  It  had  been  ever  before 
tiie  prophet ;  all  were  full  of  it.  Now  should 
violence  be  the  very  end,  one  by  one,  of  all  the 
savage  horde  poured  out  upon  them  ;  they  all, 
each  one  of  them ",  come  for  violence.  Their 
faces  shall  sup  up  '^  as  the  east  wind  '^  "  As 
at  the  breath  of  the  burning  wind  all  green 
things  dry  up,  so  at  sight  of  these  all  shall  be 
wasted."  They  shall  sweep  over  everything 
impetuously,  like  the  east  wind,  .scorching, 
blackening,  blasting,  swallowing  up  all,  as  they 
pass  ovei",  as  the  East  wind,  especially  in  the 
Holy  Land,  sucks  up  all  moisture  and  fresh- 
ness. And  they  shall  gather  the  captivity  [i.  e. 
the  captives]  as  the  sand,  countless,  as  the  parti- 
cles which  the  East  wind  raises,  sweeping 
over  the  sand-wastes,  where  it  buries  whole 
caravans  in  one  death. 

10.  And  they  [lit.  he,  the  word  stands  em- 
phatically, he,  alone  against  all  the  kings  of 
the  earth]  shall  scoff  at  the  kings  and  all  their 
might,  taking  them  away  or  setting  them  up 
at  his  pleasure  and  caprice,  subduing  them 
as  though  in  sport  ^' ;  and  princes,  (lit.  grave 
and  majestic)  shall  be  a  scorn  unto  them  [Aim]  '*. 

Job  xxxix.  24  or  Gen.  xxiv.  17.  Thence  A.  E. 
obtains  the  moanine;  "  before,  .etraight  on,"  quoting 
Targ.  Abulwalid,  followed  by  Tanehum,  compares 
the  Arab.  QH,  "purposed,"  and  thence  derives  the 

meaning  "direction."     The  Arab.  ?3J,  (appetivit, 

Fr.)  signifies  "approached  "  not  "  desired."  Gese- 
nius  "  the  collection  of  their  faces,"  i.e.  all  of  them, 
involves  the  use  of  a  an.  Aey.  to  express,  without 
emphasis,  what  is  expressed  everywhere  by  the 

common  word,  IJ.  Symm.  has  irpdo-oi/d?,  and  so 
Syr. 
"  nonp  occurs  else  only  in  Ezek.  xi.  1,  and  16 

times  in  c.  xl.-xlviii.  of  the  ideal  city  and  temple 
as  "  Ea.stwards."  But  except  in  tiie  far-fetched 
explanation  of  Abarb.  (mentioned  also  by  Tan- 
chum)  that  they  ravaged,  not  to  settle,  but  to  return 
homj  with  their  booty,  "  Eastwards "  would  have 
no  meaning.  Vet  "forwards"  is  just  as  insulated 
a  rendering  as  that  adopted  by  J.  and  D.  Kim.,  .\. 
E.,  Rashi,  Ob.  Sip.,  Sal.  B.  Mel."Arab  Tr.  (followinc; 
Jon.)  "the  East-wind;"  HO'Tp  standing  as  a  met. 

instead  of  a  simile  the  n  being  regarded  as  para- 
gogic,  as  in  n^'7.  So  also  Symm.  orejuos  Kavtruiv. 
S.  Jer,  "  ventus  ureus." 

"  Comp.  Benhadad's  drunken  commands,  1  King* 
XX.  18. 

"Comp.  Job  xli.  29. 


CHAPTER  I. 


II 


c  B^Ris  T    ^^^*^   every  st r o n g  hold  ; 
cir.  626.      for  they  shall  heap  dust, 
and  take  it, 

11  Then  shall  his  mind 


So  Nebuchadnezzar  bound  Jehoiakim^  in  fet- 
ters to  carry  him  to  Babijlon  ;  then,  on  his  sub- 
mission made  him  for  three  years  a  tributary 
king^,  then  on  his  rebellion  sent  bands  of 
Chaldees  and  other  tributaries  against  him  '•' ; 
and  then,  or  when  Nebuchadnezzar  took 
Jehoiachin,  Jeremiah's  prophecy  was  ful- 
filled, that  he  should  be  buried  with  the  burial 
of  an  ass,  dragged  and  cast  forth  beyond  the  gates 
of  Jerusalem  *,  his  dead  body  cast  out  in  the  day 
to  the  heat  and  in  the  night  to  the  frost  ^,  then 
Nebuchadnezzar  took  away  Jehoiachin  ;  tlien 
Zedekiah.  He  had  also  many  kings  captive 
with  liira  in  Babylon.  For  on  his  decease 
Evil-Merodach  brought  Jehoiachin  out  of 
his  prison  after  27  years  of  imprisonment, 
and  set  his  throne  above  the  throne  of  the  kings 
that  were  with  him  in  Babylon  ®.  Daniel  says 
also  to  Nebuchadnezzar  ^,  Thou,  0  king,  art  a 
king  of  kings :  for  the  God  of  heaven  hath  given 
thee  a  kingdom,  power  and  strength  and  glory. 
And  wheresoever  the  children  of  men  dwell,  the 
beasts  of  the  field  and  the  foids  of  heaven  hath 
He  given  into  thine  hand  and  hath,  made  thee 
ruler  over  all. 

They  [Af]  shall  deride  every  strong  hold,  as, 
aforetime,  when  God  helped  her,  Jerusalem 
laughed  the  Assyrian  to  scorn*;  for  they  [Ae] 
shcdl  heap  dust,  and  take  it,  as  Nebuchadnezzar 
did  Tyre,  whose  very  name  [Bock]  betokened 
its  strength.  "  "  He  shall  come  to  Tyre,  and, 
casting  a  mound  in  the  sea,  shall  make  an 
island  a  peninsula,  and,  amid  the  waves  of 
the  sea,  land  shall  give  an  entrance  to  the 
city." 

The  mount,  or  heaped-up  earth,  by  which 
the  besiegers  fought  on  a  level  with  the 
besieged,  or  planted  their  engines  at  advan- 
tage, was  an  old  and  simple  form  of  siege, 
especially  adapted  to  the  great  masses  of  the 

1  2  Chr.  xxxvi.  6.  Dan.  i.  2. 

2  2  Kings  xxiv.  1.  3  lb.  2.  *  Jer.  xxii.  19. 

5  lb.  xxxvi.  30.  On  the  one  hand,  the  expression 
"  slept  with  his  fatliers  "  does  not  necessarily  imply- 
that  Jehoiakim  died  a  peaceful  death,  since  it  is 
used  of  Ahab  (1  Kings  xxii.  40)  and  Amaziah  (2 
Kings  xiv.  20,22.)  On-the  other,  Jeremiah's  prophecy 
was  equally  fulfilled,  if  the  insult  to  his  corpse  took 
place  when  Nebuchadnezzar  took  away  Jehoiachin 
three  months  after  his  father's  death.  See  Daniel 
the  Prophet,  pp.  399,  402,  403.  Josephus  attributes 
both  the  death  and  disgrace  to  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Ant.  X.  6.  3. 

«  2  Kgs  XXV.  27,  28. 

7  Dan.  ii.  37.  38.  and  iv.  22.  8  is.  xxxviii.  22. 

9  S.  Jer.       10  2  Sam.  xx.  15.        "  2  Kgs  xix.  32. 

12  Ez.  xvii.  17. 

13  Jer.  vi.  6.  xxxii.  24,  xxxiii.  4,  Ezek.  iv.  2,  xxi.  22 
[27  Heb.],  xxvi.  8. 

1*  Herod,  i.  162.  i6  2  Kings  xxiv.  7. 

^*  ^/Pl  is  used  of  the  overflowing  of  a  river,  Is. 


change,  and  he  shall  pas.s  cgg^°jgj 
over,  and  offend,  ^  imputing      <=''•■  ^'^s. 

this  his   power   unto   his  sDan. 5. 4. 
god. 


Eastern  armies.  It  was  used  in  David's 
time  ^'^ ;  and  by  the  Assyrians  ",  Egyptians  '^, 
Babylonians^*,  and  afterward  the  Persians". 
Here  he  describes  the  rapidity  of  the  siege. 
To  heap  up  dust  and  to  capture  were  one. 

It  needed  no  great  means ;  things  slight  as 
the  dust  sufficed  in  the  hands  of  those  em^ 
ployed  by  God.  Portion  by  portion,  ^'^the 
King  of  Babylon  took  all  that  pertained^  to  the 
king  of  Egypt,  from  the  river  of  Egypt  unto  the 
river  Euphrates. 

11.  Then  shall  his  mind  change,  or,  better. 
Then  he  svreps  by  ^'',  a  wind  ^^,  and  passes  "*,  and 
is  guilty;  this  his  strength  is  his  god.  The 
victory  was  completed,  all  resistance  ended. 
He  sweeps  by,  as  his  own  Euphrates,  when 
over-filled  by  the  swelling  ^^  of  all  its  tribu- 
tary streams,  riseth  up  over  all  its  banks, 
and  overwhelms  all  where  it  passes;  as  a 
wind  which  sweepeth^"  over  the  desert :  and 
passes  over  all  bounds  and  laws,  human  and 
Divine,  cmd  is  guilty  and  stands  guilty  before 
God,  making  himself  as  God,  This  his  potcer 
is  his  god.  God  had  said  to  Israel,  ^^  / 
ivill  be  to  thee  God.  The  Chaldsean  virtually 
said,  this  my  strength  is  to  me  my  god.  This 
Nebuchadnezzar's  own  words  speak;  ^'Zs 
710/  this  great  Babylon,  that  I  have  built  for 
the  house  of  the  kingdom  by  the  m  ight  of  my  power, 
and  for  the  honor  of  my  onajesty  f  And  the 
statue  which  was  to  be  worshiped,  was, 
very  probably,  of  himself'^*,  as  the  intoxica- 
tion of  pride  has  made  other  heathen  kings 
or  conquerors,  Alexander  or  Darius^*.  Bel- 
shazzar  said,  '^^  I  will  be  like  the  Most  High,  and 
the  prince  of  Tyre  said,  '■'*  I  am  a  god,  and 
Anti-Christ  shall  ^^  exalt  himself  above  all  that 
is  called  god,  and,  as  God,  sit  in  the  temple  of 
God,  shewing  himself  that  he  is  god.  Such  is 
all  pride.    It  sets  itself  in  the  place  of  God, 

viii.  8.  of  a  wind  chasing,  lb.  xxi.  1,  of  the  invisible 
presence  of  God  passing  by,  Job  ix.  11.  or  a  spirit, 
lb.  iv.  15.  of  the  swift  passing  of  our  days,  like  ship 
or  eagle,  lb.  ix.  26.  of  idols  utterly  passing  away, 
Is.  ii.  18,  of  rain  past  and  gone,  Cant.  ii.  11.  It  is, 
together  with  "U],%  used  of  tr.ansgressing  God's 
law,  Is.  xxiv.  5.  It  is  always  intrans.,  except  as 
piercing  the  temples  of  man  Jud.  v.  26,  or  himself 
Job  XX.  24. 

17  nil,  i.  q.  ni'^D,  metaphor  for  simile,  as  Ps.  xi. 
1.  xxii.  14.  (13  Eng.)  xc.  4.  Job  xxiv.  5.  Is.  Ii.  12.  &c. 
nn  can  hardly  be  i.  q.  IPIII. 

18 "13^7  "pass  over"  (with  fl7n,  as  here,)  Is.  viii. 

8.  Nah.  1.  8.  Hab.  iii.  10;  "transgress,"  passim; 
"  pass  away,"  Ps.  xxxvii.  6,  Job  xxxiv.  29,  Nah.  i.  12. 

19  Ls.  viii.  8.  20  lb.  xxi.  1. 

21  Ex.  vi.  7.  22  Dan.  iv.  30. 

23  See  Daniel  the  Prophet,  p.  443. 

24  See  ib.  p.  446.  26  ig.  xiv.  14. 

2«  Ezek.  xxviii.  2.  27  2  Thess.  ii.  4. 


186 


HABAKKUK. 


Befor'- 

C  H  R  I  S  r 

cir.  GM. 

k  Ps.  90.  2. 
A  93.  2. 
Lam.  5. 19. 


12  ^l""  Art  thou  not 
from  everlasting,  O  Lord 
my  God,  mine  Holy  One? 


it  ceases  to  think  itself  His  instrument,  and 
so  is  a  god  to  itself,  as  though  its  eminence 
and  strength  were  its  own,  and  its  wisdom 
the  source  of  its  power',  and  its  will  the 
measure  of  its  greatness.  The  words,  with 
u  Divine  fullness,  express  severally,  that  the 
king  shall  sweep  along,  shall  puss  over  all 
bounds  and  all  hindrances,  and  shall  pasa 
<iway,  shall  be  (juilty  and  shall  bear  his  guilt  '^: 
and  so  they  comprise  in  one  liis  sin  and  his 
punishment,  his  greatness  and  his  fall.  And 
so  forty  yeai*s  afterward  Nebuchadnezzar, 
•*  whom  he  would,  he  slew  ;  and  whom  he  would, 
he  kept  alive;  and  whom  he  would,  he  set  up; 
and  whom  he  would,  he  put  down;  but  when  his 
heart  was  lifted  up,  a)id  his  mind  hardened  in 
pride,  he  ivas  deposed  from  his  kingly  throne,  and 
they  took  his  glory  from  him ;  *  there  fell  a  voice 
from  heaven.  The  kingdom  is  departed  from  thee  ; 
and  BeLshazzar,  *  in  the  same  night  that  he 
lifted  up  himself  against  tJie  Lord  of  heaven,  ivas 
slain. 

12.  The  prophet,  having  summed  up  the 
deeds  of  the  enemy  of  God  in  this  his  end, 
sets  forth  his  questions  anew.  He  had  ap- 
jjealed  against  the  evil  of  the  wicked  of  his 
people ;  he  had  been  told  of  the  vengeance 
by  the  Chaldceans.  *  But  the  vengeance  is 
executed  by  them  who  are  far  worse.  How 
then  ?  The  answer  is,  "  Wait  to  the  end,  and 
thou  shalt  see."  What  remains  are  the 
triumphs  of  faith  ;  the  second  chapter  closes 
witli  the  entire  prostration  of  the  whole 
world  before  God,  and  the  whole  projihecy 
with  joyous  trust  in  God  amid  the  entire 
failure  of  all  outward  signs  of  hope.  Here, 
like  the  Psalmists'  and  Jeremiah",  he  sets 
down  at  the  very  beginning  his  entire  trust  in 
God,  and  so,  in  the  name  of  all  who  at  any 
time  shall  be  perplexed  about  the  order  of 
God's  judgments,  asks  how  it  shall  be,  teach- 
ing us  that  the  only  safe  way  of  enquiring 
into  God's  ways  is  by  setting  out  with  a  liv- 
ing conviction  that  they  ^are  mercy  and  truth. 
And  so  the  address  to  God  is  full  of  awe  and 
confidence  and  inward  love.  For  "  '"  God 
j)laceth  the  oil  of  mercy  in  the  vessel  of 
trastfuiness." 


>  See  Ezek.  xxviii.  2-5. 

"  DtyX  includes  both.  a  Dan.  v  19.  20. 

*  lb.  iv.  ;J1.  f>  lb.  V.  23,  30. 

•  Headinj5  of  Chap.  i. 

'  Asaph,  Ps.  Ixxiii.'  Ethan  Ps.  Ixxvi. 

sjer.  xii.  1.  »Ps.  xxv.  10. 

i"H.  Bt-rn.  de  Annunt.  Sorm.  3.  n.  .3. 

"  See  on  Micah  v.  2.         '« Rev.  i.  8.         w  Dion. 

'*Gai.  ii.  9.  "Conf.  iii.  11. 

"  Isaiah  uses  it  in  his  prophetic  answer  to  Heze- 
kiah  (2  Kgs  xix.  22.  Is.  xxxvii.  2:U  also  in  the 
earlier  chapters  12  times  and  "  his  holy  One  "  (of 


MX  shall  not  die.    O  Lord,    ^  h  ^71  -i- 
'  thou  hast  ordained  them      ^ir.  626. 


for   judgment;     and,    O   ps.n.\^3.^^' 

Is.  10.  5,  6,  7.   Ezek.  30.  25. 


Art  not  Thou  (the  word  has  always  an  em- 
phasis) Thou,  and  not  whatsoever  or  whoso- 
ever it  be  that  is  opposed  to  Thee,  (be  it 
Nebuchailnezzar  or  Satan)  from  everlasting 
1  it.  from  before  "  ?  Go  back  as  far  as  man  can 
in  thought,  God  was  still  before;  and  so, 
much  more  before  any  of  His  creatures,  such 
as  those  who  rebel  against  Him.  0  Lord,  it 
is  t lie  Proper  Name  of  God,  '^  ]Vhich  is  and 
Which  was  and  Which  is  to  come,  I  AM,  the 
Unchangeable ;  my  God,  i.  e.,  whereas  his 
own  might  is  (he  had  just  said)  the  heathen's 
god,  the  Lord  is  his ;  mine  Holy  One  : — one 
word,  denoting  that  God  is  his  God,  sufficeth 
him  not,  but  he  adds  (what  does  not  elsewhere 
occur)  mine  Holy  One,  in  every  way,  as  hal- 
lowing him  and  hallowed  by  him :  "  "  AVho 
hallowest  my  soul.  Holy  in  Thine  Essence, 
and  Whom  as  incomparably  Holy  I  worship 
in  holiness."  All-Holy  in  Himself,  He  be- 
cometh  the  Holy  One  of  him  to  whom  He 
imparteth  Himself,  and  so,  by  His  own  gift, 
belongeth,  as  it  Avere,  to  him.  The  one  word 
in  Hebrew  wonderfully  fits  in  with  the  truth, 
that  God  becomes  one  with  man  by  taking 
him  to  Himself.  It  is  fall  of  inward  trust 
too,  that  he  saith,  "  my  God,  my  Holy  One," 
as  S.  Paul  saith,  "  Who  loved  me,  and  gave 
Himself  for  me,  i.  e.,  as  S.  Augustine  explains 
it,  "  '^  O  Thou  God  Omnipotent,  Who  so  carest 
for  every  one  of  us,  as  if  Thou  caredst  for 
him  only  ;  and  so  for  all,  as  if  they  were  but 
one."  The  title,  my  Holy  One,  includes  his 
people  with  himself;  for  God  was  his  God, 
primarily  because  he  was  one  of  the  people 
of  God  ;  and  his  office  was  for  and  in  behalf 
of  his  people.  It  involves  then  that  other 
title  which  had  been  the  great  support  of 
Isaiah  '",  by  which  he  at  once  comforted  his 
people,  and  impressed  upon  them  the  holi- 
ness of  their  God,  the  holiness  which  their 
relation  to  their  God  required,  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel.  Thence,  since  Habakkuk  lived,  for 
his  people  with  himself,  on  this  relation  to 
(jod,  as  my  God,  my  Holy  One,  and  that  God, 
the  Unchangeable ;  it  follows,  "  We  shall  not 
die  "."  There  is  no  need  of  any  mark  of  in- 
ference, "  therefore  we  shall  not  die."     It  is  an 

Israel)  x.  17;  in  the  chapters  xl-lxvi,  14  times,  and 
"his  holy  One"  "your  noly  One"  of  or  to  Israel 
xlix.  7.  xliii.  3.'>.  Else  it  ooours  only  in  Ps.  Ixxviii. 
41  (Asaph's),  Ixxxix.  19  (Ethan's),  Ixxi.  22  [.\non., 
but  in  Book  ii.]  and  .Jer.  1.  29,  li.  5. 

1'  The  "  tikkune  sopherim  "  or  so-called  "correc- 
tions of  the  scribes"  I  think,  appear  to  almost  any 
one  who  examines  them,  not  to  imply  any  correc- 
tion of  tlie  text  of  Holy  Scripture,  but  as  meant  to 
sugtfest  what  would  have  come  naturally  into  the 
mind  of  tlie  writer,  unless  for  some  reason  he  had 
chosen  what  stands  written.    Thus  here,  the  obTi- 


CHAPTER  I. 


187 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 

t  Heb.  rock. 
Deut.  32.  4. 
t  Heb./owrtded. 
kPs.  5.  6. 

II  Or,  grievance. 


t  mighty  God,  thou  hast 
.  t  established  them  for  cor- 
I'ection. 

13  "  Thou  art  of  purer 
eyes  than  to  behold  evil, 
and  canst  not  look  on  ||  in- 


inference,  but  it  so  lay  in  those  titles  of  God, 
He  Is,  My  God,  My  Holy  One,  that  it  was  a 
more  loving  contidence  to  say  directly,  we 
shall  not  die.  The  one  thought  involved  the 
other.  God,  the  Unchangeable,  had  made 
Himself  their  God.  It  was  impossible,  then, 
that  He  should  cast  them  off  or  that  they 
should  perish.  We  shall  not  die,  is  the  light- 
ning thought  of  faith,  which  flashes  on  the 
soul  like  all  inspirations  of  God,  founded  on 
His  truth  and  word,  but  borne  in,  as  it  were, 
instinctively  without  inference  on  the  soul, 
with  the  same  confidence  as  the  Psalmist 
says  ^,  The  Lord  hath  chastened  me  sore ;  but 
Me  hath  not  given  me  over  unto  death;  and 
Malachi,  ^  I  am  the  Lord,  I  change  not ;  there- 
fore ye  sons  of  Jacob  are  'not  consumed.  "  *  Thou 
createdst  us  from  the  beginning ;  by  Thy 
mercy  we  are  in  being  hitherto."  Thy  gifts 
and  calling  are  without  repentance^.  "Did  we 
look  to  his  might ;  none  of  us  could  with- 
stand him.  Look  we  to  Thy  mercy.  Thine 
alone  is  it  that  we  live,  are  not  slain  by  him, 
nor  led  to  deeds  of  death."  0  Lord,  again 
he  repeats  the  Name  of  God,  whereby  He 
had  revealed  Himself  as  their  God,  the  Un- 
changeable; Thou,  whose  mercies  fail  not,  hast 
ordained  them  for  judgment,  not  for  vengeance 
or  to  make  a  full  end,  or  for  his  own  ends 
and  pleasure,  but  to  correct  Thine  own  ^  in 
measure,  which  he,  exceeding,  sinned.* 

And  0  mighty  God  [lit.  Bock'\.  It  is  a  bold 
title.  3fy  rock  is  a  title  much  used  by 
David ',  perhaps  suggested  by  the  fastnesses 
amid  which  he  passed  his  hunted  life,  to  ex- 

ous  contrast  to  "  Thou  art  of  old ; "  might  be,  (they 
would  say)   "  Thou  wilt  continue  to  be ; "  "  Thou 

wilt  not  die,"  niDH  xSl ;  but  since  it  were  unbe- 
fitting to  speak  of  death  in  regard  to  God,  even  in 

denying  it,  the  prophet  said  fllDJ  vh,  "we  shall 
not  die.  But  no  thoughtful  Jewish  critic  could 
ever  have  believed  that  Habakkuk  could  have 
said  to  God,  Thou  wilt  not  die.  It  would  also,  while 
irreverent  to  God,  have  omitted  the  whole  consola- 
tion to  his  peojple.  Of  Jewish  Commentators,  Kim., 
A.  E.,  Abarb.  Tanch.,  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to 
allude  to  the  correction  ;  Sal.  B.  Melech  mentions 
it,  to  reject  it ;  Rashi  quotes  it  as  the  writing  of  the 
prophet.  Several  of  the  18  Tikkune  Sopherim  are 
childish  ;  no  one  of  value.  The  Chaldee  follows 
the  suggestion,  paraphrasing,  "  Thy  word  abideth 
forever;"  the  LXX,  not.  Ewald  corrects  as  the 
Chaldee.  The  Tikk.  Soph,  are  given  in  Buxtorf 
Lex.  Chald.  pp.  2631,  sqc).  A  glance  will  shew  that 
they  are  no  real  corrections. 

>  Ps.  exviii.  18.  *Mal.  iii.  6. 

8  S.  Jer.  *  Rom.  xi.  29. 

'  Jer.  X.  24.  XXX.  11, 


iquity  :  '  wherefore  lookest 
thou  upon  them  that  deal, 
treacherously,  and  boldest 
thy  tongue  when  the  wicked 
devoureth  the  man  that  is 
more  righteous  than  he  ? 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 

1  Jer.  12.  1. 


press,  that  not  in  them  but  in  His  God  was 
his  safety.    Habakkuk  purposely  widens  it. 
He  appeals  to  God,  not  only  as  Israel's  might 
and  upholder,  but  as  the  sole  Source  of  all 
strength,  the  Supporter  of  all  which  is  up- 
held %  and  so,  for  the  time,  of  the  Chaldsean 
too.     Hence  he  continues  the  simple  image  : 
I   Thou  hast  founded  him.     " ^  Thou  hast  made 
■  him  to  stand  firm  as  the  foundation  of  a  build- 
j  ing;  "  to  reprove  or  set  before  those  who  have 
'  sinned   against  Thee,  what   they  had  done. 
j  Since   then   God   was   the  Eock,  Who  had 
'  founded  them,   from    Him   Alone   had    they 
strength  ;  when  He  should  withdraw  it,  they 
must  fall.     How   then  did   they  yet  abide, 
Avho   abused   the    power  given    them    and 
counted  it  their  own  ?    And  this  the  more, 
since 
I       13.  Thou  art  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  evil. 
I  The  prophet  repeats  his  complaint,  (as  troub- 
ling thoughts  are  wont  to  come  back,  after 
they  have  been  repelled,)  in  order  to  answer  it 
rnore  strongly.     All  sin  is  hateful  in  God's 
sight,  and   in  His  Holy  Wisdom  He  cannot 
endure  to  look  toward  iniquity.     As  man  turns 
away  from  sickening  sights,  so  God's  abhor- 
rence of  wrong  is  pictured  by  His  not  being 
able  to  look  toward  it.     If  He  looked  toward 
them,  they  must  perish  ^''.     Light  cannot  co- 
exist  with  darkness,  fire   with   water,  heat 
with   cold,  deformity  with   beauty,  foulness 
with  sweetness,  nor  is  sin  compatible  with 
the  Presence  of  God,  except  as  its  Judge  and 
punisher.     Thou  canst  not  look.     There  is  an 
entire  contradiction  between  God  and  unholi- 


6  See  Isa.  x.  5.  xlvii.  6.  Zeeh.  i.  15. 

'>  Ps.  xviii.  2.  46.  xix.  15.  xxviii.  1.  Ixii.  6.  7.  cxliv. 

1.  else  only  in  Deut.  xxxii.  1.  Ps.  xcii.  15.  anon. 
Else  Moses  speaks  in  his  Song  of  "the  Rock,"  "our 
Rock,"  "their  Rock,"  "Rock  of  his  salvation," 
"the  Rock  who  begat  thee,"  [Deut.  xxxii.  4,  31,  30. 
15, 18.]  and  in  reference  to  Deut.  Ps.  Ixxviii.  35,  and 
Hannah,  "there  is  no  rock  like  our  God,"  ISam.  ii. 

2,  and  David  asks,  "Who  is  a  rock  beside  Thee?" 
2  i3am.  xxii.  31,  and  calls  Him  "  the  Rock  of  Israel," 
2  Sam.  xxiii.  .3,  "the  Rock  of  my  strength"  Ps. 
Ixii.  8,  and  Ethan  says  that  God  entitled  David  to 
call  Him  "Rock  of  my  salvation,"  Ps.  Ixxxix.  26. 
and  Asaph  calls  Him,  "  the  Rock  of  my  heart."  Ps. 
Ixxiii.  26.  Isaiah  in  his  song  entitles  God  "the  Rock 
of  ages,"  Isa.  xxvi.  4.  also  "the  Rock  of  Israel," 
XXX.  29,  "the  rock  of  thy  [Israel's]  strength,"  xvii. 
10.  Else  it  occurs  only  in  two  anonymous  Psalms, 
"  the  rock  of  my  refuge,"  Ps.  xciv.  22,  "of  our  sal- 
vation "  xcv.  1. 

8 "Thou  Who  art  the  Rock  of  all  ages  hast 
founded  him  to  reprove  by  him  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth."    Kim. 

•Kim.  loPs.  civ.  32, 


HAT.AKKrK". 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  G26. 

B  Or,  vwving. 


■Jer.  16. 16. 
Amos  4.  2. 


14  And  makest  men  as 
.  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  as  the 

II  creeping  things,  that  have 
no  ruler  over  them  ? 

15  They  ""take  up  all 
of  them   with  the   angle. 


ness.  And  yet,  wherefore  lookest  thou  upon, 
viewest,  tus  in  Thy  full  siglit  ^,  yea,  as  it  would 
seem,  with  favor '^,  bestowing  on  them  the 
goods  ot'this lil'e,  honor,  glory, children,  riches, 
as  the  Psalmist  saith  ;  ^  Behold  these  are  the 
unyodly,  v:ho  prosper  in  the  world,  they  increase 
in  riches  f  Wiiy  lookest  thou  upon  them  that 
deal  treacherously,  holdest  Thy  tonyue,  puttest 
restraint  *,  as  it  were,  upon  Thyself  and  Thine 
own  attribute  of  Justice,  when  the  wicked  de- 
roureth  the  man  that  is  more  righteous  than  he? 
^  In  GocFs  siyht  no  man  I  icing  can  be  justified; 
and  in  one  sense  Sodom  anci  Gomorrah  were 
less  unrifjhteous  than  Jerusalem,  and  ®  it  shall 
be  more  tolerable  for  them  in  the  day  of  Judg- 
ment, beciuse  they  sinned  against  less  light ; 
yet  the  actual  sins  of  the  Chaldee  were 
greater  than  those  of  Jerusalem,  and  Satan's 
evil  is  greater  than  that  of  those  who  are  his 
prey.  To  say  that  Judah  was  more  righteous 
than  the  Chaldwan  docs  not  imply  any 
righteousness  of  the  Chaldiean,  as  the  saying 
that '  God  ransomed  Jacob  from  the  hand  of  one 
stronger  than  he,  does  not  imply  any  strength 
remaining  to  Israel.  Then,  also,  in  all  the 
general  judgments  of  God,  the  righteous  too 
suffer  in  this  world,  whence  Abraham  inter- 
cedes for  Sodom,  if  there  were  but  ten  right- 
eous in  it ;  lest  "  the  righteous  be  destroyed  ivith 
the  wicked.  Hence  God  also  spared  Nineveh 
in  part  as  having  ®  more  than  sixseore  thousand 
persons  that  cannot  discern  between  their  right 
hand  and  their  left  hand,  i.  e.  good  from  evil. 
No  times  were  fuller  of  sin  than  those  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  yet  the  fury  of 
the  Assassins  fell  upon  the  innocent.  And 
80  the  words,  like  the  voice  of  tiie  souls  under 
the  Altar  '",  become  the  cry  of  the  Church 
at  all  times  against  the  oppressing  world,  and 
of  the  blood  of  the  Martyrs  from  Abel  to  the 
end,  Lord,  how  long*  And  in  that  the  word 
Righteous "  signifies  both  "  one  righteous 
man,"  and  the  whole  class  or  generation  of 
tlie  righteous,  it  speaks  both  of  Christ  the 
Head  and  of  all  His  meml)er8  in  whom  (as 

1  The  preposition  Sx  is  left  out  in  this  place,  as 
if  to  malte  tlie  contrast  stronger.  God  cannot  en- 
dure to  look  toward  (Sk)  iniquity,  and  yet  He  does 
not  only  this,  but  beholdeth  it,  conteniplateth  it, 
and  still  is  silent. 

s  So  the  word  moans  mostly;  "regard  favorably;" 
except  Ps.  X.  14.  wlK-re  it  is  said  that  Uod  behold 
ungodliness  to  avonijo  it.  «Ps.  Ixxiii.  12. 

*  lypnn  translated  "  keep  silent "  Ps.  xxxv.  22. 
I.  21.  implies  an  noting  on  a  person's  self. 

»Ps.  cxliii.  2. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


they  catch  them  in  their 

net,  and   gather   them   in 

their  1 1  drag :  therefore  they    i  OT,flue  net. 

rejoice  and  are  glad. 

IG  Therefore   "they    "Deut. 8.17. 

.-  ,     .  •'         Isai.  10. 13. 

sacrince    unto    their   net,      &37. 24, 25. 


by  Saul)  He  was  persecuted.  The  tcicked  also 
includes  all  persecutors,  both  those  who  slew 
the  Lord  Christ,  and  those  who  brought  His 
servants  before  judgment-seats,  and  blas- 
phemed His  Name ''^j  and  caused  many  to 
blaspheme,  and  slew  whom  they  could  not 
compel.  And  God,  all  the  while,  seemeth  to 
look  away  and  to  regard  not. 

14.  And  makest  men  as  the  fishes  of  the  sea, 
dumb,  helpless,  in  a  stormy,  restless  element, 
no  cry  heard,  but  themselves  swept  away  in 
shoals,  with  no  power  to  resist,  as  the  creeping 
things,  whether  of  the  land  (as  it  is  mostly 
used),  or  the  sea '^  Either  way  it  is  a  con- 
temptuous name  forthelowest  of  either.  That 
have  no  ruler  over  them;  none  to  guide,  order, 
protect  them,  and  so  a  picture  of  man  de- 
prived of  the  care  and  providence  of  God. 

15.  They  take  up  all  of  them  [lit.  he  taketh  up 
all  of  it']  the  whole  race  as  though  it  were 
one,  ivith  an  angle ;  they  catch  them,  [lit.  he 
sweepeth  it  away]  in  their  [his]  net.  One  fish- 
erman is  singled  out  who  partly  by  wiles  [as 
by  the  bait  oiF  an  angle],  partly  by  violence, 
[the  net  or  drag]  sweeps  away  '*  and  gathers 
as  his  own  the  whole  kind.  Nebuchadnezzar 
and  the  Chaldajans  are  herein  a  faint  image 
of  Satan,  who  ca.sts  out  his  baits  and  his  nets 
in  the  stormy  sea  of  this  life,  taking  some  by 
individual  craft,  sweeping  othere  in  whole 
masses,  to  do  evil ;  and  whoso  hath  no  ruler, 
and  will  not  have  Christ  to  reign  over  him^", 
he  allures,  liurries,  drags  away  as  his  prey. 
"  '*  Adam  clave  to  his  hook,  anil  he  drew  him 
forth  out  of  Paradise  with  his  net ;  and  cov- 
ered iiim  with  his  drags,  his  varied  and  raani- 
folil  deceits  and  guiles.  And  by  one  many 
became  sinners,  and  in  Adam  we  all  died,  and 
all  saints  afterward  were  with  him  alike  cast 
out  of  Paradise.  And  because  he  deceived 
the  first  man,  he  ceaseth  not  daily  to  slay  the 
whole  human  race." 

IG.  Therefore  they  sacrifice  unto  their  net,  and 
burn  ineense  unto  their  drag.  [lit.  he  sacrifices 
unto/iw  &c.]     Whatever  a  man  trusts  in,  is 

«S.  Matt.  X.  l.l.  xi.  24.  S.  Mark  vi.  11.  S.  Luke  x. 
12. 

7  Jer.  xxxi.  11.  Del.  TJen.  xviii.  23. 

».Jon.  iv.  11.  n'Hev.  vi.  10. 

"  Singular  in  Hebrew,  vet  so  that  it  mav  bo  used 
of  many.  >2  S.  Jas.  ii.  6,  7.  "  Ps."  civ.  25. 

"The  word  T^J,  firarar.  expresses  by  its  sound 
the  grating  noise  of' the  pelthles  on  the  sea-shore. 
The  word  is  singular,  although  it  might  be  a  colleo 
live. 

'6S.  Lukexix.  4.  i«S.  Jer. 


CHAPTER  11. 


189 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


H  Or,  dainty. 
fHeb./o<. 


and  burn  incense  unto 
-their  drag;  because  by 
them  their  portion  is  fat, 
and  their  meat  ||t  plente- 
ous. 

17  Shall  they  therefore 
empty  their  net,  and  not 
spare  continually  to  slay 
the  nations  ? 


his  god.  If  a  man  relies  to  compass  his  end 
by  his  strength,  or  his  wisdom,  or  his  fore- 
thought, or  his  wealth,  his  armies  or  navies, 
these  his  forces  are  liis  God.  So  tlie  Assyrian 
said,  ^  By  the  strength  of  my  hand  1  did  it ;  and 
by  my  ivisdom,  for  I  am  prudent ;  and  God  an- 
swered, Shall  the  axe  boast  itself  ayainst  him  that 
heweth  therewith  ?  The  coarse  forms  of  idolatry 
only  embody  outwardly  the  deep  inward 
idolatry  of  the  corrupt  human  mind.  The 
idol  is  '■'  set  up  in  the  heart  first.  There  have 
not  indeed  been  wanting  savage  nations,  wlio 
in  very  deed  worshiped  their  arms'*;  those 
of  old  worshiped  spears  as  immortal  gods  * ; 
Even  now  we  are  told  of  some  North  Ameri- 
can Indians  "  *  who  designate  their  bow  and 
arrow  as  the  only  beneficent  deities  whom 
they  know."  Among  the  civilized  Romans, 
the  worship  of  the  eagles,  their  standards  ®, 
to  whom  they  did  sacrifice ',  was  no  other 
nor  better.  The  inward  idolatry  is  only  a 
more  subtle  form  of  the  same  sin,  the  evil 
spirit  which  shapes  itself  in  the  outward 
shew.  Here  the  idolatry  of  self  is  meant, 
which  did  not  join  creatures  with  (xod  as  ob- 
jects of  worsliip  ;  but,  denying  Him  in  prac- 
tice or  misbelief,  became  a  God  to  itself  **.  So 
Habakkuk  had  said,  this  his  strength  is  his  God. 
His  idol  was  himself. 

Because  by  them  their  portion  is  fat,  and  their 
meat  plenteous  (lit.  as  in  E.  M.,  well-fed).  All 
the  choicest  things  of  the  world  stood  at  his 
command,  as  Nebuchadnezzar  boasted  *,  and 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  their 
glory,  all  the  knowledge  and  wisdom  and 
learning  of  the  world,  and  the  whole  world 
itself,  were  Satan's  lawful  prey '".     "  "  Nebu- 

1  Is.  X.  13. 15.  s  Ezek.  xiv.  4. 

!»The  Scythians.  Herod,  iv.  62.  Lucian  Jov.  Tra- 
gsed.  42.  p.  275,  Arnob.  vi.  §  11,  Mela.  ii.  1.  Clem.  Al. 
Protr.  iv.  p.  40,  ed.  Pott.,  Amm.  Marc.  xxvi.  2.  The 
Quadi  did  the  same.  Id.  xvii.  12.  fin.  The  chance 
discovery  of  one  of  these  sacred  swords  of  the 
Scythian  kings  made  Attila  think  himself  "made 
prince  of  the  whole  world."  Jordanes  de  Get.  orig. 
c.  ,35,  from  Priscus,  a  contemporary. 

■•Justin  L.  43.  c.  3. 

^Waitz  die  Indianer  Nord-Americas  1867  p.  127. 
quoted  bv  Ewald. 

«See  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  16  and  note  e.  f.  g.  p.  38. 
Qxl  Tr. 


CHAPTER    II.  Before 

C  FT  R  T  ^  T 

1  Unto  Habakkuk,  waiting  for  cir.  626. 
an  answer,  is  shewed  that  he 
mws<  wait  by  faith.  5  The 
judgment  upon  the  Chaldean 
for  unsatiableness,  9  for  covet- 
ousness,  12  for  cruelty,  lo  for 
drunkenness,  18  andfoi'  idola- 
try. 

T  "WILL  *  stand  upon  my    »is.  21. 8,  ii. 
watch,  and  set  me  upon 


chadnezzar,  as  by  a  hook  and  meshes  and 
line,  swept  into  his  own  land  both  Israel 
himself  and  other  nations,  encompassing 
them.  Satan,  as  it  were,  by  one  line  and  net, 
that  of  sin,  enclosed  all,  and  Israel  especially, 
on  account  of  his  impiety  to  Christ.  His 
food  luas  choice.  For  Israel  was  chosen  above 
the  rest,  as  from  a  holy  root,  that  of  the  fa- 
thers, and  having  the  law  as  a  schoolmaster, 
and  being  called  to  the  knowledge  of  the  one 
true  God.  Yet  he,  having  this  glory  and 
grace,  was  taken  with  the  rest.  They  became 
his  prey  by  error  ;  but  Israel,  knowing  Him 
Who  is  by  nature  God,  slaying  ungodlily 
Him  Who  was  by  nature  His  Begotten  Son 
and  AVho  came  as  Man,  were  taken  in  his 
nets." 

17.  Shall  they  therefore  empty  their  net,  and 
not  spare  continually  to  slay  the  nations  f  The 
prophet,  like  Isaiah  ^^,  stands  at  the  very  last 
point,  before  the  fury  and  desire  of  the 
enemy  was  fulfilled.  Men,  like  fish,  wei-e 
gathered  together  for  a  prey ;  he  who  had 
taken  them  was  rejoicing  and  exulting  before- 
hand in  his  booty;  his  portion  and  meat 
were  the  choice  of  the  earth  ;  the  prophet 
looks  on,  as  it  were,  and  beholds  the  net  full ; 
there  is  but  one  step  more  ;  "  Shall  he  empty 
it  ?  Shall  he  then  devour  those  whom  he 
has  caught  ?  and  so  cast  his  emptied  net 
again  unceasingly,  pitilessly,  to  slay  the  na- 
tions?" This  question  he  answers  in  the 
next  chapter ;  A  Deliverer  will  come. 

II.  1.  I  ivill  stand  [I  would  stand  now"],  as  a 
servant  awaiting  his  master,  upon  my  watch 
[or  keep  '^],  and  set  me  [plant  myself  firmly] 
upon  tlie  tower  [lit.  fenced  place,  but  also  one 

'  Joseph,  de  Bell.  Jud.  vi.  32. 

8  A  heathen  poet,  wishing  to  express  this  irrever- 
ence, puts  into  a  warrior's  mouth  this  prayer: 
"  Now  may  my  right  hand,  to  me  god,  and  the 
weapon  which  I  brandish,  be  my  helper!"  Virg. 
^n.  vii.  648.  add  Stat.  x.  .545.  iii.  645,  sq.  So  the 
Times  said  at  the  beginning  of  the  late  war,  "The 
French  almost  worshiped  the  mitrailleuse  as  a 
goddess."  They  idolized,  it  would  say,  their  inven- 
tion, as  if  it  could  do  what  God  alone  could. 

9  Dan.  iv.  30.  comp.  22. 

10  S.  Luke  iv.  6.  S.  John  xii.  31.  Isa.  xlix.  24. 

11  S.  Cyr.  12  Isa.  xviii.  4,  5. 
13  Jb,  xxi.  8.  '\'2W^  in  the  sain^  sense  Jer.  Ii.  18, 


190 


HABAKKUK. 


the   fto-Nver,   ''and   will 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  626.       watch  to  666  what  h6  will 


^^lace.^^'"^       say  II  unto  me,  and  what  I 
*  Or,  in  me.        shall  answcr  1 1 1  when  I  am 

h  Or,  when  I  am  i 

argued  with,     reproved. 
^^epoTorr''      2  And  the  Lord  an- 

arguing. 


straitened  and  narrowly  hemmed  in],  and 
u'iil  watch  (it  is  a  title  of  the  prophets  \  as 
espying,  by  God's  enabling,  things  beyond 
human  ken) ;  I  will  esp^  out,  to  see  a  long 
way  off,  to  see  with  the  inward  eye,  what  He 
vnll  say  unto  me  [lit.  '^  in  me]  ;  first  revealing 
Himself  in  the  prophets  "  within  to  the  inner 
man  ; "  then,  tlirough  them.  And  what  I  shall 
answer  when  I  am  reproved  ^,  or,  upon  my  com- 
plaint, lit.  upon  my  reproof  or  arguing  ;  which 
might  mean,  either  that  others  argued  against 
him,  or  that  he  had  argued,  pleatled  in  the 
name  of  others,  and  now  listened  to  hear 
what  God  would  answer  in  him  *,  and  so  he, 
as  taught  by  God,  should  answer  to  his  own 
plea.  But  he  had  so  pleaded  with  God,  re- 
peatedly, Why  is  this?  He  has  given  no 
hint,  that  any  complained  of  or  reproved 
him. 

"*By  an  image  from  those  who,  in  war 
and  siege,  have  the  ward  of  the  wall  distri- 
buted to  them,  he  says,  /  will  stand  upon  my 
watch."  "  *  It  was  the  wont  of  the  Saints, 
when  they  wished  to  learn  the  things  of  God, 
and  to  receive  the  knowledge  of  things  to 
come  through  His  voice  in  their  mind  and 
lieart,  to  raise  it  on  high  above  distractions 
and  anxieties  and  all  worldly  care,  holding 
and  keeping  it  unoccupied  and  peaceful, 
rising  as  to  an  eminence  to  look  around  and 
contemplate  what  the  God  of  all  knowledge 
should  make  clear  to  them.  For  He  hateth 
the  earth-bound  and  abject  mind,  and  seeks 
hearts  which  can  soar  aloft,  raised  above 
earthly  tilings  and  temporal  desires."  The 
propliet  takes  his  stand,  apart  from  men  and 
the  thoughts  and  cares  of  this  world,  on  his 

I  Hence  n£31V  "  watchman,"  the  "  prophet "  I.'»a. 
111.  8.  Jer.  vl.  17.  Ezek.  iii.  17.  xxxiii.  7.  Kal:  of  the 
prophets,  Pih.  Mic.  vii.  4;  of  looking  up  to  God,  Ps. 
V.  4;  with  3  Mic.  vii.  7. 

a  S.  .ler. 

»The  Rabb.  Kim.  A.  E.  Rashi,  Tanch.  Sal.  li. 
Mol.,  Abarb.  take  it  as  the  E.  V.,  probabi)'  thinkinu 
the  other  to  be  too  bold  an  expression  toward  God.    i 

<See  Num.  xii.  6.  and  on  Zech.  i.  19. 

STheod*.  «S.  Cyr. 

'Symm.  Theod.  Aq.  agree  In  this  sense  of  nar- 
rowness. 

•EtymoloKically,  "1{<3  means  "engrave,"  lit.  diq: 
like  so  many  other  words,  which  come  to  mean 
"  write,"  as  303  with  3t3n,  3Vn  Ges. ;  1£3D  ypa.<i>(iv, 
eingraoen,  graben,  engrave,  [Id.]  but  it  only  occurs 
a.s  "  make  clear,  explain,"  De.  xxvii.  8.  So  Kim.  Ac. 

•pi*?  is  a  table  or  tablet,  on  which  Isaiah  too  was 
bidden  to  write  what  was  to  last,  though  in  parallel- 
ism with  a  "book."  I<i(.  xx\.  8.  "thi.'  liiVOcts  which 


swered   me,   and   said,  (jhr^st 
*=  Write  the  vision,  and  __£i£i.5!L_ 

make  it  plain  upon  tables,  c  isai.  s.  i. 
that  he  may  run  that  read- 
eth  it. 

3  For  **  the  vision  is  yet  *  Dan.  lo.  14. 

*'  &  11.  27,  36. 


lonely  watch,  as  Moses  on  the  rock,  keeping 
himself  and  kept  by  God,  and  planted  firm, 
so  that  nothing  should  move  him,  fenced 
around  though  straitened  in ',  as  in  a  be- 
sieged camp  committed  to  his  ward,  looking 
out  from  his  lofty  place  what  answer  God 
would  give  as  to  times  long  distant,  and  what 
answer  he  should  give  first  to  himself,  and  to 
those  to  whom  his  office  lay,  God's  people. 

2.  The  answer  is,  that  it  is  indeed  for  a 
long  time  yet.  Write  the  vision,  that  it  may 
remain  for  those  who  come  after  and  not  be 
forgotten,  and  make  it  plain  **  upon  the  tables, 
whereon  he  was  wont  to  write  * ;  and  that, 
in  large  lasting  characters,  that  he  may  run 
that  readeth  it,  that  it  may  be  plain  to  any, 
however  occupied  or  in  haste.  So  Isaiah  too 
was  bidden  to  write  the  four  words,  haste- 
prey-speed-spoil. 

3.  For  the  vision  is  yet  for  an  [the'\  appointed 
time.  '°  Not  for  the  present,  but  to  aevelop 
itself  in  the  course  of  time,  down  to  a  sea.^'on 
which  God  only  knows ;  as  it  is  subsequently 
repeated,  "/o;-  the  end  is  yet  for  the  appointed 
time;  ^'^  for  it  is  for  the  appointed  time  of  the 
end ;  and  is  explained,  ^^for  the  vision  is  yet 
for  the  days ;  ^*for  it  is  for  many  days  ;  '*  the 
house  of  Israel  say,  The  vision  thai  he  seeth,  is 
for  many  days  and  he  nrophesieth  of  the  times 
far  off;  yei  it  should  haste  toward  the  end, 
toward  its  fulfillment,  so  that,  if  it  is  not  at 
once  fulfilled,  it  should  be  surely  waited  for. 
"  '*  It  shall  certainly  be ;  not  in  vain  hatli  it 
been  shewn,  but  as  certainly  to  be.  For 
whatever  hath  been  shewn  to  come  and  to  be, 
will  come  and  be." 

But  at  the  end  it  shall  speak  "  [or  it  breatheth, 

boys  write  on."  A.  E.  comp.  Ezek.  xvii.  14.  Jer. 
XXX.  2. 

'"  Ewald  ad  loc. ;  but  therewith  the  theory  of  a 
mere  human  foresight  is  abandoned. 

n  Dan.  xi.  27.  for  ft  is  for  the  appointed  time,  ib.  .S.^. 

"lb  viii.  19.  "Ib.  X.  1,14. 

^  "  Ib.  viii.  26.  '»  Ezek.  xii.  27.  '«  Theod'. 

"  The  E.  V.  follows  the  Rabbins  [Kim.  Comm.,  A. 
E.,  Tanch.,  Rashi,  Abarb.]  so  far  in  rendering  nS" 

"speak."  Yet  in  all  the  cases  of  both  roots,  n3", 
niD,  except  Prov.  xii.  17,  HjnX  D'SN  the  root  is 

used  not  of  mere  "speaking"  but  of  "breathing 
out"  like  e/jLni-iuii/  oirftX^?  (Acts  xi.  1.)  "breathing 
out  threatening."  In  five  ca^es  it  occurs  in  the  one 
idiom,  "breatheth  out  lies,"  D'3J3  Pl'D',  Pr.  vi.  19, 
xiv.  5,  25,  xix.  5,  9.    In  other  idioms  0713  ITD' 

)b  n'O',  Ps.  X.  5,  xii.  C,  it  is  still  used  of  pnfflng  at 
"contemptuously."  Else  the  Kal  is  used  of  the 
cool  air  of  the  evening  Cant.  ii.  17.  iv.  •>,  uud  Hlfil 


CHAPTER  II. 


191 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


for  an  appointed  time,  but 
at  the  end  it  shall  speak, 
and  not  lie :  though  it  tar- 


hctsteth  to  the  end'],  not  simply  "to  its  own  ful- 
fillment," but  to  that  time  of  the  end  which 
should  close  the  period  assigned  to  it,  during 
which  it  should  continually  be  putting  itself 
forth,  it  should  come  true  in  part  or  in 
shadow,  gleams  of  it  should  here  and  there 
part  the  clouds,  which,  until  the  end,  should 
surround  and  envelop  it.  Being  God's  truth, 
he  speaks  of  it  as  an  animate  living  thing, 
not  a  dead  letter,  but  running,  hasting  on  its 
course,  and  accomplishing  on  its  way  that  for 
which  it  was  sent.  The  will  and  purpose  of 
God  hasteth  on,  though  to  man  it  seemeth  to 
tarry  ;  it  can  neither  be  hurried  on,  nor  doth 
it  linger ;  before  the  appointed  time  it  cometh 
not ;  yet  it  hasteth  toward  it,  and  mil  not  be 
behindhand  when  the  time  comes.  It  does 
not  lie,  either  by  failing  to  come,  or  failing, 
when  come,  of  any  jot  or  tittle.  Though  it 
tarry  or  linger  ^,  continually  appearing,  giving 
signs  of  itself,  yet  continually  delaying  its 
coming,  wait  for  it ;  because  it  will  surely  come, 
it  will  not  be  behindhand^,  when  the  time 
comes.  ^  He  cometh  quickly  also,  as  He  saith  ; 
because  "  *  though  the  delay  of  His  Coming 
and  of  the  fullillment  of  the  vision  seem 
long,  yet,  in  comparison  with  eternity,  it  is 
very  short.  In  His  First  Coming,  He  taught 
why  God  permitteth  these  things;  in  the 
Second,  He  shall  teach  by  experience,  hoAV 
good  it  it  is  for  the  good  to  bear  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  evil ;  whence  S.  Peter  also  has  to 
Bay,  *  The  Lord  is  not  slack  ccmceming  His  prom- 
ise, as  some  men  count  slackness."  The  words 
seem  to  belong,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the 
vision  itself;  but  the  vision  had  no  other  ex- 
istence or  fulfillment  than  in  Him  Who  was 
the  Object  of  it,  and  Who,  in  it,  was  fore- 
shadowed to  the  mind.  The  coming  of  the 
vision  was  no  other  than  His  Coming.  The 
waiting,  to  which  he  exhorts,  expresses  the 
religious  act,  so  often  spoken  of,  •"  of  waiting 
for  God,  or  His  counsel,  or  Plis  promised 
time.    The  sense  then  is  wholly  the  same, 

of  "  causing  to  blow,"  lb.  iv.  16.  Else  it  is  only  used 
(metaph.)  of  blowing  up,  kindling,  (as  we  say)  stir- 
ring up  a  city  to  strife  Pr.  xxix.  8,  and  blowing  up 
the  fire  of  the  wrath  of  God,  Ez.  xxi.  36.  PIBTin 

is  used  of  the  deep  sigh  of  agony  Jer.  iv.  31.  and 
Don  nS'  Ps-  xxvii.  12.  "breathing  forth  violence  " 

stands  united  with  "  false  witness  "  as  in  the  Prov. 
If    understood    then    of   speaking,    it    would   be 

"breathing  of  the  end"  (7  relating  to  the  subject 
of  the  speech,  as  so  often)  which  would  he  much 
the  same  as,  breatheth  panting  toward  the  end, 

(lik^S  ^^,  Eccl.  i.  5.) 

'  nDHDnn  (no  kal.)  seems  to  be  compound  of 
no.  no.  wAj/,  whyl  the  answer  of  one  procrasti- 
nating. It  occurs  thrice  in  the  Pent,  twice  in 
Judges,  else  only  in  2  Sam.  xr.  19,  in  the  prophets 


ry,  wait  for  it ;  because  it    ^  h  rTs  t 
will  'surely  come,  it  will      cir.  626. 
not  tarry.  •  Heb.  lo.  37. 


when  S.  Paul  uses  the  words  of  the  Coming 
of  our  Lord  Himself,  ^  Yet  a  little  while,  and 
He  that  shall  come,  ti'ill  come  and  will  not  tarry. 
S.  Paul,  as  well  as  Habakkuk,  is  speaking  of 
our  Lord's  Second  Coming ;  S.  Paul,  of  His 
Coming  in  Person,  Habakkuk,  of  the  ef- 
fects of  that  Coming^;  but  both  alike  of 
the  redressing  of  all  the  evil  and  wrong  in 
the  world's  history,  and  the  reward  of  the 
faithful  oppressed.  At  His  First  Coming  He 
said,  "  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world ;  now 
shall  the  prince  of  this  icorld  be  cast  out.  He 
came  to  ^^ put  down  the  mighty  from  their  seat, 
and  to  exalt  the  humble  and  meek;  but  much 
more  in  the  Second,  when  "  He  shall  come  to 
judge  the  world  with  righteousness  and  the  people 
with  His  truth,  and  to  ^^  reward  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  works.  At  all  times  He  seemeth 
continually  to  linger,  to  give  signs  of  His 
Coming,  yet  He  cometh  not ;  when  the  ap- 
pointed season  shall  come.  He  shall  be  found 
not  to  be  "  later  "  than  His  word.  Yea,  all 
time  shall  shrink  up  into  a  little  moment  in 
the  presence  of  a  never-ending  ever-present 
eternity. 

"'^Having  named  no  one  expressly,  he 
says,  wait  for  him,  wait  for  him  although  de- 
laying, and  halt  not  in  thy  hope,  but  let  it 
be  rooted  and  firm,  even  if  the  interval  be 
extended.  For  the  God  of  all  seemeth  to 
suggest  to  the  mind  of  the  Prophet,  that  He 
who  was  foretold  would  surely  come,  yet  to 
enjoin  on  him  to  wait  for  Him  on  account  of 
the  interval.  He  who  believeth  My  word 
shall  possess  life,  for  this  is  the  reward  of 
those  who  honor  God,  and  a  good  reward  of 
His  benevolence.  Fie  who  admitteth  faith 
and  love  to  dwell  in  his  heart  hath  as  a  re- 
quital, un-aging  life  and  forgiveness  of  sins 
and  sanctification  by  the  Spirit."  ""He 
shall  live ;  for  '^  Ood  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead 
but  of  the  living,  "  ^®  Whoso  liveth  and  believeth 
in  Me,  shall  never  die" 

It  will  not  lie.    God  vouchsafes  to  speak  of 

Is.  xxix.  9,  and  in  Ps.  cxix.  60.  of  religious  procras- 
tinating.   In  Arab,  are  the  like  forms  nono  and 

njnj.       , 

3  Rev.  xxii.  7.  ■•  from  Dion. 

&2S.  Pet.  iii.  9. 

« Ps.  xxxiii.  20.  Isai.  viii.  17.  xxx.  18.  Ixiv.  3. 
Zeph.  iii.  8.  Dan.  xii.  12.  Ps.  cvi.  13. 

'  Heb.  X.  37. 

8  The  vivid  words,  in  themselves,  rather  express 
a  personal  agent;  what  would  be  figure  as  to  the 
vLsion  are  simple  words  as  to  Him  Who  was  fore- 
shown. Whence  the  Lxx  change  the  gender  and 
interpret  the  clause  of  a  person,  "  He  who  shall 
come."  »S.  John  xii.  31. 

10  S.  Luke  1.  62.  u  Ps.  xlvi.  13. 

12  8.  Matt.  xvi.  27.  i«  S.  Cvr.  i*  Alb. 

i»  S.  Matt.  xxli.  32.  'w  S.  John  xl  26. 


192 


HABAKKUK. 


4  Behold,  his  soul  ivhich 


Before 
CHRIST 

c'r-  G2G.      is  lifted  up  is  not  upright 


Himself,  as  we  should  be  asliaraed  to  speak 
of  one  whom  we  love,  teaching  us  that  all 
doubts  question  His  truth.  '  God  is  not  a 
mail,  that  He  should  lie:  hath  He  said  and 
shall  He  not  do  it  ?  '^  The  strength  of  Israel 
shall  neither  lie  nor  repent.  '  God  that  cannot 
lie,  promised  before  the  world  begun.  Therefore 
it  follows,  wait  for  Him,  as  Jacob  says,  *  / 
have  waited  for  Thy  salvation,  0  Lord. 

4.  Behold,  his  soid  which  is  lifted  up  [lit. 
swollen^'}  is  not  upright  in  him.  The  construc- 
tion is  probably  that  of  a  condition  expi-essed 
absolutely.  Lo,  swollen  is  it,  not  upnght  is  his 
soul  in  him.  We  should  say,  "  His  soul,  if  it 
be  swollen^,  puffed  up,  is  not  upright  in 
him."  The  source  of  all  sin  was  and  is  pride. 
It  is  especially  the  sin  of  all  oppressors,  of 
the  Chaldee,  of  Anti-Christs,  and  shall  be  of 
the  Anti-Christ.  It  is  the  parent  of  all 
heresy,  and  of  all  corruption  and  rejection 
of  the  Gospel.  It  stands  therefore  ;is  the 
type  of  all  opposed  to  it.  Of  it  he  says,  it  is 
in  its  very  inmost  core  [i/i  him']  lacking  in 
uprightness.  It  can  have  no  good  in  it,  be- 
cause it  denies  God,  and  God  denies  it  His 
grace.  And  having  nothing  upright  in  it, 
being  corrupt  in  its  very  inmost  being,  it  can- 
not stand  or  abide.  God  gives  it  no  power 
to  stantl.  The  words  stand  in  contrast  with 
the  following,  the  one  speaking  of  the  cause 
of  death,  the  other  of  life.  The  soul,  being 
swollen  with  pride,  shuts  out  faith,  and  with 
it  the  Presence  of  God.  It  is  all  crooked  in 
its  very  inner  self  or  being.  S.  Paul  gives 
the  result,  '  if  any  man  draw  back,  my  .^^oid  hath 
no  pleasure  in  him.  The  prophet's  words  de- 
scribe the  prou'l  man  who  stan  Is  aloof  from 
God,  in  himself;  S.  Paul,  as  he  is  in  the 
Eyes  of  God.  As  tliat  which  is  swollen  in 
nature  cannot  be  straight,  it  is  clean  con- 
trary that  the  soul  sliould  be  swollen  with 
pride  and  yet  upright.  Its  moral  life  being 
destroyed  in  its  very  inmost  heart,  it  must 
perish. 

"*  Plato  saith,  that  properly  is  straight, 
which  being  applied  to  what  is  straight, 
touches  and  is  touihed  everywhere.  But 
God  is  upright.  Whom  the  upright  soul 
touches  and  is  touched  everywhere;  but 
what  is  not  upriglit  is  bent  away  from  God. 
"  God  is  good  unto  Israd,  the  upright  in  heart. 
'"  The  upright  love  Uiee.     "  T/te  way  of  the  just  is 

»  Nu.  xxiii.  19.  3 1  Sam.  xv.  29. 

3Tit.  i.  2.  ■•Gen.  xlix.  18. 

* nSsjy  See  on  Micah  iv.  8.  p.  62,  note  8. 

*  In  the  Lxx  iav  virotrTeiKtfTat.  DpH  iw  used  lliMH 
absolutely,  the  condition  beinj;  iuipfied,  Deut.  xili. 
15, 16.  In  Ex.  viii.  22.  the  future  is  used  absolutely 
with  'H. 


in  him :  but  the  'just  shall    ^  ^^^^1%  t 
live  by  his  faith 


cir.  G26. 


'John  3.  30.  Rom.  1. 17.  Gal.  3. 11.  Heb.  10.  38. 


uprightness.  Thou,  most  Upright,  doth  weigh  the 
path  of  the  just." 

But  the  just  shall  live  by  his  faith.  The  ac- 
cents emphasize  the  words  '■',  TAe  j-  st,  by  his 
faith  he  shall  live.  They  do  not  point  to  an 
union  of  the  words,  the  just  by  his  faith. 
Isaiah  says  that  Christ  should  jus<(/(/  7nany  by 
the  knowledge  of  Himself  ^^,  but  the  expression, 
just  by  his  faith,  does  not  occur  eillier  in  the 
O.  or  N.  T.  In  fact,  to  speak  of  cme  really 
righteous'*  as  being  "  righteous  by  his  faith  " 
wtmld  imply  that  men  could  be  ri^^iiteous  in 
some  other  way.  Without  f  nth,  S.  Paul  says 
at  the  commencement  of  his  Old  Testament 
pictures  of  giant  faith,  '^  it  is  impossible  to  please 
God.  Faith,  in  the  creature  which  does  not 
yet  see  God,  has  one  and  the  same  principle, 
a  trustful  relying  belief  in  its  Creator.  This 
was  the  characteristic  of  Abraham  tlieir 
fatlier,  unsliaken,  unswerving,  belief  in  God 
Who  called  him,  whether  in  leaving  his  own 
land  and  going  whither  he  knew  not,  for  an 
end  which  he  was  never  to  see ;  or  in  believ- 
ing the  promise  of  the  son  through  whom 
tluit  Seed  was  to  be,  in  Whom  all  the  nations 
of  the  world  should  be  blessed ;  or  in  the 
crowning  act  of  offering  that  son  to  God, 
knowing  that  he  should  receive  him  back, 
even  from  the  dead.  In  all,  it  was  one  and 
the  same  principle.  ^^ HU  belief  was  counted 
to  him  for  righteousness,  though  the  immediate 
instance  of  that  faith  was  not  directly  spirit- 
ual. In  this  was  the  good  and  bad  of  Israel. 
''  The  people  believed.  "*  They  believed  the  Lord 
and  His  servant  Moses.  '"  Then  believed  they 
His  word,  they  sang  His  praise.  This  contra- 
riwise was  their  blame.  "^  In  this  ye  did  not 
believe  the  Lord.  ^'  Ye  rebelled  against  the  com- 
inandment  of  the  Lord  your  God,  and  believed 
Him  not,  nor  hearkened  to  His  voice.  ^^  They 
forgat  God  their  Saviour;  they  despised  the 
pleasant  land,  they  believed  not  His  word.  And 
God  asks,  '^^  How  long  will  it  be,  ere  this  people 
believe  Me,  for  all  the  sigm  ivhich  I  have  shown 
among  them  f  ^*  Anger  came  upon  Israel,  because 
they  believed  not  in  God,  and  in  His  salvation 
(rusted  not.  ^*  For  all  this  they  sinned  still,  and 
believed  not  His  tvondrous  works.  Even  of 
Moses  and  Aaron  Goil  a.ssigns  this  as  the 
ground,  why  they  should  not  bring  His 
people  into  the  land  whicli  He  gave  them, 
^^  Because  ye  believed  Me  not,  to  sanctify  Me  in 

'  Heb.  X.  .39.  8  Alb.  »  Ps.  Ixxiii.  I. 

"Cant.  1.  4.       "Is.  xxvi.  7.       "See  Dolitzsch. 
"  pn^'  )Piif\2  Is.  liii.  11.    >«  As  p'nx  always  is. 

1'  Heb.  xl.  6.  i«Gen.  xv.  6.        "  Ex.  iv.  31. 

19  lb.  xiv.  31.  >»  Ps.  cvi.  12.         »  Deut.  i.  32. 

■■"  lb.  ix.  23.      »  Ps.  cvi.  21,  24.  »  Num.  xiv.  11. 

M  Vs.  Ixxviii.  21,  22.      »  lb.  32.  »«N«m   xx.  20, 


CHAPTER  II. 


193 


the  eyes  of  the  children  of  Israel  (at  Meribah). 
This  was  the  watchword  of  Jehoshaphat's 
victory,  '  Bdieve  in  the  Lord  your  God  and  ye 
shall,  be  established;  believe  Hii  prophets,  so 
shall  ye  prosper.  This  continued  to  be  one 
central  saying  of  Isaiah.  It  was  his  own 
commission  to  his  people ;  ^  Go  and  say  to  this 
people;  hear  ye  on,  and  understand  not;  see  ye 
on  and  perceive  not.  In  sight  of  the  rejection 
of  faith,  he  spake  prominently  of  the  loss 
upon  unbelief;  ^  If  ye  will  not  believe,  surely  ye 
shall  not  be  established;  and,  *  Who  hath  be- 
lieved our  report  f  he  premises  as  the  attitude 
of  his  people  toward  Him,  tlie  Centre  of  all 
faith,  Jesus.  Yet  still,  as  to  the  blessings  of 
faith,  having  spoken  of  Him,  *  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Zionfor  a  founda- 
tion, a  stone,  a  tried,  stone,  a  precious  corner- 
stone, he  subjoins,  he  that  believeth  in  Him  shall 
not  make  haste. 

So  it  had  been  the  key-note  of  Habakkuk 
to  his  people.  Ye  icill  not  believe  irhen  it  is  de- 
clared iinto  you.  Here  he  is  bid  to  declare 
contrariwise  the  blessing  on  belief.  The  just 
shall  live  by  his  faith.  The  faith,  then,  of 
which  Habakkuk  speaks,  is  faith,  in  itself, 
but  a  real,  true  confiding  faith.  It  is  the  one 
relation  of  tlie  creature  to  the  CYeator,  im- 
shaken  trust.  The  faith  may  vary  in  char- 
acter, according-  as  God  reveals  more  or  less 
of  Himself,  but  itself  is  one,  a  loving  trust  in 
Him,  just  as  He  reveals  Himself.  "®By 
this  faith  in  God,  eacli  righteous  person  be- 
gins to  live  piously,  righteously,  holily, 
peacefully  and  divinely,  and  advanceth 
therein,  since  in  every  tribulation  and 
misery,  by  this  faith  and  hope  in  God  he 
sustains,  strengthens,  and  increases  this  life 
of  the  soul.  He  says  then,  the  just  lives  by 
faith,  i.  e.,  the  unbelieving  and  unrighteous 
displeases  God,  and  consequently  will  not 
live  by  the  true,  right,  peaceful  and  happy 
life  of  grace,  present  righteousness,  and 
future  gloiy,  because  God  is  displeased  with 
him,  and  he  places  his  hopes  and  fears,  not  in 
God,  but  in  men  and  man's  help  and  in 
created  things.  But  the  righteous  who  be- 
lieveth in  God  shall  live  a  right,  sweet,  quiet, 
happy,  holy,  untroubled  life,  because,  fixed  by 
faith  and  hope  in  God  Who  is  the  true  Life, 
and  in  God's  promises,  he  is  dear  to  God,  and 
the  object  of  His  care. 

"  This  sentence,  the  just  shall  live  by  faith,  is 
universal,  belonging  at  once  to  Jews  and 
Christians,  to  sinners  who  are  first  being  jus- 
tified, as  also  to  those  who  are  already  justi- 
fied. For  the  .spiritual  life  of  each  of  these 
begins,  is  maintained  and  grows  through 
faith.  When  then  it  is  said,  the  just  shall  lice 
by  hk  faith,  this  word,  his,  marks  the  cause, 
which  both  begins  and  preserves  life.  The 
just,  believing  and  hoping  in  God,  begins  to 


1 2  Chron.  xx.  20. 
♦lb.  liii.  1. 

13 


»I9.  Tl.  9. 


8  lb.  vli.  9. 
6  lb.  xxvlil.  16. 


live  spiritually,  to  have  a  soul  right  within 
him,  whereby  he  pleases  God  ;  and  again,  ad- 
vancing and  making  progress  in  this  his  faith 
and  hope  in  God,  therewitli  advances  and 
makes  progress  in  the  spiritual  life,  in  right- 
ness  and  righteousness  of  soul,  in  the  grace 
and  friendship  of  God,  so  as  more  and  more 
to  please  God." 

Most  even  of  tlie  Jewish  interpreters  have 
seen  this  to  be  the  literal  meaning  of  the 
words.  It  stands  in  contrast  with,  illustrates 
and  is  illustrated  by  the  first  words,  his  soul  is 
suolle7i,  is  not  upright  in  him.  Pride  and  inde- 
pendence of  God  are  the  centre  of  the  want 
of  Tightness ;  a  steadfast  cleaving  to  God, 
whereby  the  heart,  as  Abraham's,  vjas  stayed  on 
God,  is  the  centre  and  cause  of  the  life  of  the 
righteous.  But  since  this  stayedness  of  laith 
is  in  everything  the  source  ol'the  lil'e  of  the 
righteous,  then  the  pride,  which  issues  in  want 
of  Tightness  of  the  inmost  soul,  must  be  a  state 
of  death.  Pride  estranges  the  soul  from 
God,  makes  it  self-sufficing,  tliat  it  should 
not  need  God,  so  that  he  who  is  proud  cannot 
come  to  God,  to  be  by  Him  made  righteous. 
So  contrariwise,  since  by  his  faith  doth  the 
righteous  live,  this  must  be  equally  true 
whether  he  be  just  made  righteous  from 
unrighteous,  or  whether  that  righteousness 
is  growing,  maturing,  being  perfected  in 
him. 

-  This  life  begins  in  grace,  lives  on  in  glory. 
It  is  begun,  in  that  God  freely  justifies  the 
ungodly,  accounting  and  making  him  right- 
eous for  and  through  the  Blood  of  Christ ;  it 
is  continued  in  faith  which  worketh  by  love ; 
it  is  perfected,  when  faitli  and  hope  are  swal- 
lowed up  in  love,  beholding  God.  In  the 
Epistles  to  the  Romans '  and  the  Galatians  ^ 
St.  Paul  applies  these  words  to  the  first  be- 
ginning of  life,  when  they  who  had  before 
been  dead  in  sin,  began  to  live  by  faith  in 
Christ  Jesus  Who  gave  them  life  and  made 
them  righteous.  And  in  this  sense  he  is 
called  "just,"  although  before  he  comes  to  the 
Faith  he  is  unjust  and  unrighteous,  being  un- 
justified. For  St.  Paul  uses  the  word  not  of 
what  he  was  before  the  faith,  but  what  he  is, 
when  he  lives  by  faith.  Before,  not  having 
faith,  he  had  neither  righteousness  nor  life; 
having  faith,  he  at  once  has  both ;  he  is  at 
once  just  and  lives  by  his  faith.  These  are  in- 
separable. The  faith  by  which  he  lives,  is  a 
living  faith,  ^ faith  which  vjorketh  by  love.  In 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews '",  St.  Paul  is 
speaking  of  their  endurance  in  the  faith,  once 
received,  whose  faith  is  not  shaken  by  the 
trial  of  their  patience.  They  who  look  on 
beyond  things  present,  and  fix  their  minds 
steadfastly  on  the  Coming  of  Christ,  will  not 
sufler  shipwreck  of  their  faith,  through  any 
troubles  of  this  time.     Faith  is  the  founda- 

«  Lap.  In  Rom.  1. 17.  t  Rom.  1. 17. 

8  Gftf.  iii.  11.  » lb.  T.  6,  10  Heb.  X.  88. 


194 


HABAKKUK. 


c  H  rTs  t        ^  ^  II  ^^^  ^^^'  because 
cir.  e-jo.       he  transgresseth  by  wine, 


lOr,Hoioviuch  he  is  a  proud  man,  neither 

more.  ,11  1 

keepeth  at  home,  who  en- 
hxrgeth  his  desire  '^  as  hell, 


t  Prov.  27.  20. 
&  30.  Hi. 


tion  of  all  good,  the  heginning  of  the  spiritual 
building,  wliereby  it  rests  on  The  Founda- 
tion, Christ,  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to 
please  God,  and  so  the  proud  cannot  please 
ilim.  Through  it,  is  union  with  Christ  and 
thereby  a  divine  life  in  the  soul,  even  a  life  ^ 
throuyh  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  holy,  peaceful, 
self-possessed^,  enduring  to  the  end,  being 
^kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  sal- 
vation ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  hist  time. 

5.  This  general  rule  the  Prophet  goes  on 
to  apply  in  words  which  belong  in  part  to  all 
oppressors  and  in  tlie  iii-st  instance  to  the 
Chaldsean,  in  part  yet  more  fully  to  tlie  end 
and  to  Anti-Christ."  Yea  also,  becaii-^ie  he  trans- 
gresseth by  wine  [or  better,  Fm,  how  much 
inore,  since  wine  is  a  deceiver  *"],  as  Solomon 
.says*,  Wine  is  a  mocker,  strong  drink  is  raging, 
and  whosoever  erreth  thereby  shall  not  be  vn.^e, 
and,  ®  In  live  end  it  biteth  like  a  serpent  ami 
pierceth  like  an  adder;  and  Hosea,  '  Whore- 
dom and  uine  and  new  wine  lake  away  the  heart. 
As  wine  at  firet  gladdens,  then  deprives  of  all 
rea.son,  and  lays  a  man  open  to  any  deceit,  so 
also  pride.  And  whereas  all  pride  deceives, 
how  much  more*^,  when  men  are  either 
heated  and  excited  by  the  abuse  of  God's 
natural  gifts,  or  drunken  with  prosperity  and 
iiurried  away,  as  conqneroi-s  are,  to  all  excess 
of  cruelty  or  lust  to  fulfill  their  own  will,  and 
neglect  the  laws  of  God  and  man.  Literal 
drunkenness  was  a  sin  of  the  Babylonians 
under  the  Persian  rule,  so  that  even  a  hea- 
then says  of  Babylon,  "  ®  Nothing  can  be 
more  corrupt  than  the  manners  of  that  city, 
and  more  provided  with  all  to  rouse  and  en- 


'  Gal.  ii.  20.      s.S.  Luke  xxi.  10.      3  1  S.  Pet.  i.  5. 

*  Jon.  agrees  "as  one  erring  through  wine."  Kim. 
A.  E.  Ka.«hi,  Abarb.  Taneh.  (in  one  e.xplanation) 
take  it  personally;  Kim. supplying  ^\I^\if  "drinkt-r 
of  wine;"  A.  E.and  Taneh.  regarding  ?"  as  j"  ur'X, 

Quoting  "ip  Ez.  ii.  8.  and  H  73r\  Ps.  cix.  4.  which 
tliey  explain  in  the  same  way. 

sprov.  XX.  1.        «Ib.  xxiii.  32.        '  Hosea  iv.  11. 

8 '3  nX  as  ill  1  Sam.  xxiii.  3.  Ezek.  xxiii.  40.    It 

adds  to  the  previous  sentence ;  whether  we  should 
express  it  by  how  muck  more,  if  an  affirmative  had 
preceded ;  or  how  much  less,  if  a  negative.  The 
more  or  lesn  lies  in  the  relation  of  the  sentences, 
not  in  the  "J  HK. 

»  Q.  Cin-t.  V.  1.     1"  See  Daniel  the  Prophet,  p.  450. 

u  Xen.  Cyrop.  vii.  4,  .'>,  (!. 

12"  When  then  he  [Cyrus]  heard  that  there  was  a 
feast  in  Babylon,  in  whirh  i\\\  the  BaV)ylonians 
drink  and  revel  all  the  night,  on  this,  Ac."  lb.  11, 
on  the  drunkenness  see  llj.  9.  10. 

"Herod,  i.  Ut. 

'♦  ITT,  in  the  only  other  plai'c,  Pr.  xxi.  -'4,  stands 


and  is  as  death,  and  cannot 
be  satisfied,  but  gathereth 
unto  him  all  nations,  and 
heapeth  unto  him  all  peo- 
ple: 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


tice  immoderate  pleasures  ;  "  and  "  the  Baby- 
lonians give  themselves  wholly  to  wine,  and 
the  things  which  follow  upon  drunkenness."' 
It  was  when  Hushed  '"  with  wine,  that  Bel- 
shazzar,  nith  his  princes  his  icives  and  his  concu- 
bines, desecrated  the  sacred  vessels,  insulted 
God  in  honor  of  his  idols,  and  in  the  night  of 
his  excess  "  was  slain."  Pride  blinded,  de- 
ceived, destroyed  him.  It  was  the  general 
drunkenness  of  tlie  inhabitants,  at  that  same 
feast,  which  enabled  Cyrus,  with  a  handful 
of  men,  to  penetrate,  by  means  of  its  river, 
the  city  which,  with  its  provisions  for  many 
years  "  and  its  impregnable  walls,  mocked  at 
his  siege.  He  calculated  beforehand  on  its 
feast '^  and  the  ccmsequent  dissolution  of  its 
inliabitants ;  but  for  this,  in  the  language 
of  the  Jieathen  historian,  he  would  have 
been  caught  "'*as  in  a  trap,"  his  soldiery 
drowned. 

He  is  a  proud  nuin  '*,  neither  keepeth  at  home. 
It  is  difficult  to  limit  the  force  of  the  rare 
Hebrew  word  rendered,  ''  keep  at  home ;  for 
one  may  cease  to  dwell  or  abide  at  home 
either  with  his  will  or  without  it ;  and,  as  in 
the  case  of  invaders,  the  one  may  be  the 
result  of  the  other.  He  who  would  take 
away  tlie  home  of  others  becomes,  by  God's 
Providence,  himself  homeless.  The  context 
implies  that  the  primary  meaning  is  the 
restlessness  of  ambition  ;  which  abides  not  at 
home,  for  his  whole  iileasure  is  to  go  forth  to 
destroy.  Yet  there  sounds,  as  it  were,  an 
undertone,  "  he  would  not  abide  in  his  home, 
and  he  shall  not."  We  could  scarcely  avoid 
the  further  thought,  could  we  translate  by  a 

in  connection  with   ni  and   Vl;   in  Cliald.  it  is 

"arrogant,"  (see  instances  in  LevyChald.  Wort.)  a.s 
in  Nasor.  (ap.  Ges).  The  Arab,  only  supplies 
irr  "perseverance  in  litigation:"  the  moaning 
"  prominence,  swelling  "  is  assumed  only.  The  .\rab. 
'l^rrP  (in  Ges.  Hitz.)  is  from  ^KH  (mcd.  1)  and 

signifies  "a  .«and-heap,"  not  as  heaped  up,  but  as 
sinking  asunder,  "corruens,"  (the  central  meaning 
of  "l«n.) 

'^mj.  nXJ,  seems  to  be  of  the  same  root  as 
vaiio,  whence  r\'3  r\1J  "dweller  in  the  house,"  Ps. 

Ixviii.l3;  T\\},  HIJ,  abode:  n\l3  Pr.  N.  probably 
the  same,  and  filXJ  n'so-  The  derived  .sense 
"becoming"  (lit." sit  well  on"  "bene  sedet  alictii," 
Ges.)  exists  in  DIKJ  Ps.  xciii.  ■'i;  "  beautiful,"  Cant. 

i.  10.  Is.  lii.  7  ;  and  in  T\M  Jer.  vi.  2.  It  is  the  basis 
of  Hif.  imjN  "  will  praise  Him."  Either  gives  a 
good  sense.    The   Vnlg.   takes  the  derived  sense 


CHAPTER  Ii; 


195 


6  Shall  not  all  these 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  626.      ''take  up  a  parable  against 


•"Mic.  2. 4.  him,  and  a  taunting  pro- 
word  which  does  not  determine  the  sense, 
"  he  will  not  home,"  "  he  will  not  continue  at 
home."  The  words  have  seemed  to  ditierent 
minds  to  mean  either ;  as  they  may  *.  Such 
fullness  of  meaning  is  the  contrary  of  the  am- 
biguity of  Heathen  oracles ;  they  are  not 
alternative  meanings,  which  might  be  justi- 
lied  in  either  case,  but  cumulative,  the  one 
on  the  other.  The  ambitious  part  with 
present  rest  for  future  l(*s.  Nebuchadnezzar 
lost  his  kingdom  and  his  reason  througii 
pride,  received  them  l>ack  when  he  humbled 
himself;  Belshazzar,  being  proud  and  im- 
penitent, lost  both  his  kingdom  and  life. 

Who  eiilargeth  his  desire,  lit.  liis  soul.  Tlie 
soul  becomes  like  what  it  loves.  The  ambi- 
tious man  is,  as  we  say,  "  all  ambition  ; "  the 
greedy  man,  "  all  appetite  ; "  the  cruel  man, 
"all  savagery ;'■  the  vain-glorious,  "all  vain- 
glory." The  ruling  passion  absorbs  the 
whole  being.  It  is  his  end,  the  one  object  of 
his  thoughts,  hopes,  fears.  So,  as  we  speak 
of ''  largeness  of  heart,"  which  cim  embrace 
in  its  affections  all  varieties  of  human  inter- 
ests, whatever  affects  man,  and  "  largeness  of 
mind"  uncramped  by  narrowing  j^rejudices, 
the  Prophet  speaks  of  this  "ambitious  man 
widening  his  soul,"  oi-,  as  we  should  speak, 
"  appetite,"  so  that  the  whole  world  is  not  too 
large  for  him  to  long  to  grasp  or  to  devour.  So 
the  Psalmist  prays  not  to  be  delivered  into 
the  murderous  desire  of  his  enemies''',  (lit. 
their  soul,)  and  Isaiah,  with  a  metaphor 
almost  too  bold  for  our  language,  *  Hell  haih 
enlarged  her  soal,  and  opened  her  mouth  beyond 
Measure.  It  devours,  as  it  were,  first  in  its 
cravings,  then  in  act. 

^s  hejl,  which  is  insatiable*.  He  saith, 
eidargeth;  for  as  hell  and  the  grave  are  year 
by  year  fuller,  yet  there  is  no  end,  the  desire 
enlargefh  and  becometh  wider,  the  more  is 
given  to  it  to  satisfy  it.  And  [he^]  is  \_him~ 
self]  as  death,  sparing  none.  Our  poetry 
would  speak  of  a  destroyer  as  being  "like 
the  angel  of  death  ; "  his  presence,  as  the 
presence  of  death  itself.  Where  he  is,  there 
is  death.  He  is  as  terrible  and  as  destroying 
as  the  death  which  follows  him.  And  can- 
not be  sati.ified.  Even  human  proverbs  say, 
"*The  love  of  money  groweth  as  much  as 
the  money  itself  groweth."  "  The  avaricious  is 

lA.  E.  Abarb.  Taueh.  Rashi,  following  Jon.  take 
it  of  his  privation  of  lionie.  Kim.  either  of  the 
shortness  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  empire,  or  his  ovra 
being  driven  fortli  with  the  wild  animals,  Dan.  iv. 
31-33.  Del.  illustrates  the  sense  of  forced  "  non- 
abiding''  by  p^"'  73  Ps.  xlix.  13,  "abideth  not;" 
I'lN  pc/  XS  Pr.  X.  30,  "shall  not  inhabit  the 
i-arth;"  nnij  i  pty  Pr.  ii.  21. 


verb  against  him,  and  say,    ^  h  rTs  t 
II  Woe  to  him  that  increas-      ^^•''•-  ^'^'^^ 
eth  that  which  is  not  his !  II  Or,  Ho,  Ae. 


ever  needy."  '  He  that  lovefh  silver  shall  not  br 
satii<ticd  with  silver.  For  these  fleeting  things 
cannot  satisfy  the  undying  soul.  It  must 
hunger  still ;  for  it  has  not  found  what  will 
allay  its  cravings  ". 

But  gathereth,  lit.  And  haih  gathered — He 
describes  it,  for  the  rapidity  with  -which  he 
completes  what  he  longs  for,  as  though  it 
were  already  done,  — unto  him  all  nations,  and 
heapeth  unto  him  all  people.  One  is  still  the 
subject  of  the  prophecy,  rising  up  at  succes- 
sive times,  fulfilling  it  and  passing  away, 
Nebuchadnezzar,  Alexander,  Attila,  Timur, 
Genghizchan,  Hunneric,  scourges  of  God,  all 
deceived  by  pride,  all  sweeping  the  earth, 
all  in  their  ambition  and  wickedness  the 
unknowing  agents  and  images  of  the  evil 
One,  who  seeks  to  bring  the  whole  world 
under  his  rule.     But  shall  it  prosper  ? 

(3.  Shall  not  all  these^  take  up  a  parable 
against  him,  and  a  taunting  proverb  against  him? 
Nebuchadnezzar  gathered  ^^  all  people,  nations, 
ami  languages,  to  worship  the  golden  image 
ivhich  he  had  set  up.  The  second  Babylon, 
heathen  Rome,  sought  to  blot  out  the  very 
Christian  Name ;  but  mightier  were  the 
thi-ee  childi-en  than  the  King  of  Babylon ; 
mightier,  virgins,  martyrs,  and  children  than 
Nero  or  Decius.  The.se  shall  rejoice  over 
Babylon,  that  "  God  hath  avenged  them  on 
her. 

Woe  to  him  that  increaseth  that  which  is  not 
his !  Truly  wealth  ill-gotten  by  fraud  or 
oppression,  is  not  his,  who  winneth  it,  before 
he  had  it,  nor  when  he  hath  it,  but  a  woe. 
It  is  not  his ;  the  coe  is  his.  Woe  unto  him. 
lie  shall  have  no  joy  in  what  he  gaineth, 
and  what  he  hath  he  shall  lose.  How  long  ? 
What  is  the  measure  of  thine  impiety  and 
greediness  and  cruelty?  Yet  if  these  are 
like  hell,  without  measure,  there  remains 
another  How  long  f  How  long  will  the  for- 
bearance of  God  endure  thee,  which  thou  art 
daily  exhausting? 

This  is  then  the  end  of  all.  The  conqueror 
sweeps  to  him  all  nations  and  gathereth  to 
him  all  peoples.  To  what  end  ?  As  one  vast 
choir  in  one  terrible  varied  chant  of  all  those 
thousand  thousand  voices,  to  sing  a  dirge 
over  him  of  the  judgments  of  God  which  his 
ill-doings  to  them  should  bring  upon  him,  a 
xli. 


3   [2  Eng.]  Ezek. 
<  Prov.  XXX.  15. 


2Ps.  xxvii.  12.  Conip.  Ps 
xxvi.  27.  ^  Is.  V.  14. 

*  Xini-  It  is  not  an  unmeaning  change  as  though 
it  belonged  only  to  the  simplicity  of  Hebrew  cou- 
struetioh ;  but  emphatic,  "  and  he.'" 

«  Juv.  Sat.  xiv.  139.  '  Eccl.  v.  in. 

8  8.  Aug.  Conf.  and  n.  a.  iv.  S. 

'■'dS^  hSk  v.  I.,  referring  to  the  Sd,  D"DJ,'n  ^73, 
D"Un  V.  ."■..        1"  Dan.  iii.  4,  5.        >'  Itev.  xviii.  2i). 


196 


HABAKKUK. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  62G. 


how  long?  and  to  him  that 
.ladeth  himself  with  thick 
clay ! 

7  Shall  they  not  rise  up 


fivefold  Woe,  woe,  woe,  woe,  woe !  Woe  for 
its  rapacity !  Woe  for  its  covetousness  I 
Woe  for  its"  oppression  !  Woe  for  its  inso- 
lence to  the  conquered!  Woe  to  it  in  its 
rebellion  against  God !  It  is  a  more 
measured  rhythm  than  any  besides  in  Holy 
Scripture;  each  of  the  fivefold  woes  com- 
priseil  in  three  verses,  four  of  them  closing 
with  the  ground,  hecatisr,  for.  The  opening 
words  curry  the  mind  back  to  the  fuller  pic- 
ture of  Isaiah.  But  Isaiah  sees  Babylon  as 
already  overthrown;  Habakkuk  pronounces 
the  words  upon  it,  not  by  name,  but  as  cer- 
tainly to  come,  upon  it  and  every  like  enemy 
of  (iod's  kingdom.  With  each  such  fall, 
unto  the  end  of  all  things,  the  glory  of  (iod 
is  increased  and  made  known.  Having,  for 
tlnir  own  ends,  been  unconscious  and  even 
unwilling  promoters  of  (rod's  end,  they,  when 
they  had  accomplished  it,  are  themselves 
lliuig  away.  The  pride  of  human  ambition, 
when  successful,  boasts  "woe  to  the  con- 
quered." Since  whom  the  Lord  loveth  He 
rhiistemlh,  the  ungodly  saying  of  the  heathen 
is  reversed,  and  it  stands,  "  Man  sympathizes 
with  the  conquering  side,  God  with  the  con- 
(juered."  It  is  a  terrible  tliought  that  men 
should  have  been  the  instruments  of  God, 
tluit  they  slmuld,  through  ambition  or  other 
ends  short  of  God,  have  promoted  His  ends 
which  they  thought  not  of,  and  then  chould 
1)6  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  imnting, 
and  themselves  be  flung  away. 

" '  Gentiles  also  departed  from  their  wor- 
ship under  Satan,  and  having  deserted  him 
who  aforetime  called  them,  ran  unto  Christ. 
For  Satan  gathered  what  was  not  hi,i;  but 
( 'hrist  received  what  was  His.  For,  as  God, 
He  is  Lord  of  all." 

And  to  him  (hat  ladeth  himself  vith  thick 
day^.  It  is  the  character  of  these  proverbs 
to  say  much  in  few  words,  sometimes  in  one, 

1 S.  Cyr. 

-  Tlie  word  0'02j/  naturally  sugge.'^ts  the  tlivis- 
iin  into  3j?  ami  O'O  which  lias  been  adopted  by 
."^vr.  "cloud  of  nniid,"  and  S.  .ler.  doubtless  from  his 
lii'bnnv  Instrui'tor  "dt-nsuin  lutuin,"  as  .'\..  E.,  J. 
and  D.  Kinidii,  Ka>hi,  .\l)arb.,  R.  Tanohum  :  Poo. 
Arab.  Vers,  which  is  not  Saadiah'.s  (Hunt.  2iM).)  R. 
Samuel  Hannagid,  .Joshua,  Japhet,  (quoted  liy  A. 
K.)  Sal.  B.  Mel.,  explaining  it  "abundance  of  clay." 
Kimehi  (.Shorashirn)  admits  the  possibility  of  its 
being  derived  Irom  D3J,'  sub  v.,  but  himsflf  says 
it  is  a  compound  word.  Suailiah  Ben  Denan  Le.x. 
II.'h.-.\rab.  [Bodl.  (.)r.  (',i-.'.]  alone  ))ositively  derives 
it  from  DDJ,'-  The  objection  that  there  are  no  com- 
pound appellatives  in  Hebrew  is  contrary  to  the 
evidence  of  such  words,  as  7>?'  '3,  DO' 73,  HIO /V, 


•nd  amid  th<^  ]>rfdoniinnii' 


if  c.iinjioimd   wr>rd^, 


suddenly  that  shall  bite 
thee,  and  awake  that  shall . 
vex   thee,  and  thou  shalt 
be  for  booties  unto  them  ? 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


and  more  than  appears.  So  the  word  trans- 
lated thick-clay,  as  if  it  were  two  words,  in 
another  way  means  in  an  intensive  sense,  "a 
strong  deep  pledge."  At  best  gold  and  silver 
are,  as  they  have  been  called,  red  and  white 
earth.  "*What  are  gold  and  silver  but 
red  and  white  earth,  which  the  error  of 
man  alone  maketh,  or  accounteth  precious? 
What  are  gems,  but  stones  of  the  earth? 
What  silk,  but  webs  of  worms  ?  "  These  he 
"  maketh  heavy  upon  "  or  "  against  himself" 
[so  the  words  strictly  mean].  "For  he 
weigheth  himself  down  with  thick  clay,  who, 
by  avarice  multiplying  earthly  things,  hems 
himself  in  by  the  oppressiveness  of  his  own 
sin,  im])risons  and,  as  it  were,  buries  the 
soul,  and  heaps  up  sin  as  he  heaps  up 
wealth."  With  toil  they  gather  what  is  not 
worthle.ss  only,  but  is  a  burden  upon  the 
soul,  weighing  it  down  that  it  should  not 
rise  Heavenwards,  but  should  be  bowed 
down  to  Hell.  And  so  in  that  other  sense 
while,  as  a  hard  usurer,  he  heaps  uj)  the 
pledges  of  those  whom  he  oppresses  and  im- 
poverishes, and  seems  to  increase  his  wealth, 
he  does  in  truth  increase  aguind  himself  a 
strong  pledge,  whereby  not  others  are  debtors 
to  him,  but  he  is  a  debtor  to  Almighty  God 
Who  careth  for  the  oppressed.  *He  that 
guthercth  riches  and  not  by  right,  shall  leave 
them  in  the  midst  of  his  days  and  at  his  etui 
shall  be  a  fool. 

7.  Shall  not  they  rise  up  suddenly  that  shall  bite 
thee,  and  awake  that  shall  vex  thcef  The  de- 
struction of  the  wicked  is  ever  sudden  at 
la.st.  Such  was  the  flood  ^,  the  destruction  of 
Sodom,  of  Pharaoh,  of  the  enemies  of  God's 
people  through  the  Judges,  of  Sennacherib, 
Nineveh,  Babylon  by  the  Medcs  and  Per- 
sians. Such  shall  the  end  be^  As  he  by 
his  oppressions  had  pierced  others  (it  is  the 
word  used  of  the  oppression  of  usury '),  so 

as  Proper  Names,  it  would  be  monstrous  to  assume 
that  a  Prophet  could  not  have  compounded  a  word. 
On    the    other  hand,  the    forms    T103,    T1J0. 

TTiU/,  S'SdH,  arc  remarkable  analogies  in  favor 
of  its  being  a  single  word.  It  was  probably  formed 
to  suggest  both  tiioughts,  as  it  has. 

»  S.  Bern.  Serm.  4.  in  Adv.  ••  Jer.  xvii.  11. 

6S.  Luke  xvii.  20.  27. 

«8.  Matt.  xxiv.  43.  44.  xxv.  13.  S.  Luke  xvii.  26- 
■M).  xxi.  34.  35.  1  Thess.  v.  3.  2  Pet.  iii.  10.  Rov. 
xvi.  15. 

TV^'  -\\il^  n3T  S3  lit.  "everything  which  shall 
bite,"  De.  xxiii.  20.  1]"l?^n  (De.  xxiii.  20.  21  bis)  is 
properly  a  denom.  from  Ijtyj,  explained  to  be  "what 
bites  the  giver  and  takes  something  of  hi«  from 
him."  Me/.in  60.  b.  in  Del.  The  HDIOn.  v.  c.  i.ug- 
i{.'«tcHl  rc^TP.  and  this,  lavi.rcl  )>y  ih ;iion 


CHAPTER  rr. 


197 


8  '  Because   thou   hast 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  626.  spoiled  many  nations,  all 
'  isai.  33. 1.  the  remnant  of  the  people 
k  ver.  17.  shall  spoil  thee  ;  "  because 


should  it  be  done  to  him.  "^Tlie  Medes  and 
Persians  who  were  before  subject  to  the 
Babylonian  empire,  and  whose  kings  wei'e 
subject  to  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  successors, 
rose  up  and  awaked,  i.  e.,  stirred  themselves 
up  in  the  days  of  Ecl.,-hazzar  to  rebel  af;ainst 
the  successors  of  N(.buc]ia(hiezzar  which  sat 
on  liis  throne,  like  a  man  who  awaketh  from 
sleep."  The  words  awake,  arise,  are  used  also 
of  the  resurrection,  when  the  worm  of  the 
wicked  gnawetli  and  dieth  not  ^. 

And  thou  shall  be  for  booties  unto  themf  The 
common  phrase  is  modified  to  explain  the 
manifoldness  of  the  plunder^  which  he 
should  yield.  So  Jeremiah,  *  Chaldcea  shall 
be  a  spoil ;  all  that  spoil  her  shall  be  satisfied, 
saith  the  Lord.  "  *  We  may  hear  Him  Who 
saith,  ^  How  can  one  enter  into  a  strong  man^s 
house,  and  spoil  his  goods,  except  he  first  bind  the 
strong  man?  and  then  he  ivill  spoil  his  house. 
For,  as  soon  as  He  was  bom  of  the  holy  Vir- 
gin, He  began  to  .5^901/  his  goods.  For  the 
Magi  came  from  the  East — and  worshiped 
Him  and  honored  Him  with  gifts  and  became 
a  first-fruits  of  tlie  Church  of  the  Gentiles. 
And  being  vessels  of  Satan,  and  the  most 
honored  of  all  his  members,  they  hastened 
to  Christ." 

8.  Because,  [or  For].  The  Prophet  as- 
signs the  reason  of  the  ivoes  he  had  just  pro- 
nounced. Thou''  [emph.],  thou  hast  spoiled 
many  nations,  all  the  remnant  of  the  people  shall 
spoil  thee.  So  Isaiah,  *  When  thou  shall  cease 
to  spoil,  thou  shall  be  spoiled ;  when  thou  shall 
make  an  end  to  deal  treacherously,  they  shall  deed 
treacherously  with  thee.  Boundless  as  his  con- 
quests were,  each  remaining  people,  tribe,  or 
family  shall  be  his  foe.  "  "  Having  subdued 
very  many,  thou  shalt  be  destroyed  by  few, 
and  they  who  long  endured  thy  tyranny, 
arising  as  from  sleep,  shall  compass  thy  de- 
struction ;  and  thou  shalt  pay  the  penalty  of 
thy  countless  slaughtei-s  and  thy  great  un- 
godliness and  thy  lawless  violence  to  cities 

of  the  Chaldseans  as  a  pitiless  creditor,  concen- 
tiated  in  t2'D2y,  suggested  'HB'J,  (which  is  often 

united  with  jTJiri);  and  this  suggested  the  re- 
markable designation  of  those  who  were  to  execute 
the  Divine  retribution  on  the  ChaldaeaQS  bj'  the 
word,  D'D^J.  1  Abarb.  quoted  by  Del. 

-See  Isaiah  xiv.  11.  Ixvi.  2-i. 

'•'  mOtyob  rV"n.  Elsewhere  sing.  nDl^oS. 

<  .Ter.  1.  10.         6  See  S.  Cyr.       «  S.  Matt.  xii.  29. 

'nnN  O-  8 Isaiah  xxxiii.  1. 

»Theod.  10  Jer.  xlix.  34-30. 

1'  The  prophecies  against  the  heathen  nations 
iler.  xlvi-li.  were  in  the  same  order  in  the  main  as 
ia  Jer.  xxv.  l',)-20,  beginning  with  EgJT)t  and  end- 


of  men's  f  blood,  and  for    c  h  rTs  T 
the  violence   of  the  land,      cir.  626. 


of  the  city,  and  of  all  that    fHeb.  bloods. 
dwell  therein. 


which  thou  madest  desolate  of  inhabitants." 
Nothing  was  too  great  or  too  little  to  escape 
this  violence. 

All  the  remnant.  '"'As  thou,  invading, 
didst  take  away  the  things  of  othei-s,  in  like 
way  shall  what  appertaineth  to  thee  be 
taken  away  by  those  who  are  left  for  ven- 
geance." Jeremiah  foretold  of  Elam  in  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Zedekiah  '",  (in  expan- 
sion of  the  prophecy  in  the  reign  of  Jehoia- 
kim");  Thus  saith' the  Lord  of  hosts,  Behold, 

1  will  break  the  boiv  of  Elam,  the  chief  of  their 
might.  And  upon  Elam  I  will  bring  the  four 
winds  from  the  four  quarters  of  tlie  heavens,  and 
will  seedier  them  tovjard  all  these  winds,  and  there 
shall  be  no  nation  whither  the  outcasts  of  Elam 
shall  not  come.  For  I  iciU  cause  Elam  to  be 
dismayed  before  her  enemies ;  but  it  shall  come 
to  pass  in  the  latter  days,  that  I  uill  bring  again 
the  captivity  of  Elam,  saith  the  Lord.  Elam  i.s 
also  counted  by  Ezekiel  '■'  among  those  who, 
together  with  Pharaoh,  should  be  brought 
down  to  the  grave,  with  Asshur,  Meshech, 
Tubal,  Edom  and  cdl  the  Zidonians,  by  the 
king  of  Babylon.  Tliey  were  then  all  which 
remained^*  of  the  nations  Avhich  he  had 
conquered,  who  should  be  gathered  against 
his  house.  Because  of  men's  blood  and  of  the 
violence  of  i.  e.  to  the  land,  as  the  violence  of,  i.  e. 
to  ^*,  Lebanon,  and  men's  blood  is  their  blood 
which  was  shed.  To  land,  city,  and  all 
dwellers  therein.  Land  or  earth,  city,  are  left 
purposely  undefined,  30  that  while  that  in 
which  the  ofience  culminated  should  be,  by 
the  singular,  specially  suggested,  the  violence 
to  Judali  and  Jerusalem,  the  cruelty  con- 
demned should  not  be  limited  to  these.  The 
violence  was  dealt  out  to  the  whole  land  or 
earth,  and  in  it,  to  cities,  and  in  each,  one  by 
one,  to  all  its  inhabitants.  Babylon  is 
called,  ^  tlie  hammer  of  the  whole  earth ;  ^'  a 
golden  cup  in  the  Lord's  hand,  that  made  all  the 
earth  drunken  ;  ^''  a  destroying  mountain,  which 
destroyeth  the  ivhole  earth  ;  the  whole  earth   is  at 

ing  in  Babylon,  and  containing  between  these,  the 
Philistines  (with  Tyre  and  Zidon  incidentally), 
MoaV),  .\mmon,  Edom,  Kedar,  Hazor,  Elam  ;  Elam 
being  in  botli  cases  the  last  before  Babylon  itself. 

12  Ezek.  xxxii.  17-32. 

13  As  r^han  D'un  in"  Josh,  xxiii.  12,  nn' 
ntaSDH  Ex.  X.  5:  jioHH  "ijt  nvi,  uyn  in"  nx, 

2  Kings  xxv.  11;  OnKl^jn  D;;n  IjT  m  Jer. 
xxxix.  9. 

1*  Hab.  il.  17,  pon  is  united  with  the  gen.  of  the 
object,  Gen.  xvi.  5.  Jud.  ix.  24.  Jo.  iv.  19.  Ob.  10.  Jer. 
li.  35 ;  with  that  of  the  subject,  Ps.  vii.  17,  Ivlii.  3, 
Ezek.  xii.  19.  [all.] 

15  Jer.  1.  23.  is  ib.  H.  7.  17  ib.  25. 


198 


HAI*.  \KKIK. 


chrTst        ^  H  Woe    to    him    that 
cir.  626.      '  [  I  coveteth  an  evil  covet- 


1  Jer.  22. 13.       Qusness  to  his  house,  that 

i  Or,  gaineth  an  . 

evil  gain.         he   mav  ""set  his  nest  on 

">  Jer.  49.  IG.  •' 

Obad.  4. 


high,  that  he  may  be  de- 


rest  and  is  quiet  \  after  Babylon,  which  made  it 
to  trtmble'^,  is  overthrown. 

So  Satan  had  by  violence  and  deceit  sub- 
dued the  whole  earth,  yet  Christ  made  him  a 
spoil  to  those  wlioni  he  had  spoiled,  and  the 
strong  man  was  bound  and  his  goods  spoiled 
and  him.self  trampled  underfoot.  Yet  here 
as  tliroughout  the  prophets,  it  is  a  "  rem- 
nant "  only  whiih  is  saved.  "^  Satan  too 
was  spoiled  by  the  remnant  of  the  people, 
i.  e.  by  tliose  justilied  by  Christ  and  sancti- 
iied  in  tiie  Spirit.  For  the  remnant  of 
Israel  was  saved." 

9.  Woe  to  him  that  coveteth  an  evil  covetousTiess 
to  his  house  [or,  with  accents,  that  coveteth 
covetousness  or  unjuat  gain,  an  evil  to  his  houne.] 
What  man  coveteth  seems  gain,  but  is  evil  to 
his  house  after  him,  destroying  both  himself 
and  his  whole  family  or  race  with  him*. 
That  he  may  set  his  nest  on  high,  as  an  eagle,  to 
which  he  had  likened  the  Chaldee^.  A 
heathen  called  "  strongholds,  the  nests  of 
tyrants."  The  nest  was  placed  "  on  high  " 
which  means  also  "  heaven,"  as  it  is  said, 
®  though  thou  sr.t  thy  nest  among  the  stars  ;  and 
the  tower  of  Babel  was  to  '  reach  unto  heaven  ; 
and  the  Anti-Christ,  whose  symbol  the  King 
of  Babylon  is,  says,  "  /  vyiil  exalt  my  throne 
above  the  stars  of  God.  Babylon  lying  in  a 
large  plain,  on  the  sides  of  the  Euphrates,  the 
image  of  its  eagle's-nest  on  high  must  be 
taken,  not  from  any  natural  eminence,  but 
wholly  from  the  works  of  man.  Its  walls, 
and  its  lianging  gardens  were  among  "  tlie 
seven  wonders  of  the  world."  Eye  witnesses 
speak  of  its  walls,  encompassing  at  the  least 
100  square  miles",  "'"and  as  large  as  the 
land-graviat  of  Hesse  Homl)erg;"  those 
walls,  3o5,  or  330  feet  high,  and  85  feet 
broad";  a  fortified  palace,  near  7  miles  in 
circumference ;  gardens,  400  Greek  feet 
square,  supporting  at  an  artificial  height 
arch  upon  arch,  of  "  at  least  75  feet,"  forest 
trees;  a  temple  to  its  god,  said  to  have  been 

Us.  xiv.  7.  2  lb.  16.  «S.  Cyr. 

*]^}C2  J?)i2  elsewhere  stand,  without  an  epithet, 
it  being  itself  evil,  Prov.  i.  19.  xv.  27.  Jer.  vi.  13.  viii. 
10.  and  Ezek.  xxii.  27.  [all] 

6i.  8.  Comp.  Jer.  xx.  16.  "Obad  4. 

'Gen.  xi.4.  ^jg.  xiv.  13. 

•Herodotus,  eiving  probably  the  extent  of  the 
outer  wall,  makes  it  a  scjuare  12(»  stades  each  way, 
and  so  56  miles  in  oiiouit  [i.  17(j].  Ctosiaa,  jjiving 
probably  the  dimen.'^ions  of  the  inner-waJI,  make.s 
the  circumference  30*1  *tades,  41-42  miles,  and  so 
enclosing  1(K)  square  miles  [Diod.  Sic.  ii.  7.  sqq.]. 

'0  Rawf:  5  Empire.s  iii.34(). 

n  It  i"  remarkable  that  t!ie  larger  dimensions  are 


iivfieJ   from    the   f  power    chr^I-t 

of  evil  !  cir-  626. 

10   Thou    hast  consulted  t  Heb.  pa«m  o/ 

shame  to  thy  house  by  cut- 
ting off  many  people,  and 


at  least  600  feet  high.  Had  we,  creatures  of 
a  day,  no  one  above  us,  Nebuchadnezzar's 
boast  had  been  true '"'',  Is  not  this  great  Babylon 
that  I  have  budded  for  the  house  of  the  Kingdom 
by  the  might  of  my  power  and  for  tfie  honor  of  my 
majesty  f  He  had  built  an  eaglets  nest,  which 
no  human  arm  could  reach,  encircled  by 
walls  whicli  laughed  its  invaders  to  scorn, 
which  no  then  skill  could  scale  or  shatter  or 
mine.  Even  as  one  sees  in  a  picture  the  vast 
mounds  which  yet  remain  '^  one  can  hardly 
imagine  tiiat  tliey  were,  brick  upon  brick, 
wholly  the  work  of  man. 

To  be  delivered  from  the  hand  [graspl  of 
evil;  that  it  should  not  be  able  to  reach  him. 
Evil  is  spoken  of  as  a  living  j)()wer  '*,  which 
would  seize  him,  whose  grasp  he  would  defy. 
It  was  indeed  a  living  power,  since  it  was 
the  Will  of  Almighty  God,  Whose  servant 
1 1  and  instrument  Cyrus  was,  to  chasten  Baby- 
lon, wlien  its  sins  were  full.  Such  was  the 
counsel,  what  the  result?  The  evil  covetous- 
ness  which  he  wrought,  brought  on  him  the 
evil,  from  which,  in  that  nest  built  by  the 
hard  toil  of  his  captives,  he  thought  to  de- 
liver himself. 

10.  IVtou  hast  consulted  shame  to  thy  house, 
tlie  eidting  off  many  people,  and  sinning  against 
thy  .<!0(//.  The  wicked,  whether  out  of  passion 
or  with  his  whole  mind  and  deliberate  choice 
and  will,  takes  that  counsel,  wliich  certainly 
brings  shame  to  himself  and  his  house,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  God,  wliereby  He  **  visits 
the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  unto 
the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate 
Him,  i.e.  until  by  righteousness  and  restitu- 
tion tlie  curse  is  cut  of!'.  ^^ He  thcU  is  greedy 
of  gain  troubleth  his  oum  houi^e.  So  Jeremiah 
says,  ''  Thiissaith  the  Lord,  Is  it  Me  they  are 
vexing  f  is  it  not  themselves,  for  ^**  the  confusion 
of  their  faces?  i.  e.  with  that  end  and  object. 
Holy  Scripture  overlooks  the  means,  and 
places  us  at  the  end  of  all.  Whatever  the 
wicked    had   in    view,  to   satisfy   ambition, 

the  oldest,  given  by  eye-witnesses.  Rawlinson  has 
pointed  out  one  case  in  which  the  later  reduced  the 
diinPiisioiis  artificially,  "softening  down  the  cubits 
of  Hcr.xlotus  into  feet."  fi  Empires  iii.  348  note. 
See  the  wliole  vivid  description,  lb.  pp.  338-361. 

"  Dan.  iv.  30. 

isSee  in  Smith's  Bible  Diet.  i.  152.  Rawl.  5  Em- 
pires iii.  3.'>3. 

'*n3p  occurs  in  19  other  places  with  verbs  sig- 
nifying deliverance,  [see  Fiirst  Cone.  p.  568.]  and  in 
,   all  of  living  agents.  "Ex.  xx.  6. 

!       10  Prov.  XV.  27.  ".Jer.vll.  19. 


^»r\\^2  |;?dS. 


CHAPTER  II. 


199 


Before  linut 

CHRIST     "^*' 

cir-  C2G.        soul. 


sinned    against    thy 


11  For  the  stone  shall 
cry  out  of  the  wall,  and 


avarice,  passion,  love  of  pleasure,  or  the  rest 
of  man's  immediate  ends,  all  he  was  doing 
was  leading  on  to  a  further  end,  shame  and 
death.  He  was  liringing  about,  not  only 
these, short-lived,  but  the  lasting  ends  be- 
yond, and  these  far  more  than  the  others, 
since  that  is  the  real  end  of  a  thing  which 
abides,  in  which  it  at  last  ends.  He  con- 
sulted to  cut  ofl'  many  people  and  was  there- 
by (though  he  knew  it  not)  by  one  and  the 
same  act,  guilty  of  and  forfeiting  his  oum  soul^. 
11.  For  the  stone  shall  cry  out  of  the  ivall,  and 
the  beam  out  of  the  timber  shall  answer  it.  All 
things  have  a  voice,  in  that  they  are  '^. 
God's  works  speak  that,  for  which  He  made 
them.  ^  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God. 
*  Tlie  valleys  are  clad  with  corn,  they  laugh,  yea, 
they  sing;  their  very  look  speaks  gladness. 
"  ^  For  the  creation  itself  proclaims  the  glory 
of  the  Maker,  in  that  it  is  admired  as  well 
made.  Wherefore  there  are  voices  in  things, 
although  there  are  not  words."  Man's 
works  speak  of  that  in  him,  out  of  which  and 
for  which  he  made  them.  Works  of  mercy 
go  up  for  a  memorial  before  God,  and  plead 
there ;  great  works,  wrought  amid  wrong 
and  cruelty  and  for  man's  ambition  and 
pride,  have  a  voice  too,  and  cry  out  to  God, 
calling  down  His  vengeance  on  the  op- 
pressor. Here  the  stones  of  the  wall,  whereby 
the  building  is  raised,  and  the  beam,  the  tye- 
beam,  out  of  the  timber-'work''  wherewith  it  is 
finished,  and  which,  as  it  were,  crowns  the 
work,  join,  as  in  a  chorus,  answering  one 
another,  and  in  a  deep  solemn  wailing,  be- 
fore God  and  the  whole  world,  together 
chant  "  Woe,  Woe."  Did  not  the  blood  and 
groans  of  men  cry  out  to  God,  speechless 
things  have  a  voice  to  appeal  to  Him  ^. 
Against  Belshazzar  the  wall  had,  to  the  let- 
ter, words  to  speak. 

MCySJ  NLDH  Prov.  xx.  2.  eomp.  mSJ  DDH  lb. 
viii.  36.  The  contemporaneousness  of  the  act  is  ex- 
pressed by  the  participle ;  the  pronoun  is  omitted 
as  in  i.  5. 

2  The    Arabs    have  an  expression  for  it,   JKO'7 

7Xn  vX,  lit.  "  The  tongue  of  the  situation." 

3  Ps.  xix.  1.  *  lb.  Ixv.  13.  6  s.  Cyr. 

6  So  the  word  is  best  understood,  since  the 
"beam"  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  "wood- 
work" as  the  "stone"  to  the  "  wall,"  i.e.  is  a  part 
ofit,  D3D  in  Ch.  siarnifving  "to  bind,"  like  r\22 
Dan.  iii.  20,  21,  23,  24.  So  Kim.  The  other  sense 
given,  that  it  is  a  half-brick,  such  as  is  worked  into 
the  mode  of  building,  called  by  us  "  brieknog^ing," 
which  R.  Tanchum  of  Jerusalem  also  knew  m  the 
East,  seems  unsuited  here  ;  1)  because  it  is  speak- 
inig  of  magnificent  building;  the  interlacing  of 
brick  with  wood  is  for  economy,  since  the  wood, 
interlacing  the  bricks,  holds  them  together,  though 


the  II  beam  out  of  the  tim-  ^  h  rTs  t 
ber  shall  ||  answer  it.  c'''-  ^26. 

12  ^Woe  to  him  that  "^fntr""' 

buildeth   a   town   with  "2',^;',T 


Each  three  verses  forming  one  stanza,  as  it 
were,  of  the  dirge,  the  following  words  are 
probably  not  directly  connected  with  the 
former,  as  if  the  woe,  which  follows,  were,  so 
to  speak,  the  chant  of  these  inanimate  wit- 
nes.ses  against  the  Chaldseans ;  yet  they  stand 
connected  with  it.  The  dirge  began  with 
woe  on  the  wrongful  accumulation  of  wealth 
from  the  conquered  and  oppressed  people :  it 
continues  with  the  selfish  use  of  the  wealth 
so  won. 

12.  Woe  to  him  that  buildeth  a  town  with 
blood,  and  esfablisheth  a  city  by  iniquity ! 
Nebuchadnezzar  "^encircled  the  inner  city 
with  three  walls  and  tlie  outer  city  also  with 
three,  all  of  burnt  brick.  And  having  forti- 
fied the  city  with  wondrous  works,  and 
adorned  the  gates  like  temples,  he  built 
another  palace  near  the  palace  of  his  fathers, 
surpassing  it  in  height  and  its  great  magnifi- 
cence." He  seemed  to  strengthen  the  city, 
and  to  stablish  it  by  outward  defences.  But 
it  was  built  through  cruelty  to  conquered 
nations,  and  especially  God's  people,  and  by 
oppression,  against  His  holy  Will.  So  there 
was  an  inward  rottenness  and  decay  in  what 
seemed  strong  and  m.ajestic,  and  which  im- 
posed on  the  outward  eye ;  it  would  not 
stand,  but  fell.  Babylon,  which  had  stood 
since  the  flood,  being  enlarged  contrary  to 
the  eternal  laws  of  God,  fell  in  the  reign  of 
his  son.  Such  is  all  empire  and  greatness, 
raised  on  the  neglect  of  God's  laws,  by  un- 
lawful conquests,  and  by  the  toil  and  sweat 
and  hard  service  of  the  poor.  Its  aggran- 
dizement and  seeming  strength  is  its  fall. 
Daniel's  exhortation  to  Nebuchadnezzar, 
"^Redeem  thy  sins  by  righteousness,  and  thine 
iniquities  by  shelving  mercy  on  the  poor,  implies 
that  oppressiveness  had  been  one  of  his  chief 


the  wall  be  thin ;  2)  the  half-bricks  naturally  enter 
into  this  mode  of  building,  but  are  neither  the 
chief  nor  a  prominent  part  of  it.  3)  Neither  is  the 
woodwork  apparently  in  such  way  one,  that  it  can 
stand  as  a  whole.  Tanchum  and  Parchon  adopt 
this  rendering,  and  Rashi  on  Taanit  U  a  (ap.  Del.) 
not  in  his  Comm.;  Synim.  Theod.  Syr.  e  have 
o-uc6e<r/i09,  S.  Jer.  in  the  same  sense,  i/iiavTcoo-is,  and 
LXX.  Ka.v8apo<;.  The  other  sense  given  does  not 
account  for  the  wood  "out  of  the  timber,"  since  it 
would  rather  be  "  out  of  the  stone-work."  S.  Cyril 
says,  "  the  other  versions  have  ei'Seer/iios  ^vKov,  so 
that  they  named  the  crown  of  the  house  and  the 
complexity  of  the  wood,  i.  e.,  the  band,  ita^flapos, 
because  they  as  with  many  feet  supported  the  roof 
which  lay  upon  it. 
'  See  S.  Luke  xix.  40. 

8  Berosus  Hist.  Chald.  L.  iii.  ap.  Joseph.    Antiq. 
X.  11.  and  c.  Ap.  1.20. 

9  Dan.  iv.27. 


200 


HABAKKUK. 


c  H  rTs  t  °  t  blood,  and  stablisheth  a 

^^^-  '^-'^-  city  by  iniquity ! 
"Jer.  22. 13.  13  Behold,  is  it  not  of 

Mie.  3. 10. '  the   Lord  of  hosts  "  that 

t  iieb.  biood.s.  the  people   shall  labor  in 

•  Jer.  51. 58.  ,1  £  1    .1 

the  very  nre,  and  the  peo- 
ple shall  weary  themselves 
I  Or,  in  vain  t     1 1  for  vsry  Vanity  ? 


13.  Behold,  is  it  not  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  that 
[/Ae]  people  [nations^  shall  labor  -  in  [/o;-]  the 
very  Jire  [lit.  to  suffice  the  fire]  ?  By  God's 
appointment,  the  end  of  all  their  labor  is  for 
the  fire,  whiit  may  suffice  it  to  consume.  This 
is  the  whole  result  of  their  labor  ;  and  so  it 
is  as  if  they  had  toiled  for  this;  they  biult 
ceiled  palace-s  and  gorgeous  buildings,  only 
for  the  fire  to  consume  them. 

And  peoples  shall  weary  themselves  for  very 
vanity.  They  wearied  themselves,  and  what 
was  their  reward  ?  What  had  they  to  suftice 
and  till  them?  Emptiness.  Tliis  is  from  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  Whom  all  the  armies  of  heaven 
obey  and  all  creatures  stand  at  His  command 
against  the  ungodly,  and  in  Whose  Hand  are 
all  the  hosts  of  earth,  and  so  the  ojipressor's 
also,  to  turn  as  He  wills. 

Near  upon  the  firet  stage  of  the  fulfillment, 
Jeremiah  reinforces  the  wonis  with  the  name 
of  Babylon ;  ^  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts  !  The 
broad  walls  of  Babylon  shall  be  utterly  destroyed, 
and  her  high  gates  shall  be  burned  with  fire;  and 
the  people  shall  labor  in  rain  [for  vanilyl,  and  the 
folk  in  [/o;"]  the  fire,  and  they  shall  be  weary. 

14.  For  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  Habakkuk 
molifies  in  a  dej;ree  the  words  of  Isaiah 
which  he  embodies,  marking  that  the  de- 
struction of  Babylon  was  a  stage  only  toward 
the  coining  of  those  g)od  tilings  which  Gi'd 
taught  His  people  to  long  for,  not  their  very 
coming.  All  the  worll  should  be  then  full 
of  tlie  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
not,  as  yet,  wholly  of  Himself.  "*When 
B  ibylon  sh;dl  be  overthrown,  then  shall  the 
power  of  the  mii,'ht  of  the  Lord  be  known 
unto  all.  So  shall  the  whole  earth  be  filled 
with  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters 
cover  the  bottom  of  the  .sea.  Tiiis  as  to  the 
letter.  But  it  is  plain,  that  the  Devil  also 
an  I  Anti-Christ,  and  the  perverse  teaching 
of  heretics,  built  a  city  in  blood;  i.e.,  their 
own  Church,  with   the   destruction  of  those 


'i?J'  with  3  "labor  up'>n"  Josh.  xxiv.  13.  Isa. 
Ixii.  8.  and  boldly,  of  God,  lb.  xliii.  22.  and  Hif. 
"cause  to  labor  with  "  Isa.  xliii.  23. 

»Ior.  li.  5S.  8S.  Jer.  «Rnp. 

^Isaiaii  xi.  9.  «S.  Cyr.  ''S.  John  xvii.  4. 

^napis  rendered  "approaching  to""Joining" 
byTauch.,A.  E.,  Rashi  Kim.  Sal.  B.  Mel.  Abarb. ; 


sholl  Before 

snail     CHRIST 
cir.  t;26. 


14  For  the  earth 
be  filled  ||  with  the "  knowl- . 
edge   of  the  glory  of  the  ( or,  bu  kn<ming 

X  ^     _  i.1  i  '' «  'llory  of  th* 

Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  Lukd. 
the  sea. 

15  ^  "W  o  e  unto  h  i  m 
that  giveth  his  neighbor 
drink,  that  pattest  thy 


p  Isai.  11.  9. 


whom  they  deceive But  when  they 

fail  in  the  fire,  (either  this  fire  which  is  felt, 
or  consumed  in  the  fire  of  the  devil  their 
prince,  or  burned  up  with  the  fire  whereof 
the  Lord  says,  /  came  to  send  a  fire  upon  the 
earth,  and  so  brought  back  from  their  former 
course,  and  doing  penitence),  the  whole  earth 
shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
when,  at  the  preaching  of  the  Apostles,  their 
sound  shall  go  out  into  all  the  world,  as  wateis 
covering  the  sea,  i.e.,  all  the  saltness  and 
bitterness  of  tlie  world  which  Satan  had 
rained  down  and  the  earth  had  drunk,  the 
waters  of  the  Lord  shall  cover,  and  cause  the 
place  of  their  ancient  bitterness  not  to  ap- 
pear." "  *For  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  filled  the 
earth,  and  when  He  filled  it,  the  earth  was 
filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
so  that  unlearned  and  ignorant  men  became 
wise  and  eloquent,  and  earthly  became 
heavenly,  yea,  they  who  were  earth  became 
heaven,  knowing  the  Glory  of  the  Lord,  de- 
claring the  Glory  of  God,  not  any  how,  but 
as  waters  cover  the  sea.  Great  as  must  be 
waters,  which  would  cover  the  sea,  or  com- 
pared to  which  the  sea  were  nothing,  far 
greater  is  the  miracle,  when  the  abundance 
of  heavenly  wisdom,  given  to  the  simple, 
surpassed  the  sea,  i.e.,  tiie  wisdom  of  all 
mankind."  This  verse  being  already  a  re- 
ceived image  of  the  spread  of  the  Gospel*,  it 
would  of  itself  be  undei-stood  to  include  this 
also ;  but  more  generally,  it  declares  how 
upon  all  the  judgments  of  Gml,  a  larger 
knowledge  of  Him  would  follow.  "*A11 
things  are  full  of  Christ,  Wiio  is  the  Glory 
of  the  Father;  wherefore  also  He  said,'/ 
have  glorified  Thee  on  earth,  I  have  finished  the 
work  which  Thou,  gavest  me  to  do." 

15.  From  cruelty  the  Prophet  goes  on  to 
denounce  the  woe  on  insolence.  Woe  unto 
him  that  giveth  his  neighbor  (to  whom  he  owes 
love)  drink  [lit.  that  maketh  him  drink]  ;  that 
puttest^  thy  bottle    ^  to    him,   and  iTiakcst  him 

"pouring"  Ch.  Symm.    Both  senses  exist  in  the 
verb ;  and  the  efforts  of  Ges.  and  Papen  heim  (ap.  Del.) 
to  roduce  all  the  usaeos  undor  either,  force  some. 
•The  E.  V.  has  taken  "inon  as  irregular  from 

ripn  "flask,"  with   Kim.,  A.  E.,  Sal.  ben  Mel.; 

"poison,"  Ch.  Abulw. ;  "wrath,"  Rashi,  Abarb.; 
"  flask  "  or  "  wrath,"  Touch. 


CHAPTER  II. 


201 


c  H  rTs  t    '  bottle  to  him,  and  makest 
cir.  62f>.      JiIyt).  drunken  also,  that 


4  Hos.  7. 5.         thou  ma  vest  "^  look  on  their 

'  Gen.  9. 22.  i      i  . 

I  Or,  more  with  nakedness ! 

shame  than  1/31^1  j.  xjii    j  11      •^i 

with  glory.  1  o   I  hou  art  failed  1 1  With 

•  Jer.  25. 20, 27.       1  n  1  »  j    •    1 

&51. 57.  shame   tor   glory:   Mrink 

thou  also,  and  let  thy  fore- 
skin be  uncovered:  the 
cup  of  the  Lord's  right 
hand  shall  be  turned  unto 


drunken  also,  ^  that  thou  mayest  look  [gaze  ivith 
devilish  pleasure]  on  their  nakedness.  This 
may  either  be  of  actual  insults  (as  in  the  his- 
tory of  Noah),  in  keeping  certainly  with  the 
character  of  the  later  Babylonians,  the  last 
wantonness  of  unbridled  power,  making  vile 
sport  of  those  like  himself  {his  neirjhhor),  or 
it  may  be  drunkenness  through  misery  ^ 
wherein  they  are  bared  of  all  their  glory 
and  brought  to  the  lowest  shame.  The  wot; 
falls  too  on  all,  who  in  any  way  intoxicate 
others  with  flattering  words  or  feigned  allec- 
tion,  mixing  poison  under  things  pleasant,  to 
bring  them  to  shame. 

16.  Thou  art  filled  ivith  shame  for  gloi'y. 
Oppressors  think  to  make  themselves  great 
by  bringing  others  down,  to  fill  themselves 
with  riches,  by  spoiling  others.  They  loved 
shame ^  because  they  loved  that,  which 
brought  shame  ;  they  were  filled  with  shame, 
in  that  they  sated  themselves  with  shameful- 
ness,  which  was  their  shame  within,  before,  in 
the  just  judgment  of  God,  shame  came  on  them 
from  without.  *  Their  glory  was  in  their  shame. 
Tliey  shall  be  filled,  yea,  he  says,  they  are 
already  filled  * ;  they  would  satisfy,  gorge 
themselves,  Avith  all  their  hearts'  desires ; 
they  are  filled  to  the  full,  but  with  shame  instead 
of  glory  which  they  sought,  or  which  they 
already  had.  From  and /or  ®a  state  oi  glory, 
they  were  filled  with  contempt. 

Drink  thou  also,  and  let  thy  foreskin  be  un- 
covered: thy  shame  like  those  whom  thou 
puttest  to  shame,  only  the  greater  in 
being  uncircumcised.    The  cup  of  the  Lord's 

i"l2liy  nXI  The  inf.  abs.  continuing  the  previous 

action  of  the  finite  verb,  as  in  Gen.  xli.  43.  Is.  ix. 
20.  Jer.  xiv.  5,  or  after  the  inf  constr.  1  Sam.  xxii. 
1.3.  XXV.  26.  33.  Jer.  vii.  18.  &c.  See  in  Ewald  Lehrb. 
p.  8.39.  ed.  7.  2  Isaiah  xxix.  9. 

8H0S.  iv.8.  *Phil.  iii.  19. 

8^3tyhas  nowhere  the  reflective  meaning,  "sa- 
tiated himself  with  "  (as  Del.) ;  it  simply  expresses 
a  state. 

«  m  Includes  both.  ?  s.  Matt.  vii.  2. 

8  Jer.  XXV.  26.     8  Lam.  iv.  21.       w  Rev.  xvi.  19. 

"  Ps.  Ixxvi.  8. 

^Twp'p  might  be  simply  an  intensive,  modified 


thee,  and  shameful  spew- 
ing shall  be  on  thy  glory. 

17  For  the  violence  of 
Lebanon  shall  cover  thee, 
and  the  spoil  of  beasts, 
which  made  them  afraid, 
'because  of  men's  blood, 
and  for  the  violence  of  the 
land,  of  the  city,  and  of 
all  that  dwell  therein. 


Beforp 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


*ver.  8. 


Right  Hand  shall  be  turned  [round]  unto  thee 
[or  against  thee].  It  had  gone  round  the  cir- 
cuit of  the  nations  whom  God  had  employed 
him  to^  chasten,  and  now,  the  circle  com- 
pleted, it  should  be  brought  round  to  him- 
self, '  With  what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be 
measured  unto  you  again.  So  Jeremiah  says, 
^And  the  king  of  Sheshach  shcdl  drink  after 
them  ;  and  of  Edom,  "  To  thee  also  shall  the 
cup  be  brought  round.  Thou,  a  man,  madest 
man  to  drink  of  the  cup  of  thine  anger:  the 
cup  shall  be  brought  round  to  thee,  but  not 
by  man;  to  thee  it  shall  be  given  by  the 
Right  Hand  of  the  Lord,  which  thou  canst  not 
escape  ;  it  shall  be  ^"  the  cup  of  the  ivine  of  the 
fierceness  of  the  wrath  of  Almighty  God;  as 
Asaph  had  said,  "  There  is  a  cup  in  the  Loi-d's 
hand;  it  is  full  of  mixture,  and  He  poureth  out 
therefrom  ;  but  the  dregs  thereof  cdl  the  ungodly  of 
the  earth  shall  suck  them  out,  shcdl  drink  them. 

And  shameful  spewing  '^  shall  be  o«  thy  glory. 
"i^With  the  shame  of  thy  spewing  shaft 
thou  bring  up  all  thou  hast  swallowed  down, 
and  from  the  height  of  glory  shaft  thou  be 
brought  to  the  utmost  ills."  'The  shame  of 
the  ungodly  cometh  lorth  from  himself ;  the 
shame  he  put  others  to  is  doubled  upon 
himself;  and  the  very  means  wliich  he  had 
used  to  fill  himself  with  glory  and  greatness, 
cover  the  glory  which  by  nature  he  had, 
with  the  deeper  disgrace,  so  that  he  should 
be  a  loathsome  and  revolting  night  to  all. 
Man  veils  loul  deeds  under  fair  words;  God, 
in  His  word,  unveils  the  foulness. 

17.  For  the  violence  of  Lebanon  i.  e.,  done  to 

from  pSpSp,  as  23^3  from  2332,  nnyiyr)  for 

nni'li'n,  &c-  Ew.  Lehrb.  p.  408.  It  was  regarded 
as  a  compound  word  by  S.  Jerome's  Hebrew  in- 
structor, "  vomitus  ignominiee,"  the  Midrash  Ester 
Rabb.  121.  c.  (in  Del.)  Kim.  Sal.  B.  Mel.  as  suggested 
by  the  mention  of  the  drinking,  (as  in  Jer.  x.w. 
27.).  Ibn  Ezra,  Tanchum,  Abarb.  give  both.  In 
any  ease,  as  in  D'iSn^',  the  word  was  probably 
framed  to  suggest  the  two  words,  into  which  it  is 
naturally  resolved,  'l)hp  X'p,  like  nXV  J<'p  Is. 
xxviii.  8.  and  the  image  Is.  xix.  14.  The  form  is 
enlarged  by  Hab.  from  the  previous  mSd,  but  the 
doubling  occurs  in  7p7p  Nu.  xxi.  6.         '^g.  jer. 


i">2 


HABAKKUK. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


18  ^"What  profiteth 
the  graven  image  that  the 
'  Is.  44. 9, 10.      maker  thereof  hath  graven 
it ;  the  molten  image,  and 


Lebanon,  whether  the  land  of  Israel  of  which 
it  was  the  entrance  and  the  beauty  ',  or  the 
temple  *,  both  of  which  Nebuchadnezzar 
laid  waste;  or,  more  widely,  it  may  be  a 
symbol  of  all  the  majesty  of  the  world  and  its 
empires,  wliich  he  subdues,  as  Isaiah  uses  it, 
when  speakini?  of  the  judgment  on  the 
world  *.  It  shall  cover  thee,  and  the  spoil  [i.  e., 
spoiling,  destruction'\  of  beasts  [the  inhabitants 
of  Lebanon]  whir.h  made  them  afraid,  or  more 
simply,  ilie  wnsting  of  wild  beasts  *  sMl  cntJih  ^ 
^/k/» [selves],"  i.  e.,  as  it  is  in  irrational 
nature,  that  "  the  frequency  of  the  incursions 
of  very  mischievous  animals  becomes  the 
cause  that  men  assemble  against  them  and 
kill  them,  so  their  [the  Chaldieans']  frequent 
injustice  is  the  cause  that  they  haste  to  be 
avenged  on  thee®."  Having  become  beasts, 
they  shared  their  history.  They  spoiled, 
scared,  laid  waste,  were  destroyed.  "  Whoso 
seeketh  to  hurt  another,  hurteth  himself." 
The  Chaldieans  laid  waste  Jud:ea,  scared  and 
wasted  its  inhabitants  ;  the  end  of  its  plun- 
der should  be,  not  to  adorn,  but  to  cover  them, 
overwhelm  them  as  in  ruins,  so  that  they 
should  not  lift  up  their  heads  again.  Vio- 
lence returns  on  the  head  of  him  who  did  it ; 
they  seem  to  raise  a  lofty  fabric,  but  are  burie  1 
under  it.  He  sums  up  their  past  experience, 
what  God  had  warned  them  beforehand,  what 
they  had  found. 

18.  What  profiteth  [hath  profited''}  the  gra- 
nen  image,  tluit  the  maker  therefore  hath  graven 
it  f  What  did  Baal  and  Ashtaroth  profit  you  ? 
NV'hat  availed  it  ever  but  to  draw  down  the 
wrath  of  God  ?  Even  .so  neither  shall  it  profit 

1  See  Is.  x.xxvii.  24.  and,  as  a  symbol.  Jer.  xxii. 
6,  23.  Ez.  xvii.  .3;  but  if  is  used  as  a  symnol  of  Sen- 
nacherib's army,  Is.  X.  .34,  and  the  king  of  Asshur 
is  not  indeed  spoken  of  under  the  name  as  a  sym- 
bol (in  Ezek.  xxi.  3.)  but  is  compared  to  it. 

«See  on  Zech.  xii.  1.  *Is.  ii.  13. 

*  nion3  is  used  of  beasts  of  prey,  Deut.  xxvii.  24. 

5  As  in  Is.  vii.  8.  and  Dr^nO  Ps.  Ixxxix.  40,  Pr.  x. 

14,  -xiii.  3,  xiv.  14,  xviii.  7. 

«  R.  Tanchum.  He  had  after  Abulwalid,  which 
Kimchi  quotes  and  approves,  explained  the  first 
l':irt  of  the  verse  ;  "Tins  is  a  likeness  framed  as  to 
liirn,  that  he  was  like  a  beast  of  prey  which  attack- 
iili  the  animals  in  their  lairs;  and  Lebanon  is 
iii'ntioned  on  account  of  the  multitude  of  animals 
ill  it.  He  says  then,  thy  wrong  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Lebanon  .shall  overwhelm  thee."  He  gives  also 
the  rendering,  followed  in  the  E.  V.,  but  prefers 
his  own.    He  gives  the  two  ways  of  deriving  iJT'n'' 

from  nnn  and  HTI.  Rashi  follows  the  same  con- 
struction. "  The  wasting  of  thy  lieasts  and  forces, 
because  they  have  wasted  My  people  Israel,  it  shall 
crush  them  [selves]." 

'Vj^in  no.    Samuel  warned  them,  "Serve  the 


a    "teacher   of  lies,   that    d^'il"/!-!- 
fthe   maker   of  hi.s  work       t*''-  ^'^^- 
trusteth  therein,  to  make   zeoh.  io.'2. ' 

V   1        1    •  1    1    0  +  Heb.  thefash- 

^  dumb  idols  ?  joner  of  his 

J  Ps.  115.  u.  1  Cor.  12.  2.  fashion. 


the  Chaldsean.  As  their  idols  availed  them 
not,  so  neither  need  they  fear  them.  Sen- 
nacherib and  Nebuchadnezzar  were  pro- 
pagandists of  their  own  belief  and  would 
destroy,  if  they  could,  all  other  worship,  false 
or  true  ® :  Nebuchadnezzar  is  thought  to  have 
set  up  his  own  imaged  Anti-Christ  will  set 
himself  up  as  God  '".  We  may  take  warning  at 
least  by  our  own  sins.  If  we  had  no  profit 
at  all  from  them,  neither  will  the  like  profit 
others.  This  the  Jews  did,  in  the  main, 
learn  in  their  captivity. 

The  molten  inuuje  and  teacher  of  lies.  It  is 
all  one  whether  by  teacher  of  lies  we  under- 
stand the  idol  ",  or  its  priest  ''^.  For  its  priest 
gave  it  its  voice,  as  its  maker  created  its 
form.  It  could  only  .seem  to  teach  through 
the  idol-priest.  Isaiah  used  the  title  teacher 
of  lies,  of  the  false  prophet  '^.  It  is  all  one. 
Zechariah  combines  them ;  "  The  teraphim 
have  spoken  vanity,  and  the  diiino-s  have  seen  a 
lie,  and  have  had  false  dreams. 

That  the  maker  of  his  work  tritsteth  therein. 
This  was  the  special  folly  of  idolatry.  The 
thing  made  must  needs  be  inferior  to  its 
maker.  It  was  one  of  the  corruptions  of  idol- 
atry that  the  maker  of  his  own  work  should 
trust  in  what  was  wholly  his  own  creation, 
what,  not  God,  but  himself  created,  what 
had  nothing  but  what  it  had  from  himself'^. 
He  uses  the  very  words  which  express  the 
relation  of  man  to  God,  "  the  Framer  "  and 
"  the  thing  framed."  '®  0  your  perverseness  ! 
ShcUi  the  framer  be  accounted  as  clay,  that  the 
thing  made  should  say  of  its  Maker,  He  made  me 
not,  and  the  thing  framed  say  of  its  Framer,  He 

Lord  with  all  your  heart,  and  turn  ye  not  aside ;  for 
[it  would  be]  after  vanities,  which  will  not  profit, 
nor  deliver,  tor  they  are  vain  : "  and  .leremiah  tolls 
their  past ;  "  their"  prophets  prophesied  by  Baal ; 

and  after  things  '"S'^'V  X;  which  profit  not,  have 
they  gone."  Elsewhere  the  idol  is  spoken  of  as  a 
thing,  "which  ivill  not  profit"  (fut.)    "My  people 

hath  changed  its  glory  7'J?V  xS^  for  that  which 
profiteth  not,"  Jer.  ii.  8. 11.  So  Is.iiah,  "  Who  hath 
formed  a  god,  S'J'in  'nS^S.not  to  profit."  Is.  xliv. 
9.  10.  "  The  makers  of  a  graven  image  are  all  of 
them  vanity,  and  their  desirable  things  l7'J!V  73 
will  not  profit." 

92  Kgs  xviii.  .a3-3.5,  xix.  12-18,  xxv.  9,  In.  x.  10,11. 
See  also  Lectures  on  Daniel  pp.  447-440  ed.  2. 

"  Dan.  iii.  See  Lectures  on  Dan.  pp.  442. 

'"2  Thess.  ii.  4.  Hev.  xiii.  1,V-17.      "  Abarb.  Kim. 

"  AE.  Tanch.  >»  Is.  ix.  14.  '*  Zech.  x.  2. 

'6  In  Hebrew  this  is  made  stronger  by  the  same- 
ness of  the  words,  nv  ^i"  yotser  t/itsro  E.  M. 
"fashioner  of  his  fashion."  Again  "dumb  idols" 
are  elilim  illemim,  the  poeond  word  only  slightly 
varying  from  the  first.  '•  Is.  xxix.  16. 


CHAPTKR  ir. 


20;3 


^^efore  19  Woe  unto  him  that 

cir-  626.      saith  to  the  wood,  Awake ; 


to  the  dumb  stone,  Arise, 

it  shall  teach !   Behold,  it 

is  laid  over  with  gold  and 

•  Ps.  135. 17.       silver,   "and   there  is  no 


hath  IV)  hands  ?  The  idol-maker  is  "  the  cre- 
ator of  his  creature,"  of  his  god  wliom  he 
worships.  Again  the  idol-maker  makes 
dumb  idols  [lit.  dmnb  nothings^  in  themselves 
nothings,  and  having  no  power  out  of  them- 
selves ;  and  what  is  uttered  in  their  name, 
are  but  lies.  And  what  else  are  man's  idols 
of  wealth,  honor,  fame,  which  he  makes  to 
himself,  the  creatures  of  his  own  hands  or 
mind,  their  greatness  existing  chiefly  in  his 
own  imagination,  before  wliich  he  bows  down 
himself,  who  is  the  image  of  God  ? 

19.  But  then  the  greater  is  the  Woe  to 
him  who  deceiveth  by  them.  The  prophet 
passes  away  from  the  the  idols  as  "  noth- 
ings "  and  pronounces  "  woe  "  on  those  who 
deceive  by  them.  He  'first  expostulates 
with  them  on  their  folly,  and  would  awaken 
them.  What  hath  it  profited  ^  ?  Then  on  the 
obstinate  he  denounces  "woe."  Woe  unto 
him  that  saith  to  the  wood,  Aivake ;  to  the  dumb 
stone,  Arise.  Self-made  blindness  alone 
could,  in  the  light  of  truth,  so  speak  ;  but  yet 
more  lies  in  the  emphatic  word,  It.  The 
personal  pronoun  stands  emphatically  in 
Hebrew  ;  He  shall  teach,  lo,  He  (this  same 
of  whom  he  speaks)  this  is  It  which  shall 
teach:  It,  and  not  the  living  God.  And  yet 
this  same  It  (the  word  is  again  emphatic)  he 
points,  as  with  the  finger,  to  it,  behold.  It  is 
laid  over  with,  held  fast  by^,  gold  and  silver,  so 
that  no  voice  could  escape,  if  it  had  any. 
Arid  there  is  no  breath  at  all  in  the  midst  of  it  *, 
lit.  All  breath,  all  which  is  breath,  there  is  none 
within  it;  he  first  suggests  the  thought, 
breath  of  every  sort,  and  then  energetically 
denies  it  all  * ;  no  life  of  any  sort,  of  man, 
or  bird,  or  beast,  or  creeping  thing  ;  *"  none, 
good  or  bad  ;  from  God  or  from  Satan  ;  none 
whereby  it  can  do  good  or  do  evil ;  for  which 
it  should  be  loved  or  feared.  Evil  spirits 
may  have  made  use  of  idols :  they  could  not 
give  them  life,  nor  dwell  in  them. 

The  words  addressed  to  it  are  the  language 
of  the  soul  in  the  seeming  absence  or  silence 
of  God  ^,  but  mockery  as  spoken  to  the  sense- 
less stone,  as  Elijah  had  mocked  the  Baal- 

iRup. 

2  As  in  Ps.  cxv.  5. 1  Cor.  xii.  2. 

'The  meaning  of  ty£3n  elsewhere.  "Here  it 
means '  surrounds,'  for  that  which  encircles  a  thing, 
is  as  if  it  held  it  on  every  side."    Tanch. 

*  Comp.  Jer.  x.  14  repeated  li.  17. 

°  As  in  the  Hebraism  of  the  N.  T.  ov  SiKaiiaOrja-eTai 
tra(Ta  cipl  Rom.  iii.  20. 


breath  at  all  in  the  midst    ^,  h  rTs  t 
of  it.  ^  «"••  6=^6. 


20  But  *the  Lord  is  in  >Ps.  11.4. 

1-11       J.  1         j.bi    i      ,,■[  Heb.  he  silent 

his  holy  temple :  y  °  let  all  aii  the  earth 
the  earth  keep  silence  be- b  zeph*  1!  7.' 

„         ,  .  Zech.  2. 13. 

tore  him. 


priests  *,  peradventure  he  sleepeth  and  must  be 
awaked. 

20.  And  now  having  declared  the  nothing- 
ness of  all  which  is  not  God,  the  power  of 
man  or  his  gods,  he  answei-s  again  his  own 
question,  by  summoning  all  before  the  Pre- 
sence of  the  Majesty  of  God. 

And  the  Lord.  He  had,  in  condemning 
them,  pictured  the  tumult  of  the  world,  the 
oppressions,  the  violence,  bloodsheddings, 
covetousness,  insolence,  self-aggrandizement 
of  the  then  world-empire,  and  had  denounced 
woe  upon  it ;  we  see  man  framing  his  idols, 
praying  to  the  lifeless  stones ;  and  God,  of 
Whom  none  thought,  where  was  He  ?  These 
were  men's  ways.  "  And  the  Lord,"  he  joins 
it  on,  as  the  complement  and  corrective  of 
all  this  confusion.  The  Lord  is  in  His  holy 
temple,  awaiting,  in  His  long-suffering,  to 
judge.  Tfie  temple  of  God  is  where  God  en- 
shrines Himself,  or  allows  Himself  to  be 
seen  and  adored.  "  God  is  wholly  every- 
where, the  whole  of  Him  no  where."  There 
is  no  contrast  between  His  temple  on  earth, 
and  His  temple  in  heaven.  He  is  not  more 
locally  present  in  heaven  than  in  earth.  It 
were  as  anthropomorphic  but  less  pious  to 
think  of  God,  as  confined,  localized,  in  hea- 
ven as  on  earth  ;  because  it  would  be  simply 
removing  God  away  from  man.  Solomon 
knew,  when  he  built  the  temple,  that  the 
heaven  and  heaven  of  heavens  could  not  contain^ 
God.  The  holy  temple,  which  could  be 
destroyed '",  toward  which  men  were  to 
pray  ",  was  the  visible  temple  '^,  where  were 
the  symbols  of  God's  Presence,  and  of  the 
atoning  Sacrifice ;  but  lest  His  presence 
should  be  localized,  Solomon's  repeated 
prayer  is,  '^  hear  Thou  in  heaven  Thy  dwelling 
place  ;  "  hear  Thou  in  heaven.  There  is  then 
no  difference,  as  though  in  earlier  books  the 
"  holy  temple  "  meant  that  at  Jerusalem,  in 
the  later,  "  the  heavens."  In  the  confession 
at  the  offering  of  the  third  year's  tithes,  the 
prayer  is,  '^  look  down  frmn  Thy  holy  habitation, 
from  heaven  ;  and  David  says,  •*  the  Lord  is  in 
His  holy  temple,  the  Lnrd^s  thron-e  i<i  in  heaven  ; 

« Is.  xli.  23.  Jer.  x.  5. 

^  Ps.  vii.  7,  xxxv.  23,  xliv.  24.  lix.  6,  Is.  li.  9.  Del. 
81  Kgsxviii.  26,  27.  91  Kgs  viii.  27. 

loPs.  Ixxix.  1. 

11  Ps.  V.  7.  cxxxviii.  2.  Jon.  ii.  4. 
121  Kgs  viii.  29,  30,  36, 38,  42,  44,  48. 
i'  lb.  30, 39,  43,  49.  "  lb.  32,  34,  36,  45. 

'■■  Do.  XX vii.  15.  i«P8.  xi.  4, 


201 


IL\BAKKrK. 


Before  CHAPTER   III. 

CHRIST 
cir.  626.        1   Habakkuk  m  his  prayer  trem- 
bleth  at    Oocts  majesty.      17 
The  confidence  of  his  faith. 


A 


and,  *  He  heard  my  voice  out  of  His  temple — 
He  bowed  the  heavens  also  and  came  down  ;  and, 
^  In  His  temple  doth  every  one  say,  Glory.  Tlie 
simple  words  are  identical  though  not  in  the 
same  order  as  those,  in  which  David,  in  the 
same  contrast  with  the  oppression  of  man, 
ushere  in  the  judgment  and  final  retribution 
to  good  and  bad,  by  tleolaring  the  unseen 
presence  of  God  on  His  Throne  in  heaven, 
beholding  and  trying  the  sons  of  men. 

In  His  Presence,  all  the  mysteries  of  our 
being  are  solved.  The  Lord  is  in  His  holy 
Temple,  not,  as  the  idols  in  temples  made  with 
hands,  but  revealing  Himself  in  the  visible 
temple,  "^dwelling  in  the  Son,  by  iS^ature 
and  Union,  as  He  saith,  *  Th'^  Father  Who 
diuelleth  in  Me  doeth  the  tmrks ;  in  each  one 
of  the  bodies  and  souls  of  the  Saints  by  His 
Spirit ",  in  the  Blessed,  in  glory ;  in  the 
Heavens,  by  the  more  evident  appearance  of 
His  Majesty  and  the  workings  of  His  Power  ; 
"®  everywhere  by  Essence,  Presence,  and 
Power,  for  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  beinr/ ;  nowhere  as  confined  or  inclosed." 
Since  then  God  is  in  Heaven,  beholding  the 
deeds  of  men.  Himself  Unchangeable,  Al- 
mighty, All-holy,  let  all  the  earth  keep  silence 
before  Him,  lit.  hush  bifore  Him  all  the  earth, 
waiting  from  Him  in  hushed  stillness  the 
issue  of  this  tangled  state  of  being.  And  to 
the  hushed  soul,  hushed  to  itself  and  its  own 
thoughts,  hushed  in  awe  of  His  Majesty  and 
His  Presence,  before  His  face,  God  speaks'. 

III.  1.  A  prayer^of  Hibakknk.  The  prayer 
of  the  prophet,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the 
word,  is  contained  in  the  words  of  verse  2. 
The  rest  is,  in  its  form,  praise  and  thanks- 
giving, chielly  for  God's  past  mercies  in  the 
deliverance  Irom  Egypt  and  the  entering 
into  the  promised  land.  But  thanksgiving 
is  an  essential  part  of  prayer,  and  Hannah 
is  said  to  have  prayed,  whereas  the  hymn 
which  followed  is  throughout  one  thanksgiv- 
ing ^.  In  that  also  these  former  deliver- 
ances were  images  of  things  to  come,  of  every 
deliverance  afterward,  and,  especially,  of  that 

1  Ps.  xviii.  6.  9.  a  lb.  xxix.  9. 

8S.  Jer.  ••  S.  John  xiv.  10. 

6lCor.  vi.  19.  «Dion. 

'See  S.  .\iiKii«tine's  words  to  his  mother  before 
her  death  Conf.  ix.  in. 

sTepliilli.th  is  a  title  of  the  collection  of  David's 
Psalms  endiiiK  with  Ps.  Ixxii.  (lb.  ver.  20.)  Three  of 
David's  iNalms  arc  entitled  Tephillah,  Ps.  xvii. 
Ixxxvi.  cxlii.  Moses'  Psalm  xc.and  anonymous  cii. 

'•■SSDnm  1  .Sam.  ii.  1.  >o  1  Cor.  x.  11. 

"  S.  Cyr.  «  Ps.  vii. 

18  on  Neginoth,  Ps.  iv.  vl.  Iv.  Neliiloth,  Ps.  v. 
Gittlth,  Ps.  viii.  Shoshannim,  Ps.  xlv.  Mahalath, 
Ps.  lill. 


PRAYER  of  Habak-    chrTst 
kuk  the  prophet  "H  up-  — °"-  ^-^- — . 

ov-    •         i.r  »Ps.  7,  title. 

on  tehlglOnotn.  fiOr,  according 

to  variable  songs,  or,  tunes,  called  in  Hebrew,  Shigionoth. 


complete  Divine  deliverance  which  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  wrought  for  us  from  the  power 
of  Satan  '",  the  whole  is  one  prayer.  "  Do,  O 
Lord,  as  Thou  hast  done  of  old  ;  forsake  not 
Thine  own  works.  Such  were  Thy  deeds 
once ;  fulfill  them  now,  all  which  they 
shadowed  forth."  It  is  then  a  prayer  for  the 
maniiestatiou  of  God's  power,  and  therewith 
the  destruction  of  His  enemies,  thencefortli 
to  the  Day  of  Judgment.  ""Having  com- 
pleted the  discoui-se  about  Babylon,  and  hav- 
ing fore-announced  most  clearly,  that  those 
who  destroyed  the  holy  city  and  carried 
Israel  captive  shidl  be  severely  punished,  he 
passes  suitably  to  the  mystery  of  Christ,  and 
from  the  redemi)tion  which  took  place  par- 
tially in  one  nation,  he  carries  on  the  dis- 
course to  that  universal  redemption,  whereby 
the  remnant  of  Israel,  and  no  less  the  whole 
world  has  been  saved." 

Upon  Shigionoth.  The  title,  Shiggaion, 
occurs  but  once  besides  ^'^  Upon,  in  the  titles 
of  the  Psalms,  is  used  with  the  instrument  '^, 
the  melody  ",  or  the  first  words  of  the  hymn, 
whose  melody  has  been  adopted  '^.  The  two 
first  are  mentioned  by  a  Jewish  Commenta- 
tor '^  with  others,  "  in  his  delight,"  or  "  hLs 
errors,"  in  the  sense,  that  God  will  forgive 
them.  This,  which  the  versions  and  Jewish 
commentatoi-s  mostly  adopt,  would  be  a  good 
sense,  but  is  hardly  consistent  with  the 
Hebrew  usage.  Shiggaion  of  David,  as  a  title 
of  a  Psalm,  must  necessarily  describe  the 
Psalm  itself,  as  Midsmor  of  David,  Michtam  of 
David,  Tephillah  of  David,  Mmchil  of  David. 
But  Shiggaion,  as  a  "great  error,"  is  not  a 
title  :  nor  does  it  suit  the  character  of  the 
Psalm,  which  relates  to  calumny  not  to  error. 
It  prol)ably,  then,  means  a  psalm  with  music 
expressive  of  strong  emotion,  "erratic"  or 
"  dithyrambic."  Habakkuk's  title,  on  Shigion- 
oth [plin\]  then  would  mean  upon,  or  (as  we 
should  say,)  "  set  to"  music  of  psalms  of  this 
sort  ".  The  number  "  three  "  remarkably 
predominates  in  this  psalm  '*,  yet  .so  that 
long  measures  are  succeeded  by  very  short. 

"on  Sheminith,  Ps.  vi.  Alamoth  Ps.  xlvi. 

1' Perhaps  "upon  Muthlabben,"  Ps.  ix.  "on 
Aiieleth  Shahar,"  Ps.  xxii.  "on  Yonath-elem- 
rekokim,"  Ps.  Ivi.  »•  R.  Tanchum. 

1'  Since  TM'd  "  erred  "  is  common  to  Hebrew  and 
Aramaic,  it  is  improbable  that  ?V  JC?  should  be  i.  q. 
Syr.  XH'JID  a  "hymn  of  praise,"  from  'JD,  beside 
that  the  Heb.  ^  does  not  interchauRe  with  .'^yr.  0. 

1*  Ver.  6  has  15  word«,  in  five  combinations,  nf 
three  words;  vv.  3  and  li)  have  12  words,  in  four  3s: 
vv.  4,  9,  19.  have  9  words  in  three  -is:  vv.  />,  12, 15 
and  18  have  6  words  in  two  lis  :  ver.  17  is  divided  into 
433433;  ver.  8  is  33332;  ver.  11  Is  433;  ver.   16  is 


CHAPTER  III. 


205 


2  0  Lord,  I  have  heard 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  62G.      -j-  thy   s  p  6  6  c  h,   and   was 


t  Ileb.  thy  report,  or,  thy  hearing. 


2.  0  Lord,  I  have  heard  i.  e.  with  the  in- 
ward ear  of  the  heart.  Thy  speech,  (rather  as 
E.  M.  Thy  report,  i.  e.  the  report  of  Thee ') 
i.  e.  what  may  he  heard  and  known  of  God, 
or,  what  he  had  himself  heard  ^.  The  word 
contains  in  one  both  that  which  God  had 
lately  declared  to  the  Prophet,  the  judg- 
ments of  God  upon  the  wicked  of  the  people, 
and  upon  those  who,  with  their  own  injustice, 
wrought  on  them  the  righteous  judgments  of 
God,  and  that  the  work  of  the  Lord  would  be 
wrought  in  His  time  for  those  who  in  patience 
wait  for  it ;  and  also  still  more  largely, 
what  might  be  heard  of  God,  although,  as  it 
were,  but  a  little  whisper  of  His  greatness 
and  of  the  Majesty  of  His  workings. 

And  was  afraid,  not  "  fearful"  but  afraid  in 
awe,  as  a  creature,  and  amazed  at  the  sur- 
passing wonderfulness  of  the  work  of  God. 
Well  may  man  stand  in  awe  "  ^  at  the  Incar- 
nation of  the  Only  Begotten  Son,  how  earth 
should  contain  Him  \mcontained  by  space, 
how  a  Body  was  prepared  for  Him  of  the 
Virgin  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  all  the  works 
whereby  He  shall  work  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind, the  Cross,  the  Death,  Resurrection  and 
Ascension,  uniting  things  opposite,  a  Body 
with  One  incorporeal,  Death  with  Life, 
Resurrection  with  Death,  a  Body  in  Heaven. 
All  is  full  of  wonder  and  awe."  "  *  This  is 
not  a  servile  fear,  but  a  holy  fear  which 
endureth  forever,  not  one  which  love  casteth 
out,  but  which  it  bringeth  in,  wherein  angels 
praise,  dominions  adore,  powei-s  stand  in  awe 
at  the  Majesty  of  the  Eternal  God." 

0  Lord,  revive  Thy  work.  God's  Word 
seems,  often,  as  it  were,  dead  and  come  utterly 
to  an  end  for  evermore  ^  while  it  is  holding 
on  its  own  course,  as  all  nature  seems  dead 
for  a  while,  but  all  is  laid  up  in  store,  and 
ready  to  shoot  forth,  as  by  a  sort  of  resurrec- 
tion. "  *  The  Prophet  prophesying  prayeth, 
that  it  should  come  quickly,  and  praying 
prophesieth  that  it  shall  so  come."  All  God's 
dealings  with  His  people,  His  Church,  each 
single  soul,  are  part  of  one  great  work, 
perfect  in  itself ;  glory  and  majesty  ^ ;  all 

3332223.  This  forces  itself  on  every  reader.  Del. 
quotes  the  Meor.  Enaim,  i.  60,  "The  prayer  of 
Habakkuk  goeth  on  threes." 

1  Except  in  the  one  phrase  jTK  J^OtJ?  "  hearing 
of  ear  "  (Job  xlii.  5.  Ps.  xviii.  45.)  the  personal  gen. 
after ;»0E^  is  that  of  the  object,  "the  report  of 
Jacob,"  Gen.  xxix.  13.  "of  Solomon,"  1  Kgs  x.  1.  2 
Chron.  ix.  1.  "  of  Tyre,"  Is.  xxiii.  5  with  the  affix 
n>'Pl!/  the  report  of  thee,  Nu.  xiv.  15,  Do.  ii.  26.  Nah. 
ili.  19.  n^'OK^  ffie  report  of  her  [wisdom]  Job  xxviii. 


afraid :  0  Lord,  |  |  "  revive    ^  h  rT  s  t 
thy    work    in    the    midst      p'''-  ^-^>- 

II  Or,  preserve  alive.  ^  Ps.  85.  G. 


which  the  godly  meditateth  on  ® ;  which 
those  busied  with  their  own  plans,  do  not 
look  to  "  ;  it  is  manifested  in  great  doings  for 
them  or  with  them,  as  in  the  Exodus  the 
Psalmist  says,  ^"  We  have  heard  with  our  earSy 
yea,  our  fathers  have  told  us  what  work  Thou 
didst  in  their  days,  in  the  times  of  old;  ^^  They 
proved  Me  and  saiv  My  ivork ;  with  it  He 
makes  His  own  glad  '^ ;  after  it  has  been  with- 
drawn for  a  while.  He  sheiveth  it  to  His  ser- 
vants '^;  it  issues  in  judgments  on  the  ungodly, 
which  men  consider  and  declare  ^*. 

The  great  work  of  God  on  earth,  which 
includes  all  His  works  and  is  the  end  of  all, 
is  the  salvation  of  man  through  Jesus  Christ. 
This  great  work  seemed,  as  it  were,  asleep, 
or  dead,  as  trees  in  winter,  all  through  those 
4000  years,  which  gave  no  token  of  His  Com- 
ing. Included  in  this  great  work  is  the 
special  work  of  the  Hand  of  God,  of  which 
alone  it  is  said,  God  said,  Let  Us  make  man  in 
Our  Image  after  Our  I/ikeness  ^^ ;  and,  we  are 
the  clay  and  Thou  our  Potter,  and  we  are  all 
the  ivork  of  Thy  Hands  '*;  and  Thy  Hands  have 
made  me  and  fashioned  me  tor/ether  round  about  '^, 
— man  ;  whom,  being  dead  as  to  the  life  of 
the  soul  through  the  malice  of  Satan,  Christ 
revived  by  dying  and  rising  again.  He  was 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  and  like  a  carcase 
putrefying  in  them,  and  this  whole  world- 
one  great  charnel-house,  through  man's  mani- 
fold corruptions,  when  Christ  came  to  awaken 
the  dead,  and  they  who  heard  lived  '*. 

Again,  the  Centre  of  this  work,  the  sjiecial 
W^ork  of  God,  that  wherein  He  made  all 
things  new,  is  the  Human  Body  of  our  Lord, 
the  Temple  which  was  destroyed  by  Death, 
and  within  three  days  raised  up. 

The  answer  to  Habakkuk's  enquiry,  How 
long?  had  two  sides.  It  had  given  assurance 
as  to  the  end.  The  trial-time  would  not  be 
prolonged  for  one  moment  longer  than  the 
counsel  of  God  had  foredetermined.  Tiie 
relief  would  come,  come  ;  it  would  not  be  behind- 
hand. But  meantime  ?  There  was  no  com- 
fort to  be  given.  For  God  knew  that  deepen- 
ing sin  was  drawing  on  deepening  chastise- 

22.  "'JJIpK'  the  report  of  Me  [God],  Is.  Ixvi.  19.  DJ^OC/ 
the  report  of  them,  Jer.  xxxvii.  5. 1.  43. 

2  as  nj^lOtJ'  Ob.  1,  and  thence  Jer.  xlix.  14.  See 
on  Hosea  vii.  12.  3  Theoph.  from  S.  Cyr. 

4Rup.  6Ps.  Ixxvii.  8. 

SDexxxii.  4.  ^Ps.  cxl.  3. 

8  lb.  Ixxvii.  3.  exliii.  35.  « Is.  v.  12. 

10  Ps.  xliv.  2.  rb}^ii  S;?3.  "  Ps.  xcv.  9. 

isib.  xeii.  3.  i8Ib.  xc.  6. 

HJb.  Ixiv.  10.  In  all  theae  oases  sing.  7j^_3. 
i6Gen.  i.  26.  i«  Is.  Ixiv.  8. 

1'  Job  X.  8.  "  S-  John  v.  25. 


206 


HABAKKUK. 


chrTst    of    the     years,    ir 
cir.  f.26.      midst  of  the  years 


in     the 
make 


ment.  But  in  that  He  was  silent  as  to  the 
intervening  time  and  pointed  to  patient 
expeclation  of  a  lingering  future,  as  their 
only  tumfort,  lie  implies  that  the  immediate 
future  was  heavy.  Haljukkuk  tlien  renews  his 
prayer  for  the  years  which  had  to  intervene 
and  to  pass  away.  In  (he  midst  of  the  years, 
before  that  time  appointed^,  when  His  promise 
should  luive  its  full  fuliillment,  before  those 
years  should  come  to  their  close,  he  prays ; 
revive  Thy  work.  The  years  include  all  tlie 
long  period  of  waiting  for  our  Lord's  first  Com- 
ing before  He  came  in  the  Flesh ;  and  now 
for  His  second  Conung  and  the  restitution  of 
<dl  things.  In  this  long  period,  at  times  God 
seems  to  be  aljsent,  as  when  our  Lord  was 
asleep  in  the  boat,  while  the  tempest  was 
raging  ;  at  times  He  bids  the  storm  to  cease  and 
there  w  a  great  ccdm.  This,  in  those  long 
intervals,  wlien  God  seems  to  be  absent,  and 
to  leave  all  things  to  time  and  chance,  and 
love  waxes  cold,  and  graces  seem  rare,  is  the 
prayer  of  llabakkuk,  of  Prophets  and  Psalm- 
ists, of  the  Church,  '^Return,  we  beseech  Thee, 
0  God  of  hosts,  look  down  from  heaven,  behold 
and  visit  this  vitie.  "^  0  God,  why  hast  Thou  cast 
m  off  for  ever  f  Why  withdrawest  Thoic  Thy  hand. 
Thy  right  hand  ?  For  God  is  my  king  of  old, 
irorking  salvation  in  the  midst  of  the  earth. 
*  Awake,  awake,  put  on  strength.  Thou  Arm  of 
the  Lord  ;  awake,  as  in  the  ancient  days,  in  the 
generations  of  old.  Art  thou  not  It  which  did 
smite  Rahab,  didst  wound  the  dragon  f  Art 
thou  not  It  which  didst  dry  the  sea,  the  waters  of 
the  great  deep,  ivhich  didst  make  the  depths  of  the 
sea  a  way  for  the  ransomed  to  pass  over  f  'Stir 
up  Thy  might  and  come,  save  us.  *  Renew  our 
days,  as  of  okl.  So  our  Lord  taught  His 
Church  to  pray  continually,  whenever  she 
prayed,  J'hy  kingdom  come,  longing  not  i'or 
His  final  Coming  only,  but  for  the  increase 
of  His  glory,  and  the  greater  dominion  of 
His  grace,  and  His  enthronement  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  even  before  its  complete  and 
final  Coming.  In  the  midst  of  tlie  years  revive 
Thy  work,  is  the  Church's  continual  cry. 

In  the  midst  of  the  years  nuike  known,  lit. 
TImu  wilt  mxtke  known:  in  vjrath  Thou  wilt 
remember  mercy  ;  and  so  (as  we  use  the  word 
wilt)  tlie  Prophet,  at  once,  foretelleth,  expres- 
seth  his  faith,  prayeth.  God  had  made 
known  His  work  and  His  power  in  the  days 
of  old.  In  times  of  troul)le  He  seems  like  a 
God  whohideth  Himself  Now,  he  prays  Him 
to  shine  forth  and  help ;  make  known  Thy 
work,  before  Thou  fulfill   it,  to  revive  the 


"lb.  Ixxiv.  1,  U,  12. 
<  U.  li.  9, 10. 
•  Lnm.  V.  !il. 


«  Ps.  Ixxx.  14. 


»Ps.  Ixxx.  H. 
'  Dsui.  ix.  il. 


known;    in  wrath  remem- 
ber mercy. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


drooping  hopes  of  man,  and  that  all  may  see 
that  Thy  word  is  truth.  Make  Thyself  known 
in  Thy  work,  that,  when  the  time  cometh  to 
'  make  an  end  of  sin  by  the  Death  of  Thy  Son, 
Tliy  Awful  Holiness,  and  the  love  wherewitli 
Thou  hast  ^  so  loved  the  ivorld,  may  be  the 
more  known  and  adored. 

In  wrath  'Thou  ivilt  remenrber  mercy.  So 
David  prayed,  "  Remember  Thy  tender-mercies 
and  Thy  loving-kindnesses ;  for  they  are  from 
old.  Thou  ivilt  remember  that  counsel  lor 
man's  redemption  which  has  been  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world :  for  we  seem  in  our 
own  minds  to  be  forgotten  of  God,  when  He 
delayeth  to  help  us.  God  remembereth 
mercy'"  in  anger,  in  that  in  this  life  He 
never  chastens  without  purpo.ses  of  mercy, 
and  His  Mercy  ever  softeneth  His  judgments. 
His  Promise  of  mercy,  that  the  Seed  of  the 
woman  shall  bruise  tlie  serpent's  head,  went 
before  the  sentence  of  displeasure,  "  Dust  thou 
art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return.  "'^He 
reveals  His  wrath  that  He  may  scare  us  from 
sin  and  so  may  not  inflict  it ; "  and  when  at 
last  He  inflicteth  it,  He  hath  mercy  on  the 
remnant  who  flee  to  His  Mercy,  that  we  be 
not  like  Sodom  and  Goniori-ah.  '•'  While  we 
were  yet  sinners,  and  (iwl  wa.s  wroth,  Christ 
died  for  us,  and  '*  He  saved  us,  not  for  work.t 
which  we  had  done,  but  out  of  Hii  great  Mercy, 
and  took  away  sin,  and  restored  us  to  life  and 
incorruption. 

God  had  already  promised  by  Micah, 
'^  According  to  the  days  of  thy  coming  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  1  will  show  him  marvelous  things. 
Isaiah  had  often  used  the  great  events  of  that 
deliverance  as  tiie  symbols  of  the  future.  So 
now  Habakkuk,  in  one  vast  panorama,  as  it 
were,  without  distinction  of  time  or  series  of 
events,  exhibits  the  future  in  pictures  of  the 
past.  In  the  description  itself  which  follows, 
lie  now  speaks  in  the  past,  now  in  the  future  ; 
of  which  times  the  future  might  be  a  vivid 
present ;  and  the  past  a  prophetic  past.  As 
a  key  to  the  whole,  he  says,  God  shall  come', 
indicating  that  all  which  follows,  however 
spoken,  was  a  part  of  that  future.  In  no 
other  way  was  it  an  answer  to  that  prayer, 
Revive  Thy  work.  To  foretell  future  deliver- 
ances in  plain  words,  had  been  a  comfort;  it 
would  have  promised  a  continuance  of  that 
work.  The  unity  and  revival  of  the  work  is 
expressed,  in  tliat  the  past  is  made,  ns  it 
was,  the  image  of  the  future.  That  future 
was  to  be  wondrous,  superhuman ;  else  the 
past  miracles  had  been  no  image  of  it.  It  was 


9S.  Johniii.  16. 
'0  S.  Lulte  i.  54,  72. 
"8.  Jor. 
'«Til.  iii.  3. 


»Ps.  XXV.  6. 

n  GtMi.  iii.  19. 
>8  Uoiu.  V  8. 
WMif.  vii.  Ifi. 


CHAPTER  III. 


207 


'  Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 

II  Or,  the  south. 


3  God  came  from  1 1  Te- 
man,  "^and  the  Holy  One 

"  Deut.  33. 2.  Judg.  5.  4.  Ps.  68.  7. 


to  be  no  mere  repetition  of  the  future  ;  and  to 
mark  this,  the  images  are  exhibited  out  of 
their  historical  order. 

3.  God  came  (lit.  sladl  come)  from  Teman. 
God  shcdl  come,  as  He  came  of  old,  clothed 
with  majesty  and  power  ;  but  it  was  not  mere 
power.  The  centre  of  the  whole  picture  is, 
as  Micah  and  Isaiah  had  prophesied  that  it 
was  to  he,  a  new  revelation ;  '  The  law  shall  go 
forth  from  Zion,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from 
Jeriisalem.  ^  I  will  give  Thee  for  a  covenant  to 
the  people  [Israel], /o/'  a  light  of  the  Gentiles. 
So  now,  speaking  of  the  new  work  in  store, 
Habakkuk  renews  the  imagery  in  the  Song 
of  Moses  *,  in  Debora  h's  Song  *,  and  in  David  ^ ; 
but  there  the  manifestation  of  His  glory  is 
spoken  of  wholly  in  time  past,  and  Mount 
Sinai  is  named.  Habakkuk  speaks  of  that 
coming  as  yet  to  be,  and  omits  the  express 
mention  of  Mount  Sinai,  which  was  the 
emblem  of  the  law  •*.  And  so  he  directs  us 
to  another  Lawgiver,  Whom  God  should 
raise    up    like   unto   Moses,    yet   with    a   law 


1  Is.  ii.  3.  Mic.  iv.  2.  2  is.  xliv.  5. 

'^Deut.  xxxiii.  2. 

*  Jud.  V.  5.  s  Ps.  Ixviii.  7. 

«  S.  Cyr.  7  Deut.  xxxiii.  2. 

^n^I  is  used  iu  prose  too,  of  the  rising  sun 
(with  tyoU'n)  Cien.  xxxii.  32,  Ex.  xxii.  3,  Jud.  ix. 
33,  2  Sam.  xxiii.  4,  2  Kgs  iii.  22,  Jon.  iv.  8. 

'J^'Sin  is  used  of  tlie  light  of  the  sun  Job  iii.  4, 

X.  22 :  of  the  manifestation  of  God  apart  from  any- 
physical  emblem  Ps.  1.  2,  Ixxx.  2,  xeiv.  1;  and  of 
God,  favoring  the  counsel  of  the  wicked.  Job  x.  3. 

10  Mount  Paran  is  only  mentioned  in  Deuteronomy 
and  Habakkuk,  and  was  probably  taken  by  Habak- 
kuk from  Moses,  who  himself  kiiew  it.  The  wilder- 
ness of  Paran  must  have  lain  \V.  or  S.  of  the  ivilder- 
ness  of  Zin,  which  formed  the  Southern  border  of 
Judah  (Nu.  xiii.  21.  Josh.  xv.  1.).  The  history  of 
Ishmael  implies  that  part  of  it  lay  toward  Egypt 
((tcu.  xii.  21.);  that  of  Hadad  the  Edomite,  shews 
that  it  lay  between  Midian  and  Egypt  (1  Kgs  xi. 
18);  but  there  being,  (as  far  as  it  is  ascertained),  no 
natural  boundary  between  it  and  the  wilderness  of 
Zin,  the  name  Paran  is  .apparently  used  in  a  wider 
sense  as  comprehending  the  desert  of  Zin,  whence 
Kadesh  is  placed  both  in  Paran  (Nu.  xiii.  20.)  and 
mor'e  commonly  in  Zin  (Nu.  xx.  1,  xxvii.  14,  xxxiii. 
36,  37,  xxxiv.  4,  Josh.  xv.  3.),  and  the  wilderness  near 
it  is  also  called  the  wilderness  of  Kadesh  (Ps.  xxix. 
8.).  The  name  of  the  wilderness  of  Zin  does  not  occur 
after  Joshua;  and  that  of  Paran'may  have  extended 
over  the  whole  desert  cretaceous  plateau  up  to  the 
borders  of  Edom,  now  called  Badiet-et-Tih,  the 
"  wilderness  of  the  wanderings,"  whose  Western 
extremity  lies  North  of  the  crescent-shaped  Jebel- 
et-Tih,  which  separates  it  from  the  lower  part  of  the 
peninsula.  (See  Map  in  Sinaitic  survey.)  Hence 
rfabal  is  related  to  have  fed  his  flocks  in  Par.an  (1 
Sam.  XXV.  5.)  and  Eilparan  "  the  terebinth  of 
Paran,"  (Gen.  xiv.  6.)  hy  the  ivildo-ness,  the  bound  of 
the  inroad  of  Chedorlaomer,  may  have  had  its  name 
from  the  wilderness.  Mount  Paran  might  be  any- 
where connected  with  this  wilderness  on  the  West. 
"  Mount  Serbal  is  perhaps  the  most  .striking  moun- 
tain in  the  peninsula;  it  rises  abruptly  to  a  height 
of  more  than  4000  feet  above  the  valleys  at  its  base, 
and  its  summit,  a  sharp  ridge  about  throe   miles 


from  mount  Paran 

His  glory  covered  the 


Selah  Before 

oeiciu.     CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


of  life,  and  tells  how  He  Who  spake  the 
law,  God,  shall  come  in  likeness  of  our  flesh. 
And  the  Holy  One  from  Mount  Paran.  In 
the  earliest  passage  three  places  are  men- 
tioned, in  which  or  from  which  the  glory  (if 
God  was  manifested ;  with  this  difference 
however,  that  it  is  said,  '  The  Lord  carnefrom 
Sinai,  but  His  glory  arose,  as  we  should  say 
datvned^  unto  them  from  Seir,  and  flashed 
forth  ^  from  Moimt  Paran  '".  Seir  and  Mount 
Paran  are  joined  together  by  the  symbol  of 
the  light  which  dawned  or  shone  forth  from 
them.  In  the  second  passage,  the  Song  of 
Deborah,  *SeiV  and  the  field  of  Edom  are  the 
place  whence  God  came  forth  ;  Sinai  melted  " 
at  His  presence.  In  the  68th  Psalm  the 
mention  of  Edom  is  dropped  ;  and  the  march 
through  the  wilderness  under  the  leading  of 
God,  is  alone  mentioned,  together  with  the 
shaking  of  Sinai.  In  Habakkuk,  the  contrast 
is  the  same  as  in  Moses ;  only  Teman  stands 
in  place  of  iS'eiV  ^^.  Teman  and  Mount  Paran 
are   named   probably,   as   the    two   opposed 

long,  is  broken  into  a  series  of  peaks  varying  little 
in  altitude,  but  rivaling  each  other  in  the  beautv 
and  grandeur  of  their  outline.  It  is  three  mile's 
from  Wady  Peiran  ;  "  "  in  one  or  two  points  fronj 
which  its  highest  peak  is  visible."  Ordnance 
Survey  of  Peninsula  of  Sinai  pp.  143,  144.  "  When 
seen  from  a  distance-Serbal  presents  a  boldness  of 
outline  and  an  appearance  of  massive  isolation 
which  entitled  it  to  rank  as  one  of  the  grandest 
and  most  distinctive  features  of  the  peninsula." 
(Palmer's  desert  of  the  Exodus  p.  1G9.)  What  is 
now  called  Jebel  Feiran  is  too  low  to  be  taken  into 
account.  It  is  but  an  eminence,  rising  on  one  side 
810  feet  above  the  Wady  Feiran  ;  on  the  other  side, 
795  feet,  and  above  the  sea  2800;  so  that  in  the  same 
neigliborhood  Mount  Serbal  is  above  twice  its 
height,  6443  feet  above  the  sea  at  its  highest  peak. 
(Sinaitic  Survey,  Mount  Serbal,  sections.)  This 
mountain  has  this  advantage,  that  it  is  connected 
with  Wady  Feiran  or  Paran,  through  which  Moses 
led  Israel  to  Mount  Sinai.  The  name  is  remark- 
able, as  having  been  given  by  Israel,  since  it  has  a 
Hebrew  etymology,  "the  beautiful"  or  "tiie leafy," 
and  all  travelers  praise  the  richness  of  the  valley, 
even  amid  the  decay  of  fertility  consequent  on 
neglect.  It  has  no  Arabic  etymology.  (See  Palmer, 
1.  c.  p.  20.)  S.  Jerome  says,  from  his  Hebrew  teacher 
apparently,  "  Pharan  is  a  place  near  to  Mount 
Smai."  ad  loc. 

The  striking  mountain  of  Edom  had  its  own 
name  Hor,  which  in  the  eleven  places  in  which  it 
is  named  in  the  Pentateuch  is  always  called 
"inn  "in  "  Hor,  the  mountain."  Nu.  xx.  22,  23,  2o, 
27.  xxi.  4.  xxxii.  .37,  38,  41.  xxxiv.  7,  8.  De.  xxxii. 
19.  Prof.  Palmer  having  shewn  Am  Gadis  to  be 
Kadesh  (1.  c.  c.  iv.  p.  373.  sqcj.)  says,  "  To  one  en- 
camped in  the  wilderness  ol  Kadesh,  i.  e.  in  the 
open  plain  into  which  Wady  Gadis  debouches,  Jebel 
Magrah  would  be  always  the  most  conspicuous 
object  in  the  scene."  (lb.  p.  510.)  This  is  a  plateau, 
70  miles  long  and  40-50  miles  broad,  "projecting 
into  the  Tih,  much  as  the  Tih  projects  into  Sinai." 
lb.  p.  288,  9. 

"  Jud.  V.  4,  5. 

12  As  it  stands  connected  with  Edom,  Ob.  9.  Jer. 
lix.  7,  20,  21.  with  Dedan  also,  Jer.  xlix.  8,  Ezek. 
XXV.  13. 


208 


HABAKKUK. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


heavens,  and    the    earth 


boundaries  of  the  journeyings  of  Israel 
throufrh  the  desert.  They  came  to  Mount 
Sinai  through  the  valley,  now  called  Wady 
Feiran  '  or  Paran ;  Edom  was  the  bound  of 
their  wanderings  to  their  promised  land  ^ 
God  Who  guided,  fed,  protected  them  from 
the  beginning,  led  them  to  the  end.  Between 
Paran  also  and  Edom  or  Teman  was  the  gift  of 
the  Spirit  to  the  seventy,  which  was  the 
shadow  of  the  day  of  Pentecost ;  there,  was 
the  brazen  serpent  lifted  up,  the  picture 
of  the  healing  of  the  Cross  ^  If  Mount 
Paran  be  near  Kadesh,  then  Moses  in  the 
opening  of  his  song  describes  the  glory  of 
God  as  manifested  from  that  first  revelation 
i)f  His  law  on  Mount  Sinai  ;  then  in  that 
long  period  of  Israel's  waiting  there  to  its 
final  lieparture  for  the  promised  land,  when 
Mount  Ilor  was  consecrated  and  God's 
awful  Holiness  declared  in  the  death  of 
Aaron. 

He  Who  shdU  come,  is  God*,  the  Holy 
One  (a  proper  Name  of  God').  Perfect  in 
Holiness,  as  God,  the  Son  of  God,  and  as 
Man  also  all-holy,  with  a  human  will,  al- 
ways exactly  accompanying  the  Divine  Will, 
which  was 

"  the  passion  of  His  Heart 
Those  Three-and-thirty  yeai-s." 

On  this  there  follows  a  pause  denoted  by 
Selah  *,  (which  occurs  thrice  according  to 
the  mystery  of  that  number,)  that  the  soul 
may  dwell  on  the  greatness  of  the  majesty 
and  mercy  of  God. 

Selah.  There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  general 
purport  of  the  word,  that  it  is  a  musical  di- 
rection, that  there  should  be  a  pause,  the 
music  probably  continuing  alone,  while  the 
mind  rested  on  the  thought,  wliich  had  just 


>  Sinaitic  Survey  c.  5.  149-155. 
*Nu.  XX.  14-20.  Deut.  ii. 


8  Rib. 


*The  sing.  Hlbx  occurs  41  times  in  the  book  of 

Job ;  else  only  10  times  in  all  the  O.  T.,  and  8  times 
only  of  the  true  God,  (twice  in  Moses'  song 
Deut.  xxxii.  15,  17;  in  a  Psalm  of  David,  Ps. 
cxxxix.  19,  of  Asaph,  I.  '22,  Anon.  Ps.  cxiv.  7;  in 
Proverbs  ,xxx.  5,  here,  and  in  Nehemiah's  prayer, 
(in  which  there  are  so  many  reminiscences  from 
the  Pentateuch.  See  in  "  Daniel  the  Prophet "  pp. 
351;,  :i57.)  Else  it  is  used  of  the  GodhenA  {Who  ix 
Oud  except,  Ac.  in  David  Ps.  xviii.  32,  is  there  any 
God  besiaen  Mef  Is.  xliv.  8);  "any  God"  including 
the  true  God  Dan.  xi.  :$.  And  five  times  it  is  used 
of  a  false  gnd;  in  Hah.  i.  II;  three  times  in  Dan. 
xi.  38,  39;  and  by  .Sf-nnacherib  2  Clir.  x.xxii.  15. 
There  is  then  no  basis  of  induction  as  to  its  occur- 
ring in  later  Hebrew  and  poetic  books ;  since  its  use 
is  mostly  a  peculiarity  of  the  book  of  .Job,  the  other 
10  cascs'are  sporadic  and  in  no  one  sense. 

6  Whence  in  the  Hebrew,  though  the  subject,  it 
lius  no  article,  as  in  Is.  xl.  25,  and  job  vi.  11. 

•It  occurs  here  only  besides  the  Psalms.  It 
occurs  thrice  In  Ps.  lii.  xxxii.  Ixvl.  Ixviii. 

'  Sidipa^iia  in  Lxx.  Theod.  Symm.  Syr. 

•In  Ps.  Iv.  20.  Ivli.  4.  Hab,  ill,  3,  9,  olone,  it  is  not 


was  full  of   his    praise. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  026. 


been  presented  to  it ;  our  "  interlude  ''."  It 
is  always  placed  at  some  pause  of  thought, 
even  when  not  at  the  end  of  a  strophe,  or,  as 
twice  in  this  hymn*,  at  the  end  of  the  verse. 
S.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  modifies  this  thought, 
supposing  "Selah  "  to  express  a  pause  made 
by  the  writer,  that  '"while  the  psalmody, 
with  which  David's  prophesying  was  accom- 
panied, went  on  in  its  cfiurse,  another  illu- 
mining of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  an  addition 
to  the  gift  according  to  knowledge,  came  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  received  the  pro- 
phecy, he,  holding  in  his  verse,  gave  time 
for  his  mind  to  receive  the  knowledge  of  the 
thought,  which  took  place  in  him  from  the 
Divine  illumining.  He  defines  it  to  be  "a 
sudden  silence  in  the  midst  of  the  Psalmody 
for  the  reception  of  the  illumining." 

His  Glory  covered  the  heavens,  and  the  earth 
was  full  of  His  praise.  Tliis  is  plainly  no 
created  glory,  but  anticipates  the  Angelic 
Hymn,  *"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace,  good-xuiU  tovxird  men,  or,  as  the 
Seraphim  sing  first,  glory  to  God  in  Ileaven, 
"  Holy  Holy  Holy  is  the  'Lord  God  of  Sabaoth, 
and  then,  the  whole  earth  is  fill  of  His  glory  ; 
and  Uncreated  W^isdom  saith,  '^  /  alone  com- 

imssed  the  circuit  of  Heaven,  and  walked  in  the 
Mttom  of  the  deep.  Nor  are  they  our  material 
heavens,  much  less  this  lowest  heaven  over 
our  earth,  nor  is  His  glory  any  lightning  at 
Mount  Sinai,  but  the  boundless  Majesty  "of 
God,  which  rules,  encompasses,  fills,  pene- 
trates the  orbs  of  heaven  and  all  its  inhabit- 
ants, and  yet  is  not  enclosed  nor  bounded 
thereby.  Those  who  are  made  as  the 
heavens  by  the  indwelling  of  God  He  spirit- 
ually covers,  filling  "  them  with  the  light  of 
glory  and  splendor  of  grace  and  brightness  of 

at  the  end  of  the  verse.  Eight  Psalms  only,  out  of 
39  Psalms  which  have  it,  have  not  the  title  "For 
the  chief  musician,"  Ps.  32,  48,  50.  82,  83,  87,  89, 143. 

5  of  these  are  mOTD;  2,  S'Dtyra  (.-52  and  89),  one 
without  any  inscription  (48).    The  most  probable 

etymology  .seems  to  be  n7D,='?7D  and  so  our 

"alto;  "  whether  the  PI  be  added  to  ^p  or  it  be  an 

imperative  with  paragogie  H  like  nrK^X  Ps.  cxix. 

117,  njjntyj  is-  xll.  23,  although  there  is  no  extant 

instance  of  this  imperative.    There  is  equally  no 

instance  of  the  form  from  SSd  ("^  Ew.-xld  Ps.  i.  179, 
Lehrb.  g  216.  c.  p.  544)  since  nr*J  1  Kgs  ii.  40,  is  only 

a  Var.  Read,  for  the  received  nnJ  which  is  borne 

out  by  T\r\l  Jos.  xix.  13. 

•Tract'2  in  Ps.  Inscr.  *c.  T.  i.  p.  329. 

'OS.  Luke  ii.  14.      "Is.  vi.  .3.      >2  Ecelus.  xxiv.5. 

"lin  is  used  of  the  Divine  Majesty  Job  xxxviL 
22.  Ps.  viii.  2.  XX.  30.  with  "nn  Ps.  xcvi.  6,  (1  Chr. 
xvi.  27,)  civ.  1,  cxi.  3,  cxlv.  5,  cxlviii.  11 ;  ironically 
to  man,  as  impossible  for  him.  Job  xl.  lo.  It  is  used 
as  imparted  to  the  Messiah  Ps.  xxl.  6,  or  being  in 
Him,  Ps.  xlv.  4.  in»ion. 


CHAPTER  III,  209 

CHRIST       4  And  his  brightness     was  as  the  light;  he  had    chrTst 


wisdom,  as  it  saith,  Is  there  any  number  of  His 
armies,  and  upon  whom  doth  not  His  light 
arise  ^  ?  and  so  the  earth  teas  full  of  His  praise, 
i.  e.  the  Church  militant  spread  throughout 
the  world,  as  in  the  Psalm,  *  The  Lord's 
name  is  praised  from  the  rising  up  of  the  sun 
unto  the  going  down  of  the  same,  and,  ^  0  Lord, 
our  Lord,  how  excellent  is  Thy  name  in  all  the 
earth.  Who  hast  set  Thy  glory  above  the 
heavens. 

4.  And  His  Brightness,  that  wherein  God 
dwelleth,  *the  brightness  of  the  Lord's  glory, 
before  which  darkness  fleeth  **,  was  as  the 
light,  or  as  the  sun.  Out  of  the  midst  of  the 
darkness,  wherewith  God,  as  it  were,  ®  hid 
Himself,  the  Brigiitness  of  the  inapproachable 
Light  wherein  He  dwelleth,  gleams  forth ', 
bright  as  the  brightest  light  gathered  into  one, 
which  man  knows  of  and  whereon  he  cannot 
gaze.  So  amid  the  darkness  of  the  humilia- 
tion of  His  Presence  in  the  flesh,  ^  we  beheld 
His  Glory,  the  Glory  as  of  the  Only-Begotten  of 
the  Father ;  and  ^  the  people  that  walked  in  dark- 
ness see  a  great  light,  "not  dim^"  nor  weak, 
nor  shadowed,  like  that  of  Moses,  but  pure 
unimaginable  light  of  the  knowledge  of  God." 
The  Brightness  too  of  His  Flesh  was  like 
the  light  of  the  Godhead  on  Mount  Tabor ; 
for  the  Godhead  flashed  through.  " "  As 
often  as  He  did  His  marvelous  works,  He 
put  forth  His  Brightness  (tempered  for  His 
creatures,  since  they  could  not  approach  the 
depth  of  His  light,  yet)  as  light  to  enlighten 
men  to  know  Him.  Yet  the  Brightness 
issues  from  the  Light,  co-existing  with  it, 
and  in  it,  while  issuing  from  it.  And  so  the 
words  aptly  express,  how  He  Who  is  the 

1  Job  XXV.  3.           sPs.  cxii.  3.  ^ib.  viii.  1. 

*  Ezek.  X.  4.  6  Ps.  xviii.  12. 

6  Ex.  xix.  9, 16.  XX.  21.  '  lb.  xxiv.  10. 

8  S.  John  i.  14.             » Is.  ix.  2.  lo  Theoph. 

"  Rup.              12  Heb.  i.  3.  "  Wisd.  vii.  25. 

1*  Nicene  Creed.  i*  S.  John  i.  9. 

16  lb.  xvii.  5.  "  S.  Jer.  Dion. 
18  pp  Ex.  xxxiv.  29. 30.  35.  which  is  compared  by 

Kim.  Rashi,  A.  E.  Abulw.  Abarb.  Tanch.  Abendana. 
This  is  illustrated  further  by  the  use  of  "  horns"  as 
a  hieroglyphic  for  the  sun,  ChampoUion  Grammar 
p.  359.  m  Ges.  and  XJ^Jlp  "horns"  of  the  sun, 

Buxt.  (not  in  Levy).  The  title  of  Ps.  xxii.  j^ 
iniyn  JlS'S  "according  to  the  hind  of  the  morn- 
ing," may  bear  upon  it,  since  XintyT  t^HTX  in 

the  Jerus.  Talm.  (originally  quoted  by  Liehtfoot, 
Horse  Hebr.  on  S.  Mark  xvi.  2)  is  used  of  tTie  first 
rays  of  light,  which  usher  in  the  dawn,  the  rays 

appearing  solid  like  horns.    In  Arab,  too  r\7Krj)  is 

a  name  of  the  sun,  though  Arab,  authorities  differ 

about  its  use,  and  Snibx  flSxij;  is  the  "sun  at 

the  time  called  XnX,"  some  part  of  the  clear  day. 

And    Hariri   uses    "the    horn    of  the    gazelle" 

nbKfj,'SK  JTp  (as  explained  by  De  Saey)  of  those 

n 


^^  Brightness  of  the  Father's  Glory  and  the  ex- 
press Image  of  His  Person,  the  '^  Brightness  of 
the  Eternal  Light,  the  unspotted  mirror  of  the 
Power  of  God,  and  the  Image  of  His  Goodness, 
is  as  the  Light  from  Whom  He  is,  "  "  Light 
of  Light,"  Equal  to  the  Father  by  Whom 
He  was  Begotten ;  as  S.  John  says,  **  That  ivas 
the  true  Light,  which  lighteneth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world.  As  He  prayeth,  "*  Glo- 
rify Thou  Me  with  Thine  Own  Self  with  the 
Glory  Which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the  wwld 
was. 

He  had  horns  coming  out  of  His  Hand. 
"  "  Horns  are  everywhere  in  Holy  Scripture 
the  emblem  of  strength."  It  may  be,  that 
here  "rays"  are  likened  to  horns,  as  the  face 
of  Moses  is  said,  with  the  same  image,  to 
have  "  sent  forth  rays  '^  "  after  he  had  long 
been  in  the  presence  of  God.  So  it  may 
be  a  mingled  image  of  the  Glory  and 
might ;  Light,  which  was  also  might.  But 
"  horns,"  though  they  may  be  a  symbol  of 
"  light,"  are  not  of  ""  lightning  ; "  and  the 
Hand  of  God  is  used  as  an  emblem  of  His 
Power,  His  protection.  His  bounty,  His 
constraining  force  on  His  prophets.  It  is 
nowhere  used  of  the  side  or  sides  >'.  We 
have  two  images  combined  here ;  "  horns " 
which  in  every  other  place  in  which  they 
are  used  as  a  metaphor,  is  an  emblem  of 
power ;  and  "  from  the  hand  of"  which, 
wherever  it  is  used  of  a  person,  means  that 
the  thing  spoken  of  had  been  in  his  hand  or 
power  really  or  virtually  '^°.  Both  then  com- 
bine in  the  meaning  that  the  might  came 
forth  from  the  directing  agency  of  God  Who 
wielded  it. 

same  first  rays.  But  Kim.  gives  as  the  meanings 
of  .tJ/n  .K  hind  (literally)  or  day-star,  or  sunrise. 

19  As  even  Del.  and  Keil.  T  is  used  of  the  side 
of  the  river  Ex.  ii.  5,  and  with  the  prepositions 

S,  '?«,  1}?,  1}?2  (See  Ges.)  but  with  m,  once  only 

from  the  side  of  the  country  Nu.  xxiv.  4;  on  which, 
see  note  20.  end. 

2"T0  occurs  in  the  O.  T.  with  the  gen.  of  the 
noun  or  pronoun,  197  times;  in  the  plural  5  times. 
Of  these,  the  greatest  number  are  with  verbs  of 

delivering,  Vvn,  71;  ;?''B'in,  18;  redeem,  7113,  3, 
SXJ,  3;  brought  forth,  J<'':^in,  1;  rescued,  p^Q,  1; 
guard,  IDty,  2 ;  escape,  dSo,  9,  ohs,  1 ;  flee,  m3, 1 ; 
np7,  took  by  force,  11;  took,  received,  22;  took  un- 
awares from,  7lJ,  2;  receive  and  offer,  S'TpH,  1 ;  con- 
secrate from,  B'npn,  1;  sprinkled  (blood),  nil  2; 
bought,  T\ip, "! ;  accept,  71^*1,2;  give,  |r\J,  1 ;  collect, 
«]DX,  1;  eat  from,  VdX  1;  7113,  2;  drank,  r\n\^1; 
seek,  typ3,  7 ;  require  of,  tyil,  5 ;  judged  and  avenged, 
C33B?,  3 ;  avenged,  QDJ,  1 ;  rend,  y'\p,3;  cause  to  fall 
from,  7'fln,  -;  Strike  from,  71371,  -;  cut  off  from. 


210 


HABAKKUK. 


Before 


CHRIST    ll^orns    coming    out    of 
cir.  62f3.     _ins    hand:     and    there 


II  Or,  bright  beams  out  of  his  side. 


When  then  did  light  or  might,  which  lay, 
as  it  were,  before  in  the  Hand  of  God,  go 
forth  from  it  ?  For  the  Hand  of  God  is 
always  symbolic  of  His  might,  whetlier  put 
forth,  or  for  the  time  laid  up  in  it.  The  form 
of  the  words  remarkably  corresponds  to  those 
of  Moses,  in  the  preface  to  the  blessing  on 
the  tribes,  which  Habakkuk  had  in  mind, 
'  From  His  right  hand  teas  a  fiery  law  for  them, 
and  S.  Paul  says  that  the  glory  of  Moses'  face 
which  he  received  from  the  Presence  of  God, 
was  a  symbol  of  the  glory  of  the  law.  '^  The 
ministration  of  death  written  and  engraven  on 
stone  was  glorious,  so  that  the  children  of  Israel 
could  not  steadfastly  behold  the  face  of  Moses  for 
the  glory  of  his  counteiuince.  The  law,  being 
given  by  Cxod,  had  a  majesty  of  its  own.  The 
Psalms  bear  witness  to  its  power  in  convert- 
ing, enwisening,  rejoicing,  enlightening  the 
soul '.  They  in  whose  heart  it  was,  none  of 
their  steps  slided  *.  The  whole  119th  Psalm 
is  one  varied  testimony  of  its  greatness  and 
its  power.  It  was  a  guide  on  the  way  ;  it  was 
a  schoolmaster  unto  Christ^,  by  Whom  it  was 
fulfilled.  But  itself  bare  witness  of  the 
greater  glory  which  should  come  forth  from 
the  Hand  of  God.  *  If  that  which  is  done  away 
were  glorious,  iwich  more  that  which  remaineth 
is  glorious.  " '  The  horn  signifieth  power, 
when  it  is  spoken  of  God  tlie  Father  exhib- 
iting to  us  God  the  Son  :  "  He  hath  raised  up 
a  horn  of  salvation  for  us,  and  again,  ^  His  horn 
shall  be  exalted  in  honor.  For  all  things  which 
were  marvelously  done  were  glorious.  The 
Only-Begotten  came  then  in  our  form,  and, 
in  regard  to  the  Flesh  and  the  Manhood,  en- 
during the  appearance  of  our  weakness,  but, 
as  God,  invisible  in  might  and  easily  subdu- 
ing whom  He  willed." 

And  what  has  been  the  weapon  of  His  war- 
fare, whereby  He  has  subdued  the  might  of 
Satan  and  the  hearts  of  men,  but  the  horns  of 
His  Cross,  whereto  His  Sacred  Hands  were 
once  fastened  by  the  sharp  nails,  where  was 
the  hiding  of  His  Power,  when  His  Almighti- 
ness  lay  hiil  in  His  Passion  "",  and  He  was 
^'a  worm  and  no  man;  a  reproach  of  men  and 
the  despised  of  the  people  f     Now  it  is  the 

JT^Dn,  1;  "IIJJ,  1;  cast,  "y)^;  reproach  from, 
'r\£3^n ;  by  writing  from,  3n33.  1 ;  tetters  from, 
jiT  JX,  1 ;  officers  appointed  by  D'TpS,  1-  strengthened 

from  the  hands  of  God,  1.  The  verb  was,  ri'n,  is  ex- 
pressed once;  it  lies  in  the  sentence  thrice;  once 
only  it  means  from  the  side  of  a  country,  Nu.  xxiv. 
4.  in  which  there  can  be  no  ambiguity. ' 

>  Deut.  xxxiii.  2.       «2  Cor.  iii.  7.        "Pa.  xix.  8. 

«Ib.  xxxvii.31.       6Gal.  iii.  24.       •2Cor.  lit.  11. 

'  9.  Cyr.  » S.  Luke  ii.  69.  »  Pa.  cxi.  9. 

10  Is.  llii.  3.  "  Ps.  xxii.  6.  "  Is.  ix.  6. 

"S.John  xil.  32. 

'♦  Ps.  ex.  2.  "The  words,  Horns  are  in  His  Hands, 


was    the    hiding  of   his 
power. 


B«fore 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


Sceptre  laid  upon  His  Shoulder^*,  the  en- 
sign and  trophy  of  His  rule,  the  Kod  of  His 
Strength ",  terrible  to  devils,  salvation  to 
man.  In  it  lay  His  might,  although  con- 
cealed, as  He  said,  '*/,  if  I  be  lifted  up  front 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.  His 
Might  was  lodged  there,  although  hidden. 
It  was  the  hiding-place  of  His  power.  The 
Cross  was  ^^  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and 
unto  the  Greeks  foolishness  ;  but  unto  them  which 
are  called,  both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  Cruci- 
fied ivas  the  Power  of  God  and  the  Wisdom  of 
God.  Through  the  Cross  was  ^^all  power 
given  to  Him  both  in  Heaven  and  earth. 
"  There  ivas  given  Him  dominion  and  glory  and 
a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations,  and  lan- 
guages should  serve  Him.  From  Him  shall 
go  forth  all  power  in  earth  ;  by  His  Hands 
shall  be  given  the  vacant  thrones  in  Heaven, 
as  He  saith,  ^*  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I 
grant  to  sit  with  Me  in  My  Throne,  even  as  I  also 
overcame  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father  in 
His  Throne.  There  too  was  the  hiding  of  His 
Power,  in  that  there,  in  His  Cross,  is  our 
shelter  '®,  and  in  His  pierced  Side  our  hiding- 
place,  where  we  may  take  refuge  from  Satan 
and  our  sins  ;  for  therein  is  Power.  '^^  Neither 
shall  any  pluck  them  out  of  My  Hand.  Light 
and  darkness  ever  meet  in  God.  His  inap- 
proachable light  is  darkness  to  eyes  which 
would  gaze  on  it.  ^'  He  covereth  Him.'ielf  with 
Light  as  with  a  garment.  His  light  is  the  very 
veil  which  hideth  Him.  His  Light  is  dark- 
ness to  those  who  pry  into  Him  and  His 
Nature ;  His  darkness  is  light  to  those  who 
by  faith  behold  Him.  He  emptied  Himself 
^^  and  hid  Himself;  He  hid  the  power  of  His 
Godhead  in  the  weakness  of  the  Manliood, 
and  so  ^  He  Who  commanded  the  light  to  shine 
out  of  darkness,  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to 
give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God, 
in  the  Face  of  Jcvts  Christ.  "  ''*  In  the  Cross 
was  for  a  while  His  might  hidden,  when  He 
said  to  His  Father,  ^^  My  ■'<oid  is  exceeding 
sorrowful  even  unto  death,  and,  Fatlwr,  if  it  be 
possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  Me,  and  on  the 
Cross  itself,  ^^  Father,  into  Thy  Hands  I  com- 
mend My  Spirit." 

shew  the  insignia  of  His  kingdom,  by  which  horns, 
pushing  and  thrusting  the  invisible  and  opposing 
powers,  He  drove  them  away."  Euseb.  Dom.  Evang. 
vi.  15.  Add  S.  Cyprian  Test,  ad  Ouirin.  ii.  21.  p.  67. 
Oxf.  Tr.  "The  horns  in  His  Hands,  what  are  th^y, 
but  the  trophy  of  the  Cross?"  S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei 
xviii.  .32.      « 1  Cor.  i.  2.3,  24.     "S.  Matt,  xxviii.  18. 

"  Dan.  vii.  14.  i' Rev.  iii.  21. 

'•As  in  the  proper  names,  Ezr.  ii.  61.  Habaiah 
"whom  God  hideth  i.e.,  protecteth;"  Yehubbrih 
"hidden,  protected."  1  Chron.  vii.  34.  Comp.  Is. 
xxvi.  20.  »S.  Johnx.  28.  2>  Ps.  civ.  .3. 

ioPhil.  Ii.  8.  23  2Cor.lv.  6.  «S.  Jor. 

i»  S.  Matt.  xxvi.  38,  39.  *  3.  I,ul<«»  xxiii.  i:i. 


CHAPTEK  III 


211 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 

d  Nah.  1.  3. 
II  Or,  burning 


Deut.  32.  24. 
<  Ps.  18.  8. 


5  *  Before  him  went  the 
pestilence,  and  H"  burning 
coals  went  forth  at  his 
feet. 


5.  Before  Him  ivent  [^goeth']  the  pestilence; 
then  to  consume  His  enemies.  ^  /  ivill  send 
My  fear  before  thee,  and  ivill  destroy  all  the  people, 
to  whom  thou  shult  come,  and  the  lightnings  are 
a  token  that  ^  they  which  hate  Him,  flee  before 
Him,  ami  the  wicked  perish  at  the  Presence  of  God. 
So,  on  His  Ascension,  Herod  and  Pilate  were 
smitten  by  Him,  and  Elymasand  Simon  Magus 
before  His  Apostles,  and  whatsoever  hath 
lifted  itself  up  against  Him  hath  perished, 
and  Antichrist  shall  perish  ^  cd  the  breath  of 
His  mouth,  and  all  the  ungodly  in  the  Day 
of  Judgment. 

And  burning  coals  (rather,  as  E.  M.,  burning 
fever  *)  ivent  forth  at  His  Feet,  i.  e.,  followed 
Him.  Messengers  of  death  went  as  it  were 
before  Him,  as  the  front  of  His  army,  and 
the  rear  thereof  was  other  forms  of  death  ^. 
Death  and  destruction  of  all  sorts  are  a  great 
army  at  His  command,  going  before  Him  as 
heralds  of  His  Coming,  (such  as  are  judg- 
ments in  this  world)  or  attendants  upon  Him, 
at  the  Judgment  when  He  appeareth  ''in 
His  Kingdom,  when  '  they  shall  gather  out  of 
His  Kingdom  all  things  that  offend,  and  them 
which  do  iniquity,  and  shall  cast  them  into  a  fur- 
nace of  fire. 

6.  He  stood^,  and  measured^  the  earth. 
Joshua,  after  he  had  conquered  the  land, 
meted  it  out  and  divided  it  among  the  people. 
He  Who  should  come,  should  measure  out 
the  earth  in  its  length  and  breadth,  that 
earth  which  His  glory  filleth.  He  stood,  as  S. 
Stephen  saw  Him,  ^"standing  at  the  Right 
Hand  of  God ;  and  Isaiah  saith,  ^'  The  Lord 
standeth  up  to  plead,  and  standeth  to  judge  the 
people.  He  had  not  need  to  go  forth,  but,  in 
the  abode  of  His  glory,  He  stood  and  beheld 
and  with  His  Eye  measured  the  earth,  as  His 
own,  whereas,  before  the  Cross,  it  lay  under 
^*  the  Prinze  of  this  world,  and  he  had  said,  '^  it 
is  delivered  unto  me,  and  unto  whomsoever  I  will, 
I  give  it.  He  measureth  it,  and  gave  it  to  His 
Apostles,  ^*All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven 

1  Ex.  xxiii.  27.        «  Ps.  Ixviii.  1.  2.        8  ib.  xi.  4. 

*  De.  xxxii.  2.  (where  also  it  is  sing.,  as  only 
beside   in   ^IJ'T  ■•  J3  Job  v.  7.)  So  A.  E.  "  Burning 

coals "  is  from  Kim.  Taneh.  gives  as  different 
opinions  "sparks"  or  "arrows"  or  "pestilence;" 
but  the  meanings  "  sparks,  arrows,"  are  ascribed 
only  to  the  plur.  Ps.  Ixxvi.  4.  Ixxxviii.  48.  Cant.  viii. 
6.  The  central  meaning  is  probably  "burning 
heat." 

5"  Before  Him  is  sent  the  angel  of  death  and  His 
word  goeth  forth,  a  flame  of  fire."    Jon. 

•  2  Tim.  vi.  1.  '  8.  Matt.  xiii.  51,  42. 

8 It   is    "a    metaphor  of  his  giving    victory  to 
Israel."    Taneh. 
»8g  Kim.  \.  E.  Rjishi.  Tnnch.  Vulg.    It  is  borne 


6  He  stood  and  meas- 
ured the  earth ;  he  beheld, . 
and  drove  asunder  the  na- 
tions; 'and  the  *  ever  last- 


Before 

CHRIST 
cir.  620. 


fNah.  1.  5. 
sGen.  49.  26. 


and  in  earth.  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  and,  ^*  their 
sound  is  gone  out  into  all  lands,  and  their  words 
into  the  ends  of  the  world.  He  measureth  it 
also,  surveying  and  weighing  all  who  dwell 
therein,  their  persons,  qualities,  deeds,  good 
or  bad,  to  requite  them,  as  Judge  of  quick  and 
dead ;  as  David  cast  down  Moab  and  meas- 
ured them  with  a  line,  '*  to  put  to  death  and  to 
keep  alive. 

He  beheld,  and  drove  asunder  the  nations,  or, 
7nade  the  nations  to  tremble  ".  When  Israel 
came  out  of  Egypt  and  God  divided  the  Red 
sea  before  them,  they  sang,  '*  The  people  shall 
hear  and  be  afraid;  terror  shall  take  hold  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Palestina;  the  mighty  men  of 
Moab,  trembling  shall  take  hold  of  them  ;  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Canaan  shall  melt  away  ;  fear  and 
dread  shall  fcdl  on  them;  by  the  greatness  of  Thy 
power  they  shall  be  still  as  a  stone.  Fear  and 
awe  were  to  be  renewed.  All  nearness  of 
God  brings  terror  to  sinful  man.  When  the 
news  came  through  the  wise  men,  that  they 
had  ^®  seen  in  the  East  the  star  of  Him  Who 
was  born.  King  of  the  Jews,  not  Herod  the  King 
only  was  troubled,  but  all  Jerusalem  with  him. 
Pilate  ^"wa-sa/ratcZ  when  he  condemned  Him  : 
the  High  Priests  wondered  whereunto  this 
should  grow,  and  expostulated,  ^'  ye  have  filled 
Jerusalem  with  your  doctrine,  and  intend  to  bring 
this  3Ian's  blood  upon  us.  Heathendom  was  as  a 
beleaguered  city,  mastered  by  an  ubiquitous 
Presence,  which  they  knew  not  how  to  meet. 
"  '^'^  The  state  is  beset :  the  Christians  are  in 
their  fields,  in  their  forts,  in  their  islands. 
Every  sex,  age,  condition,  and  now  even  rank 
is  going  over  to  this  sect."  The  fierceness 
of  the  persecutions  was  the  measure  of  their 
fear.  They  put  forth  all  human  might  to 
stamp  out  the  spark,  lest  their  gods,  and  the 
greatness  of  the  empire  which  they  ascribed 
to  their  gods,  should  fall  before  this  unknown 
power. 

And  the  everlasting  mountains  were  scattered  ; 

out  by  Hithpo.  "  extended  himself,"  1  Kgs  xvii.  21. 
By  an  interchange  of  dentals  "WO  might  be  =  £D10, 
aiid  so  Ch.  LXX^  but  in  no  other  case  do  the  two 
forms  coexist  in  Hebrew.-  i^Acts  vii.  56. 

"  Is.  iii.  1.3.         12 1  Cor.  ii.  5.         is  s.  Luke  iv.  6. 

»S.  Matt,  xxviii.  18.  S.  Mark  xvi.  15. 

16  Ps.  xix.  4.  i"  2  Sam.  viii.  2. 

"  *irij  being  used  of  outward  leaping  of  the  locust. 
Lev.  xi.  12,  "^nj,  of  the  inward  leaping  of  the  heart, 
Job  xxxvii.  1.  either  seems  admissible.  The  inward 
terror  was  the  forerunner  and  often  the  instrument 
of  the  outward  dispersion. 

18  Ex.  XV.  15, 16.  18  S.  Matt.  ii.  1-3. 

20  S.  John  xix.  8.  "i  Acts  v.  24,  28, 

22  Tertull.  Apol.  init.  p.  2.  Oxf.  Tr. 


212 


HABAKKUK. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


iug  mountains  -were  scat- 
tered, the  perpetual  hills 
did  bow:  his  ways  are 
everlasting. 


/>f         Before 
"^     CHRIST 
cir.  026. 


the  perpetual  hills  did  bow;  all  power,  great  or 
small,  gave  way  before  Him.  All  which 
withstood  was  scattered  asunder,  all  which  in 
pride  liited  itself  up  was  brouglit  low,  al- 
though before  the  coming  of  the  Saviour  it 
had  ever  gone  with  neck  erect,  and  none 
could  humble  its  pride.  There  is  sometliing 
so  marvelous  about  those  ancient  mountains. 
There  they  stood  before  man  was  on  the 
earth;  they  are  so  solid,  man  so  slight;  they 
have  survived  so  many  generations  of  man  ; 
tliey  will  long  survive  us ;  they  seem  as  if 
they  would  stand  forever;  the  apter  symbol 
how  nothing  should  stand  before  the  might 
of  God.  To  the  greater  pride  the  heavier 
lot  is  assigned  ;  the  mountains  lifted  on  high 
above  the  earth  and,  as  it  were,  looking 
down  upon  it,  are  scattered  or  dispei-sed,  as 
when  a  stone  ilieth  in  pieces  under  the  stroke 
of  tlie  hammer.  The  "hills"  are  bowed 
down  only;  and  this  maybe  the  pride  of 
man  humbled  under  the  yoke  of  Christ. 

His  Wai/s  are  Everhistincf.  "  Everlasting  " 
is  set  over  against  "  everlasting."  The  "  ev- 
erlasting "  of  the  creature,  that  wliich  had 
been  as  long  as  creation  had  been,  co-existing 
with  its  whole  duration,  its  most  enduring 
parts,  are  as  things  past  and  gone ;  the  ever- 
lasting/mountains,  the  hills  of  eternity,  have  been 
scattered  in  pieces  and  bowed,  and  are  no 
more.  Over  against  these  stands  the  ever- 
present  eternity  of  God.  His  ivaijs  are  ever- 
lasting, ordered  everlastingly,  existing  ever- 
lastingly in  the  Divine  Mind,  and,  when  in 
act  among  us,  without  change  in  Him.  The 
prophet  blen.ls  in  these  great  words,  things 
aeemingly  contrary,  ways  which  imply  pro- 
gress, etern.t<]/ which  is  unchangeable.  "'God 
ever  worketh,  and  ever  resteth ;  unchange- 
able, yet  changing  all ;  He  chaugeth  His 
works.  His  purpose  unchanged."  "'For 
Thou  art  Most  High,  and  art  not  changed, 
neitlier  in  Thee  doth  to-day  come  to  a  close  ; 
yet  in  Thee  it  doth  come  to  a  close  ;  because 
all  such  things  also  are  in  Thee.  For  they 
had  no  way  to  puss  away,  unless  Thou  heldest 
them  together.  And  since  Thy  years  fail  not, 
Tliy  years  are  one  To-day.  How  many  of 
our's  and  our  fathers'  years  have  flowed  away 
through  Thy  to-day ;  and  from  it  lecoived 
the  measure  and  the  mould  of  such  being  as 
they  had ;  and  still  others  shall  flow  away, 
and  80  receive  the  mould  of  their  degree  of 


7  I   saw   the   tents 
II  Cushan    ||  i  n    affliftion 
and   the   curtains    of   the  II  Or,  Ethiopia. 
land  of  Midian  did  tremble,  don,  or,  vanioj. 


being.  But  Thou  ai-t  still  the  Same  ;  and  all 
things  of  to-morrow,  and  all  beyond,  and  all 
of  yesterday,  and  all  behind  it.  Thou  wilt  do 
in  this  to-dav,  Thou  hast  done  in  this  to- 
day." ' 

To  these  His  goings,  a  highway  is  made  by 
tlie  breaking  down  of  all  which  exalted  itself, 
as  Isaiah  had  said,^  The  loftiness  of  man  shall 
be  bowed  down,  and  the  haughtiness  of  men  shall 
be  nmde  low,  and  the  Lord  Alone  shall  be  ex- 
alted in  that  day  ;  and,  *  The  voice  of  him  that 
crieth  in  the  vAlderness,  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the 
Lord,  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for 
our  God.  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and 
every  mountain  ami  kill  shall  be  made  low. 

"^The  Everlasting  ways  of  the  Ever- 
lasting God  are  Mercy  and  Truth, — by 
these  Ways  are  the  hills  of  the  world 
and  the  proud  demons,  the  princes  of  the 
darkness  of  this  world,  bowed  down,  who 
knew  not  the  way  of  mercy  and  truth  nor  re- 
membered Its  paths.  What  hath  he  to  do 
with  truth,  who  is  a  liar  and  the  father  of  it, 
and  of  whom  it  is  written,  he  abode  not  in  the 
Truthf  But  how  far  he  is  from  Mercy,  our 
misery  witnesseth,  inflicted  on  us  by  him. 
When  was  he  ever  merciful,  who  was  a  mur- 
derer from  the  beginning? — So  then  those 
swelling  hills  were  bowed  down  from  the 
Everlasting  Ways,  when  through  their  own 
crookedness  they  sunk  away  from  the  straight 
ways  of  the  Lord,  and  became  not  so  mucli 
ways  as  precipices.  How  much  more  pru- 
dently and  wisely  are  other  hills  bowed  down 
and  liumblcd  by  these  ways  to  salvation  !  For 
they  were  not  bowed  from  them,  as  parting 
from  their  straightness,  but  the  Everlasting 
Ways  themselves  bowed  down.  3Iay  we  not 
now  see  the  hills  of  the  worlil  bowed  down, 
when  those  who  are  high  and  mighty  with 
devoted  subuiission  bow  themselves  before 
the  Lord,  and  woi-ship  at  His  Feet?  Are 
they  not  bowed  down,  when  from  their  own 
destructive  loftiness  of  vanity  and  cruelty, 
they  are  turned  to  the  Inunble  way  of  mercy 
and  truth?" 

7.  J  saw  (in  proplietic  vision*),  the  tents  of 
Cushan  in  {Ut.under)  affliction.  On  the  Com- 
ing of  the  Lord  there  follows  tlie  visitation 
of  those  alien  from  Him  '.  Cushan-Kisha- 
thaiin  was  the  first,  whose  ambition  God 
overruled  to  chasten  His  people".  It  has 
been  remarked',  that  as  king  of  Aram-Nah<(- 


»S.  Aug.  Cent.  1.  4  |j  :j.  Oxf.  Tr. 
»Ib.  10.  p.  6.  Ms.  ii.  17.  «IL.  ll.  3. 

•  a.  Bern,  in  Ps.  t^iv  hfibitnt.  Serm.  xi.  8. 
•lKg=  xxil.  17. 


'  As  in  Joel  li.  ill.  Mic.  iv.  1-10  and  Iv.  11.  v.  1  v. 
2.  4c.  V.  15.  'Jud.  iii.  6-10. 

•R.S.Poole  in  Smith's  Bible  Diet.,  Art.  (.iislnni. 
(ifton  ft-;  Ciish  or  F'thinpin  i;;  ineiitioinil  in  tlu'  <Md 


CHAPTER  III. 


213 


chrTst        ^  ^^^'^^   ^^^^  ^o^^  ^^^" 
°'''-  ^-^-      pleased  against  the  rivers  ? 

was  thine   anger  against 

the  rivers?  was  thy  wrath 


rami  or  North  ilesopotaniia,  lie  was  probably 
sovereijrn  of  the  Aram,  from  which  Balak 
kmg  of  Moab,  allied  with  Midian,  sent  for 
Balaam  to  curse  Israel.  Midian  was  the  last 
enemy  who,  at  the  very  entrance  of  the  pro- 
mised land,  seduced  God's  people  into  idola- 
try and  foul  sin  and  lusts.  Midian  became 
then  the  object  of  the  wrath  of  God  ^  They 
were  also  among  the  early  oppressors  of  Is- 
rael, leaving  ^  no  sustenance  for  Israel,  neither 
sheep  nor  ox  nor  ass,  driving  them  ibr  refuge 
to  dwell  in  the  dens  and  the  mountains,  caves 
and  fastnesses,  consuming  the  produce  of  their 
land  like  locusts,  so  that  he  whom  God  raised 
up  as  their  subduer,  was  threshing  even  in  a 
wine-press  to  hide  it  from  them.  Both  the 
kingdom  of  Aram-Naharaim  and  Midian 
disappear  from  history  after  those  great  de- 
feats. Midian,  beside  its  princes,  ^lost,  by 
mutual  slaughter,  one  hundred  and.  twenty 
thousand  men  who  drew  sword.  It  left  its  name 
as  a  proverb  for  the  utter  destruction  of  those 
who  sought  to  exterminate  the  people  of 
God.  *  Do  unto  t htm  as  unto  the  Midianites ; 
— make  them  and  their  princes  like  Oreb  and 
Zeeb ;  all  their  princes  as  Zebah  and  as  Zd- 
munnah,  ivho  said,  let  us  take  to  ourselves  the 
houses  of  God  in  possession.  It  was  an  exter- 
minating warfare,  which  rolled  back  on  those 
who  waged  it.  So  Isaiah  sums  up  an  utter 
breaking-off  of  the  yoke  and  the  rod  of  the 
oppressor,  as  being  ^  as  in  the  day  of  Midian. 
The  same  word,  aven,  is  nothingness,  iniquity, 
and  the  fruit  of  iniquity,  trouble^,  (since 
iniquity  is  emptiness  and  ojjposed  to  that 
which  is,  God  and  His  Goodness,  and  ends  in 
sorrow)  ;  so  then  Cushan  is  seen  as  lying  as 
all  sinners  do,  weighed  down  by  and  under 
what  is  very  "  emptiness."  Tents  and  curtains 
are  emblems  of  wliat  siiall  pass  away,  under 
which  the  wicked  shelter  themselves  from 
the  troubles  of  this  present  life,  as  from  heat 
and  rain,  "  but  which  '  in  themselves  decay, 
and  are  consumed  by  fire."     The  curtains  of 

Testament,  and  in  twelve  of  the  sacred  writers, 
Historians,  Psalmists,  Prophets;  from  Genesis  to 
Esther  (Moses,  Job,  Chronicles,  Esther,  David>  (Ps. 
Ixviii.),  sons  of  Corah  (Ps.  Ixxxvii.),  Amos,  Naniim, 
Zephaniah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Ethiopians  by 
Daniel,  it  is  uniformly  Cash  not  Cushan.  Cush  also 
is  retained  in  Ch.  and  Syr.  and  was  the  name  in  use 
in  the  time  of  .Josephus  (Ant.  i.  62.)  One  cannot 
then  doubt,  that  Jon.  and  the  Talmud  (.Sanh.  105  in 
Delitzsch)  were  right  in  regarding  Cushan  as  desig- 
nating him  who  is  so  called  in  tl^e  Holy  Scriptures, 
not  Ethiopia,  which  is  never  so  called.  Kim., 
Rashi,  A.  E..  Abarb.  follow  the  Targum.  Only  Tan- 
chum,  identifying  the  two  clauses,  says  "Cushan  is 
one  or  the  names  of  Midian  or  one  of  its  tribes,  and 
it  is  also  called  Cush,"  Zipporah  being  identifi.-d 


against  the  sea,  *■  that  thou 


Before 
CHRIST 

didst   ride  upon  thine      '^^^-  ^-'^■ 


horses  and  1 1  thy  chariots  Ps.^es.  i."  ' ' ' 
of  salvation  ? 


&  104.  3. 
ver.  15. 
II  Or,  thy  chariots  were  salvation  f 


Midian  tremble.  The  prophet  uses  the  pre- 
sent to  shew  that  he  was  not  speaking  of  any 
mere  past  terror,  but  of  that  terror,  which 
should  still  seize  those  opposed  to  God.  The 
word  "  wrath  "  "  rogez  "  echoes  through  the 
hymn  * ;  here  the  wicked  tremble,  "  yir- 
gezu,"  under  it,  to  perish ;  afterward  the  Pro- 
phet ^  to  live. 

8.  Was  the  Lord  displeased  against  the 
rivers f  The  Prophet  asks  the  question 
thrice,  as  to  the  two  miracles  of  the  dividing 
of  the  Eed  Sea  and  the  river  Jordan,  thereby 
the  more  earnestly  declaring,  that  God 
meant  somewhat  by  these  acts  and  beyond 
them.  He  asks,  as  Daniel  "*  and  Zechariah  '^ 
asked,  what  was  the  truth  of  the  things 
which  they  saw.  God's  dealings  with  His 
former  people  were  as  much  ensamples  of 
what  should  be  with  us'^,  as  the  visions 
shewn  to  the  prophets.  Hereafter  too,  there 
shall  he  ^^  signs  in  the  sun,  and  in  the  moon, 
and  in  the  stars  ;  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of 
nations,  with  perplexity,  the  sea  and  the  naves 
roaring;  there  shall  be  deepening  plagues 
upon  the  sea  and  the  rivers  and  fountains  of 
waters  ;  and  every  living  soul  in  the  sea  shall 
die  ^*.  But  God's  purpose  therein  aforetime 
was  not  as  to  the  sea  or  the  rivers,  but  for 
the  salvation  of  His  elect ;  so  shall  it  be  to 
the  end.  Mighty  as  may  be  the  mighty  waves 
of  the  sea  which  lift  themselves  up  against  the 
Lord,  mightier  on  high  ii  the  Lord  '^.  "  '*  As 
Thou  didst  dry  up  the  Jordan  and  the  Red 
sea,  fighting  for  us ;  for  Thou  wert  not  wroth 
with  the  rivers  or  the  sea,  nor  could  things 
without  sense  offend  Thee ;  so  now  mount- 
ing Thy  chariots,  and  taking  Thy  bow,  Thou 
wilt  give  salvation  to  Thy  people  ;  and  the 
oaths  which  Thou  swarest  to  our  fathers  and 
the  tribes.  Thou  wilt  fulfill  for  ever." 

Thou  didst  ride  upon  Thy  horses,  as  though 
God  set  His  army,  ^'' the  Hosts  which  do  His 
pleasure,  against  the  armies  of  earth,  as  the 
Prophet's  servant  had  his  eyes  opened  to  see, 

with  Moses'  Cushite  wife.  Nu.  xii.  1.  Even  Ewald 
says, "  Tlie  people,  W^D,  which  can  neither  accord- 
ing to  language  nor  context  stand  for  tyi3 : " 
though  he  guesses  it  to  be  a  little  people  near 
Midian.  ad  loc. 

J  Nu.  XXV.  17.  2  Jud.  vi.  4. 11. 

»  lb.  viii.  10.  ♦  Ps.  Ixxxiii.  9, 11, 12. 

5  Is.  ix.  4. 

6  Job  V.  6.  xxvi.  14 ;  Jer.  iv.  15.  Hos.  ix.  4.  not  in 
Ps.  Iv.  4.  nor  (as  Ges.)  in  Job  iv.  8.  Ps.  xxii.  8.  Is, 
lix.  4. 

'  S.  Greg.  Mor.  viii.  9.  «  ver.  2.  »  v.  16. 

wvii.  IG.  "c.l.  i2lCor.  X.  U. 

I'i  =5.  Luke  xxi.  25.  Rev.  viii.  6.  i*  Rev.  xvi.  3. 

1'  Pb.  xciii.  4.  i«  S.  Jer.  »'  Ps.  ciii.  12. 


214 


HABAKKITC. 


,.S'^^°I%T        9  Thy    bow    was    made 

cir.  62G.      quite  naked,  according  to 

the   oaths   of  the   tribes, 


*  the  mountain  was  full  of  horses  and  chariots  of 
fire  rouiul  about  Elisha.  "  ^  Yet  amidst  so 
many  thousands  of  horses  and  chariots,  tliere 
was  no  rider ;  He  was  the  Kider  and  Kuler 
of  those  horses,  of  Whom  the  Psahuist  says, 

*  Thou  that  siltest  above  the  Cherubim,  shew 
Thyself.  With  such  horses  and  such  chariots 
was  Elijah  also  taken  up  into  Heaven." 

And  Thy  chariots  of  salvation,  lit.  lliy  char- 
iots arc  salvntion.  Not,  as  in  liuman  armies, 
except  as  far  as  tliey  are  the  armies  of  God, 
to  destruction.  The  end  of  God's  armies, 
Ilis  visitations  and  judgments,  is  the  salva- 
tion of  His  elect,  even  while  they  who  are 
inwardly  dead,  perish  outwardly  also.  Nor, 
again,  do  they  prepare  for  the  deliverance  for 
which  He  intends  tliem.  With  God,  to  will 
is  to  do.  His  chariots  are  salvation.  His 
help  is  present  help.  His  chariots  are  the 
tokens  and  channels  of  His  Presence  to  aid. 
And  so,  they  who  bore  His  Name  before  the  Gen- 
tiles, and  kinr/s,  and  the  children  of  Israel,  chosen 
vessels  to  bear  it,  are,  in  a  yet  fuller  sense.  His 
chariots,  vvliich  are  salvation.  They  "'''are 
holy  souls,  upon  which  the  word  of  God 
Cometh,  to  save  them  and  others  by  them. 

*  /  hare  compared  thee,  saith  the  Spouse,  to  a 
company  of  horses  in  Pharaoh's  chariots.  How- 
ever holy  the  soul,  yet  compared  to  God,  it 
is  like  the  chariot  of  Pharaoh ;  and  a  beast, 
yet  still  a  beast,  before  Thee'"  ."  Yet  such  an 
one,  as  endowed  with  might  and  ready  obe- 
dience, and  swiftness  and  nobleness  to  bear 
the  word  of  (iod,  and  through  His  might 
Whom  they  bore,  not  tlieir  own,  nor  making 
it  their  own,  bearing  down  everything  which 
opposed  itself.  "  "  The  object  of  the  Prophet, 
is  to  shew  that  the  second  dispensation  is 
better  and  more  glorious,  and  of  incompar- 
ably better  things  than  the  old.  For  of  old 
He  led  Israel  fortli,  through  the  bodily  ser- 
vice of  Moses,  changing  into  blood  the  rivei-s 
of  Egypt,  and  doing  signs  and  wonders ;  then 
dividing  the  Ked  Sea,  and  carrying  over  the 
redeemed,  and  clioking  in  the  waters  the 
most  warlike  of  the  Egyptians.  But  when 
the  Only-PiCgotten  Word  of  (rod  became 
Man,  He  witiidrew  the  whole  human  race 
under  heaven  from  the  tyranny  of  Satan,  not 
changing  rivers  into  blood,  nor  pouring  forth 
His  anger  upon  waters,  nor  dividing  waves 
of  the  sea,  nor  bringing  destruction  upon 
men,  but  rather  destroying  the  nmrderous 
Serpent  himself,  and   taking  away  the  sin 

»2Kc8vl.  15.  sg.  jer. 

•Ps.  Ixxx.  1. 


Before 


*  Cant.  1.  9. 
•8.  Cyr. 


'Acts  iX.  16. 


»P9.  IXXlii.  23. 

»P8.  Ixviii.  17. 


even    thy   word.      iSelah.    (;;jjKigT 
II 'Thou   didst   cleave   the      cir.  r,26. 
earth  with  rivers. 

IPs.  78.  15,  IG.  A  105.41. 


Or,  Thou  didxt 
cleave  the  riv- 
ers of  the  earth. 


which  had  been  invented  by  him  and  for 
him,  and  loosing  the  uncnnquered  might  of 
death,  and  calling  all  to  tlie  knowledge  of 
God,  through  the  holy  Apostles,  who,  run- 
ning forth  their  course  under  the  whole 
Heaven  and  bearing  about  the  Name  of 
Christ,  were  very  rightly  had  in  admiration. 
He  saith  then,  O  Lord,  most  worthy  to  be 
heard  are  those  things,  of  which  Thou  hast 
Thyself  been  the  Doer,  and  what  Thou  hast 
anew  wrought  is  far  better  than  what  Thou 
didst  througli  Moses.  For  Thou  wilt  not 
inHict  wrath  on  rivers,  nor  shew  Thy 
might  on  the  sea  ;  not  in  these  things  will 
Thy  Divine  and  marvelous  power  gleam 
forth,  but  Thou  wilt  ride  upon  Thy  horses,  and 
Thy  chariots  are  Salvation.  W'hat  may  these 
horses  be?  The  Blessed  Disciples,  Apostles 
and  Evangelists,  they  who  took  on  them 
wholly  the  yoke  of  all  His  Divine  will,  they, 
the  noble,  the  obedient,  ready  for  all  things, 
whatsoever  should  please  Him ;  who  had 
Christ  to  sit  upon  them,  whereof  one  is  the 
Blessed  Paul,  of  whom  Himself  saith,  "  He  is 
a  cliosen  vessel  unto  Me,  to  bear  My  Name  before 
the  Gentiles.  Of  fiery  speed  were  these 
Horses,  encompassing  the  whole  earth  ;  so 
then  the  chariots  of  God  are  said  to  be  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousaml  *.  For  countless,  each 
in  their  times,  and  after  them,  became 
leaders  of  the  people,  and  subjected  the  neck 
of  the  understanding  to  the  yoke  of  the 
Saviour,  and  bare  about  His  Glory  throughout 
the  whole  earth,  and  rightly  divided  the 
word  of  truth,  and  subdued  the  whole  earth, 
as  with  the  speed  of  horsemen." 

His  chariots  are  salvation;  "^for  they  ran 
not  in  vain,  but  to  save  cities  and  countries 
and  nations  together,  Christ  overthrowing 
the  empires  of  devils,  who,  so  to  speak, 
divided  among  themselves  the  whole  earth, 
subduing  its  dwellers  to  their  own  will." 

9.  2Viy  bow  vas  made  quite  nalced.  The 
word  is  repeated  for  emphasis.  Lit.  (In) 
nakedness^  it  was  laid  nalced;  the  siieath  being 
laid  aside  and  cast  away,  as  Isaiah  says,  '"iTiV 
laid  bare  the  .>ihield.  The  ^'  bmv  rejiresents  the 
threat  of  the  vengeance  of  Almighty  God, 
from  whicli  it  is  at  length  discharged,  if  not 
turned  aside;  tiic  longer  the  string  is  drawn, 
the  sharper  issueth  the  arrow.  So  then  the 
more  the  coming  of  the  day  of  judgment  is 
delayed,  the  stricter  is  the  severity  of  the 
judgment   then   issuing.     So   long   as  judg- 

"rr^j;,  »«•.  abs.  as  riC/3  H'lJ^  Mic.  1. 11.,  for  the 
inf.  abs.  >ois.  xxli.  «. 

n  8.  Greg.  Mor.  xix.  9.  n.  54,  Comp.  S.  Aug.  in  Ps, 
Ilx.  n.  0. 


CHAPTEK  Iir. 


215 


c  hrTs  t        ^^  ^  '^^^  mountains  saw 
<'''••  ^^^-      thee,  a7irf  they  trembled : 

kEx.  19.  16,  18.     .1  n        •  x>  iV 

Judg.  5. 4, 5.     the  overiiowmg  oi  the  wa- 

Ps.  fi8.  8.  &  77.  18.  &  114.  4. 


ment  is  delayed,  the  bow  seems  laid  up  in  its 
sheath.  God's  judgments  mostly  strike  sud- 
denly ^  as  irifh  a  su'ift  arrow,  because  men 
regard  them  not,  coming  from  a  bow  at  a 
distance  wliicli  they  see  not.  His  more  sig- 
nal judgments  He  makes  bare  in  sight  of  all. 

According  to  the  oath  of  [to]  the  tribes  ;  ^  the 
oath  which  He  snare  unto  our  fathei'  Abraham, 
which  oath  He  often  renewed  to  Abraham, 
Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  again  to  David  ^.  This 
oath,  the  ivord  and  promise  of  God,  was  the 
pledge  of  the  deliverance  of  His  people,  that 
they  shoidd  be  saved  from  their  enemies,  and 
from  the  hand  of  all  thcU  hate  them.  It  lay,  as 
it  were,  covered  and  hid,  so  long  as  God 
completed  it  not.  Selah.  A  pause  followeth, 
wherein  to  meditate  on  all  which  is  con- 
tained in  the  ivord  or  promise  of  God,  which 
is  all  time  and  eternity. 

Thou  did^t  cleave  the  earth  imth  [i.  e.,  rate] 
rivers.  Sea  and  river  had  become  dry  land 
for  the  passing  through  of  God's  people; 
again,  the  rock,  struck  by  Moses'  rod,  was 
split,  so  that  rivers  rem  in  the  dry  places.  Until 
that  Rock,  "Which  was  Christ,  was  stricken, 
and  *  Old  of  His  Side  came  Blood  and  icater, 
the  whole  world  was  desert  and  barren ; 
then  it  was  turned  into  streams  of  water,  and 
"^now  not  four  but  twelve  streams  went 
forth  from  the  Paradise  of  Scriptures."  For 
from  the  One  Fountain  which  is  Christ, 
there  issue  many  streams,  even  as  many  as 
convey  the  waters  of  His  teaching,  to  vMer 
the  earth. 

10.  The  mountains  saw  Thee,  and  they  trem- 
bled, lit.  they  tremble.     While  man  is  insen- 


1  Ps.  Ixiv.  7. 

2  8.  Luke  i.  73.  The  E.  V.  takes  the  common 
words  nij?31!^  and  r^ltOID  in  their  common  senses, 
and  1D$<  (which  is  a  poetic  word)  agreeably  to 
them.  nj^lSK',  "oath"  occurs  27  times:  the  pinr. 
m^3C'  here  and  Ezek.  xxi.  28.  The  other  mean- 
ing, 'iceeks,  which  occurs  9  times  (chiefly  of  the 
"feast  of  weeks,"  four  times  in  De.  xvi.),  is  plainly 
irrelevant  here.  JIICOO  occurs  24  times  beside  of 
the  tribes  of  Israel;  twice  only  of  the  "rods  "set 
against  that  of  Aai'on  (Ex.  vii.  12,  Nu.  xvii.  21.). 
ipX  "speech"  is  used  of  the  "promise  of  God," 
certainly  Ps.  Ixxvii.  9.  The  construction  is  like- 
wise easy,  r\10D  is  the  gen.  of  the  ohj.  after  j"\1^0iy, 
and  both  in  apposition  with  the  preceding  clause, 
and  "lOX  with  them.  This  construction  and  mean- 
ing of  hltOD  m^r^ty,  and  meaning  of  "IDX,  and  the 
construction  with  .O.K'  is  that  of  Jon.  followed  by 
Kim.  Rashi  Abarb.  Tanch,  So  also  S.  Jer.  Only 
A.  E.  taking  niCSO  as  spears,  explains,  that  "  His 
spears  were  sworn  to  establish  the  word  of  God." 

*See  Mie.  end  (ab.  p.  104.)  Ps.  Ixxxix. 3.  exxxii.  11. 


Before 


ter   passed   by  :   the   deep    c  h  r  i  s  t 
uttered   his   voice,   and      '^"-  ^~^- 
'  lifted  up  his  hands  on  high. 


I  Ex.  14.  22. 
Josh.  3.  16. 


sate,  inanimate  nature  feels  and  attests  the 
presence  of  its  Maker.  It  saw,  it  trembles. 
To  see,  feel,  tremble,  were  one.  The  Pro- 
phet does  not  follow  a  bare  order  of  events, 
or  bind  himself  to  miracles  which  actually 
took  place.  The  mountains  tremble  with 
earthquakes,  or  seem  to  be  shaken  by  the 
thunders  which  they  re-echo.  And  so  they 
are  signs,  how  what  is  firmest  and  closes  up 
the  way  to  man,  trembles  at  the  Presence  of 
God.  Whatever  is  lifted  up  shall  be  bowed 
down  before  Him  ®.  But  the  word  trembled, 
is  that  used  especially  of  travail  pangs ',  and 
so  it  may  spiritually  denote  that  "''they 
who  conceive  the  fear  of  God  shall  bring' 
forth  unto  salvation."  The  overflowing  i.  e., 
the  impetuous,  sweeping,  flow,  of  the  water ' 
(or  of  ivaters),  such  as  in  themselves  would 
bear  all  before  them,  pass  by  harmless.  The 
riiore  they  swell,  the  more  they  expend 
themselves,  and  pass  away.  "The  whole 
force  of  persecution,  wherewith  they  vexed 
Thy  people,  at  sight  of  Thee  passed  away," 
like  a  torrent  which  rages  and  disappears, 
and,  by  raging,  the  sooner  wastes  itself. 

The  deep  idtered  his  voice,  and  lifted  up  his 
hands  ^"on  high.  The  noise  of  the  waves, 
when  God  brought  the  strong  East  wind  over 
it  and  ^^  rebuked  it,  was  as  a  cry  to  God ;  the 
waves,  as  they  swelled,  were  like  hands  lifted 
up  to  Him,  and  stricken  cne  against  the 
other.  There  is  no  distinct  ground  against  a 
slightly  diflerent  rendering,  ^^  the  deep  uttered 
his  voice,  the  height  lifted  up  his  hands  i.  e.,  to 
One  yet  higher.  Whom  height  and  depth 
owned  as  their  Lord  and  worshiped. 

<S.  John  xix.  24.  ss.  Jer. 

«See  Zech.  iv.  7. 

'The  LXX.  so  translate,  "shall  be  in  birth- 
pangs." 

8  Theoph. 

'DTI  IS  used  apparently  both  of  the  "flow  of 
waters  and  their  strong  current,"  as  Tanch.  ex- 
plains it  here;  or  of  a  violent  storm  breaking  upon 
a  thing.  Its  union  with  rain.  Is.  iv.  6,  hail.  Is. 
xxviii.  2.  XXX.  3(1,  the  mountains,  Job  xxiv.  8,  fits  in 
with  or  requires  the  meaning  "  storm  ; "  its  union 
with  mighty  overflowing  (D'ijpti')  waters  Is. 
xxviii.  implies  "a  current;"  "a  storm  against  a 
wall"  Tp  D"'I,  Is.  XXV.  4,  might  suit  either;  the 
verb  DPpit)  "  hast  swept  them  away,"  Ps.  xc.  5,  im- 
plies "a  flood;"  the  mention  of  the  clouds  Ps. 
Ixxvii.  18,  "a  storm."  Kim.  Rashi,  Abarb.  explain 
it  here  of  water  on  the  earth ;  A.  E.  of  waters  de- 
scending. 

10  on  =  DIID  which  stands  as  the  ace.  of  direc- 
tion with  lijted  up  the  eyes  Is.  xxxvii.  23.  xl.  26. 

11  Ps.  cvi.  9. 

12  So  8.  Jer.,  Rashi,  A.  E. ;  DIT  being  a  oir.  Aey.,  one 
cannot  say  that  it  might  not  mean  this.  The  met^ 
phnr  would  be  dropped. 


21(3 


HAliAKKCK. 


CHRIST  ^^   "^^®  ®^°  ^'^^  ™°°^ 

cir-  '^-e-      stood  Still  iu  their  habita- 


-  Josh.  10  12, 13.  tion :    1 1  at  the   1  i  g  h  t  of 

I  Or,  thine  .  "  ** 

arrows  loaiked  thine  "  arrows  they  went, 

in  the  light,  <fcc.  i  •    •  ^     i 

» Josh.  10. 11.     and  at  the  shining  oi  thy 
Ps.  18. 14.  ,.        .  a  J 

&  77. 17, 18.      glittering  spear. 


11.  Sun  and  moon  stood  still  in  [as  one  act ', 
retiring  into]  their  habitation.  They  with- 
drew, as  it  were,  in  the  midst  of  the  great 
tempest,  wherein  *  God  cast  down  great  stones 
from  heaven  upon  His  enemies  and  they  died  ; 
and  the  sun  stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed. 
The  sun  too  witlidrew  itself  in  the  great 
darkness  at  the  Crucifixion,  as  not  bearing  to 
look  upon  the  Death  of  its  Maker,  when  the 
majesty  of  tlie  Sun  of  Righteousness  was 
darkened  o'er;  and  signs  in  the  sun  and  in 
the  moon  there  shall  be  to  the  end. 

At  the  light  of  Thine  arrows  they  went. 
"  ^  There  was  no  need  of  the  sun  by  day,  nor  of 
the  moon  by  night ;  for  by  the  light  of  Thhie 
arrows  can  the  sons  of  men  hold  their  way." 
"*  This  is  a  mystical  interpretation,  as  you 
see;  this  is  like  the  promise  of  the  Most 
High  ;  ^the  sun  sluxll  be  no  more  for  thy  light  by 
day,  neither  for  brightness  shall  the  maon  give 
light  unto  thee,  and  the  Lord  shall  be  to  thee  an 
everla.'iting  light."  The  judgments  of  God  are 
a  light  to  His  people,  while  they  are  the  de- 
struction of  His  enemies;  in  them  they 
^lenrn  righteousness.  The  arrows  are  God's 
judgments,  as  they  threaten  and  wound  from 
afar ;  the  shining  of  Thy  glittering  [lit.  of  the 
lightning  of  Thy'}  spear,  when  close  at  hand. 
When  all  other  light  is  withdrawn,  and  the 
Sun,  our  Lord,  is  hardly  beheld  in  the  dark- 
ness of  the  last  days,  and  the  moon,  the 
Church,  shall  not  give  her  light,  Christ  not 
Bhining  upon  her  as  before,  because  iniquity 
shall  abound,  and  the  love  of  many  shall  twu 
cold,  and  stars,  many  who  seem  to  shine  with 
the  light  of  grace,  shall  fall  from  heaven,  His 
own  shall  walk  on  and  advance  in  h(diness, 
'"from  strength  to  strength**,  from  good  to 
better,  from  the  way  to  their  home,"  by  the 
bright  light  of  the  lightning  of  God's  Judg- 
ments, wherein  His  glory  ®  shall  be  mani- 
fested. Arrows  and  spears  are  part  of  the 
spiritual  armory  of  God,  wherewith  the  people 
are  subdued  unto  Him;  "  '"armory,  not  where- 
with He  is  girt  but  which  He  giveth  to  those 
who  are  meet ;  bright  and  as  it  were  full  of 

'^P;;  sing,  with  the  asyndeton  nT  K'OtJ'; 
"  Every  word  which  neods  S  (to)  at  the  beginning 
has  n  at  tlie  end,  i.e.  the  D  n-places  it."  Rashl. 
Tanchuiii  says  the  n  is  for  grandeur;  Kim.  Sal.  b. 

Mel.  say  it  is  like  PI  in  Tih'h.    The  "habitation" 
they  explain  to  be  heaven,  like  tlJ^O. 

»  Jos.  X.  11-13.      »  A.  E.      *  Tanch.      » Is.  Ix.  19. 
•  lb.  xxvi.  9.  '  Dion.  •  Ps.  Ixzxiv.  7. 


12  Thou   didst   march    chrTIt 
through  the  land  in  indig-      '^'''-  ^-'^- 


nation,  "thou  didst  threshojer. 51.33. 

,,       ,        ^,  .  Amos.  1. 3. 

the  heathen  in  anger.  Mic.  4. 13. 

13  Thou   wen  test   forth 
for  the   salvation   of  thy 


lightning.  For  most  transparent  is  virtue." 
They  went  then  at  the  light  of  Thine 
arrows;  '""because  to  those  who  love  sin 
virtue  has  no  beauty,  nor,  as  yet,  any  briglit- 
ness.  But  to  those  who  know  her  she  is 
nothing  less  than  lightning,  l)right  and  trans- 
parent, so  that  whoso  liath  her  is  easily 
known  to  all  around.  Tlie  disciples  then, 
first  having  the  lightning  of  Thine  arms, 
shall  lead  others  also  to  its  Light.  Admir- 
ing and  conceiving  in  themselves  those  vir- 
tues which  are  the  arms  of  Christ,  they  shine 
forth  to  others,  a  gleam,  as  it  were,  of  the 
bright  flash  of  light  inherent  in  those 
graces."  " ''  They  were  enlightened  and  be- 
gan, by  preaching,  to  send  forth  shining 
words  of  truth.  But  those  words  are  Thine 
arrows,  shining  arrows,  shewing  by  their 
light  the  way  of  life,  and  by  their  sharp 
point  jjricking  the  hearts  of  people  unto  re- 
pentance." 

12.  Thou  didst  tread  the  earth  in  indignation. 
The  word  tread  '^is  used  of  very  solemn 
manifestations  of  God  ^^,  of  His  going  to  give 
to  His  own  victory  over  their  enemies'*. 
Not  the  land  only,  as  of  old,  but  the  earth  is 
the  scene  of  His  judgments ;  the  eaW/i  which 
WHS  full  of  His  praise,  which  He  meted  out  ^', 
which  contained  the  nations  whom  He  chas- 
tened, tiie  whole  earth.  Thou  dost  thresh  the 
heathen  in  anger.  Not  then  only,  but  at  all 
times  unto  the  end,  distress  of  nations  aiid  per- 
plexity are  among  the  shoots  of  tlie  fig-tree, 
which  betoken  that  the  everlasting  ^^ sum- 
mer is  nigh  at  hand.  Jerusalem,  when  it  had 
slain  the  Prince  of  Life,  was  given  over  to 
desolation  and  counted  like  the  heathen.  It 
became  the  synagogue,  not  the  Church  ;  and 
so  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  (as  it  isan 
image  of  the  destruction  of  the  world)  was 
that  again  fulfilled,  I'hou  dost  march  through 
the  earth  in  indignation,  Thou  dost  thresh  the 
heathen  in  anger. 

13.  Thou  wentest  forth.  Even  a  Jew  says 
of  this  place,  "  "  The  past  is  here  used  for 
the   future;    and    this    is    frequent    in  the 

« The  word  "shining"  is  the  same  as  "liright- 
ness,"  V.  4. 

").S.  Cyr.  "Riip.  "n;'V. 

IS  Jud.  V.  4.  P.s.  Ixviii.  8;  of  the  procession  of  the 
ark  2  Sam.  vi.  13.  It  is  denied  us  to  the  idols,  Jer. 
X.  .5.  ,  . 

""The  voice  of  a  treading"  mj'Y  7lp  2  Sam. 

V.  24. 1  Chr.  xiv.  15. 
»iii.  3,  0.       >«S.  Luke  xxi.  25-31.       "  KimchJ, 


CIlAPTlvR  III. 


217 


Before 
CHRIST 

fir.  626. 

PJosh.  10.  24. 
&  11.  8,  12. 
Ps.  68.  21. 


people,  even  for  salvation 
with  thine  anointed;  ■'thou 
woundest  the  head  out  of 


language  of  propliecy ;  for  prophecy,  al- 
though it  be  future,  yet  since  it  is,  as  it  were, 
firmly  fixed,  they  use  the  past  concerning 
it."  The  Prophet  speaks  again  in  the  past, 
perhaps  to  fix  the  mind  on  that  signal  going- 
forth,  when  God  destroyed  Pharaoli,  the  first 
enemy  who  essayed  to  destroy  the  cliosen 
line.  This  stands  at  the  head  of  all  those 
dispensations,  in  which  God  put  or  shall  put 
forth  His  might  to  save  His  people  or  de- 
stroy their  enemies.  All  is  with  Him  one 
everlasting  purpose;  the  last  were,  as  it 
were,  embodied  in  the  first :  were  it  not  for 
the  last,  the  first  would  not  have  been. 
Prophecy,  in  speaking  of  the  first,  has  in 
mind  all  the  rest,  and  chiefly  the  chiefest  and 
the  end  of  all,  the  full  salvation  of  His  peo- 
ple through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Thou 
wentest  forth  ',  i.  e.,  "  ^  Thou,  the  Unseen  God, 
gavest  signs  which  may  be  seen  of  Thy  Pres- 
ence or  coming  to  men."  Thou  wentest  forth, 
not  by  change  of  place,  for  Thou  art  not 
bounded  ;  Thou  art  without  change  ;  but  by 
shewing  Thy  poM'er,  and  doing  something 
anew  openly  for  the  salvation  of  Thy  people, 
even  for  salvation  icith^  Thine  Anointed, 
God,  from  the  first,  helped  His  people 
through  single  persons,  Moses,  Joshua,  each 
of  the  Judges,  accustoming  them  to  receive 
deliverance  by  one,  and  to  gather  together 
all  their  hopes  in  One.  To  Moses  Pie  said, 
*  /  vAll  be  with  thee,  and  to  Joshua,  ^  As  I  was 
with  Moses,  so  I  ivill  be  ^vith  thee,  and  to  Cyrus, 
^  /  ivill  go  before  thee,  preparing  His  people  to 
receive  that  nearer  Presence  with  His  Christ, 
of  which  our  Lord  says :  '  BelieveM  thou  not, 
that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  Me  ? 
The  Father  that  Dwelleth  in  Me,  He  doeth  the 
works.  "*The  Son  of  God,  God  Invisible, 
became  Man,  visible ;  and  with  Him,  so  going 
forth,  the  Holy  Spirit  went  forth  to  the  salva- 
tion of  His  people,  so  as  to  give  a  visible  sign 
of  His  Coming.      For  upon  His  Christ  Him- 

iComp.  iriNV^,  1i;?^3  Jud.  V.  4.  Ps.  lxviii.8 
of  the  great  manifestation  of  God  at  Sinai ;  so  of 
the    judgment    of    the    world,    io'lp^O    XY"'    Is. 

XXVi.  21.  2  Rup. 

3  The  E.  V.  is  doubtless  right.  So  Aquila,  although 
a  Jew,  rendered,  and  the  5th  Version.  The  Gtli, 
a  Christian,  translated,  "  Thou  wentest  forth  to 
.save  Thy  people  through  Jesus,  Thy  Christ."  So 
also  the  Vulgate  and  other  old  Jewish  authorities. 
Rachmon  (in  Martini  Pug.  Fid.  f.  5.34.)  notes  "that 
the  word  eth  means  with,  as  in  Gen.  xxxvii.  2.  xxxix. 
2."  For  although  It  might  be  used  to  mark  the 
object  only  after  a  verbal  noun,  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  construction  would  have  been  changed,  unless 
the  meaning  were  ditierent.  Had  eth  been  only  the 
sign  of  the  object,  there  was  no  occasion  for  insert- 
ing it  at  all,  and  it  would  probably  have  been 
avoided,  as  only  making  the  sentence  ambiguous, 


the  house  of  the  wicked, 

t  by  discovering  the  founda- . 

tion  unto  the  neck.    Selah.  ^nafccL""''''^ 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  C26. 


self,  Him  Who  was  anointed  with  the  Holy 

Ghost",  He  descended  in  a  bodily  Shape,  as  a 
Dove.  So  He  went  forth  to  the  Salvation  of  His 
people,  i.e.,  to  save  His  people  with  His 
Christ,  our  Saviour  ;  "  and  again,  on  the  Day 
of  Pentecost,  when  that  other  Comforter 
came.  Whom,  He  said,  /  ivill  send  unto  yoH 
from  the  Father,  and  in  Whose  Presence  His 
own  promise  was  fulfilled,  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  ivorld.  His 
Presence  was  manifested  both  in  the  remis- 
sion of  sins,  and  the  parting  of  graces  among 
all,  and  in  the  ^^  signs  and  wonders,  and  divers 
miracles,  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  where- 
with God  bare  witness  to  the  Apostles,  when 
^^  they  went  forth,  the  Lord  working  with  them, 
and  confirming  the  tvord  tvith  signs  following.  A 
going  lorth  to  judgment,  at  the  end  of  the 
world,  is  foretold  in  the  like  image  of  war- 
fiire  1'^. 

Thou  ivoundedet  \_criishedst'\  the  head  out  of 
the  house  of  the  wicked.  One  wicked  stands 
over  against  One  anointed,  as  in  Isaiah,  ^'"^He 
shall  stnite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  His  mouth, 
and  with  the  breath  of  His  lips  shall  He  slay  the 
wicked ;  and  David  speaks  of  one,  ^^  He  shall 
smite  the  head  over  a  great  land ;  and  S.  Paul 
speaks  of  ^^  that  Wicked,  whom  the  Lord  shall 
consume  loith  the  spirit  of  His  mouth,  and  shall 
destroy  with  the  brightness  of  His  Coming.  Him 
He  shall  destroy  at  once  I'rom  above  and  be- 
low ;  overthrowing  his  kingdom  from  the 
foundation.  From  above,  his  head  was 
crushed  in  pieces ;  from  below,  the  house  was 
razed  from  its  very  foundations.  So  Amos 
said,  ^^  The  Lord  said,  Smite  the  capital,  and 
the  lintel  [_threshokP'']  strike,  and  wound  them  in 
the  head,  all  of  them;  and  with  a  difTerent 
image,  ^^  L  destroyed  his  fruit  from  above,  and 
his  roots  frotn  beneath.  First,  the  head  is 
struck  oflT,  crushed  ;  then  the  house  from  the 
foundations  to  its  neck  ;  tlien  as  it  were  the 
headless  walls.     The  image  of  the  Tieck  may 

in  that  it  may  more  obviously  be  taken  in  the 
sense  adopted  "by  Aq.  and  the  Vulgate  and  the  E. 
V.  The  IjXX  and  two  early  heretics  who  disbe- 
lieved the  Divinity  of  our  Lord  (Theodot.  and 
Symm.)  render  "to  save  Thy  Christs."  The  LXX 
is  wrong  moreover,  in  that  the  Anointed  is  never 
used  of  the  people,  but  of  single  persons  only,  who 
were  shadows  of  the  Christ.  "  Thine  anointed  "  is 
understood  of  one  individual,  "the  king  of  Judah," 
by  A.  E.  "Saul  and  David,"  by  Rashi ;  "  Moses  "  by 
Abarb. ;  "Hezekiah"  by  Tanch. ;  but  "Messiah 
Ben  David  "  by  Kim.  Sal.  b.  Mel. 
*  Ex.  iii.  12.  5  .Josh.  i.  5.  « Is.  xlv.  2. 

'  8.  John  xiv.  10.  »  Rup.  »  Acts  x.  38. 

10  Heb.  ii.  4.  "  S.  Mark  xvi.  20. 

12  Rev.  xvii.  14.  xix.  11.  sqq.  i^  Is.  xi.  4. 

1*  Ps.  ex.  6.  16 1  Thess.  iv.  8.  i«  Am.  ix.  1. 

"The  same  word  is  used  Zeph.  ii.  14.  Ps. 
cxxxvii.  7.  '*  Am.  ii.  9. 


218 


HABAKKlK. 


Beforp 

C  H  R  I  S  1 

cir.  020. 


+  Heb.  were 
tempestuous. 


14  Thou  didst  strike 
.through  with  his  staves 
the  head  of  his  villages : 
they    fcame     out     as     a 


be  the  rather  used  to  recall,  that  as  the  house 
of  God  is  built  of  living  stones,  so  the  king- 
dom of  tlie  evil  one  is  made  of  living  dead, 
who  shall  never  cease  to  exist  in  an  undying 
death.  Tlie  bmising  of  Satan,  the  head  or 
prince  of  this  evil  world,  is  the  deliverance 
of  the  world.  His  head  was  bruised,  when, 
by  the  Death  of  our  Lord,  the  Pnnce  of  this 
world  was  cast  out ;  he  is  crushed  out  of  the 
house  of  the  xvicked,  whenever  he,  the  strong 
man,  is  bound  and  cast  out,  and  "  the  soul  of 
the  sinner  which  had  been  his  abode,  be- 
comes the  house  of  God,  and  righteousness 
dwelleth  there  and  walketh  in  lier." 

"  '  Thou  didst  not  leave  any  error  or  vice 
in  the  world  unshaken,  either  what  was  con- 
cealed, like  the  foundation  of  a  house;  or 
that  which  was  open,  as  tlie  neck  of  the  body 
is  open  ; "  to  the  neck,  where  the  destruction 
from  above  ceased,  so  that  notliing  remained 
unsmitten.  "  '  For  they  being,  by  the  fiery 
tongues  which  Thou  shewedst  without,  made 
fervent  and  strong,  wise  and  eloquent,  ceased 
not,  until  they  made  known  to  all,  what  folly 
was  this  world's  wisdom,  what  sacrilege  its 
sacred  worship."  "  '^  His  secret  counsels  He 
laid  bare,  ;rs  tlie  Apostle  says,  ^  We  are  not 
ignorant  of  his  devices  ;  and,  to  another  is  given 
the  discerning  of  spirits." 

14.  Thou  didst  strike  through  tvith  his  staves 
the  head  of  /lis  villages*.  The  destruction 
comes  not  upon  himself  only,  but  upon  the 
whole  multitude  of  his  subjects  ;  and  this  not 
by  any  mere  act  of  Divine  niiglit,  but  with 
his  own  staves,  turning  upon  him  the  destruc- 
tion which  he  prepared  for  otliers.  So  it 
often  was  of  old.  When  the  Midianites  and 
Amalekites  and  the  children  of  the  east^ 
wasted  Israel  in  the  days  of  Gideon,  ^the 
Lord  set  every  nmn's  sword  against  his  fellow, 

1  Rup.         2  Dion.         8  2  Cor.  ii.  11. 1  Cor.  xii.  10. 

*The  meaning  "leaders,  prefects  of  soldiers" 
has  been  obtained  for  113  by  Ges.  dkc.  by  a  mi.aap- 
plication  of  the  .\rab.  T^i)  "distinguished"  which 

in  conj.  ii.  signifie.s  "  defined  for  a  person,"  but  only 
in  the  idiom  n'N"13  'S^'  113  "defined  for  me  by 
Ills  own  counsel,"  which  gains  its  meaning  only 
from  the  '7j;.  That  of  the  E.  V.  is  furnished,  in 
most  places,  by  the  passages  tliemselves.  As  in 
Kzek.  xxxviii.  11  where  "a  land  of  nitia"  is 
expanded  into  "where  they  all  dwell  without  wall: 
and  bar  and  double  gates  they  have  not:"  and 
Ueut.  iii. ."),  "  all  these  wore  fenced  cities,  with  high 
wall,  double  gates  and  bar,  beside  cities  of 'n3n," 
and  1  Sam.  vi.  18,  "  froin  the  fenced  city  to  the 
village  of  'figri"  and  Zech.  ii.  8.  "Jerusalem 
shall  dwell  as  r\in3  for  the  multitude  of  men  and 
cattle  therein;  and  I,  saith  the  Lord,  will  be  a  wall 
of  Are  around."  In  Esther  ix.  10,  cities  nin3n 
•re  contrasted  with  Shushan  v.  18,  and  "  the  Periz- 


whirlwind  to  scatter  me  :    ^  h  rT s  t 
their    rejoicing    was    a.s      c'^-  ^26. 


to    devour    the    poor    se- 
cretly. 


even  throughout  all  the  host ;  and  when  God  de- 
livered the  Philistines  into  the  hand  of  Jona- 
than'; so  was  it  with  Amman  Moab  and  the 
inhabitants  of  Mount  Seir,  at  the  prayer  of 
Jelioshaphat  and  his  army  *.  And  so  it  shall 
be,  God  says,  at  the  end,  of  the  army  of  God ; 
every  man's  suvrd  shall  be  agaiiist  his  brother^, 
and  Isaiah  says,  '"  every  man  shall  eat  the  fiesh 
of  his  oirn  arm,  and  Zechariah,  "  a  great  tumult 
from  the  Lord  shall  be  among  them ;  and  they 
shall  lay  every  man  hold  on  the  hand  of  his 
neighbor,  and  his  hand  shall  rise  up  against  the 
hand  of  his  neighbor.  So  Pliaraoh  drove  Is- 
rael to  the  shore  of  the  sea,  in  which  he  him- 
self perished ;  Daniel's  accusers  perished  in 
tlie  den  of  lions,  from  which  Daniel  was  de- 
livered unharmed  '^ ;  and  so  Hainan  was 
hanged  on  the  gallows  which  he  prepared 
for  Mordecai  ^•\  So  it  became  a  saying  of 
Psalmists,  '*  He  made  a  pit  and  digged  it,  and 
i.s fallen  into  the  ditch  which  he  made;  his  mis- 
chief shall  retui-n  upon  his  outn  head,  and  his 
violent  dealing  shall  come  doivn  upon  his  own 
pate :  and  this  from  above,  sent  down  by  God. 
Tiie  heathen  too  observed  that  there  was 
''  no  juster  law  than  tiiat  artificei-s  of  death 
by  their  own  art  should  perish."  This  too 
befell  him,  when  he  seemed  to  have  all  but 
gained  his  end.  They  came  [om/]  as  a  whirl- 
xvind  to  scatter  me,  with  wliirlwind  force,  to 
drive  them  asunder  to  all  the  quarters  of  the 
heavens,  as  the  wind  scatters  the  particles  of 
'^  cloud,  or  ^^  as  the  stubble  which  pa.'^seth  away  by 
the  wind  of  the  wilderness.  Pharaoh  at  the 
Red  Sea  or  Sennacherib,  sweep  all  before 
them.  Pharaoh  said,  '^  /  will  pursue,  I  will 
overtake,  I  will  divide  the  spoil;  my  lust  shall  be 
satisfied  upon  them  ;  I  toill  draw  my  sword,  my 
hand  shall  destroy  them. 

Their  rejoicing.     It  is  no  longer  one  enemy. 

zite,"  very  possibly,  was  originally  "  paganus " 
"one  who  dwelt  in  villages."  This'  rendering  is 
adopted  by  chief  Jewish  interpreters:  Kim.  "cities 
of  the  plain,  which  have  no  fort  nor  wall."  .''o 
Abulw.  Tanch.  "land;"  Rashi,  .\barh.  "his  cities 
and  villages;"  A.  E.  keeps  the  word,  but  implies 
the  meaning,  on  Zech.  ii.  8.  Kim.  Sal.  b.  Mel. 
o>)tained  the  sense  of  "forces"  licre,  that  they 
"shall  come  in  great  numbers,  and  so  dwell  in 
Jerusalem,  as  D''I13,  who  dwell  in  r\U"13.  who 
spread  in  the  whole  place,  who  have  no  wall  to 
enclose  them."  This  explains  Jon.  "the  forces  of 
Pharaoh,"  as  hordes  too  large  to  be  enclosed  in 
walls,  and  perliaps  the  LXX.  SvvacrTai. 

6Jud.  vi.  3,  4.  «Ib.  vii.  22. 

'  I  Sam.  xiv.  12,  IG,  20.  8  2  Chron.  xx.  22,  23. 

9  Ezek.  xxxviii.  21.  '» Is.  ix.  20. 

i>  Zech.  xiv.  13.       "  D.in.  vi.  24.      "  Esth.  vii.  10. 

'♦P.s.  vii.  5.  add  is.  I.""),  x.  2,  xxxv.  8,  Ivii.  C,  xciv. 
23.  cxli.  10.  Prov.  V.  22.  xxvi.  27.  Eccl.  x.  8. 

iMob  xxxvii.  11.  lojer.  xlii.  24.  add  xvill.  17. 

Is.  xli.  10.  Del.  »'Ex.  xv.  9. 


CttAWER  lit. 


219 


15  "Thou  didst  walk 


Beiofe 
CHRIST 

<^'''-  ^^Q-      through  the  sea  with  thine 


«Ps.  77. 19.        horses,  through  the  ||heap 
I  Or,  mud.         of  great  Avaters. 


The  malice  of  the  members  was  concen- 
trated in  the  liead  ;  tlie  hatred  concentrated 
in  him  was  difiused  in  them.  The  i-eadiness 
of  instruments  of  evil  to  fulfill  evil  is  an 
incentive  to  those  who  conceive  it ;  those 
who  seem  to  ride  the  wave  are  but  carried  on 
upon  the  crest  of  the  surge  which  they  first 
roused.  Tliey  cannot  check  themselves  or  it. 
So  the  ambitious  conceiver  of  mischief  has 
his  own  guilt;  the  willing  instruments  of 
evil  have  theirs.  Neither  could  be  fully  evil 
without  the  other.  Sennacherib  had  been 
nothing  without  those  fierce  warriors  who  are 
pictured  on  tlie  monuments,  with  individual 
fierceness  fulfilling  his  will,  nor  the  Huns 
without  Attila,  or  Attila  without  his  hordes 
whose  tempers  he  embodied.  Satan  would 
be  powerless  but  for  the  willing  instruments 
whom  he  uses.  So  then  Holy  Scripture 
sometimes  passes  from  the  mention  of 
the  evil  multitude  to  that  of  the  one  head, 
on  earth  or  in  hell,  who  impels  them  ;  or 
from  the  one  evil  head  who  has  his  own 
special  responsibility  in  originating  it,  to  tlie 
evil  multitude,  whose  responsibility  and 
guilt  lies  in  fomenting  the  evil  which  they 
execute. 

Their  rejoicing.  He  does  not  say  simply 
"  they  rejoice  to,"  but  herein  is  their  exceed- 
ing, exulting  joy.  The  wise  of  this  earth 
glories  in  his  wisdom,  the  mighty  man  in  his 
might,  the  rich  in  his  riches :  the  truly  wise, 
that  he  understandeth  and  knoweth  God. 
But  as  for  these,  their  exultation  is  concen- 
trated in  this, — savagery  ;  in  this  is  their 
jubilation  ;  this  is  their  passion.  Psalmists 
and  pious  men  use  the  word  to  express  their 
exulting  joy  in  God :  men  must  have  an 
object  for  their  empassioned  souls  ;  and  these, 
in  cruelty. 

As  it  were  to  devour  the  poor  secretly.  From 
the  general  he  descends  again  to  the  individ- 
ual, but  so  as  now  to  set  forth  the  guilt  of 
each  individual  in  that  stormy  multitude 
which  is,  as  it  were,  one  in  its  evil  unity, 
when  each  merges  his  responsibility,  as  it 
were,  in  that  of  the  body,  the  horde  or  the 
mob,  in  which  he  acts.  Thsir  exultation,  he 
says,  is  that  of  the  individual  robber  and 
murderer,  who  lies  wait  secretlj^  in  his 
ambush,  to  spring  on  the  defenceless  wan- 
derer, to  slay  him  and  devour  his  substance. 


« Dion. 


3  Ps.  xiii.  4. 


>  lb.  xiv.  3. 
<  Ecclus.  xxiil.  1. 
*  DO  DD"n  as  Ps.  Ixxvii.  20,  "jD'lT  D'J. 
6  Is.  Ixili.  13.        'Zech.  X.  11.         «  Acts  xvii.  28. 
9  So  Jon.  Kim.  (comparing  Ex.  xv.  8  and  D'^OPI 
Ex.  viii.  10.)  Sal.  b.  Mel.  Taneh.  (mentioning  tlie 


16  When  I  heard,  '  my  ^  Beiore  ^^ 

belly   trembled ;    my   lips  ^''•-  ^'^'^- 

quivered  at  the  voice :  rot-  '  p.s.  no.  120. 

.  Jer  23  9 

tenness  entered  into   my 


Premeditation,  passion,  lust  of  cruelty, 
cowardice,  murderousness,  habitual  individ- 
ual savagery  and  treachery,  and  that  to  the 
innocent  and  defenceless,  are  all  concen- 
trated in  the  words,  their  exultation  is,  as  it 
were,  to  devour  the  poor  secretly,  i.  e.  in  their 
secret  haunt. 

Pharaoh  had  triumphed  over  Israel. 
^  They  are  entangled  in  the  land,  the  wilder- 
ness hath  shut  them  in.  He  rejoiceth  in  hav- 
ing them  wholly  in  his  power,  as  a  lion  has 
his  prey  in  his  lair,  in  secret,  unknown  to  the 
Eyes  of  God  Whom  he  regarded  not,  with 
none  to  behold,  none  to  deliver.  "^They 
gloried  in  oppressing  the  people  of  Israel, 
even  as  the  cruel  man  glories  in  secretly 
rending  and  afflicting  the  needy,  when 
without  fear  they  do  this  cruelty,  nor  heed 
God  beholding  all  as  Judge."  The  invisible 
enemies  too  rejoice  very  greatly  in  the  ruin 
of  our  souls.  '■^Lest  mine  enemy  say,  I  have  pre- 
vailed against  him :  for  if  I  be  cast  down,  they 
that  trouble  me  ivill  rejoice  at  it.  *  0  Lord  and 
governor  of  all  my  life,  leave  me  not  to  their 
counsels  and  let  me  not  fall  by  them.  Yet  God 
left  them  not  in  his  hands ;  but  even  brake 
the  head  of  Leviathan  in  pieces. 

15.  Thou  didst  walk  through  the  sea  with 
Thine  horses.  God  Himself  is  pictured  as 
leading  them  on  the  way,  Himself  at  the 
head  of  their  multitude,  having,  as  Asaph 
said  of  old,  ^  His  path  in  the  sea.  So  Isaiah, 
**  Who  leddest  them  in  the  deptlis;  and  Zechariah, 
'  And  he  shall  pass  through  the  sea.  God  was 
literally  there;  for  "m  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being.  He  Who  "  is  wholly 
everywhere  but  the  whole  of  Him  nowhere  " 
manifested  His  Presence  there.  Such  anthro- 
pomorphisms have  a  truth,  which  men's 
favorite  abstractions  have  not. 

Through  the  heap  *  of  great  waters,  as  of  old, 
^"  the  waters  stood  as  a  heap,  and  He  made  the 
waters  to  stand  as  a  heap.  The  very  hin- 
drances to  deliverance  are  in  God's  Hands  a 
Avay  for  His  ends.  The  waves  of  the  Red 
sea  rose  in  heaps,  yet  this  was  but  a  readier 
way  for  the  salvation  of  His  people  and  the 
destruction  of  their  enemies.  "  ^  God  pre- 
pareth  ever  a  way  for  His  elect  in  this 
present  evil  world,  and  leadeth  them  along 
the  narrow  way  which  leadeth  unto  life." 

16.  When  I  heard,  better,  /  heard  ami  &c. 

opinion  of  others  that  it  is  "mud  "  but  choosing  th« 
other.')  A.  E.  chooses  the  sense,  "mud."  Rashi 
parapnrases,  "  as  the  .sand  of  the  sea."  For  that  of 
Ges., "  the  boiling  of  the  waters,"  there  is  absolutely 
no  authority. 
10  Ex.  XV.  8.  Ps.  Ixxviii.  13. 


:i20 


hai'.akki'k:. 


chrTIt    ^'0^65'  ^^^  ^  trembled  in 
cir.  626.       myselfj  that  I  might  rest 
the   day   of  trouble: 


m 


The  prophet  sums  up,  resuming  that  same 
dechiration  with  which  he  had  liegun,  I  heard, 
I  was  ajrakl.  Only  now  Jie  expresses  far 
more  strongly  both  his  awe  at  God's  judg- 
ments and  his  hopes.  He  had  just  beheld 
the  image  of  tlie  destruction  of  Pharaoh,  the 
end  of  the  brief  triumphing  of  the  wicked 
and  of  the  trials  of  God's  people.  But  awful 
as  are  all  the  judgnionts  of  God  upon  the 
enemies  of  His  people,  it  was  not  this  alone 
which  was  the  object  of  his  terror.  Thw  was 
deliverance.  It  wa.s  the  whole  course  of 
God's  dispensations,  which  he  had  heard ; 
God's  punishment  of  His  people  for  their 
.sins,  and  the  excision  of  their  oppressors, 
who,  in  His  Providence,  fulfilling  their  own 
evil  end,  executed  His  chastisements  upon 
them.  The  deliverances,  wliich  shadowed 
out  the  future,  had  their  dark  side,  in  that 
they  were  deliverances.  The  whole  course  of 
this  world  is  one  series  of  man's  unfaithful- 
nesses or  sins,  God's  chastisements  of  them 
through  their  fellow-sinners,  and  His  ultimate 
overt  hrow  of  the  aggressors.  Those  first  three 
centuries  of  glorious  martyrdoms  were,  on  the 
one  side,  the  malice  and  hatred  of  Satan  and 
the  world  against  the  truth ;  on  the  other 
side,  the  jirophets  of  those  days  told  their  peo- 
ple that  tliey  were  the  chastisements  of  their 
sins.  Future  deliverance  implies  previous 
chastisement  of  those  delivered.  The  prophet 
then,  at  the  close,  in  view  of  all,  for  himself 
and  all  whose  perplexities  he  represented  and 
pleaded  before  God,  chooses  his  and  their  por- 
tion. "  Suffer  here  and  rest  forever ! "  "  Eudui-e 
here  any  terror,  any  failure  of  holies,  yet 
trust  wholly  in  God,  have  rest  in  the  day  of 
trouble  and  sing  the  endless  song  ! "     Again 

1  ?t33  is  used  of  the  inward  part  of  man,  which 

"  prepareth  mischief,"  .Tob  xv.  35 ;  the  spirit  whereof 
constrains  one,  lb.  xxxii.  18 ;  the  cliambers  of  which 
are  searched  out  by  tlie  spirit  of  man,  as  the  lamp 
of  God,  Prov.  XX.  27;  as  cleansed  by  stripes  lb.  .SO; 
where  the  words  of  tlie  wise  are  KLiarded,  lb.  xxii. 
]!?;  which  should  not  be  filled  with  the  Ivi^^t  wind, 
.lob  XV.  2.  In  the  like  way  in  tlie  N.  T.  "from  his 
belly,  (coiAta,  shall  flow  living  waters,"  S.  Jolin  vii.  38. 

In  Arab,  jpp  is  the  "inner  meaning;"  JD3  "he 

knew  the  inner,  the  intrinsic, state  of  the  case;" 
with  3  p.,  "  became  intimate  with ; "  conj.  x.  with 

aec,  "  penetrated  a  thing."  So  also  jjpj<3  7X  "  that 
which  is  within,"  of  facts,  thoughts,  mind.  See 
Lane.    All  are  derivative  senses.    |£33  has  nothing 

in  I'ommon  with  Ar.  7t3D.  a-i  Ges. 

-"ragaz,"  twice  n-p'ati'd  in  this  verse,  takes  up, 
as  it  were,  "rogez"  wrath  v.  2.  *  Del. 

*  7 Sy  occurs  of  the  tingling  of  the  ear,  1  Sam.  iil. 
11.  ■!  Kgs  xxi.  12.  Jer.  xix.  3.  "  From  the  fear  at  the 
meaning  oi  iiils  sound  wliich  he  has  heard  his  lips 
treiiiblod  in  speaking,  and  he  uttered  their  words 
With  a  trembling  sound."  Tanch. 


when  he  cometh  up  unto 
the  people,  he  will  ||  in- 
vade them  with  his  troops.  "p7ec 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


il  Or,  cut  them  in 


he  casts  himself  back  amid  all  the  troubles 
of  this  life. 

/  heard  [i.e.  that  speech  of  God  uttering 
judgments  to  come]  and  mij  belli/  \  the  whole 
inward  self,  bodily  and  mental,  all  his  hidden 
powers,  trembled'^,  "vibrated"  as  it  were, 
"  *in  every  fibre  of  his  frame,"  at  the  wrath 
of  (iod  ;  viy  lips  (juivered  *  at  the  vnire  of  God, 
so  that  they  almost  refused  their  office  and 
could  hardly  fulfill  the  prophetic  duty  and 
utter  the  terrors  which  he  had  heard  ;  his 
very  strongest  parts,  the  bones,  wliich  keep 
the  whole  frame  of  man  together,  that  he  be 
not  a  shapeless  mass,  and  which  remain  un- 
consumed  long  after  the  re.st  has  wasted 
away  in  the  grave,  rottenness  entered  into  them, 
corniption and  mouldering  eating  into  them"; 
and  I  trembled  in  myself  [lit.  under  me^'\  so  that 
he  was  a  burden  to  himself  and  sank  unable  to 
support  himself,  that  I  might  rest  in  the  day  of 
trouble.  All  up  to  this  time  was  weariness 
and  terror,  and  now  at  once  all  is  repose ; 
the  prophet  is  carried,  as  it  were,  over  the 
troubles  of  this  life  and  the  decay  of  the 
grave  to  the  sweetness  of  everlasting  rest '. 
I,  the  same,  sufler  these  things,  terror,  quiv- 
ering, rottenness  in  the  very  bones  them- 
selves. /  [lit.]  who  sh(dl  re-<t "  in  the  day  of 
trouble.  I  who  had  not  rest  until  then,  shall 
enter  into  rest  then  in  the  very  day  of  trouble 
to  all  who  found  their  rest  in  the  world  not  in 
God,  the  day  of  judgment.  "  Blessed  is  the 
man  ivhoni  Thou  cha.^tene,-it,  0  Lord,  and  teachest 
him  in  Thy  law,  that  Thou  mayest  (jive  him  pati- 
ence in  time  of  adversity,  until  the  pit  be  digged 
vp  for  the  ungodly. 

"  '"  O  my  soul ;  had  we  daily  to  bear  tor- 
tures, had  we  for  a  long  time  to  endure  hell 

*  Dp"l  (the  root)  is  used  of  the  decay  of  wood  and 

of  the  bones,  and  Pr.  x.  7,  of  "the  name  of  the 
wicked." 

«As  2  Sam.  ii.  23.  "he  died"  as  we  say,  "on  the 
spot,"  sinking  down  dead. 

'  The  very  softness  of  the  original  word  nUX 

stands  in  contrast  with  the  rigidness  in  the  words 
tirgaz,  rakab,  regaz,  tsa)'ah. 

8  nij  is  uniformly  "  rest."  It  is  used  of  rest  from 
labor,  from  calamities,  [Is.  xxiv.  7  Job  iii.  26.]  rest 

in  a  place,  with  2,  or  on  (l^t)  it;  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
resting  on  a  person  (with  7^').  But  its  meaning  is 
uniformly  of  rest,  not  of  silence  as  to  a  thing  [a-* 
Gcs.]  nor  does  ty'inn  furnish  any  analogy,  since 
this  in  itself  signifies  "kept  silence."  Nor  can  it 
mean  "wait  patiently  for,  for  ni  }  "rest"  is  the 
very  opposite  of  "waiting  for,"  DDn,  which  neces- 
sarily involves  a  degree,  even  if  of  subdued  unrest. 

Then,  too  n2in,  iTp,  Sh',  are  used  of  waiting, 

looking  for  good,  not  for  evil. 
«  Ps.  xciv.  12, 13. 
»"  Man.  ap.  App.  S  Aug.  T.  vl.  c.  21. 


CHAPTER  III. 


221 


Before 

CHRIST 

eir.  626. 


tHeb.  ;i6. 


17  •[[Although  the  fig 
tree  shall  not  blossom, 
neither  shall  fruit  he  in  the 
vines ;  t  h  e  labor  of  the 
olive  shall  '\iQ\\,  and  the 


itself,  that  we  might  see  Christ  in  His  glory 
and  be  the  companion  of  His  Saints,  were  it 
not  worth  enduring  all  sorrow,  that  we  might 
be  partakers  of  so  exceeding  a  good,  such 
exceeding  glory  ?  " 

When  he  cornel h  up  unto  the  people,  he  shaU 
invade  them  ivifh  his  troops,  or,  which  is  prob- 
ably meant,  when  he  cometh  up  who  shall  invade 
them  ^.  It  is  a  filling  out  of  the  day  of 
trouble^.  However  near  the  trouble  came, 
he,  under  the  protection  of  God  and  in  firm 
trust  in  Him,  would  be  at  rest  in  Him.  The 
troubles  of  God's  prophets  are  not  the  out- 
ward troubles,  but  the  sins  of  their  people 
which  bring  those  troubles,  the  oflence against 
the  majesty  of  God,  the  loss  of  souls.  Jere- 
miah was  more  at  rest  in  the  court  of  the 
prison,  tlian  when  all  the  people  did  curse 
him*  for  telling  them  God's  Truth.  He 
who  fears  God  and  His  judgments  betimes, 
shall  rest  in  perfect  tranquillity  when  those 
judgments  come.  The  immediate  trouble 
was  the  fierce  assault  of  the  Chaldees  whose 
terror  he  had  described  ;  and  this,  picturing, 
as  through  the  prophecy,  all  other  judgments 
of  God  even  to  the  last,  when  devils  shall  con- 
tend about  the  souls  of  men,  as  Satan  did  about 
the  body  of  Moses. 

1  This  is  the  simplest  construction,  and  is  that 
adopted  by  Kim.  Abarb.    In  the  rendering  "  in  the 

coming  up  of  a  people,"  the  7  would,  as  Tanchum 
observes,  be  superfluous,  and  1J71J''  would  be  more 

natural  than  l^'IU'-    But  the  prophet  would  not 

needlessly  make  his  language  ambiguous.  Had  he 
meant,  "  in  the  coming  up  of  a  or  the  people,"  he 

would  have  used  the  common  Qj?  JIOJ^S  or  HwJ^/ 

Dj/*n.    The  construction  of  nS^'  with  7  instead 

of  7j?,  "to"  for  "against,"  is  exceptional.     But 

ri/J?  occurs  with  the  equivalent  7X  of  the  person, 

and  in  one  ease  with  7  (as  we  sav  "go  up  to")  Gen. 
xliv.  24,  34.  xlv.  9.  Ex.  xix.  3,  24.  xxiii.  1,  12.  xxxii. 
30.    Deut.  X.  1.  Josh.  x.  4,  G.  Jud.  iv.  5.  xii.  3.  xvi.  5. 

(nS)  18. 1  Sam.  vi.  20.  x.  3,  xiv.  9, 12.  xxiii.  19.  2  Kgs 
i.  11.  xxii.  4,  and  this,  in  a  hostile  sense  Jud.  xx.  2.3, 
2  Sam.  V.  19,  Jer.  xlix.  28,  31.  QJ?  also,  is  used  with- 
out the  art.  (as  a  sort  of  proper  name)  of  the  Jewish 
people,  Is.  xxvi.  11.  xliv.  6.  lU  occurs  Gen.  xlix.  19. 
there  also  with  .ace. :  llljh',  our,  "troop"  (verb) 
Jer.  x.  7.    See  also  Mie.  v.  14,  p.  79. 

*  n^]^  DV  is  a  general  term  which  occurs  also 
Is.  xxxvii.3,  more  commonly  with  3,  mV  DV3,  Ps. 
XX.  2,  1. 15,  Pr.  xxiv.  10,  xxv.  19,  Jer.  xvi.  19,  Ob.  12, 
14,  Nah.  i.  7.  Zeph.  i.  15.  as  n^i*  HJ!  occurs  Jer.  xxx. 
7.  Dan.  xii.  1.  T\1'i!  Dy2,  Is.  xxxiii.  2.  Jer.  xiv.  8.  xv. 
11;  'm^f  DV2  Gen.  xxxv.  3,  Ps.  Ixxvii.  3,  Ixxxvi. 
7;  r\iO  DDJliy  Jud.  X.  14.  DJTIV  n>0  Neh.  ix. 
27.  There  is  no  ground  then  to  limit  it  to  the  Chal- 
deean  or  Assvrian  period. 

»  Jer.  XV.  10, 


fields  shall  yield  no  meat ;    ^  g  r°i  g  ^ 
the  flock  shall  be  cut  off      cir.  626. 
from   the  fold,   and   there 
shall  be  no   herd   in  the 
stalls : 


17.  Although  [lit.  For*]  the  figtree  shall  not 
blossom.  The  Prophet  repeats  his  confidence 
in  God,  premising  his  knowledge  that  all 
human  hopes  should  fail.  I  know,  he  says, 
all  stay  and  support  shall  fail ;  he  numbers 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  the  fruits  of 
trees,  the  fig,  vine  and  olive,  for  sweetness, 
gladness,  cheerfulness",  whereof  the  well- 
being  of  the  vine  and  figtree  furnishes  the 
proverbial  picture  of  peace  and  rest.  These 
shall  either  not  shoot  forth,  or  shall  at  time 
of  fruit-gathering  have  no  produce  ®,  or  hav- 
ing, as  it  M-ere,  labored  to  bring  forth  fruit 
shall  lie  \  and  fail :  yet  further  "  the  stafi"  of 
life  "  itself  shall  fail ;  the  fields  shall  yield  no 
meat ;  all  the  fields,  as  though  they  were  but 
one^,  shall  have  one  common  lot,  barren- 
ness. Yet  more ;  the  flocks  shall  be  cut  off* 
from  the  fold  ;  not  those  only,  feeding  abroad 
in  fields  and  open  plains,  shall  be  driven 
away,  but  they  shall  be  carried  away  by  the 
enemy  from  the  folds,  where  they  seemed 
penned  securely  ;  and  not  tliese  only,  but 
there  shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stalls '°,  even  the 
stronger  animals  shall  utterly  fail ;  every 
help  for  labor,  or  for  clothing,  or  for  food 
shall  cease  ;  he  speaks  not  of  privation,  par- 
tial failure,  but  of  the  entire  loss  of  all  things, 

*  The  adversative  or  exceptional  force  attributed 
to  ''2,  always  lies  in  the  relation  of  the  two  sen- 
tences, not  in  the  '3  itself,  which  is  always  causa- 
tive, "  for  "  or  "  because."  6  Ps.  civ.  15. 

^1)2''  occurs  here  only  of  the  produce  of  trees; 
10  times  of  the  earth  itself  directly;  in  Ps.  Ixxvii. 
1,  its  produce,  as  the  result  of  human  culture,  is 

DSn%  DJT'J';  and  Job  xx.  28  inO  h)T.  nE';;0 
occurs  here  only  of  the  fruit,  being  an  application 
of  the  common  idiom  ^1£3  nt^J^. 

'  lJ/n2  as  Hos.  ix.  2. 

"  niO'lti',  (an  old  word  Deut.  xxxii.  32)  with  no 
known  etymology,  is  used,  in  three  out  of  the  four 
places  in  which  it  certainly  occurs,  in  relation  to 
place:  "fields  of  Gomorrah"  Deut.  I.  e.  "f.  of  Kid- 
ron  2  Kgs  xxiii.  4."  "f.  of  Heshbon  "  Is.  xvi.  8.  It 
occurs  in  a  fifth,  (if,  as  is  probable,  the  Kri  is  right,) 
"  all  the  fields  unto  the  Virook  Kidron  "  i.  e.  reaching 
to  it,  Jer.  xxxi.  4o.  As  a  collective,  it  is  joined  with 
a  sing,  verb  here,  and  Is.  xvi.  8. 

^Tfj  occurs  intrans.  here  only.  In  Arab,  also  it 
is  commonly  used,  but  intrans.  of  "water  which 
sunk  "  or  retired.    See  Lane. 

10  DT£)1,  here  only,  but  clear  from  the  context. 
In  Buxtorfs  instance,  n£3"'3  HNVD  "found  it  in  a 
stall,"  the  word  is  very  probably  used  in  the  sense 
ascribed  to  it  here  by  tradition  as  "well  known  in 
the  language  of  the  ancient  (doctors)  wtio  say  in 

the  sing.  Tp3  HSI-"   Tanch.  "House  of  oxen." 

Kim.    "  See  Mishnah    Bava  Bathra   ii.  3.  vi.  4." 

Munk  on  Tanch.  The  Arab,  '^l2'^  "  chopped  straw  * 

could  hardly  furnish  a  name  for  a  .--tall. 


222 


HABAKKUK. 


18  'Yet  I  will  'rejoice 


Before 
CHRIST     . 

cir.  626.      la  the  Lord,  1  will  joy 


>  Job.  13. 15. 
'  Isai.  41. 10 

&  61. 10.  tion. 


in  the  God  of  my  salva- 


710  meat  from  the  fields,  no  herd  in  the  stalls ; 
and  what  then  ?  And  I  will  rejoice  in  tlie  Lord, 
I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  s(dvation.  The 
words  are  very  impressive,  as  they  stand  in 
the  Hebrew.  ""  For,"  he  says,  "  the  tig-tree 
shall  not  blossom,. anrf  there  is  no  fruit  in  the 
vines,  the  labor  of  the  olive  hath  failed  ;  "  (the 
Prophet  does  not  look  on,  only  to  these 
things,  but  in  his  mind  stands  in  tlie  midst 
of  them ',  they  are  done,  and  he  amid  them, 
feeling  their  efiects)  "and  the  field  hath 
yielded  no  food  ;  the  flock  hath  been  cut  ofi" 
from  the  fold,  ami  there  is  no  herd  in  the 
stall ;  and  I" — He  relates  it  as  the  result  of 
all  which  had  gone  before ;  such  and  such 
was  the  state  of  fruit-trees,  vintage,  harvest, 
flocks  and  herds  ;  such  was  the  aspect  of  all 
nature,  living  or  inanimate ;  all  was  barren, 
disappointing ;  all  had  failed  and  was  gone  ; 
and  then  at  hist  he  comes  to  himself,  and  I; 
what  is  he  doing,  when  all  nature  and  every 
seeming  hope  is  dead  ?  thus  and  thus  it  is 
with  them  ;  aiul  I^will  rejoice.  He  almost 
uses  tlie  e.Kpression  as  to  the  exultation  of 
the  enemy,  adopting  the  same  word  only  in  a 
softer  form.  "  Their  exulting  joy  was"  con- 
centrated in  this,  "as  to  devour  the  poor 
secretly ;  "  he  too  had  "  exulting  joy."  There 
is  a  joy  against  joy :  a  joy  of  theirs  in  the 
possession  of  all  which  their  rapacity  covets, 
in  the  possession  of  all  things :  a  joy  of  his 
amid  the  privation  of  all  things.  He  con- 
trasts the  two  joys,  as  David  had  of  old  ;  *  the 
men  of  the  world,  whose  portion  is  in  this  life, 
wliose  belly  Thou,  fllest  with  Thy  hid  treasure  ; 
they  are  saied  of  children  and  leave  their  sub- 
stance to  their  babes  :  I,  he  adds,  /  shcdl  behold 
Thy  Presence  in  righteousness,  I  shcdl  be  sated, 
in  the  awakening,  with  Thine  image.  So  Habak- 
kuk,  /  will  not  rejoice  only,  but  shout  for  joy  ^ ; 
and  not  so  only,  but  /  will  bound  for  joy  ;  and 
this  not  for  a  time  only ;  both  words  express 
a  drawing,  yearning  *  of  the  soul,  and  this  yet 
more  and  more,  /  will  shout  for  joy  and  would 
shout  on  ;  I  will  bound  for  joy  and  would  bound 
on.  But  whence  the  source  of  this  measure- 
less unutterable  joy  ?  In  the  Lord,  the  Un- 
changeable  God,  Who  is  and  was  and  is  to 

I  The  first  future  mSH  kS,  "shall  not  flourish'' 
determines  that  all  which  follows  is  future  in  act, 
though  present  to  the  prophet's  mind. 

«Ps.  xvii.  13,  16. 

«jSj?,  like  aKa\aia>.  It  is  used  of  exultation  in 
the  holiness  of  God,  Ps.  Ix.  8.  cviii.  8.  before  God, 
Pa.  Ixviii.  6,  God  being  tlie  implied  Object,  Zeph.  iii. 
14.  Ps.  xxviil.  7.  xcvi.  12.  cxiix.  6.  of  the  evil  in  evil 
Jer.  xi.  15.  1.  11,  li.  30.  Ps.  xc\v.  3. 


19  The   Lord   God  w    chrTIt 
"  my  strength,  and  he  will      <''''•  ^^^- 
make  my  feet  like  "  hinds "  Ps-  27. 1. 

»  2  Sam.  22.  34. 

feet,  and  he  will  make  nie  Ps.  is.  33. 


come,  I  AM,  (it  is  the  incommunicable 
Name)  ;  in  the  God  of  my  salvation :  it  is 
almost  the  Name  of  Jesus  ^ ;  for  JESUS  is 
salvation,  and  the  Name  means  "  the  Lord  is 
Salvation;"  whence  the  words  are  here  ren- 
dered even  by  a  Jew '',  "  in  God  the  Author 
of  my  redemption,"  and  yet  more  sweetly  by 
a  father  ',  "  in  God  my  Jesus."  In  Him  his 
joy  begins,  to  Him  and  in  Him  it  flows  back 
and  on ;  before  he  ventures,  amid  all  the 
desolation,  to  speak  of  joy,  he  names  the 
Name  of  God,  and,  as  it  were,  stays  himself 
in  God,  is  enveloped  and  wrapped  round  in 
God;  and  I  (the  words  stand  in  this  order) 
and  I  in  the  Lord  would  shout  for  joy.  He 
comes,  as  it  were,  and  places  himself  quite 
close  to  God,  so  that  nothing,  not  even  his 
joy  should  be  between  himself  and  God ; 
"  and  I  in  the  Lord."  All  creation,  as  it  had 
failed,  ceases  to  be ;  all  out  of  God :  he 
speaks  of  nothing  but  himself  and  God,  or 
rather  himself  in  God;  and  as  He,  God, 
comes  before  his  joy,  as  its  source,  so  in  Him 
does  he  lose  himself,  with  joy  which  cannot  be 
contained,  nor  expressed,  nor  rest,  but  utters 
itself  in  the  glad  motions  of  untiring  love.  / 
uvuld  bouTulfor  joy  in  my  Saving  God.  Truly 
all  our  joy  is,  to  be  in  Him  in  Whom  is  all 
Good,  Who  is  all  Goodness  and  all  Love. 

19.  The  IjOVlm  God  is  my  strength.  The  pro- 
phet does  not  inwardly  only  exult  and 
triumph  in  God,  but  he  confesses  also  in 
words  of  praise,  that  in  Him  he  hath  all 
things,  that  He  is  All  things  in  him.  And 
as  he  had  confessed  the  Father,  under  the 
Name  whereby  He  revealed  Himself  to 
Moses,  and  the  Son,  "the  Lord  God  of  my 
salvation,"  so  he  confesses*  God  the  Holy 
Ghost,  Who,  in  us,  is  our  strength.  He  is 
our  strength,  so  that  through  Him,  we  can  do 
all  things  ;  He  is  our  strength,  so  that  without 
Him,  we  can  do  nothing  ;  He  is  our  strength, 
so  that  when  we  put  forth  strength,  we  put 
forth  nothing  of  our  own,  we  add  nothing  of 
our  own,  we  use  not  our  own  strength,  of 
which  we  have  none,  but  we  do  use  His  ;  and 
we  have  It  ever  ready  to  use,  as  if  it  were 
oair  own.     For  it  is  not  our  own  and  it  is  our 

<Thi8  is  the  force  of  the  optative  nVjK.  H^J^K 
n?Sj?l<,  recurs  in  Ps.  Ix.  8.  cviii.  8. 

6  Jesiis  in  Heb.  y>\ff\  here  j^K?'. 

«Chald.  The  Syr.  "God  my  Redeemer."  LXX. 
"  God  my  Saviour." 

'S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  D.  xviii.  32.  "To  me  what  some 
iMSS.  have;  '  I  will  rejoice  In  God  my  Jesus,'  seems 
better  than  what  they  have,  who  have  not  set  the 
Name  itself,  (but  saving)  wliioh  to  us  it  is  more  lov- 
ing and  sweeter  to  name,"  *  Rup. 


CHAPTER  III. 


223 


CHR°iST    *°  'walk  upou  mine  high 
cir.626.      places.      To   the   chief 


J  Deut.  32. 13.  &  33.  29. 


own  ;  not  our  own,  i.  e.,  not  from  or  of  our- 
selves ;  but  our  own,  since  It  is  in  us,  yea 
He  the  Lord  our  God  is  our  strenc/th,  not  with- 
out us,  for  He  is  our  strength,  but  in  us. 
And  so  he  says  further,  how  we  can  use  it  as 
our  own.  He  will  make  my  feet  like  hiruls, 
which  bound  upward  througli  His  imparted 
strength,  and,  when  scared  by  alarms  here 
below,  llee  fearless  to  their  native  rocks, 
spring  from  height  to  height,  and  at  last 
shew  themselves  on  some  high  peak,  and 
standing  on  the  Rock,  look  down  on  the 
whole  world  below  their  feet  and  upward  on 
high.  Even  so,  '  when  at  the  end  of  the 
Avorld  all  shall  fail,  and  the  love  of  many  shall 
wax  cold,  and  the  Church,  which  is  likened  to 
the  fig  tree  the  vine  and  the  ^  olive,  shall 
yield  no  fruits,  and  sweetness  shall  be  cor- 
rupted by  vanities,  and  the  oil  of  mercy  shall 
be  dried  up,  and  lamps  go  out,  and  its  pro- 
mises shall  fail  and  it  shall  lie,  having  a  show 
of  goodness,  but  denyiny  thepoicer  of  it ;  in  words 
confessing  God,  and  in  works  denying  Him  ;  and 
through  their  own  negligences,  or  the  care- 
lessness of  pastors,  the  sheep  of  Christ  shall 
perish  from  His  very  fold,  and  they  who 
should  be  strong  to  labor  ^  shall  cease,  God's 
elect  shall  joy  in  Him,  "  beholding  His  good- 
ness, and  loving  Him  in  all  things,  and  He 
will  give  them  free  afiections,  and  fervid 
longings  of  holy  love,  whereby  they  shall  not 
walk  only,  but  rim  the  ivay  of  His  command- 
ments and  prevail  over  the  enemies  of  their 
ealvation." 

1  Chiefly  from  Dion.  Comp.  S.  Jer. 

2S.  Luke  xiii.  6.  Is.  v.  1.  xxi.  33.  &c.  Rom.  xi.  17. 

8 1  Cor.  ix.  9, 10. 


singer   on    my   f  stringed 
instruments. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


t  Heb.  Neginoth,  Ps.  4,  title. 


Yet  though  this  strength  is  inward,  and 
used  by  man,  still  God  Who  gives  it.  Him- 
self guides  it.  Not  man  shall  direct  his  own 
ways,  but  He  will  make  me  to  walk  (as  on  a 
plain  way)  upon  my  high  places.  Steep  and 
slippery  places  and  crags  of  the  rocks  are 
but  ivays  to  the  safe  height  above,  to  those 
whom  God  makes  to  walk  on  them  ;  and  since 
he  has  passed  all  things  earthly,  what  are 
his  high  places,  but  the  heavenly  places,  even 
his  home,  even  while  a  pilgrim  here,  but 
now  at  the  end,  much  more  his  home,  when 
not  in  hope  only,  but  in  truth,  he  is  raised  up 
together,  and  made  to  sit  together  in  heavenly 
placets  in  Christ  Jesus  *  ? 

And  now  what  remains  then,  but  that  this 
song  of  praise  should  be  for  ever  ?  And  so  it 
is  not  without  meaning,  nor  w;is  of  old 
thought  to  be  so  ^,  that  there  stand  here,  at 
the  end,  words  which  elsewhere  in  the 
Psalms  always  stand  at  the  beginning.  Nor  is 
it  anywhere  else,  "  upon  my  stringed  instru- 
ments." To  the  chief  singer  on  my  slnnged 
instruments.  To  Him  to  Whom  all  praise  is 
due,  through  Whom  we  praise  Himself,  His 
Spirit  pleading  in  us,  for  us,  upon  my  stringed 
instruments.  He  Himself,  providing,  as  it 
were,  and  teaching  the  prelude  of  the  endless 
song,  and  by  His  spirit,  breathing  upon  the 
instrument  which  He  has  attuned,  and  it 
giving  back  faithfully,  in  union  with  the 
heavenly  Choir  with  whom  it  is  now  blended, 
the  Angelic  Hymn,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the 
Highest." 

<  Eph.  ii.  6. 

6  It  is  commented  upon  as  part  of  the  text  by  S. 
Cyril  and  S.  Jerome. 


mTEODUCTIOK 


TO 


THE   PROPHET 
ZEPHANIAE 


Zephantah  was  called  to  his  office,  at  all 
events  not  long  after  Habakkuk.  As  his 
time  was  near  to  that  of  Habakkuk,  so  his 
subject  also  was  kindred.  Both  lived  when, 
for  the  sins  of  the  reign  of  Manasseh,  God 
had  pronounced  upon  Jerusalem  an  irrever- 
sible sentence  of  destruction.  The  mission  of 
both  was  not  to  the  whole  jjcople  whose  sen- 
tence was  fixed,  but  to  the  individuals  who 
would  flee  from  the  ivrath  to  come.  The  form  of 
Habakkuk's  prophecy  was  (as  we  might  say) 
more  subjective  ;  that  of  Zephaniah,  more 
objective.  Habakkuk  exhibits  the  victory  of 
faith  in  the  oppressed  faithful ;  how  it  would 
hold  to  God  amiil  the  domestic  oppressions, 
amid  the  oppressions  of  the  Chaldees  by 
whom  those  oppressions  were  to  be  punished, 
and,  when  all  sliall  seem  to  fail,  should,  in 
the  certainty  of  its  unseen  life,  joy  in  its  God. 
The  characteristic  of  Zephaniah  is  the  declara- 
tion of  the  tenderness  of  the  love  of  God  for 
that  remnant  of  Israel,  *  the  afflicted  and  poor 
people,  whom  God  would  leave  in  the  midst  of 
them. 

Zephaniah  has,  like  Habakkuk,  to  declare 
the  judgment  on  the  world.  He  renews  the 
language  of  Joel  as  to  "  the  day  of  the  Lord," 
and  points  it  to  nations  and  individuals.  He 
opens  with  the  prophecy  of  one  wide  de- 
struction of  the  land  and  all  the  sinners  in  it, 
its  idolaters  and  its  oppressors,  its  princes,  ils 
royal  family,  its  merchants,  its  petty  plun- 
derers, who  used  rapine  under  color  of  their 
masters'  name,  and  brought  guilt  on  them- 
selves and  them.  Nothing  is  either  too  high 
or  too  low  to  escape  the  judgments  of  God. 

•  Zeph.  lil.  12.  »ii.  1.  oii.3. 

*  iii  11, 12.  •  ill.  12-17.  '  Eph.  iii.  19. 

fPs.  sx7ii.  5.  ■'JJSi". 

15 


But  tlie  visitation  on  Judah  was  part  only  of 
a  more  comprehensive  judgment.  Zephaniah 
foretells  the  wider  destruction  of  enemies  of 
God's  people  on  all  sides ;  of  Philistia, 
Moab,  Amnion,  on  each  side  oi  them,  and 
tiie  distant  nations  on  either  side,  Ethiopia 
(which  then  included  Egypt)  and  Assyria. 
All  these  particular  judgments  contain  prin- 
ciples of  God's  judgments  at  all  times.  But 
in  Zephaniah  they  seem  all  to  converge  in 
the  love  of  God  for  the  remnant  of  His 
people.  The  nation  he  calls ''a  nation  not 
desired.  Individuals  he  calls  to  God ;  *=  it  may 
be,  ye  shall  be  hid  in  the  Day  of  the  Lord's 
anger.  He  foretells  a  sifting  time,  wherein 
God  would  take  away  the  proud  among  her^; 
yet  there  follows  a  largeness  of  Gospel 
promise  and  of  love  ",  the  grounds  of  which 
are  explained  in  the  Gospel,  but  whose  ten- 
derness of  language  is  hardly  surpassed  even 
by  the  overwhelming  tenderness  of  '  the  love 
of  Christ  which  passeth  knmvledge. 

The  prophet's  own  name  "  the  Lord  hath 
hid  "  corresponds  with  this.  The  Psalmist 
had  said,  using  this  same  word,  "  ^  He  shall 
hide  me  in  His  tabernacle  in  the  day  of  evil : 
in  the  secret  of  His  tabernacle  He  shall  hide 
me;"  and,  "O  how  great  is  Thy  goodness, 
wiiich  Thou  hast  laid  up^  for  them  that  fear 
Thee.  Thou  shalt  hide  them  in  the  secret 
of  Thy  presence  from  the  pride  of  man. 
Thou  shalt  keep  them  secretly '  in  a  pavilion 
from  the  strife  of  tongues."  " "  They  take 
counsel  against  Thy  hidden  ones." 

The  date  which  Zephaniah  prefixed  to  his 
prophecy,  has  not  been  disputed ;  for  no  one 

tPs.  xxxl.  19.  20.  D.l32fn. 
»Ps.  Ixxxiii.  4.  TJlflX. 

226 


226 


INTRODU(  TION   TO 


felt  any  interest  in  denying  it.  Those  who 
disbelieve  definite  prophecy  invented  for 
themselves  a  solution,  whereby  they  thought 
that  Zephaniah's  prophecy  need  not  be 
detinite,  even  though  uttered  in  the  time 
of  Josiali ;  so  the  fact  remained  uncpiestioned. 

The  unwonted  fullness  with  wiiich  his 
descent  is  given  implies  so  much  of  that 
personal  knowledge  which  soon  fades  away, 
that  those  who  speak  of  other  titles,  as  hav- 
ing been  prefixed  to  the  books,  or  portions  of 
books  of  the  prophets,  by  later  hands,  have 
not  questioned  this.  The  only  question  is, 
whether  he  lived  before  or  in  the  middle  of 
the  reformation  by  Josiah.  Josiah,  who  came 
to  the  throne  when  eight  years  old  B.C. 
G41,  began  the  reformation  in  the  twelfth 
year  of  his  reign',  when  almost  twenty  ;  B.C. 
ti30.  The  extirpation  of  idolatry  could  not, 
it  appears,  be  accomplished  at  once.  The 
finding  of  the  ancient  copy  of  the  law,  during 
tlie  repairs  of  the  temple  in  the  eighteenth 
vear  of  his  reign "",  B.  C.  624,  gave  a  fresh 
impulse  to  the  king's  efforts.  He  then 
imited  the  people  with  himself,  Iwund  all  the 
people  present  to  the  covenant  "  to  keep  the 
law,  and  made  a  further  destruction  of  idols" 
l>efore  the  solemn  passover  in  that  year. 
Even  after  that  passover  some  abominations 
had  to  be  removed  p.  It  has  been  thought 
that  the  words,  1/  v:iU  cut  off  the  remnant  of 
Baal  from  this  place,  imply  that  the  worship 
of  Baal  had  already  in  some  degree  been  re- 
moved, and  that  God  said,  that  He  would 
complete  what  had  been  begun.  But  the 
emphasis  seems  to  be  rather  on  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  destruction,  as  we  should  say, 
that  He  would  efface  every  remnant  of  Baal, 
than  to  refer  to  any  effort  wliich  had  been 
made  by  human  authority  to  destroy  it. 

The  prophet  joins  together,  I  will  cat  off  the 
remnant  of  Baid,  the  name  of  the  Chemarim. 
The  cutting  off  the  name  of  the  Chemarim,  or 
idolatrous  priests,  is  like  that  of  Hosea  "■,  I 
wiU  take  avny  the  names  of  Baalim  out  of  her 
mouth,  and  th^y  shall  no  more  be  remembered  by 
their  name.  As  the  cutting  off  of  the  name  of 
the  Chemarim  means  their  being  utterly  ob- 
literated, so,  probably,  does  the  cuttinf/  off  the 
remnant  of  Baai.  The  worship  of  Baal  was 
cut  off,  not  through  Josiah,  but  (as  Zephaniah 
prophesied)  through  the  captivity.  Jeremiah 
asserts  its  continuance  during  his  long  pro- 
phetic office'. 

In  the  al)sence  of  any  direct  authority  to 
tiie  contrary,  the  description  of  idolatry  by 
Zephaniah  would  seem  to  belong  to  the 
period,  before  the  meiisures  to  abolish  it  were 
begun.  He  speaks  as  if  everything  were 
fuU  of  idolatry ',  the  worship  of  Baal,  the 

>2Chr.  xxxiv.  3-7. 
■»  2  Kgs  xxii.  2  Chr.  xxxiv.  s-28. 
"2  Kgs  xxiii.  3.  2Chr.  xxxv.  :U. 
•2  Kgs  xxiii.  4-2<i.  •>  f'hr.  xxxiv.  33. 
p2  Kgs  xxiii.  24, 


worship  of  the  host  of  heaven  upon  the 
housetops,  swearing  by  Malcham,  and  prob- 
al)ly  the  clothing  witii  strange  apparel. 

The  state  also  was  as  corrupt "  <is  the  wor- 
ship. Princes  and  judges,  priests  and  pro- 
phets were  all  alike  in  sin  ;  the  judges  dis- 
torted tlie  law  between  man  and  man,  as  the 
priests  profaned  all  which  related  to  God. 
The  princes  were  roaring  lions ;  the 
judges,  evening  wolves,  ever  famished,  hun- 
gering for  new  prey.  This  too  would 
scarcely  have  been,  when  Josiah  was  old 
enough  to  govern  in  his  own  person.  Both 
idolatry  and  perversion  of  justice  were  con- 
tinued on  from  the  reign  of  his  father  Amon. 
Both,  when  old  enough,  he  removed.  God 
Himself  gives  him  the  praise,  that  he  "did 
judgment  ami  justice,  then  it  was  we//  with  him; 
he  judged  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy,  then 
it  was  u'cll  with  him;  was  not  (his  to  know  Me  f 
saith  the  Lord.  His  conversion  was  in  the 
eighth  year  of  his  reign.  Then,  while  he  was 
yet  youwj,  he  began  to  .scfA-  after  the  God  of 
David  his  father. 

The  mention  of  the  /.mjf'.s  children  ",  whom, 
(iod  says,  He  would  punish  in  the  great  day 
of  His  visitation,  does  not  involve  any  later 
ilate.  They  might,  anyliow  have  been 
brothers  or  uncles  of  the  king  Josiah.  But, 
more  probably,  God  declares  that  no  rank 
should  be  exempt  from  the  judgments  of 
that  day.  He  knew  too  that  tiie  sons  of 
Josiah  would,  for  their  great  sins,  be  then 
punished.  The  sun  of  the  temporal  rule  of 
the  house  of  David  set  in  unmitigated 
wickedness  and  sorrow.  Of  all  its  kings 
after  Josiah,  it  is  said,  they  did  evil  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord;  some  were  distinguished 
by  guilt ;  all  had  miserable  ends;  some  of 
them  aggravated  misery. 

Zephaniah  then  probably  finished  his 
course  before  that  12th  year  of  Josiah,  (for 
this  prophecy  is  one  whole)  and  so  just  be- 
fore Jeremiah  was,  in  Josiah's  loth  year, 
called  to  his  office,  which  lie  fulfilled  for 
half  a  century,  perhaps  for  the  whole  age  of 
man. 

The  foreground  of  the  prophecy  of  Zepha- 
niah remarkably  coincides  with  that  of  Ha- 
bakkuk.  i^phaniah  presupposes  that  pro- 
phecy and  fills  it  up.  Habakkuk  had  pro- 
l)hesied  the  great  wasting  and  di-struction 
through  the  Chald-Tans,  and  then  their 
destruction.  That  invasion  was  to  extend 
beyond  Judah  (for  it  was  said  he  .'<h(dl  smff  at 
kings  *),  but  w  as  to  include  it.  The  instru- 
ment of  God  having  been  named  by  Habak- 
kuk, Zephaniah  does  not  even  allude  to  him. 
Rather  he  brings  before  Judah  the  other 
side,    the    agency    of   God    Himself.    God 

1  Zeph.  i.  4.  '  Hos.  ii.  17. 

•  Jer.  ii.  8.  vU.  9.  xi.  13.  xix.  5.  xxxii.  29. 
M.4.  6.  "iii.  3,  4. 

'  Jer.  xxii.  15, 16.  "See  be!,  on  Zepij.  i.  8. 

»  Hab.  i.  10. 


ZEPHA^■IAH. 


22; 


would  not  hare  them  forget  Himself  in  His 
instruments.  Hence  all  is  attributed  to  God. 
■'  /  icill  utterhj  cunsume  all  thtiK/a  from  off  the 
land,  saith  the  Lord.  I  will  consiijiw  man  and 
beast ;  I  ivill  constone  the  foivis  of  the  heaven, 
and  the  fishes  of  the  sea.  and  the  stumblincjblocks 
irith  the  iricked,  and  I  will  cat  off  man  from 
the  land,  saith  the  Lord.  L  icill  also  stretch 
ant  Mine  hand  upon  Judah;  and  I  will  cut 
off  the  remnant  of  Baal.  In  the  day  of  the 
Lord's  sacrifice,  T  uill  punish  the  princes,  etc. 
Li  the  same  dai/  also  I  will  ptinish  all  those 
tOe.  /  uill  search  Jerusalem  with  candles. 
The  great  day  of  the  Lord  is  near,  and  I  will 
bring  distress  upon,  <tr.  0  Canaan,  land  of 
the  Philistines,  I  ivill  even  destroy  thee.  The 
Lord  will  be  terrible  upon  them.  Ye  Ethio- 
pians also,  ye  shall  be  slain  by  My  sioord. 
And  He  will  destroy  Nineveh.  The  wicked 
of  the  people  had  *  said  in  their  heart,  The 
Lord  will  not  do  good,  neither  will  He  do  ecil. 
Zephaniah  inculcates,  throughout  his  brief 
propliecy,  that  there  is  nothing,  good  or 
evil,  of  which  He  is  not  the  Doer  or  (Jver- 
ruler. 

But  the  extent  of  that  visitation  is  co-ex- 
tensive with  that  prophesied  by  Habak- 
kuk.  Zephaniah  indeed  speaks  rather  of  the 
effects,  the  desolation.  But  the  countries, 
whose  desolation  or  defeat  he  foretells,  are 
the  lands  of  those,  whom  the  Chaldseans  in- 
vaded, worsted,  in  part  desolated.  Beside 
Judah,  Zephaniah's  subjects  are  Philistia, 
Moab,  Amnion,  Ethiopia  (which  included 
Egypt),  Nineveh.  And  here  he  makes  a 
remarkable  distinction  corresponding  with 
the  events.  Of  the  Ethiopians  or  Egyptians, 
he  says  only,  '^  ye  shall  he  slain  by  My  sivord. 
Of  Assyria  he  foretells  ^  the  entire  and  last- 
ing desolation  ;  the  capitals  of  her  palaces  in 
the  dust ;  her  cedar-work  bare  ;  flocks,  wild- 
beasts,  pelican  and  hedgehog,  taking  up  their 
abode  in  her.  Moab  and  Amnion  and  Philis- 
tia have  at  first  sight  the  two-fold,  apparently 
contradictory,  lot ;  the  remnant  of  My  people, 
God  says,  °  shcdl  possess  them  ;  the  coast  shall 
be  for  the  remnant  of  the  house  of  Judah  ; 
and,  that  they  should  be  a  perpetual  desola- 
tion. This  also  was  to  take  place,  after  God 
had  brought  back  His  people  out  of  captivity. 
Now  all  these  countries  were  conquered  by 
the  Chaldseans,  of  which  at  the  time  there 
was  no  human  likelihood.  But  they  were 
not  swept  away  by  one  torrent  of  conquest. 
Moab  and  Amnion  were,  at  first,  allies  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  and  rejoiced  at  the  miseries 

J  Zeph.  i.  2,  4,  8,  9, 13,  U,  17.  ii.  5, 11, 12,  13. 

•  i.  12.  »ii.  12.  >>ii.  13-15. 

"ii.  9. 

*Amm.  Mai'cell.  xxiii.  22.  The  Ninos  taken  by 
Meherdates  A.D.  59.  was  on  the  site  of  tlie  old 
Ninos,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tigris.  Tac.  Ann. 
xii.  13. 

•The  existence  of  the  Nineve  Claudiopolis  is  at- 
tested by  coins.  See  Vaux  in  Smith'.s  Diet,  of 
Greek  and  Roman  Geogr.  v.  Ninus. 


of  the  people,  whose  jarophets  had  foretold 
their  destruction.  But,  beyond  this,  Nineveh 
was  at  that  time  more  powerful  than  Egypt. 
Human  knowledge  could  not  have  discerned, 
that  Egj'pt  should  suffer  defeat  only,  Nine- 
veh should  be  utterly  destroyed.  It  was  the 
wont  of  the  great  conqnerors  of  the  East,  not 
to  destroy  capitals,  but  to  re-people  them 
with  subjects  obedient  to  themselves.  Nine- 
veh had  held  Bal)ylon  by  viceroys ;  in  part 
she  had  held  it  under  her  own  immediate 
rule.  Why  should  not  Babylon,  if  she  con- 
quered Nineveh,  use  the  same  policy  ? 
Humanly  speaking,  it  was  a  mistake  that 
she  did  not.  It  would  have  been  a  strong 
place  against  the  inroads  of  the  Medo- 
Persian  empire.  The  Persians  saw  its  value 
so  far  for  military  purposes,  as  to  build  some 
fort  there  ^ ;  and  the  Emperor  Claudias, 
when  he  made  it  a  colony,  felt  the  import- 
ance of  the  well-chosen  situation  ^.  It  is 
replaced  by  Mosul,  a  city  of  some  "  ^  20000  to 
40000"  inhabitants.  Even  after  its  destruc- 
tion, it  was  easier  to  rebuild  it  than  to  build 
a  city  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Tigris. 
God  declared  that  it  should  be  desolate.  The 
prediction  implied  destruction  the  most  abso- 
lute. It  and  its  palaces  were  to  be  the  abode 
of  animals  which  flee  the  presence  of  man ; 
and  it  perished  s. 

Again,  what  less  likely  than  that  Philistia, 
which  had  hud  the  rule  over  Israel,  strong 
in  its  almost  impregnable  towns,  three  of 
whose  five  cities  were  named  for  their  strength, 
Gaza,  strong;  Ashdod,  mighty ;  Ekron,  c/eep- 
rooting ;  one  of  which,  Ashdod,  about  this 
very  time,  resisted  for  29  years  the  whole 
power  of  Egypt,  and  endured  the  longest 
siege  of  any  city  of  ancient  or  modern  times 
— what,  to  human  foresight,  less  likely,  than 
that  Philistia  should  come  under  the  power 
of  the  remnant  of  the  house  of  Judah,  when  re- 
turned from  their  captivity  ?  Yet  it  is  abso- 
lutely foretold  ''.  The  sea-coast  shall  be  for  the 
remnant  of  the  house  of  Judah;  they  shall  feed 
thereupon:  in  the  houses  of  Ashkelon  they  shall 
lie  down  in  the  evening.  For  the  Lord  their  God, 
shall  visit  them,  and  restore  their  captivity.  As 
unlikely  Avas  it,  that  Moab  and  Ammon,  who 
now  had  entered  upon  the  territory  of  the 
two  and  a  half  tribes  beyond  Jordan,  should 
themselves  become  the  possession  of  the  rem- 
nant of  Judah.     Yet  so  it  was. 

It  is  then  lost  labor,  even  for  their  own 
ends,  when  moderns,  who  believe  not  definite 
prophecy,  would  find  out  some  enemy' whom 

fSee  Keith  Johnstone,  Diet,  of  Geography  Jed. 
1864,  and  ed.  18fi7. 

gSee  on  N.ihiim,  ab.  pp.  122-125.  i"!!.  7. 

'The  POic  Paul  Pezron  (Essai  d'un  Comm.  lit.  et. 
hist,  sur  les  proph^tes  1697)  assumed  three  irrup- 
tions of  the  Scythians :  the  first  prophesied  by 
Amos  and  Joel;  the  second,  in  the  roign  of  Josiali 
about  631.  B.C.;  the  third,  prophesied  (bethinks) 
by  Ezek.  xxxviii.  xxxix.  ISaseless  a.s  all  this  is, 
tliv  oharaftcristic  of   lUv  lute   writoi-.s   is  not  the 


228 


INTRODlT•TIO^'  TO 


Zephaniah  may  have  had  in  mind  in  fore- 
telling; tliis  wide  destruction.  It  still  remains 
that  all  that  Zephaniah  says  beforehand  was 
i'ulfiUed.  It  is  allowed  that  he  could  not 
fnretell  this  through  any  human  foresight. 
The  avowed  object  in  looking  out  for  some 
power,  formidable  in  Zephaniah's  time,  is, 
that  he  could  not,  by  any  human  knowledge, 
be  speaking  of  the  C'haldfeans.  But  the 
words  stand  there.  They  were  written  by 
Zephaniali,  at  a  time  when  confessedly  no 
liuman  knowledge  could  have  enabled  man 
to  predict  this  of  the  C'haldaeans ;  nay,  no 
human  knowledge  would  have  enabled  any- 
one to  predict  so  absolutely  a  desolation  so 
wide  and  so  circumstantially  delineated. 

Tliat  scho'il  however  has  not  been  willing 
to  acquiesce  in  this,  that  Zephaniah  docs  not 
speak  of  the  instrument,  through  whom  this 
desolation  was  eliccted.  They  will  have  it, 
that  they  kn^w,  tluit  Zephaniah  had  in  liis 
mind  one,  who  was  not  the  enemy  of  the  Jews 
or  of  ^^ineveh  or  of  Moab  and  Ammon,  and 
through  whom  no  even  transient  desolation 
of  these  countries  was  efilccted.  The  whole 
argument  is  a  simple  begging  of  the  question. 
'■"The  Egyptians  cannot  be  meant;  for  the 
Cusiiites,  wlio  are  threatened ',  themselves 
Ijelimg  to  the  Egyptian  army  ™,  and  Psam- 
metichus  only  besieged  Ashdod  wiiicli  he 
also  took,  without  emblazoning  ought  greater 
on  his  shield ".  Tl>e  Chald;eans  come  still 
less  into  account,  because  they  did  not  found 
an  independent  kingdom  until  B.  C.  G2o,  nor 
threaten  Judsea  until  after  .Josiah's  death. 
On  tlie  other  hand  an  unsuspicious  and  well- 
accredited  account  has  been  preserved  to  us, 
that  somewhere  about  this  time  the  Scyth- 
ians overflowed  Palestine  too  with  their 
liosts.  Herodotus  relates  ",  that  the  Scyth- 
ians, after  they  had  disturbed  Cyaxares  at 
the  siege  of  Nineveh,  turned  toward  Egypt; 
and  when  they  had  already  arrived  in  Pales- 
tine, were  pei'suaded  by  Psammetichus  tore- 
turn,  and  in  their  return  plumlered  a  temple 
in  Ascalon." 

It  is  true  that  Herodotus  says  that "'  a  large 
Scythian  army  did,  under  their  king  Madyes, 
burst  into  Asia  in  pursuit  of  the  Cimmerians 
and  entered  Media, — keeping  Mount  Cauca- 
.sus  on  the  right,"  and  tliat  "  the  Medes  op- 
posed and  fought  them  and,  being  defeated, 
lost  their  rule''." 

It  is  true  also  that  Herodotus  relates,  tliat 
"•ithey  went  thence  toward  Egypt,  and  when 
ihey  were  in  Palestine-Syria,  Psammeticlius 
king  of  Egypt,  meeting  them,  turned  tiiem 
by  gifts  and  entreaties  from  going  furtiier; 

-'■I'-ctiou  of  the  Soytlii:iiif  as  tlie  object  ol  tfie 
|)ii>phfcy  (wliirli  HtTi- a  tiling  indiH'erent)  but  tlie 
gi'Oimda  allcgi'il  fur  tliut  seJpition. 

kUitzig.  >ij.  12. 

"•  Jer.  xlvi.  9. 

"IlfTod.  il.  I.-.7.  'lb.  I.  111... 

Plh.  i.  m:;,  im.  tlb.  lu.-). 


that  when  in  their  return  they  were  in  Asca- 
lon, a  city  of  Syria,  whereas  most  of  the 
Scythians  passed  by  witliout  harming  oui;ht, 
some  few  of  them,  being  left  behind,  plun- 
dered the  temple  of  Venus  Ourania."  In  this 
place  also,  it  is  true,  Herodotus  uses  a  vague 
exijression,  that  "''for  28  years  the  Scythians 
ruled  over  Asia,  and  that  all  things  were 
turned  upside  down  by  their  violence  and 
contempt.  For  beside  the  tributes,  they  ex- 
acted from  eath  what  they  laid  ujxm  each, 
and  beside  the  tribute,  they  drove  together 
and  took  what  each  had.  And  most  of  thera 
Cyaxares  and  the  Medes  entertaining  as 
guests,  intoxicated  and  slew.  And  then  the 
Medes  recovered  their  emiaire  and  became 
masters  oj  what  they  held  before." 

But,  apart  from  the  inconsistency  of  the 
jjeriod  here  assigned  to  their  power,  with 
other  history,  it  appears  from  the  account 
itself,  that  by  "all  Asia"  Herodotus  means 
"all  upper  Asia,"  as  he  expresses  himself 
more  accurately,  when  relating  the  expe- 
dition of  Darius  against  them.  '"Darius 
wished  to  take  revenge  on  the  Scythians, 
because  tliey  first,  making  an  inroad  into 
Media  and  defeating  in  battle  those  who  went 
against  them,  began  the  wrong.  For  the 
Scythians,  as  I  liave  before  said,  ruled  npper 
Asia  for  28  years.  For,  pursuing  the  Cim- 
merians, they  made  an  inroad  into  Asia, 
putting  down  the  Medes  from  their  rule ;  for 
these, before  the  Scythians  came,  ruled  Asia." 
The  Asia  then,  which  Herodoius  sujiposes 
the  Scythians  to  liave  ruled,  is  co-extensive 
Avith  the  Asia  Avhich  he  supposes  the  ^ledes 
to  have  ruled  previously.  But  this  was  all 
in  the  North  ;  for  having  said  that  "  '  Phra- 
ortes  subdued  Asia,  going  from  one  nation  to 
another,"  he  adds  that,  having  brought  Per- 
sia under  his  yoke,  "  he  led  an  army  against 
those  Assyrians  who  had  Nineveh,  and  there 
lost  most  of  his  army  and  his  own  life."  Apart 
then  from  the  fabulousness  of  this  supposed 
empire,  established  by  Phraortes",  (Cyax- 
ares having  been  the  real  founder  of  the 
Median  empire,)  it  is  plain  th:rt,  according  to 
Herodotus  iiimself,  the  Asia,  in  which  the 
Scythians  plundered  and  received  tribute, 
were  the  lands  North  of  .\ssyria.  The  expedi- 
tion against  Egypt  stands  as  an  insulated  pre- 
datory excursion,  the  object  of  which  liaving 
been  mere  plunder,  they  were  bought  off  by 
Psammetichus  and  returned  (he  tells  us)  do- 
ing no  mischief*'  in  their  way,  excej)t  that  a 
few  lingerers  plundered  a  temple  at  Ascalon. 
It  was  to  Media  that  they  first  came;  the 
Medes,    wlioiu   they  defeated  ;    the   Median 

f  i.  lilt'..  He  use-1  t!ie  saiiu'  wide  exprossion  as  to 
Cyrus,  alter  the  del'ent  of  Croesus.  "Having  siib- 
duod  him,  he  thus  ruled  over  nil  .Vsia,"  (i.  130); 
whoreas  he  had  not  yet  conquered  Babylon. 

•lb.  i.  100.  'iv.  4. 

"1.102.  See  above  p.  Un.  and  RnwlinMon  Il'^rod. 
qiioled  ib.  >  oaiMiuji-.    U.  i.  I   c 


ZEPHAXIAII. 


229 


umpire  to  which  they  succeeded  ;  Cyaxaies 
and  the  ^Medes,  who  treacherously  destroyed 
most  of  them  ;  the  Medes,  whose  empire  was 
restored  by  the  destruction  of  some,  and  the 
return  of  the  rest  to  their  own  hind.  With 
this  agrees  the  more  detailed  account  of  the 
Scytliians  by  Strabo,  who  impeaches  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  accounts  of  Herodotus  ".  Hav- 
ing spoken  of  the  migrations  of  leadei-s,  and 
by  name,  of  "  '^  Madyes  the  Scythian  "  (un- 
der whom  Herodotus  states  the  irruption  to 
have  taken  place),  he  says,  "  ^  the  Sac*  made 
the  like  inroad  as  the  Cimmerians  and  the 
Trerians,  some  Ion'  er,  some  nigh  at  hand ; 
for  they  took  possession  of  Bactriana,  and  ac- 
quired the  best  land  of  Armenia,  which  they 
also  left,  named  after  them  Sacasene,  and  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  to  the  Cappad>  cians  and  es- 
pecially those  on  the  Euxinc,  whom  they 
now  call  of  Pontus  (Pontians).  But  the  gen- 
erals of  the  Persians  who  were  at  the  time 
there,  attacking  them  b}'  night,  while  they 
were  making  a  feast  upon  the  spoils,  utterly 
extirpated  them."  The  direction  which  he 
says  they  took,  is  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Cimmerians,  whom  Herodotus  says  that  they 
followed.  "  ^  The  Cimmerians,  whom  they 
also  call  Trerians,  or  some  tribe  of  them, 
often  overrun  the  right  side  of  the  Pontus, 
sometimes  making  inroads  on  the  Paphlago- 
nians,  at  others,  on  the  Phrygians.  Olten 
also  the  Cimmerians  and  Trerians  made  the 
like  attacks,  and  they  say  that  the  Trerians 
and  Cobus  [their  king]  were,  at  last  expelled 
by  Madyes  king  of  the  [Scythians]."  Strabo 
also  explains,  what  is  meant  by  the  tributes, 
of  which  Herodotus  speaks.  He  is  speaking 
of  the  Nomadic  tribes  of  the  Scythians  gener- 
ally :  "  *  Tribute  was,  to  allow  them  at  certain 
stated  times,  to  overrun  the  country  [for  pas- 
turage] and  carry  off  booty.  But  when  they 
roamed  beyond  the  agreement,  there  arose 
war,  and  again  reconciliations  and  renewed 
war.  Such  was  the  life  of  the  nomads,  always 
setting  on  their  neighbors  and  then  being 
reconciled  again." 

The  Scythians  then  were  no  object  of  fear 
to  the  Jews,  whom  they  passed  wholly  un- 
noticed and  probably  unconscious  of  their  ex- 
istence in  their  mountain  country,  while  they 
once  and  once  only  swept  unharming  along 
the  fertile  tracks  on  the  sea-shore,  then  occu- 
pied by  the  old  'enemies  and  masters  of  the 
Jews,  the  Philistines.  But  Herodotus  must 
also  have  been  misinformed  as  to  the  length 
of  time,  during  which  they  settled  in  Media, 
or  at  least  as  to  the  period  during  which  their 
presence  had  any  sensible  efiects.  For  Cyax- 
ares,  whom  he  represents  as  having  raised 

""More  readily  might  we  believe  Homer  and 
Hesiod  in  their  tales  of  heroes,  and  the  tragic 
poets,  than  Ctesias  and  Herodotus  and  Hellanicus 
and  others  of  the  same  sort."  xi.  6.  3. 

••^i.  3.  21.  Jxi.  8.  4. 

»Prol.  LS.  21.  'xi.  8.  3. 


the  siege  of  Nineveli,  in  ctmsequence  of  tlie 
inroad  of  the  Scythians  into  Media,  came  to 
the  throne,  according  to  tlie  numbers  of  He- 
rodotus, B.  C.  633.  For  the  reign  of  Cyax- 
ares  having  lasted  according  to  him  40  vears  ^ 
that  of  Astyages35'=,  and  that  of  Cyrus  29*, 
these  104  vears,  counted  back  fromtlie  known 
date  ol  the  death  of  Cyrus,  B.  C.  529  or  530, 
bring  us  to  B.  C.  G33  or  636  as  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Cyaxares.  But  the  invasion 
of  the  Scythians  could  not  have  taken  place 
at  tlie  first  accession  of  Cyaxares,  since,  ac- 
cording to  Herodotus,  he  ha  1  already  defeated 
the  Assyrians,  and  was  1  esieging  Nineveh, 
when  the  Scythians  burst  into  Media.  Ac- 
cording to  Herodotus,  moreover,  Cyaxares 
"  ^  first  distributed  Asiatics  into  troops,  and 
first  ordered  that  each  should  be  apart,  spear- 
men, and  archers  and  cavalry ;  for  before,  all 
were  mixed  pele-mele  together."  Yet  it 
would  not  be  in  a  very  short  time,  that  those 
who  had  been  wont  to  fight  in  a  confused 
mass,  could  be  formed  into  an  orderly  and 
disciplined  army.  We  could  not  then,  any- 
how, date  the  Scythian  inroad,  earlier  than 
the  second  or  third  year  of  Cyaxares.  On 
the  other  hand  the  date  of  the  capture  of 
Nineveh  is  fixed  by  the  commencement  of 
the  Babylonian  Empire,  Babylon  falling  to 
Nabopolassar.  The  duration  of  that  empire 
is  measured  by  the  reigns  of  its  kings  ^,  of 
whom,  according  to  Ptolemy's  Canon,  Nabo- 
polassar reigned  21  years;  Nebuchadnezzar, 
(there  called  Nabocollasar)  43;  Evil-Mero- 
dach  f  Iluaroadam)  2  ;  Neriglissar  (Niricasso- 
lassar)  4 ;  Nabunahit  (Nabonadius  with 
whom  his  son  Belshazzar  was  co-regent)  17  ; 
in  all  87  years ;  and  it  ends  in  an  event  of 
known  date,  the  capture  of  Babvlon  by  Cyrus, 
B.  C.  538.  The  addition  of  the  87  years  of 
the  duration  of  the  empire  to  that  date  car- 
ries us  back  to  the  date  assigned  to  the  cap- 
ture of  Nineveh  by  Nabopolassar  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Cyaxares,  B.  C.  625.  The  capture 
then  of  Nineveh  was  removed  by  8  or  9  years 
only  from  that,  which  Herodotus  gives  as 
the  time  of  the  accession  of  Cyaxares,  and 
since  the  attack  ui^on  Nineveh  can  hardly 
have  been  in  his  first  year,  and  the  last  siege 
probably  occupied  two,  the  28  years  of  Scyth- 
ian dominion  would  dwindle  down  into  some- 
thing too  inconsiderable  for  history.  Probably 
they  represent  some  period  from  their  first 
incursion  into  Media,  to  the  final  return  of 
the  survivors,  during  which  they  marauded 
in  Media  and  Upper  Asia.  The  mode,  by 
which  "  the  greater  part "  (Herodotus  tells 
us)  were  destroyed,  intoxication  and  sub- 
sequent murder  at  a  banquet,  implies  that 

i>  Herod,  i.  106.      « lb.  130.      a  lb.  214.      "  lb.  103. 

'Berosus,  in  his  Chaldaean  history,  agrees  as  to 
these  dates,  only  adding  9  months  for  the  son  of 
Neriglissar,  Laborosoarchod,  in  Jos.  Ant.  x.  11.  com- 
bined witn  cent.  Apion.  i.  20,  and  Eus.  Pr»p. 
Evang.  ix.  40. 


2:50 


]Nri;()i)r(  Tlox  to 


their  numbers  were  no  longer  consider- 
able. 

History,  with  the  exception  of  that  one 
marauding  expedition  toward  Egypt,  is  en- 
tirely silent  as  to  any  excursions  of  the 
Scythian.*,  except  in  the  North.  No  extant 
document  hints  at  any  approach  of  theirs  to 
any  country  mentioned  by  Zephaniah.  There 
was  no  reason  to  expect  any  inroail  from 
them.  With  the  exception  of  Bactriana, 
which  lies  some  18  degrees  East  of  Media  and 
itself  extended  over  some  7  degrees  of  longi- 
tude, the  countries  mentioned  by  Strabo  lie, 
to  what  tiie  kings  of  Assyria  mention  as  the 
far  North,  Armenia,  and  thence  they  stretched 
out  to  the  West,  yet  keeping  mostly  to  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Euxine.  Considering 
the  occasion  of  the  mention  of  the  invasion 
of  the  Scythians,  the  relief  which  their  in- 
vasion of  Media  gave  to  Nineveh,  it  is  even 
remarkable  that  there  is  no  mention  of  any 
ravages  of  theirs  throughout  Mesopotamia  or 
Babylonia.  Zepiianiah  speaks,  not  of  ma- 
rauding, but  of  permanent  desolation  of 
Assyria,  Philistia,  Moab,  Amnion,  and  of  de- 
structive war  also  on  Etliiopia.  There  is  no 
reason  to  think  that  the  Scythians  approached 
any  of  these  lands,  except  Piiilistia,  whicli 
they  pa.ssed  through  unharming.  The  sacred 
writers  mention  even  smaller  nations,  by 
whom  God  chastised  Judah  in  their  times, 
bands  of  the  Syrians,  of  Moab,  of  the  children  of 
Ammon,  as  well  as  Assyria  and  Babylon. 
Ezekiel"*,  when  he  prophesies  of  the  inroad 
of  Northern  nations,  Meshech  and  Tubal, 
Cxoraer  and  Togarmah,  speaks  of  it  as  far  re- 
moved in  the  future,  prophesies  not  their  de- 
stroying but  their  own  destruction. 

It  does  not  affect  the  argument  from 
prophecy,  whether  Zephaniah  did  or  did  not 
know,  through  whom  the  events,  whicli  he 
predicted,  should  be  brought  to  pass.  But, 
setting  aside  the  question  whether  he  had 
from  the  prophecies  of  Ilabakkuk  and  Isaiah, 
a  human  knowledge  of  the  Chaldees,  or 
whether  God  instructed  him,  how  what  he 
foretold  should  be  accomplislied,  or  whether 
( rod  spread  out  before  his  mind  that  which 
was  to  be,  apart  from  time,  in  prophetic 
vision,  Zephaniah  did  picture  what  came  to 
pa.ss.  But  it  is  an  intense  })aradox,  when 
men,  25U0  years  after  his  date,  assert,  not 
only  that  Zeplianiah's  prophecies  had  no 
relation  to  the  Chaldees,  in  whom  his  words 
were  fulfilled,  and  who  are  the  objects  of  the 
prophecies  of  Habakkuk  and  Jeremiah,  but 

lEzek.  xxxviii.  xxxix. 

b  The  name  2(cu0oiroAis,  which  Josephus  pays  the 
Greeks  gave  to  Bi'lhslmn,  (Ant.  12.  8.  .5)  and  whioli 
they  alone  can  have  niven,  is  manifestly,  as  bcinj; 
•  ireek,  too  late  to  contain  any  tradition  as  to  tiie 
l.rosfnee  of  the  Si'ythians  in  Palestine, three  centu- 
ries before  the  Greok'',  under  Alexander,  became 
acquainted  with  Palestine.  8.  Jerome  regarded  it 
as  a  con-iiption  oiSuccoth.  He  says  on  Gen.  xxxiii. 
17,   "In   the    Hebrew   i-   load   Suroth   (njD).     But 


thai  (hey  know,  what  mvsl  h.ave  lieen,  and 
(as  they  assert)  what  uvs  in  the  prophet's 
mind ;  and  that  he  had  in  his  mind,  nol 
those  in  whom  his  word>  were  fultilled,  Init 
others  in  whom  they  were  not  lultilled,  to 
whom  he  does  not  allude  in  one  single  trait, 
who  left  no  trace  behind  them,  and  whose 
march  along  an  enemy's  tract  on  the  sea- 
coast  was  of  so  little  account,  that  no  con- 
temporary historian,  nor  Josephus,  even 
alludes  to  it  ^. 

It  has  been  already  observed,  that  each 
prophet  connects  himself  with  one  or  more 
of  those  before  them.  They  use  the  language 
of  their  predecessoi's  in  some  one  or  more 
sentences,  apparently  with  this  precise  object. 
They  had  overflowing  fullness  of  words;  yet 
they  chose  some  saying  of  the  former  pro- 
phet, as  a  link  to  those  before  them.  We 
have  seen  this  in  Amos',  then  in  Obadiah", 
who  uses  the  language  of  Balaam,  David, 
Joel,  Amos ;  of  Jeremiah,  in  regard  to 
Obadiah';  of  Micah  to  his  great  predecessor, 
Micaiah,  and  Amos'";  of  Jeremiah,  Habak- 
kuk, Zephaniah,  Ezekiel  to  Micah " ;  of 
Naluun  to  Jonah";  and  of  Isaiah  (I  think), 
to  Nahuni  p  ;  of  Habakkuk,  to  Isaiah  and 
Micah  '.  It  is  in  conformity  with  this,  that 
Zephaniah,  even  more  than  those  before  him, 
uses  language  of  earlier  prophets.  It  arises, 
not  (as  people  have  been  pleased  to  say)  from 
any  declension  in  the  originality  of  prophets 
at  his  date,  but  from  his  subject.  It  has  been 
said,  "  If  any  one  desire  to  see  the  utterances 
of  the  prophets  in  brief  space,  let  him  read 
through  this  brief  Zephaniah."  The  office  of 
Zephaniah  was  not  to  forewarn  of  any  instru- 
ment of  God's  judgments.  The  destruction 
is  prophesied,  not  the  destroyer.  His  pro- 
phecy is,  more  than  those  of  most  other  pro- 
phets, apart  from  time,  to  the  end  of  time. 
He  prophesies  of  what  shall  be,  not  when  it 
shall  be,  nor  by  luhom.  He  does  not  "expect" 
or  "  anticipate  "  or  "forebode!"  He  abso- 
lutely declares  the  future  condition  of  certain 
nations;  but  not  the  how  of  its  coming  to 
pass.  If  Nineveh,  Edom  and  Ammon  had 
not  been  desolated,  his  prophecy  would  have 
been  falsified;  each  fulfillment  became  the 
earnest  of  a  larger  fulfillment ;  but  all  shall 
not  be  completed  until  the  earth  and  all  thai  i.s' 
therein  shall  be  burned  up. 

It  belongs  to  this  character  of  Zephaniah, 
that  he  gathers  from  other  prophets  before 
him,  especially  Isaiah,  Joel,  Amos,  Habak- 
kuk, expressions  relating  to,  or  bearing  on, 

there  is  to  this  day  a  city  beyond  Jordan  into  which 
this  name  enters  in  part,  Scythopolis."  Ousestt. 
Hebr.  ad  Gen.  [0pp.  iii.  358.  ed.  Vail.]  quoted  ny  Re- 
land,  p.  !JiJ2. 

'.See  Introd.  to  Joel  vol.  i.  p.  143. 

kSee  Introd.  to  Obadiah  vol.  i.  pp.  34.V3.51. 

'  lb.  pp.  ;U3-347. 

"See  Introd  to  Micah  ab.  p.  6.  "lb. 

•  See  Introd.  to  Nahum  flh.  p.  105. 

Flh.  12,j.  *  lb.  168. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


231 


judgment  to  come,  or  again  to  that  his  other 
great  subject,  God's  love  for  the  remnant  of 
His  people ;  yet  mostl}'  in  fragments  only 
and  allusively.  They  were  key-notes  for 
those  who  knew  tlie  prophets.  Thus,  in  call- 
ing on  man  to  hushed  submission  before 
God,  because  a  day  of  judgment  was  coming, 
he  blends  into  one  verse  ^  Habakkuk's  call, 
^  hush  before  the  Lord,  and  the  warning 
words  of  Isaiah,  Joel,  Obadiah,  ^  nigh  is  the 
day  of  the  Lord ;  the  image  of  the  sacrifice, 
which  God  had  commanded,  and  the  remark- 
able word,  consecrated,  of  God's  instruments. 
The  allusion  is  contained  in  single  words, 
sacrifice,  consecrated;  the  context  in  which 
they  are  embodied  is  different.  The  idea 
only  is  the  same,  that  Almighty  God  maketh, 
as  it  were,  a  sacrifice  to  Himself  of  those  who 
incorrigibly  rebel  against  Him.  Else  Isaiah 
draws  out  the  image  at  much  length  ;  "  A 
sword  of  the  Lord  is  full  of  bloods;  it  is  smeared 
with  fat,  with  the  blood  of  lambs  and  of  goats  ; 
with  the  fat  of  kidneys  of  rams  :  for  the  Lord 
hath  a  sacrifice  in  Bozrah,  and  a  great  slaughter 
in  the  land  of  Edam.  Jeremiah  uses  the 
image  in  equal  fullness  of  the  overthrow  of 
Pharaoh-Necho  at  the  Euphrates ;  "  This  is 
a  day  of  the  Lord  God  of  hosts,  a  day  of  ven- 
geance, that  He  may  avenge  Him  of  His  adversa- 
ries :  and  the  sivord  shall  devour,  and  it  shall  be 
satiate  and  made  drunk  ivith  blood  ;  for  the  Lord 
God  hath  a  sacrifice  in  the  North  country  by  the 
river  Euphrates.  Ezekiel  expands  it  yet 
more  boldly  ".  Zephaniah  drops  everything 
local,  and  condenses  the  image  into  the 
words,  The  Lord  hath  prepared  a  sacrifice;  He 
hath  consecrated  His  guests,  adding  the  new 
bold  image,  that  they  whom  God  employed 
were,  as  it  were.  His  invited  guests '',  whom 
He  consecrated  ^'  thereto. 

In  like  way,  as  to  the  day  of  the  Lord 
itself,  he  accumulates  all  words  of  terror 
from  different  prophets ;  from  Joel  the 
words,  ^  a  day  of  darkness  and  of  gloominess  ;  a 
day  of  clouds  and  of  thick  darkness:  to  these  he 
adds  *  of  shouting  and  the  sound  of  the  trumpet, 
used  by  Amos  in  relation  to  the  destruction 

'  i.  7.  »  Hab.  ii.  20. 

«Is.  xiii.  6.  Jo.  i.  15.  iv.  15.  Ob.  15.  The  words 
"  pV  are  used  of  a  day  of  God's  judgments,  Is. 
xiii.  9,  Jo.  ii.  1, 11,  Am.  v.  18,  20.  EzeL  xiii.  5.  Mai. 

iii.  23,  not  with  3np.  In  Is.  ii.  12,  it  ia  "^7  pV  or  in 

Jo.  ii.  1.  subordinately. 

"Is.  xxxiv.  6.  »  Jer.  xlvi.  10. 

"  Ezek.  xxxix.  17. 

'Zephaniah's  word,  D'S<"1p  occurs  beside  only 
in  1  Sam.  ix.  13. 


.J  Isaiah's  word  (xiii.  3.)  is  'K^HDO;  Zephaniah 's 

•^npn.  I 

.  «S3i;n  pj;  Dv  nSatii  ^jyn  or  Jo.  ii.2.zeph. 
»n;rnni  isiiy  zeph.  i.  ig.  Am.  ii.  2. 

'nKIE/DI  nXlty  Job  xxxviii.  27.     npii'OI   IV 

XV.  24.   Zeph.  has  .VDI  mX.  r\'\'\:i  stands  parallel 
With  rilplXD  Ps.  XXV.  17. 


of  Moab ;  the  two  combinations,  which  pre- 
cede, occur,  the  one  in  a  different  sense,  the 
other  with  a  slightly  different  grammatical 
inflection,  in  Job "'. 

From  Isaiah,  Zephaniah  adopts  that  charac- 
teristic picture  of  self-idolizing,  which  brings 
down  (xod's  judgments  on  its  pride ;  (the 
city)  "that  dwdleth  securely,  that  said  in  her 
heart,  land  no  I  beside. 

Even  where  Isaiali  says,  **  For  a  consump- 
tion and  that  deereed,  the  Lord  God  of  hosts 
makes  in  the  mi<M  of  all  the  earth  and,  slightly 
varying  it,  ®  For  a  consumption  and  that  de- 
creed, I  have  heard  from  the  Lord  God  of  hosts 
upon  all  the  earth,  Zephaniah,  retaining  the 
two  first  words,  which  occur  in  both  places, 
says  more  concisely,  'For  a  consumption, 
nought  but  terror,  will  He  make  all  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  earth.  Yet  simple  as  the  words 
are,  he  pronounced,  that  God  would  not  only 
bring  a  desolation  upon  the  earth,  or  in  the  midst 
of  the  earth,  but  would  make  its  inhabitants 
one  consumption.  Nahum  had  said  of  Nin- 
eveh, 8  ivith  an  overfiowing  fiood  He  ivill  make 
the  place  thereof  an  utter  consumption.  The 
most  forceful  words  are  the  simplest. 

He  uses  the  exact  words  of  Isaiah,  ^  From 
beyond  the  rivers  of  Gush,  than  which  none  can 
be  simpler,  and  employs  the  word  of  festive 
procession,  though  in  a  different  form',  and 
having  thus  connected  his  prophecy  with 
Isaiah's,  all  the  rest,  upon  which  the  pro- 
phecy turns,  is  varied. 

In  like  way  he  adopts  from  Micah  the 
three  words'',  her-that-halteth,  and-tvill-gather 
her-that-is-driven-out.  The  context  in  which 
he  resets  them  is  quite  different. 

It  has  been  thought,  that  the  words,  *  I 
have  heard  the  reproach  of  Moab,  may  have 
been  suggested  by  those  of  Isaiah,  who  begins 
his  lament  over  Moab,  We  have  heard  of  the 
pride  of  Moab ;  but  the  force  and  bearing  of 
the  words  is  altogether  different,  since  it  is 
God  Who  says,  I  have  heard,  and  so  He  will 
punish. 

The  combination ",  the  exulters  of  pride,  is 
common  to  him  with  Isaiah :  its  meaning  is 

« Is.  xivii.  8.  Zeph.  ii.  15.  mDWH  naih  n32/rn 

d  Is.  X.  23.  •  lb.  xxviii.  22. 

'ri/D  '3.  He  retains  the  simplest  words,  but 
substitutes  H  ;nj J  "]$<  (a  word  formed  by  himself) 
for  the  nvnnji  of  Isaiah. 

f  Nah.  i.  8. 

■>  U'O  nnjb  "y^i^O  Zeph.  iii.  10.    Is.  xviii.  1. 

'  \)h2V  Zeph.  h2V  Is.  xviii.  7. 

^nifapx  nmjm  n;?Syni  Mie.  iv.  e.   zeph. 

iii.  19. 

>3KiD  nain  ^r\yo\:f  zeph.  a.  s.  pxa  ij;^db^ 

3K10ls.xvi.  6. 

""m«j  'I'^j;  Is.  xiiLs.  "jniKJi  "vbp  z$ph.iiL 


232 


INTR01>t"(Tl()X  TO 


uncertain  ;  but  it  is  manifestly  different  in 
the  two  places,  since  the  one  relates  to  God, 
the  other  to  man. 

The  words,  °  Th^y  shall  build  houses  and 
sh'ill  not  dwell  therein;  they  shall  plant  vineyards 
aw!  not  drink  the  wine  thereof,  are  from  the 
original  threat  in  Deuteronomy,  from  which 
also  the  two  words,  °  They-shall-valk  as-the- 
blind,  may  be  a  reminiscence,  but  with  a  con- 
ciseness of  its  own  and  without  the  character- 
istic expressions  of  Deuteronomy,  adopted  by 
other  sacred  writers :  p  They  shall  grope  at 
noonday,  as  the  blind  gropeth  in  darkness. 

Altogether  these  passages  are  evidence  that 
Zephaniah  is  of  later  date  than  the  pro- 
phecies in  which  the  like  language  occurs ; 
and  the  fact  tliat  he  does  employ  so  much 
language  of  his  predecessors  furnishes  a 
strong  presumption  in  any  single  case,  that 
he  in  that  case  also  adopted  from  the  other 
sacred  writer  the  language  which  they  have 
in  common. 

It  is  chiefly  on  this  ground,  that  a  train  of 
modern  critics'  have  spoken  disparagingly 
of  the  outward  form  and  style  of  Zephaniah. 
It  has  however  a  remarkable  combination  of 
fullness  with  conciseness  and  force.  Thus,  he 
begins  the  enumeration  of  those  upon  whom 
the  destruction  should  fall,  with  the  words, 
^consuming  I  will  consume  all:  to  an  enumera- 
tion co-extensive  with  the  creation,  he  adds 
unexpectedly,  '  and  the  stumblingblocks  with  the 
nicked,  anticipating  our  Lord's  words  of  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  ^they  shall  gatlier  tlie  stum- 
blingblocks and  them  that  do  iniquity :  to  the 
different  idolatries  he  adds  those  of  a  divided 
faith,  °  swearers  to  the  Lord  and  sivearers  by 
Malcham ;  to  those  who  turned  away  from 
God  he  adds  those  who  were  unearnest  in 
seeking  Him  ". 

Again,  after  the  full  announcement  of  the 
destruction  in  the  Day  of  the  Lord,  the  burst, 
in  those  five  words,  ^  djt-yoursdves  and-sift 
(on)  nation  unlonged  for,  is,  in  suddenness  and 
condensation,  like  Hosea;  and  so  again,  in 
live  words,  after  the  picture  of  the  future 
desolation  of  Nineveh,  the  abrupt  turn  to 
Jerusalem,  "  Woe  rebellious  and-defiled  (thou) 
oppressive  city,  and  tlien  follow  the  several 
counts  of  her  indictment,  in  brief  disjointed 
sentences,  first  negatively,  as  a  whole  ;  each 
in  three  or  four  words  y,  she-listened  not  to- 
voice;  she-received  not  correction;  in-the-Lord 
she-trusted  not ;  to-her- God  she-approached  not; 

"Zeph.  i.  13.  Deut.  xxviii.  30,39.  The  words  are 
more  exact  tlian  in  Micali  vi.  14.  Am.  v.  11. 

•  D'^1^0  uSn  Zeph.  i.  17.       pDeut.  xxviii.29. 

1  Eichhorn.  De  Wette,  Stahelin,  and  their  follow- 
ers. De  Wette  however  does  own,  "In  employing 
what  i.s  not  his  own,  he  is,  at  lea.st,  original  in  its 
expansion."  Einl.  24.5.  note  b. 

fi.  2.       •1.3.       «S.  Matt.  xiii.41.       "Zeph.  i.  5. 

»1.  6.        "ii.  1.       »ii.  1.        7iii.  2.        •  lb.  3,  4. 

•  lb.  8.        »>  lb.  17.        •  ill.  2.        "i  Jer.  vil.  24-28. 
•ill.  17.    Some  modern  commentators  take  um- 
brage at  the  beautiful  expression.     Ewald  alters, 


then,  in  equally  bruken  words,  each  da;^  is 
characterized  by  its  sins;  ^ her-princ':s  in- 
her-m  idst  a.re  roaring  lions ;  her-judges  evening 
wolves;  not  gnawed-they-bones  on-the-morrow ; 
her-prophets  empty-babblers,  men  oj'-deceits;  her- 
priests  profaned  holiness,  violated  law.  Then 
in  sudden  contrast  to  all  this  contumacy, 
neprlect,  despite  of  God,  He  Himself  is  ex- 
hibited as  in  the  midst  of  her  ;  the  witness  and 
judge  of  all ;  there,  where  they  sinned. 
*  The-Lord  righteous  in-her-midst ;  He-doth  not 
iniquity;  by-morning  by-morning  His-judgment 
He-giveth  to-light;  He-faileth  not;  and  then 
in  contrast  to  the  holiness  and  the  judgments 
of  God,  follows  in  four  words,  the  persever- 
ance of  man  in  his  shamelessncss,  and — the 
fruit  of  all  this  presence  and  doings  of  the 
Holy  and  Righteous  God  and  Judge  is,  a»irf- 
not  knoweth  tlie  wrong-doer  shame.  Zephaniah 
uses  the  same  disjoining  of  the  clauses  in  the 
description  of  God's  future  manifestation  of 
His  love  toward  them.  Again  it  is  the  same 
thought'',  The-Lord  thy-God  (is)  in-thy-midst ; 
but  now  in  love;  mighty,  shall-save ;  He-shall- 
rejoice  over-thee  ivith-joy ;  He-shdl-keep-silcnce 
in-His-love ;  He-shall-rejoice  over-thee  with- 
jnbilee.  The  single  expressions  are  alike 
condensed ;  '  she-hearkened  not  to-voice,  stands 
for  what  Jeremiah  says  at  such  much  greater 
length,  how  God  had  sent  all  His  servants 
^the  prophets,  daily  rising  up  early  and  sending 
them,  but  they  hearkened  not  unto  Me  nor  inclined 
their  ear,  but  hardened  their  neck.  The  words 
^  shall -be-silent  in-His-love,  in  their  primary 
meaning,  express  the  deepest  human  love, 
but  without  the  wonted  image  of  betrothal. 

'  The  whole  people  of  Canaan  reminds  one  of 
Hosea ;  « the-men-coagulated  on-their-lees  is 
much  expanded  by  Jeremiah  ^,  his  word 
occurs  before  him  in  Job  only  and  the  song 
of  Moses'.  Single  poetic  expressions  are, 
that  Moab  should  become  ''  the  possession  of 
briars,  the  word  itself  being  framed  by 
Zephaniah ;  in  the  description  of  the  desola- 
tion of  Nineveh,  '  a  voice  singeth  in  the  tvindow  ; 
desolation  is  on  the  thre.'^hold,  the  imagery  is  so 
bold,  that  modern  criticism  has  thought  that 
the  word  voice  which  occurs  in  the  O.  T.  328 
times  and  with  pronouns  157  times  more, 
must  signify  "an  owl,"  and  desolation  must 
stand  for  "  a  crow  "."  Very  diaracteristic  is 
the  Vi'ord,  "  He '^  shall  famish  all  the  gods  of 
the  earth,"  expressing  with  wonderful  irony, 
the  privation  of  their  sacrifices,  which  was 

with  the  LXX,  into  ty'TT"  which  does  not  occur 
elsewhere.  But  the  LXX  renders  "shall  renew 
thee ;  "  Ewald,  "  (God)  becomes  young  (sich  verjunget) 
in  His  love!" 

'Zeph.  i.  11.  Comp.  Hos.  xii.  7.  »i.  12. 

k  Jer.  xlviii.  11.  '  Job  x.  10.  Ex.  xv.  8. 

kii.  9.  Mi.  14. 

•»"7lp    must  answer  to    the    Ethiopian  ^Xlp 

■yAauf  and  our  mile  (owl);  and  2^n  seems  equal 
ai;,'."    Ewald  Proph.  ii.  25. 
"See  below  on  ILU. 


ZKPHAMAll. 


23a 


the  occasion  of  the  first  Heathen  persecutions 
of  the  Christians. 

When  then  a  writer,  at  times  so  concise 
and  poetic  as  Zephaniah  is  in  these  places, 
is,  at  others,  so  full  in  liis  descriptions,  this 
is  not  prolixity,  but  rather  vivid  picturing; 
at  one  time  going  through  all  the  orders  of 
creation " ;  at  anothei',  dilierent  classes  of  the 
ungodly  p  ;  at  yet  another,  the  ditierent  parts 
of  the  scared  woe-stricken  city  i,  to  set  before 
our  eyes  the  universality  of  the  desolation. 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  our  own  great 
Northern  poet  of  nature,  will  remember  how 
the  accumulation  of  names  adds  to  the  vivid- 
ness of  his  descriptions.  Yet  here  too  there 
is  great  force  in  the  individual  descriptions, 
as  when  he  pictures  the  petty  plunderers  for 
their  mastei",  and  fill  their  masters'  houses — not 
with  wealth  but — with  violence  and  fraud',  all 
which  remains  of  wealth  gained  by  fraud 
and  extortion  being  the  sins  themselves, 
which  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  fraudulent 
to  his  destruction. 

In  the  strictly  prophetic  part  of  his  office, 
Jerusalem  having  been  marked  out  by  Micah 
and  Isaiah  before  him,  as  the  place  where 
God  would  make  the  new  revelation  of  Him- 
self, Zephaniah  adds,  what  our  Lord  revealed 
to  the  Samaritan  woman,  Hhat  Jerusalem 
should  no  longer  be  the  abiding  centre  of 
worship.  '  They  shall  tvorship  Him,  every  man 
from  his  "place,  all  the  isles  of  the  nations,  is  a 
prophecy  which,  to  this  day,  is  receiving  an 
increasing  accomplishment.  It  is  a  projihecy, 
not  of  the  spread  of  Monotheism,  but  of  the 
worship  of  Him,  to  Whose  worship  at  that 
time  a  handful  of  Jews  could  with  difficulty 
be  brought  to  adhere,  the  desertion  or  cor- 
ruption or  association  of  Whose  worship  with 
idolatry  Zephaniah  had  to  denounce  and  to 
foretell  its  punishment.  The  love  which 
God  should  then  shew  to  His  own  is  ex- 
pressed in  words,  unequaled  for  tenderness ; 
and  in  conformity  to  that  love  is  the  increas- 
ing growth  of  holiness,  and  the  stricter 
requirements  of  God's  holy  justice.  Again, 
Zephaniah  has  a  prelude  to  our  Blessed 
Lord's  words,  "to  whom  much  is  given,  of  him 
shall  much  be  required,  or  His  Apostle's,  of  the 
great  awe  in  working  out  our  salvation ''. 
Progress  is  a  characteristic  and  condition  of 
the  Christian  life ;  ^  We  beseech  you,  that  as 
ye  have  received  of  us,  hovj  ye  ought  to  tvalk  and 
to  please  God,  ye  would  abound  more  and  more. 
Even  so  Zephaniah  bids  *  all  the  meek  of  the 
earth,  tvho  hare  wrought  His  judgments  or  laiv  to 
seek  diligently  that  meekness,  which  had 
already  characterized  them,  and  that,  not  in 
view  of  great  things,  but,  if  so  be  they  might 

« i.  3.  P  lb.  4-9.  1  lb.  10, 11. 

'  lb.  9.    Amos  has  the  like  idea  (iii.  10)  but  no 
word  is  the  same  except  DOH. 
■S.  John  iv.  21.  •  Mi.  11. 

«  8.  Luke  xii.  48,  »  Phil.  ii.  12. 

"IThess.  iv.  1.  «ii.  3. 


be  saved  ;  it  may  he  that  yr  may  be  hid  in  Ihr 
day  of  the  Lord's  anger,  hs  S.  Peter  saith,  •''  If 
the  righteous  scarcely  he  saved,  where  shall  the 
■ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear f  It  is  again 
reniarkal)le,  how  he  selects  meekness,  as  the 
characteristic  of  the  new  state  of  tilings, 
which  he  promises.  He  anticipates  the  con- 
trast in  the  Magnificat,  in  which  the  lowest 
lowliness  was  rewarded  by  the  highest  exalt- 
ation. As  it  is  said  there,  ^  He  hath  put  doivn 
the  mighty  from  their  seat  and  hath  exalted  the 
humble  and  meek,  so  the  removal  of  the 
proud /coi/j  uithin  thee,  anil  tJie  "  leaving  of  an 
afflicted  and  poor  people  rithiji  thee^,"  is  the 
special  promise  by  Zephaniah. 

Little  is  said  of  the  captivity.  It  is  a 
future  variously  assumed  ^  Judah  in  the 
furthest  lands,  beyond  the  rivers  of  Ethiopia,  is 
the  daughter  of  My  dispersed";  the  whole 
earth  is  the  scene  of  their  shame  * ;  their 
praises  should  be  commensurate  with  their 
shame,  when  I  turn  back  your  captivity  before 
your  eyes  ®.  But  this  turning  away  of  their 
captivity  is  the  only  notice,  that  their 
punishment  should  be  the  going  into  cap- 
tivity. The  captivity  itself  is  pre-supposed, 
as  certain  and  as  known.  So  neither  are 
there  any  images  from  temporal  exaltation. 
All  pride  should  be  removed,  as  utterly  un- 
befitting God's  holy  presence :  thou  shall  no 
more  be  haughty  in  My  holy  mountain  ^  The 
words  expressive  of  the  abasement  of  those 
within  her  are  proportionably  strong,  s  My 
afflicted  and  poor.  Some  are  wont,  in  these 
days,  to  talk  of  God's  prophets  as  patriots. 
They  were  such  truly,  since  they  loved  the 
land  of  the  Lord  with  a  Divine  love.  But 
what  mere  "  patriot "  would  limit  his  pro- 
mises to  the  presence  of  "  a  poor  people  in  a 
low  estate,"  with  an  unseen  presence  of  God  ? 
The  description  belongs  to  His  kingdom, 
which  was  not  of  this  ivorld  ^  :  the  only  king 
whom  Zephaniah  speaks  of,  the  king  of  Israel^, 
is  Almighty  God.  The  blessing  which  he 
promises,  is  the  corresponding  blessing  of 
peace,  '^ Fear  thou  not;  thou  shalt  not  see  evil 
any  more,  none  shall  make  them  afraid.  But 
the  words  ''  Let  not  thy  hands  be  slack,  imply 
that  they  shall  be  aggressive  on  the  world  ; 
that  they  were  not  to  relax  from  the  work 
which  God  assigned  to  them,  the  conversion 
of  the  world. 

An  allusion  to  the  prophet  Joel  ^  makes  it 
uncertain  whether  words  of  Zephaniah 
relate  to  the  first  Coming  of  our  Lord,  or  the 
times  which  should  usher  in  the  Second,  or 
to  both  in  one ;  and  so,  whether,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  general  character  of  gathering 
into  one  all  God's  judgments  to  His  end,  he 

J 1  S.  Pet.  iv.  18.  '8  Luke  ii.  52. 

a  Zeph.  iii.  12.  »>  lb.  13.  •  lb.  10. 

4  lb.  19.  •  lb.  20.  add.  ii.  7.  '  lb.  11. 

t  lb.  12.  •>  8.  John  xviii.  3«. 

1  Zeph.  iii.  16. 
"iii.  16.  >  Iii.  2.  [iv.  2  Heb.] 


284 


ZEI'MANIAII. 


is  speaking  <jf  the  first  restoration  of  the  one 
purified  language  of  faith  and  hope,  when 
'^the  mnllitude  of  them  that  bdieved  were  of  one 
heart  and  of  one  said,  or  whetlier  he  had  his 
mind  fixed  rather  on  the  end,  u-lien  "  the  Jidl- 
ness  of  the  GentUea  shall  come  in.  The  words 
also  (^since  they  may  be  taken  either  way  ") 
leave  it  uncertain  whether  the  Gentiles  are 
spoken  of  as  bringing  in  the  people  of  God, 
(as  they  shall  at  the  end)  or  whether  the 

■  Acts  iv.  32.  »  Rom.  xi.  25. 


first  conversion  of  the  Jews,  even  in  the  most 
distant  countries,  is  his  sul)ject. 

In  any  case,  Zephaniah  liad  a  remarkable 
office,  to  declare  tlie  mercy  tmd  judgment  of 
(iod,  judgments  lioth  tciiiijoral  and  final, 
mcrcie.s,  not  of  this  world,  promised  to  a 
temper  not  of  this  world,  p  the  wUdom  which 
is  from  above,  pure,  pecweahle,  gentle,  easy  to 
be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits, 
without  partiality  and  without  hypoci-isy. 


•  See  on  Zeph.  iii.  10. 


pS.  James  Hi.  7. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


otiTsT  CHAPTER  I. 

<''''.  630.        God's  severe  judgment    against 
Judah/or  divers  sins. 

JHE  word  of  the  Lord 

which  came  unto  Zeph- 

aniah   the  son   of  Cushi, 

the  son  of  Gedaliah,  the 


Chap.  I.,  Ver.  1.  The  word  of  the  Lord 
which  came  unto  Zephaniah  the  son  of  Cushi,  the 
son  of  Gedaliah,  the  son  of  Amariah,  the  son  of 
Hezekiah.  It  seems  likely  that  more  fore- 
fathers of  the  Prophet  are  named  than  is  the 
wont  of  Holy  Scripture,  because  the  last  so 
named  was  some  one  remarkable.  Nor  is 
it  impossible  that  Zephaniah  should  have 
been  the  great  grandson  of  the  king  Heze- 
kiah ;  for  although  Holy  Scripture  commonly 
names  the  one  son  only  who  is  in  the  sacred 
line,  and  although  there  is  one  generation 
more  than  to  Josiah,  yet  if  each  had  a  son 
early,  Zephaniah  might  have  been  contem- 
porary with  Josiah.  The  names  seem  also 
mentioned  for  the  sake  of  their  meaning ; 
at  least  it  is  remarkable  how  the  name  of 
God  appears  in  most.  Zephaniah,  "  whom 
the  Lord  hid  ; "  Gedaliah,  "  whom  the  Lord 
made  great ;  "  Amariah,  "  whom  the  Lord 
promised  ;  "  Hezekiah,  "  whom  the  Lord 
strengthened." 

2.  /  ivill  utterly  consume  all  things  ;  better 
all  ^  The  word  is  not  limited  to  "  things  " 
"  animate  "  or  "  inanimate  "  or  "  men  ;  "  it  is 
used  severally  of  each,  according  to  the 
context ;  here,  without  limitation,  of  "  all." 
God  and  all  stand  over  against  one  another  ; 
God  and  all  whicli  is  not  of  God  or  in  God. 
God,  he  says,  will  utterly  consume  all  from  off 
the  land  \_earth.'\     The  prophet  sums    up  in 

>73  is  used  absolutely  in  a  title  of  God,  "Who 

maketh  all,"  ^j)  DE'J^,  Is.  xliv.  24;  "Thou  canst  do 

»11,"  1.  e.  art  Almighty,  Job  xlil.  2;  "Thou  hast  put 

all  13  nnC',  under  his  feet,"  Ps.  viii.  7 ;  and  of 

man,  "mine  eye  hath  seen  all,"  Job  xiii.  1;  and 
personally,  gathering  in  one  all  which  he  had  said 

of  Grod's  doings,  with  IDH  K7  "want  not  any 
thing,"  De.  viii.  9.  ^On,  "IDh  "want  of  every 
thing,"  Jer.  xliv.  18.  De.  xxviii.  48.  57;  "all  were 
[lit.  was]  ashamed "  (with  sing,  verb)  l!'''X3h  13 
Is.  XXX.  5. 

2  So  also  Jeremiah  viii.  13,  in  the  same  words, 
DS'DX  fliOX.  Pashi  makes  them  one  word,  sup- 
posing nOK  to  be  for  f|DXK.  A.  E.  mentions  those 
who  thought  that  >?  in  HIDK  ^™s  prefixed,  as  in 
tynX  Is.  xxviii.  28  ;  but  it  is  unnatural  to  assume 
«  rare  and  irregular  form,  when  the  word  ^IIOX  Is 
the  regular  form  from  the  common  word  ^IDX. 


son   of  Amariah,  the  son    ^  h  rTs  t 
of  Hizkiah,  in  the  days  of  __!!iUi51L_ 
Josiah   the  son  of  Amon, 
king  of  Judah. 

2  I   twill   utterly   con- 1 Heb. Sy <n^•m(y 

•'  aroay  I  will 

SUme    all    thinqs    from    off  make  an  end. 
.    1       ,        ,        .  ,      ,       T  tHeb.  </i€/a<:e 

J  the  land,  saith  the  Lord,  of  the  land. 


few  words  the  subject  of  the  whole  chapter, 
the  judgments  of  God  from  his  own  times  to 
the  day  of  Judgment  itself.  And  this  Day 
Itself  he  brings  the  more  strongly  before  the 
mind,  in  that,  with  wonderful  briefness,  in 
two  words  which  he  conforms,  in  sound  also, 
the  one  to  the  other,  ^  he  expresses  the  utter 
final  consumption  of  all  things.  He  expresses 
at  once  the  intensity  of  action  and  blends 
their  separate  meanings.  Taking  away  I  will 
make  an  end  of  all ;  and  with  this  he  unites 
the  words  used  of  the  flood,  from  off  the  face  of 
the  earth  *.  Then  he  goes  through  the  whole 
creation  as  it  was  made,  pairing  man  and 
beast,  which  Moses  speaks  of  as  created  on 
the  sixth  day,  and  the  creation  of  the  fifth 
day,  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  and  the  fshes  of  the 
sea  ;  and  before  each  he  sets  the  solemn  word 
of  God,  /  will  end,  as  the  act  of  God  Himself. 
The  words  can  have  no  complete  fulfillment, 
until  *  the  earth  and  the  works  that  are  therein 
shall  be  burned  up,  as  the  Psalmist  too,  having 
gone  through  the  creation,  sums  up,  *  Thou 
takest  away  their  breath,  they  die  and  return  to 
their  dust ;  and  then  speaks  of  the  re-creation, 
*  Thou  sendest forth  Thy  Spirit,  they  are  created; 
and  Thou  rensu'cst  the  face  of  the  earth,  and, 
^  Of  old  Thou  hast  laid  the  foundatiom  of  the 
earth,  and  the  heavens  are  the  work  of  Thy 
hands  ;  they  shall  perish,  but  Thou  shalt  endure, 
yea,  all  of  them  shall  wax  old  like  a  garnunt ;  as 

^T^^^'\HT^  signifies  "earth,"  almost  always  in  the 
phrase  nDHJ^n  ''iD  7j7,  always  in  the  phrase 
nonXn  ^J3  V^Oi  unless  they  be  limited  by  some 
addition,  as  "  which  the  Lord  sware  that  He  would 
give  thee."  nonxn  'J3  Sj/  is  thus  used  Gen.  vi. 
1,  vii.  23,  Ex.  xxxiii.  16,  Nu.  xii.  3,  De.  vii.  6,  xiv.  2, 
2  Sam.  xiv.  7,  Is.  xxiii.  17,  Jer.  xxv.  26,  Ezek. 
xxxviii.  20.  nmKD  ' J3  Si'D  "  from  the  face  of 
the  earth"  occurs,  unlimited  by  the  context.  Gen. 
iv.  14,  vi.  7,  vii.  4,  viii.  8,  Ex.  xxxii.  12,  De.  vi.  15.  1 
Sam.  XX.  15.  1  Kgs  xiii.  34.  Jer.  xxviii.  16.  Am.  ix. 
8.  nonX  is  used  of  cultivable  land,  and  so 
nonxn  'J3  Sj^  is  used  in  connection  with  rain 
falling  on  the  ground,  1  Kgs  xvii.  14;  but  .3  S^O 
.Xn  suffers  no  exception,  unless  it  be  restrained 
by  an  addition. 

*  2  S.  Pet.  iii.  10  » Ps.  civ.  29. 

6  Ps.  civ.  30.  '  lb.  oil.  25. 

235 


236 


ZKl'nANl.VH. 


3  'I  will  consume  man 


Before 
CHRIST 

c'r-  ^0-       and  beast ;  I  will  consume 


•  Hos.  4. 3.        the  fowls  of  the  heaven, 

and  the  fishes  of  the  sea, 

*-Ezek. 7. 19.     and  "the  j|s tumbling 

Matt."i3.'4i.     blocks  with   the  wicked ; 


a  vesture  shall  Thou  change  them,  and  they  shall 
he  changed.  Local  fuUillraents  there  may,  in 
their  degree,  be.  S.  Jerome  speaks  as  it'  he 
knew  tliis  to  have  been.  "  '  Even  the  brute 
animals  feel  the  wrath  of  the  Lord,  and  when 
cities  have  been  wasted  and  men  slain,  tliere 
Cometh  a  ilesolation  and  scarceness  of  beasts 
also  and  birds  and  tishes ;  witness  Illyricum, 
witness  Tlirace,  witness  my  native  soil," 
[Stridon,  a  city  on  the  confines  of  Dalmatia 
and  Pannonia]  '"  where,  beside  sky  and 
earth  and  rampant  brambles  and  deep 
thickets,  all  has  perished."  But  although 
this  fact,  which  he  alleges,  is  borne  out  by 
natural  history,  it  is  distinct  from  the  words 
of  the  prophet,  who  speaks  of  the  fish,  not  of 
rivers  (as  S.  Jerome)  but  of  the  sea,  which 
can  in  no  way  be  influenced  by  tlie  absence 
of  man,  wlio  is  only  their  destroyer.  The 
use  of  the  language  of  the  histories  of  the 
creation  and  of  the  deluge  implies  that  the 
prophet  has  in  mind  a  destruction  commen- 
surate witli  that  creation.  Then  he  foretells 
tlie  final  removal  of  otfcnces,  in  the  same 
words  which  our  Lord  uses  of  the  general 
Judgment.  '^  The  Son  of  Man  shall  send  forth 
His  Angels  and  they  shall  gatJier  out  of  His 
kingdom  all  things  that  offend,  OAid  them  that  do 
iniquity. 

3.  The  stumbling-blocks '  tmth  the  wicked. 
Not  only  shall  the  wicked  be  utterly 
brought  to  an  end,  or,  in  the  other  meaning 
of  the  word,  gathered  into  bundles  to  be  taken 
away,  but  all  causes  of  stumbling  too  ;  every- 
thing, through  which  others  can  fall,  which 
will  not  be  until  the  end  of  all  things.  Then, 
he  repeats,  yet  more  emphatically,  I  will  cut 
off  the  whole  race  of  man  *  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  then  he  closes  the  verse,  like  the 

1 S.  Jer.  »  8.  Matt.  xiii.  41. 

'HiSk^DO  i.  q.  D'SyDO  Jer.  vi.  21,  Ezek.  xxi. 
20.  So  Kim.,  Rashi,  who  limits  it  to  idolatry  (as 
Ge.a.)  without  reason.  They  are  the  wicked  gener- 
ally, not  one  nla«a  of  them.  In  Is.  iii.  6.  (where 
■>lone  the  word  occurs  beside)  it  is  used  metaphor- 
ically of  the  state,  "  this  ruin." 

^DnXn  PN,  as  in  the  history  of  the  creation, 
9en.  i.  27,  or  the  flood,  lb.  vi.  7.  vii.  21. 

*  Ex.  vi.  0,  De.  iv.  M,  v.  15,  vii.  19.  xi.  2,  xxvi.  8,  and 
thence  Jer.  xxxii.  21,  Ps.  cxxxvi.  12.  Isaiah  had,  in 
the  same  plirase,  prophesied  God's  judgments 
against  Israel  in  the  rjurden  v.  26,  ix.  11,  IG,  x.  4. 

•Jer.  ii.  lo,  11. 

T  1  8.  Pet.  iv.  17.  Jer.  xxv.  29. 

•  Is.  xiv.  22. 


from   oft"  the    land,  saith    chr'Yst 
the  Lord.  c'r-  eao- 

4  I  will  also  stretch  out 
mine  hand  upon  Judah, 
and  upon  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Jerusalem:    and " Fulfilled, cir. 

624. 

°  I   will   cut   off  the   rem-  2  Kin.  23. 4, 5. 


foregoing,  with  the  solemn  words,  saith  the 
Lord.  All  this  shall  be  fulfilled  in  the  Day 
of  Judgment,  and  all  other  fulfillments  are 
earnests  of  tlie  final  Judgment.  They  are 
witnesses  of  the  ever-living  presence  of  the 
Judge  of  all,  tliat  God  does  take  account  of 
man's  deeds.  They  speak  to  men's  conscience, 
they  attest  the  existence  of  a  Divine  law,  and 
tlierewith  of  the  future  complete  manifesta- 
tion of  that  law,  of  whicli  they  are  individual 
sentences.  Not  until  the  propliet  has 
brought  this  circle  of  judgments  to  their 
close,  does  he  pass  on  to  the  particular  judg- 
ments on  Judah  and  Jerusalem. 

4.  /  will  also  stretch  out  Mine  Hand,  as  be- 
fore on  Egypt  ^  Judah  had  gone  in  the 
ways  of  Egypt  and  learned  her  sins,  and 
sinned  worse  than  Egypt  ^.  The  mighty  Hand 
and  stretched-out  Arm,  with  which  she  had 
been  delivered,  shall  be  again  stretched  out, 
j'et  not  for  her  but  upon  her,  upon  all  the  in- 
habitants of  Jerusalem.  In  this  threatened  de- 
struction of  all,  Judah  and  Jerusalem  are 
singled  out,  because  j«(/<7»ie/?<  shall  ^  6e(/i«  ai 
the  house  (f  God.  They  who  have  .sinned 
against  the  greater  grace  shall  be  most  sig- 
nally punished.  Yet  the  punishment  of 
those  whom  God  had  so  chosen  and  loved  is 
an  earnest  of  the  general  judgment.  This 
too  is  not  a  partial  but  a  general  judgment 
"  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem." 

And  I  will  cut  off  the  remnant  of  Baat,  i.  e.  to 
the  very  last  vestige  of  it.  Isaiah  unites 
**  name  and  residue,  as  equivalents,  together 
with  the  proverbial,  posterity  and  descendant". 
Zephaniah  distributes  them  in  parallel 
clauses,  "  the  residue  '**  of  Baal  and  the  name 
of  the  Chemarim."  Good  and  evil  have  each 
a  root,  which  remains  in  the  ground,  when 

•1DJ1  rji  which  occur  only  together,  Gen.  xxi. 
23,  Job  xvili.  19,  Is.  xiv.  22. 

">nj<E?  is  not  limited,  like  n'lKiy,  to  that  which 
remains  over  when  a  former  or  larger  part  lias 
ceased  or  is  gone.  It  is  mostly  "  the  rest,"  after 
others  who  had  been  named,  yet  still  it  may  be  the 
larger  number;  as,  "the  rest  of  those  chosen,'"  I 
Chr.  xvi.  41 ;  "  the  rest  of  their  brethren,  the 
priests  and  the  Levites  "  Ezr.  iii.  9  (8.  Eng.) ;  "the 
rest  of  the  chief  of  the  fathers,"  lb.  iv.  3;  "tlie  rc^^ 
of  their  companions,"  lb.  7;  "the  rest  of  the 
people,"  Neh.  x.  29,  xi.  1.,  "the  rest  of  Israel/'  lb. 
20;  "the  rest  of  the  Jews,"  Esth.  ix.  16.  So  in 
Isaiah,  "the  rest  of  Svria"  beside  Damascus.  Is. 
xviil.  3,  and  "the  rest"  of  the  Spirit"  .Mai.  ii.  16 
(Bee  lb.) 


CHAPTER  I. 


237 


Before 

CHRIST 

oir.  630. 

<<  Hos.  10.  5. 


nant  of  Baal  from  this 
place,  and  the  name  of 
•^the  Chemarims  with  the 
priests ; 


the  trunk  has  been  hewn  down.  There  is 
^  a  remnant  according  to  the  election  of  grace, 
when  the  rest  have  been  blinded;  and  this  is 
a  '^  holy  seed  to  carry  on  the  line  of  God.  Evil 
too  has  its  remnant,  which,  unless  diligently 
kept  down,  shoots  up  again,  after  the  con- 
version of  peoples  or  individuals.  The 
'^  mind  of  the  flesh  remains  in  the  regenerate 
also.  The  prophet  foretells  the  complete  ex- 
cision of  the  whole  remnant  of  Baal,  which 
was  fulfilled  in  it  after  the  captivity,  and 
shall  be  fulfilled  as  to  all  which  it  shadows 
forth,  in  the  Day  of  Judgment.  From  this 
■place;  for  in  their  phrensy,  they  dared  to 
Dring  the  worship  of  Baal  into  the  very  tem- 

f)le  of  the  Lord*.  "'Who  would  ever  be- 
ieve  that  in  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city,  and 
in  the  very  temple  idols  should  be  conse- 
crated? Whoso  seeth  the  ways  of  our  times 
will  readily  believe  it.  For  among  Chris- 
tians and  in  the  very  temple  of  God,  the 
abominations  of  the  heathen  are  worshiped. 
Riches,  pleasures,  honors,  are  they  not  idols 
Avhich  Christians  prefer  to  God  Himself?" 

And  the  name  of  the  Chemarim  with  the 
priests.  Of  the  idolatrous  priests^  the  very 
name  shall  be  cut  off,  as  God  promises  by 
Hosea,  that  He  will  '  take  away  the  names  of 
Baalim.,  and  by  Zechariah,  that  He  **  will  cut 
off  the  names  of  the  idols  out  of  the  land.  Yet 
this  is  more.  Not  the  name  only  of  the  Che- 
marim, but  themselves  with  their  name,  their 
posterity,  shall  be  blotted  out ;  still  more,  it 
is  God  Who  cuts  off  all  memory  of  them, 
blotting  them  out  of  the  book  of  tlie  living 
and  out  of  His  own.  They  had  but  a  name 
before,  "  that  they  were  living,  but  tvere  dead. 
"'"The  Lord  shall  take  away  names  of  vain 
glory,  wrongly  admired,  out  of  the  Church ; 
yea,  the  very  names  of  the  priests  with  the 
priests  who  vainly  flatter  themselves  with 
the  name  of  Bishops  and  the  dignity  of 
Presbyters  without  their  deeds.  Whence  he 
markedly  saj's,  not,  and  the  deeds  of  priests 
u'ith  the  priests,  but  the  names  ;  who  only  bear 
the  false  name  of  dignities,  and  with  evil 
works    destroy    their    own    names."       The 

•  Rom.  xi.  5,  7.     2  [g.  vi.  13.  ^  ^prii/rjMa  <rap(tds. 
<2  Kgs  xxiii.  4.  6  Rib. 

*  The  chemarim  is  the  name  of  idolatrous  priests 
generally,  (it  occurs  also  2  Kgs  xxiii.  5.  Hos.  x.  6). 
In  2  Kings,  where  is  the  acoount  of  the  first  fulfill- 
ment of  this  prophecy,  they  appear  as  priests  of 
the  idolatrous  high-places,  distinct  from  the  priests 
of  Baal  and  of  the  host  of  heaven.  The  name  is 
probably  the  Syriae  name  of  "  priest,"  used  in 
Holy  Scripture  "of  idolatrous  priests,  because  the 
Syrians  were  idolaters.  See  Gesenius  Gesch.  d. 
Hebr.  Spraehe  p.  58.  In  Chald.  N"1D1D  is  limited 
to  idolatrous  priests.    See  Buxt.  and  Levy. 


5  And  them  '  that  wor-    ^.  h  "j('f  |  .^^ 

cir.  030. 


ship   the  host   of  heaven 

upon  the  housetops;  ^and  jer. ib.w.  ' 

them  that  worship  and  2Kin.'n.'33,'4i. 


priests  are  priests  of  the  Lord,  who  live  not  like 
priests,  corrupt  in  life  and  doctrine  and  cor- 
rupters of  God's  people  ".  The  judgment  is 
pronounced  alike  on  what  was  intrinsically 
evil,  and  on  good  which  had  corrupted  itself 
into  evil.  The  title  of  priest  is  no  where 
given  to  the  priest  of  a  false  God,  without 
some  mention  in  the  context,  implying  that 
they  were  idolatrous  priests ;  as  the  priests 
of  Dagon'^,  of  the  high-places  as  ordained  by 
Jeroboam '»,  of  Baal  '*,  of  Bethel  ^\  of  Ahab  i«, 
of  those  who  were  not  gods  ",  of  On,  where 
the  sun  was  worshiped  '*.  The  priests  then  were 
God's  priests,  who  in  the  evil  days  of  Manas- 
seh  had  manifoldly  corrupted  their  life  or 
their  faith,  and  who  were  still  evil.  The 
priests  of  Judah,  with  its  kings  its  princes 
and  the  people  of  the  land,  were  in  Jere- 
miah's inaugural  vision  enumerated  as  those, 
who  shall,  God  says,  ^^ fight  against  thee,  but 
shall  not  prevail  against  thee.  ^"  The  priests  said 
not.  Where  is  the  Lordf  and  they  that  handle 
the  law  knew  Me  not.  In  tbe  general  corrup- 
tion, ^'  A  ivonderful  and  horrible  thing  is  com- 
mitted in  the  land,  the  prophets  prophesy  falsely, 
and  the  priests  bear  rule  at  their  hands'^^;  ^^the 
childre^i  of  Israel  and  the  children  of  Judah, 
their  kingn,  their  princes,  their  priests,  and  their 
p'ophets,  and  the  men  of  Judah,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Jerusalem,  have  turned  unto  Me  the  back, 
and  not  the  face.  Jeremiah  speaks  specifically 
of  heavy  moral  sins.  '^^Froin  the  prophet  even 
■unto  the  priest  every  07ie  dealeth  falsely ;  ^^both 
prophet  and  priest  are  prof ane  ;  ^yor  the  sins  of 
her  jyrophets,  the  iniquities  of  her  p)riests,  that 
have  shed  the  blood  of  the  just  in  the  midst  of  her. 
And  Isaiah  says  of  their  sensuality;  '^'' the 
priests  and  the  prophets  have  erred  through 
strong  drink;  they  are  swallowed  up  of  wine,  they 
are  out  of  the  way  through  strong  drink. 

5.  And  them  that  worship  the  host  of  heaven 
upon  the  [flat]  housetops.  This  Avas  fulfilled 
by  Josiah  who  destroyed  ^^the  altars  that  were 
on  the  top  of  the  upper  chamber  of  Ahaz. 
Jeremiah  speaks  as  if  this  M'orship  was  almost 
universal,  as  though  well-nigh  eveiy  roof  had 
been  profaned  by  this  idolatry.     '^'■'  The  houses 

7Hos.  ii.  17.  sZech.  xiii.  2.  oRev.  iii.  1. 

w  S.  Jer.       u  See  Jer.  ii.  8.  v.  31.      '^  i  Sam.  v.  5. 
13 1  Kgs  xiii.  2,  .S3,  2  Kgs  xxiii.  20.  2  Chr.  xi.  15. 
1*2  Kgs  X.  19,  xi.  18,  2  Chr.  xxiii.  17. 
li  Am.  vii.  10.      16  2  Kgs  x.  11.       "  2  Chr.  xiii.  9. 

18  Gen.  xli.  in-r-,0.  &c.  The  name  "  Potipherah," 
probably  belonging  to  "  Phre,"  implies  this. 

19  Jer.  i.  18, 19.       20  ib.  ii.  7,  8.        21  Jer.  v.  30,  31. 

^  Dri'T'  Si'.  28  Jer.  xxxii.  32,  33. 

•*  Ib.  vi.  13.  viii.  10.  •■«  Jer.  xxiii.  11. 

28Lam.  iv.  13.  27  is.  xxviii.7. 

28  2  Kgs  xxiii.  12.  29  jer.  xix.  13. 


238 


ZEl'HA.NIAH. 


of  Jeru-ialem,  and  the  houses  of  Juduh,  shall  be 
defiled  o.s  the  place  of  Tophet,  bemuse  of  alt  the 
homes  upon  whose  roofs  they  liuve  burnetl  iiuxnse 
unto  all  the  host  of  heaven,  and  have  poured  out 
drink-offerings  unto  other  gods.  ^  The  Chal- 
deeans  thai  fight  against  this  city,  shall  come  and 
set  fire  on  this  city,  and  burn  it  icith  the  houses, 
(UJOtt  whose  roofs  they  have  offered  incense  unto 
Baal,  and  poured  out  drink-offerings  to  other 
gods,  to  provoke  Me  to  anger.  They  worshiped 
on  the  house-tops,  probably  to  have  a  clearer 
view  of  that  magnificent  expanse  of  sky,  -  the 
moon  and  stars  which  (iod  had  ordained;  the 
(pteen  of  heaven,  which  they  worshiped  instead 
of  Himself.  There  is  something  so  mysteri- 
ous in  that  calm  face  of  the  moon,  as  it 
■'  walketh  in  beauty ;  God  seems  to  have  in- 
vested it  with  such  delegated  influence  over 
the  seasons  and  the  produce  of  the  earth, 
that  tliey  stoi)ped  short  in  it,  and  worshiped 
the  creature  rather  than  the  Creator.  Mucii 
as  men  now  talk  of  " ^Yo/w/e,"  admire  "  Na- 
ture," speak  of  its  "laws,"  not  as  laws  im- 
posed upon  it,  but  inherent  in  it,  laws  affect- 
ing us  and  our  well-being  ;  only  not  in  their 
ever-varying  vicissitudes,  *  doing  whatsoever 
(jod  commandeth  them  upon  the  face  of  the  world 
in  the  earth,  whether  for  correction,  or  for  His 
land  or  for  mercy  !  The  idolaters  ^  worshiped 
ami  served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator, 
^Vho  is  blessed  for  ever  ;  moderns  eijually  make 
this  world  their  object,  only  they  idolize 
themselves  and  their  discoveries,  and  wor- 
sliip  tiieir  own  intellect. 

This  worship  on  the  house-tops  individual- 
ized the  public  idolatry  ;  it  was  a  rebellion 
against  God,  family  by  family;  a  sort  of 
family-prayer  of  idolatry.  *  Did  we,  say  the 
mingled  multitude  to  Jeremiah,  make  our 
cakes  to  worship  her,  and  pour  out  our  drink- 
offerings  unto  her,  without  our  men  f  Its  family 
character  is  described  in  Jeremiah.  '  Tlte 
children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the 
fire,  and  the  women  knead  the  dough  to  make 
rakes  to  the  queen  of  heaven,  and  to  pour  out 
drink-offerings  unto  other  gods.  The  idolatry 
spread  to  other  cities.  *  We  viUl  certainly  do, 
they  say,  as  we  have  done,  we  and  our  fathers, 
our  kings  and  our  princes,  in  the  cities  of  Judah, 
and  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem.  The  incense 
went   up   continually  as  a  memorial  to  God 

'  .ler.  xxxii.  29.  2  Ps.  viii.  3. 

3. Job  x.xxi.  2G.  4  lb.  xxxvii.  12,  13. 

6  Rom.  1.2.1.  sjcr.  xliv.  10.  t  ib.  vii.  18. 

8  1b.  xliv.  17.  » lb.  2,  1.-),  18. 

'".is  in  tho  E.  M.,  comp.  2  Chr.  xv.  14.  Is.  xix.  18. 
xlv.  2:j.    It  can  only  mean  this. 

"  O^hrp  a.s  DpsSo  Am.  v.  26.  and  03^0  Jer. 
xlix.  1,.}.  whore  the  E.  V.  too  renders,  their  king. 
On  his  worship  see  vol.  i.  pp.  301-3n3. 

'•  Lev.  xviii.  21,  XX.  2-4. 

'^.\hviiyH  used  witii  the  article  expressed  or 
understood,  hi^ZTi,  S^'SS,  S>'33,  unless  the  spe- 
cific name  (nad-borith,  Bael-zebub,  Bael-peor)  is 
mentioned. 

'<  Numid.  1,  2,  3  in  Oos.  TIk-s.  p.  7!t.'j. 


from  the  Altar  of  incense  in  the  temple:  the 
roots  of  the  houses  were  so  many  altars,  from 
which,  street  by  street  and  house  by  house 
the  incense  went  up  to  her,  for  whom  they 
detlironed  (jod,  the  (jneen  of  heaven.  It  was 
an  idolatry,  with  whicii  Judah  was  espe- 
cially besottetl,  believintr  that  they  received 
all  goods  of  this  world  from  them  and  not 
from  God.  When  punished  for  their  sin, 
they  repented  of  their  partial  repentance 
and  maintained  to  Jeremiah  that  they  were 
punished  i'or'' leaving  off  to  burn  incense  to  the 
queen  of  heaven. 

And  them  that  worship  the  Lord,  but  with  a 
divided  heart  and  service;  that  swear  by 
[rather  '"/o]  the  Lord,  swear  fealty  and  loyal 
allegiance  to  Him,  while  they  do  acts  which 
deny  it,  in  that  they  swear  by  Malcham,  better 
[it  is  no  appellative  although  allied  to  one] 
their  king^^,  most  probablv,  I  think,  "Mo- 
loch." 

This  idolatry  had  been  their  enduring 
idolatry  in  the  wilderness,  after  the  calves 
had  been  annihilated;  it  is  the  worshiii. 
against  which  Israel  is  warned  by  name  in 
tlielaw'-;  then,  throughout  the  history  of 
the  Judges,  we  hear  of  the  kindred  idolatry 
of  Baal  '*,  the  Lord  (who  was  called  also 
"'*  eternal  king"  and  from  whom  individuals 
named  them.selves  "son  of  [the]  king,"  "ser- 
vant of  [the]  king'^"),  or  the  manifold 
Baals'"  and  Ashtaroth  or  Astarte.  But  alter 
these  had  been  removed  on  the  preaching  of 
.Samuel '',  this  idolatry  does  not  reappear  in 
Judah  until  the  intermarriage  of  Jehorani 
with  the  houseof  Ahalj  "*.  Tiie  kindred  ami 
equally  horrible  wf)rship  of  '■'  Molech,  thr 
abomination  of  the  children  of  Ammon,  was 
brought  in  by  Solomon  in  his  decay,  and  en- 
dured until  his  high-place  was  defiled  by 
Josiah ''".  It  is  probable  then  that  this  was 
their  king'^^,  of  whom  Zephaniah  speaks,  whom 
Amos"  and  after  him  Jeremiah,  called  their 
king;  but  speaking  of  Ammon.  Him,  the 
king  of  Ammon,  Judah  adopted  as  their 
king.  They  owned  God  as  their  king  in 
words;  Molech  they  owned  bj' their  deeds; 
they  tvorshiped  and  swore  fealty  to  the  Lord  and 
they  sivare  by  their  king  ;  his  name  was  fa- 
miliarly in  their  mouths;  to  him  they  ap- 
pealed as  the  Judge  and  witness  of  the  truth 

•*  1^:313,  "]SD13;r  ap.  Ges.  Ic. 

'*  D'Sj-'in  in  Judges,  1  Sam.,  2  Kgs,  2  Chron., 
Jeremiah,  Hosea. 

"  1  Sam.  vii.  fi.  xii.  10. 

182  Kgs  viii.  16-18.  26,  27.  2  Chr.  xxi.  6,  12, 13.  xxii. 
2-4. 

>«  1  Kgs  xi.  7.  »>2  Kgs  xxiii.  1.3,  14. 

*'  Molech  is  always  an  appellative,  except  1  Kgs 
xi.  7.  Else  (by  a  pronunciation  belonging  prob- 
ably to  Amnion)  it  is  ^VoH  I-ev.  xx.  5,  or  Ij^'S^ 

Lev.  xviii.  21,  XX.  2,4,2  Kgs  xxiii.  10,  Jer.  xxxii. 
.3.'>.    .V.s  a  proper  name,  it  is  Milcom,  1  Kgs  xi.  fi, :«, 
2  Kgs  xxiii.  13. 
-'2  Sec  ..11  Amos  i.  l.--..  vol.  i.  p.  2.'>.'i. 


CHAPTER  I. 


239 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


( Isai.  48. 1. 
Hos.  4. 15. 
II  Or,  to  the  LORD. 


Hhat  swear  ||by  the  Lord, 
and  that  swear  "by  Mal- 
cham; 


fcjosh.  23.  7.  1  Kin.  11. ;«. 


of  their  words,  his  displeasure  they  invoked 
on  themselves,  if  they  sware  falsely. 
"  *  Those  in  error  were  wont  to  swear  by 
heaven,  and,  as  matter  of  reverence  to  call 
out,  '  By  the  king  and  lord  Sun.'  Those  who 
do  so  must  of  set  purpose  and  wilfully  de- 
part from  the  love  of  God,  since  the  law  ex- 
pressly says,  ^  Thou  slmlt  xvorship  the  Lord  thy 
God,  and  serve  Him  alone,  and  swear  by  His 
Name." 

The  former  class  who  worshiped  on  the  roofs 
were  mere  idolaters.  These  worshiped,  as 
they  thought,  the  Lord,  bound  themselves 
solemnly  by  oath  to  Him,  but  with  a  reserve, 
joining  a  hateful  idol  to  Him,  in  that  they, 
by  a  religious  act,  owned  it  too  as  god.  The 
act  which  they  did  was  in  direct  words,  or 
by  implication,  forbidden  by  God.  The  com- 
mand to  suxar  by  the  Lord  implied  that  they 
were  to  swear  l)y  none  else.  It  was  followed 
by  the  prohibition  to  go  after  other  gods^. 
Contrariwise  to  swear  by  other  gods  was  for- 
bidden as  a  part  of  their  service.  *  Be  very 
courageoics  to  keep  and  to  do  all  that  is  written  in 
tlie  book  of  the  Law  of  3Ioses,  aeiiher  make  men- 
tion of  the  name  of  their  <jods,  nor  cause  to  swear 
by  them,  neither  serve  them,  but  cleave  unto  the 
Lord  your  (Jod.  ''How  shall  I  pardon  thee  for 
this?  Tliy  chiidren.  have  forsaken  Me,  and  have 
sworn  by  those  who  are  no  gods.  ®  They  taught 
My  people  to  xwear  by  Baal.  They  thought 
perhaps  that  in  that  they  professed  to  serve 
God,  did  the  greater  homage  to  Him,  pro- 
fessed and  bound  themselves  to  be  His,  (such 
is  tlie  moaning  of  swear  to  the  Lard)  they 
miglit,  without  renouncing  His  service,  do 
certain  things,  .^wear  by  their  king,  although 
in  effect  they  thereby  owned  him  also  as 
god.  To  such  Elijah  said,  ^  How  long  halt  ye 
between  two  opinions?  If  the  Lord  be  God,  fol- 
low Him  ;  but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him;  and 
God  by  Jeremiah  rejects  with  abhorrence 
such  divided  service.  *  Ye  trust  in  lying 
words,  which  will  not  profit.  Will  ye  steal,  mur- 
der, commit  adultery,  swear  falsely,  and  burn  in- 
cense unto  Baal,  and  walk  after  otlier  gods,  and 
come  and  stand  before  Me  in  this  house,  tvhich  is 
called  by  My  name,  saying,  We  are  delivered  to  do 
ail  these  abominations.  And  Hosea,  ^Neither  go 
ye  to  Beth-aven,  and  swear  there,  The  Lord  liveth. 

1 S.  Cyr.  2  Deut.  vi.  13. 

8  lb.  vi.  13, 14,  X.  3CI.  comp.  Is.  Ixv.  16.  Jer.  iv.  2. 

*  Josh,  xxiii.  6-8.  comp.  Amos  viii.  14. 

sjer.  V.  7.  ^Ib.  xii.  16. 

'  1  Kgs  xviii.  21.  8  jer.  yii.  8-10. 

*Ho9.  iv.  15.    See  vol.  i.,  p.  .33.  WS.  Jer. 

11 2  Tim.  li.  3,  4. 
i-.Snch  is  the  uniform  u.-^e  of  J1DJ.     It.a  oommoii 


6  And  'them  that  are 
turned  back  from  the 
Lord ;    and   those   that 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

Lsai.  1.  4. 
Jer.  2. 13,  17. 
&  15.  6. 


Such  are  Christians,  "  ^"  who  think  that 
they  can  serve  together  the  world  and  the 
Lord,  and  please  two  masters,  God  and  Mam- 
mom  ;  who,  being  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
having  sworn  fealty  to  Him,  ^^  entangle  them- 
selves with  the  affairs  of  this  life  and  offer  the 
same  image  to  God  and  to  Cfesar."  To  sucli. 
God,  Whom  with  their  lips  they  own,  is  not 
their  God  ;  their  idol  is,  as  the  very  name 
says,  their  king,  whom  alone  they  please,  dis- 
pleasing and  dishonoring  God.  We  must 
not  only  fear,  love,  honor  God,  but  love,  fear, 
honor  all  beside  for  Him  Alone. 

6.  And  them  that  are  turned  back  from  [lit. 
have  turned  themselves  back  from  folloudng  aftei'  ^^] 
the  Lord.  From  this  half-service,  the  prophet 
goes  on  to  the  avowed  neglect  of  God,  by 
such  as  wholly  fall  away  from  Him,  not  set- 
ting His  Will  or  law  before  them,  but  turn- 
ing away  from  Run.  It  is  tiieir  misery  that 
they  were  set  in  the  right  way  once,  but 
themselves  turned  themselves  back,  now  no 
longer  follouing  God,  but  '^  their  own  lusts, 
drawn  away  and  enticed  by  them.  How 
much  more  Christians,  before  whose  eyes  , 
Christ  Jesus  is  set  forth,  not  as  a  Redeemer 
only  but  as  an  Example  that  they  should 
^*  follow  His  steps .' 

And  those  that  have  not  sought  the  Lord,  nor 
enquired  for  Him.  This  is  marked  to  be  a 
distinct  class.  And  those  who.  These  did  not 
openly  break  with  God,  or  turn  away  overtly 
from  Him  ;  they  kept  (as  men  think)  on  good 
terms  with  Him,  but,  like  the  slothful  servant, 
lendered  Him  a  listless  heartless  service. 
Both  words  express  diligent  search  '^.  God 
is  not  found  then  in  a  careless  way.  They 
who  seek  Him  not  diligently  ^^,  do  not  find 
Him.  Strive,  our  I.,ord  says,  "  to  enter  in  at 
the  strait  gate  ;  for  many,  I  say  unto  you,  shall 
■seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall  not  be  able.  She  who 
had  lost  the  one  piece  of  silver,  sought  dili- 
gently '**,  till  she  had  found  it. 

Thus  he  has  gone  through  the  whole  cycle. 
First,  that  most  horrible  and  cruel  worship 
of  Baal,  the  idolatrous  priests  and  those  who 
had  the  name  of  priests  only,  mingled  with 
them,  yet  not  openly  apostatizing ;  then  the 
milder  form  of  idolatry,  the  star-worship- 
ers ;  then  those  who  would  unite  the  wor- 

constniction  is  with  "linX ;  vvith  "inXD,  as  here,  Is. 
lix.  13;   Kal,  with  p  of  pers.,  Ps.  Ixxx.  19;  Nif. 

with  JO  of  thing,  2  Sam.  i.  22. 
13  S.  Jas.  i.  14.  14 1  8.  Pet.  ii.  21. 

tyil    of  .search  below  the 


16  iyj53i  intensive ; 

surface. 
I'S.  Luke  xiii.  vi4. 


i»S.  Matt.  ii.  8. 
18  lb.  XV.  8. 


240 


ZEPHANIAH. 


chrTst  "liave  not  sought   the 

cir.  630.  LoRD^   not   enquired   for 

» Hos.  7. 7.  him. 

iHab  2.20.  7  »Hold  thy  peace  at 

Zech.  2. 13.         ,  •',    f 

the  presence  of  the  Lord 


ship  of  God  with  idols,  who  held  themselves 
to  be  worshipers  of  God,  but  whose  real 
king  was  their  idol ;  then  those  who  openly 
abandoned  God  ;  and  lastly  those  who  held 
with  Him,  just  to  satisfy  their  conscience- 
qualms,  but  with  no  heart-service.  And  so, 
in  words  of  Habakkuk  and  in  reminiscence 
of  his  awful  summons  of  the  whole  world 
before  God,  he  sums  up ; 

7.  Hold  ihy  peace  at  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
God.  [lit.  Hush,  in  awe  from  the  face  of  God.'] 
In  the  Presence  of  God,  even  the  righteous 
say  from  their  inmost  heart,  ^  I  am  vile,  %i  hat 
shall  I  answer  Thee  ?  I  wiil  lay  mine  hand  upon 
my  mouth.  ^  Now  mine  eye  seeth  Thee,  where- 
fore I  abhor  my.^elf,  and  repent  in  dmt  and 
ashes.  ^  Enter  not  into  judgment  ivith  Thy  ser- 
vant, 0  Lord ;  for  in  Thy  sif/ht  shall  no  nmn 
living  be  justified.  How  much  more  must  the 
*man  without  the  wedding  garment  be  speechless, 
and  every  false  plea,  with  which  he  deceived 
himself,  melt  away  before  the  Face  of  God  ! 
The  voice  of  God's  Judgment  echoes  in  every 
heart,  "  ve  indeed  justly. 

For  the  Day  of  the  Lord  is  at  hand.  Zephan- 
iah,  as  is  his  wont,  grounds  this  summons, 
which  he  had  renewed  from  Habakkuk,  to 
hushed  silence  before  God,  on  Joel's  pro- 
phetic warning®,  to  shew  that  it  was  not 
yet  exhausted.  A  day  of  the  Lord,  of  which 
Joel  warned,  liad  come  and  was  gone  ;  but  it 
was  only  the  herald  of  many  such  days ; 
judgments  in  time,  heralds  and  earnests,  and, 
in  their  degree,  pictures  of  the  last  which 
shall  end  time. 

"  ^  All  time  is  God's,  since  He  Alone  is 
the  Lord  of  time ;  yet  that  is  specially  said 
to  be  His  time  when  He  doth  anything 
special.  Whence  He  saith,  ^  My  time  is  not 
yet  come;  whereas  all  time  is  His."  The 
Day  of  the  Lord  is,  in  the  first  instance, 
""the  day  of  captivity  and  vengeance  on  the 
sinful  people,"  as  a  forerunner  of  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  or  the  day  of  death  to  each,  for 
this  too  is  near,  since,  compared  to  eternity, 
all  the  time  of  this  world  is  brief. 

For  the  Lord  hath  prepared  a  sacrifice.  God 
liad  rejected  sacrifices,  offered  amid  unre- 
pented  sin;  they  were  '"cm  abomination  to 
Him.     When  man  will  not  repent  and  offer 

iJobxl.  4.  »Ib.  xlii.  5,  0.  s  pg.  cxliii.  2. 

*B.  Matt.  xxii.  11,  12.  ^S.  Luke  xxiii.  41. 

•See  on  Joel  i.  14.  vol.  1.  p.  104,  and  ii.  1.  p.  168. 
'  Dion.  8  8.  John  vil.  C.  »  S.  Jer 

»oi8. 1. 11-lS.  "Rom.  xli.  1 

i«  l8.  xxxlv.  0.  '»  Jer  xlvi.  in, 


God  :  ■"  for  the  day  of  the    ^  l^f^JI  ^ 
Lord  is  at  hand :  for  "the      cir.  c3o. 


Lord  hath  prepared  a » isai'."34.'6.' 

sacrifice,  he  hath  f  bid  his  E^iek  39. 17. 
^„„o+«  Rev.  ig.  17. 

guests.  ^.jHeb.  sanctified, 

or  prepared. 


himself  as  ^*  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  accept- 
able to  God,  God,  at  last,  rejects  all  other  out- 
ward oblations,  and  the  sinner  himself  is 
the  sacrifice  and  victim  of  his  own  sins. 
The  image  was  probably  suggested  by  Isaiah's 
words,  '^  The  Lord  hath  a  sacrifice  in  Bozrah, 
and  a  great  slaughter  in  the  Land  of  Idumea  ; 
and  Jeremiah  subsequently  uses  it  of  the 
overthrow  of  Pharaoh  at  the  Euphrates, 
"  This  is  the  day  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ;  that  He 
may  avenge  Him  of  His  adversaries;  for  the 
Lord  God  hath  a  sacrifice  in  the  north  country 
by  the  river  Euphrates.  "  The  Lord  hath  made 
all  things  for  Himself,  yea  even  the  vicked  for 
the  day  of  evil.  All  must  honor  God,  either 
fulfilling  the  will  of  God  and  the  end  of  their 
own  being  and  of  His  love  for  them,  by  obey- 
ing that  loving  Will  with  their  own  free- 
will, or,  if  they  repudiate  it  to  the  end,  by 
suflering  It. 

He  hath  bid  [lit.  .sanctified  ^^"j  His  guests. 
God  had  before,  by  Isaiah,  called  the  heathen 
whom  He  employed  to  punish  Babylon, 
^^3Iy  sanctified  ones.  Zephaniaii,  by  giving 
the  title  to  God's  instruments  against  Judah, 
declares  that  themselves,  having  become  in 
deeds  like  the  heathen,  were  as  heathen  to 
Him.  The  instruments  of  His  displeasure, 
not  they,  were  so  fiir  His  chosen.  His  called  ''. 
Jeremiah  repeats  the  saying,  •*  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  again.'^t  the  house  of  the  king  of  Judah  ; — 
I  have  sanctified  against  thee  destroyers,  a  man 
and  his  weapons.  That  is,  so  far,  a  holy  war 
in  the  purpose  of  God,  which  fulfills  His 
will ;  whence  Nebuchadnezzar  was  ''  His 
servant,  avenging  His  wrongs '-".  '' ''  To  be 
sanctified,  here  denotes  not  the  laying  aside 
of  iniquity,  nor  the  participation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  but,  as  it  were,  to  be  foreordained  and 
chosen  to  the  fulfillment  of  this  end."  That 
is  in  a  manner  hallowed,  which  is  employed 
by  God  for  a  holy  end,  tiiough  the  instru- 
ment, its  purposes,  its  aims,  its  pa.ssions,  be 
in  themselves  unholy.  There  is  an  awe  about 
"the .scourges of  God."  As  witii  the  lightning 
and  the  tornado,  there  is  a  certain  presence 
of  God  with  them,  in  that  through  them  His 
Righteousness  is  seen  ;  altliougii  they  tiiem- 
selves  have  as  little  of  Ciod  as  the  wltid  and 
storm  which  fulfill  His  word.     Those  who  were 


14  Prov.  xvi.  4. 
>«  Is.  xlii.  3. 


"See  E.  M. 


"Jer.  xxli.  6,7.  »Ib.  XXT.9. 

»See  on  Joel  lit  9  vol  1  p  137  and  Micah  lii.  6. 
ab.  p.  312.  SI  S.  Cyr. 


CHAPTER  I. 


241 


8  And  it  shall  come  to 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630.      pass   in   the   day   of  the 


once  admitted  to  make  offerings  to  God 
make  themselves  sacrifices  to  His  wrath  ; 
these,  still  heathen  and  ungodly  and  in  all 
besides  reprobate,  are  His  Priests,  because  in 
this,  although  without  their  will,  they  do 
His  Will. 

8.  I  will  punish  [lit.  visit  upmi"].  God  seems 
oftentimes  to  be  away  from  His  own  world. 
Men  plot,  design,  say,  in  word  or  in  deed, 
who  is  Lord  over  us  f  God  is,  as  it  were,  a 
stranger  in  it,  or  as  a  man,  who  hath  taken  a 
journey  into  a  far  country.  Ciod  uses  our  own 
language  to  us.  I  will  visit,  inspecting,  (so  to 
say),  examining,  sifting,  reviewing,  and  when 
man's  sins  require  it,  allowing  the  weight  of 
His  displeasure  to  fall  upon  them. 

The  princes.  The  propliet  again,  in  vivid 
detail  (as  his  cliaracteristic  is),  sets  forth 
together  sin  and  punishment.  Amid  the 
general  chastisement  of  all,  when  all  should 
become  one  sacrifice,  they  who  sinned  most 
should  be  punished  most.  The  evil  priests 
had  received  their  doom.  Here  he  begins 
anew  with  the  miglity  of  the  people  and  so 
goes  down,  first  to  special  spots  of  the  city, 
then  to  the  whole,  man  by  man.  Josiah 
being  a  godly  king,  no  mention  is  made  of 
him.  Thirteen  years  before  his  death  ^,  he 
received  the  promise  of  God,  because  thine 
heart  was  tender,  and  thou  hast  humbled  thyself 
before  the  Lord — I  will  gather  thee  unto  thy 
fathers,  and  thou  shall  be  gathered  unto  thy  grave 
in  peace,  and  thou  shalt  not  see  all  the  evil  which 
I  will  bring  upon  this  place.  In  remarkable 
contrast  to  Jeremiah,  who  liad  to  be,  in 
detail  and  continual  i:)leading  with  his  peo- 
ple, a  prophet  of  judgment  to  come,  until  these 
judgments  broke  upon  them,  and  so  was  the 
reprover  of  the  evil  sovereigns  who  succeeded 
Josiah,  Zephaniah  has  to  pronounce  God's 
judgments  only  on  the  princes  and  the 
king's  children.  Jeremiah,  in  his  inaugural 
vision,  was  forewarned,  that  ^  the  kings  of 
Judah,  its  princes,  priests,  and  the  people  of  the 
land  should  war  against  him,  because  lie 
should  speak  unto  them  all  wliich  God  should 
command  him.  And  thenceforth  Jere- 
miah impleads  or  threatens  kings  and  the 
princes  together  ^.  Zephaniah  contrariwise, 
nis  office  lying  wholly  within  the  reign  of 
Josiah,  describes  the  princes  again  as  *  roar- 
ing lions,  but  says  nothing  of  the  king,  as 
neither  does  Micah  ^,  in  the  reign,  it  may  be, 
of  Jotham  or  Hezekiah.    Isaiah  speaks  of 

1 2  Kgs  xxil.  19.  20.  2  Jer.  1. 18. 

*  lb.  ii.  2(5,  iv.  9,  viii.  1,  xxiv.  8,  xxxii.  37,  xxxiv.  21. 

*  Zeph.  iii.  3.  ^  Mic.  iii.  1,  9. 
« Is.  i.  23.  7  Jer.  xxxl.  32-34.  xliv.  21. 
8  lb.  xxvi.  10.           9  lb.  xxxvii.  16,  xxxviii.  4, 16. 

wib.  xxxvii,  1*.  XX STiii,  14-27, 

]6 


Lord's  sacrifice,  that  I    chr*?st 
will  t  punish  °  the  princes,      *^"-  ^^o. 


«  Jer.  39.  6. 


t  Heb.  visit  upon. 


princes,  as  ^  rebellious  and  companions  of  thieves. 
Jeremiah  speaks  of  them  as  idolaters  '.  They 
appear  to  have  had  considerable  influence, 
which  on  one  occasion  they  employed 
in  defence  of  Jeremiah*,  but  mostly  for 
eviP.  Zedekiah  enquired  of  Jeremiah 
secretly  for  fear  of  them '".  They  brought 
destruction  upon  themselves  by  what  men 
praise,  their  resistance  to  Nebuchadnezzar, 
but  against  the  declared  mind  of  God. 
Nebuchadnezzar  unwittingly  fulfilled  the 
prophets's  word,  wlien  he  "  slew  all  the  nobles 
of  Judah,  the  eunuch  who  was  over  the  war,  and 
seven  men  of  them  that  were  near  the  king's  person, 
and  the  principal  scribe  of  the  host. 

Aiul  the  king's  children.  Holy  Scripture 
mentions  chief  persons  only  by  name.  Isaiah 
had  prophesied  the  isolated  lonely  loveless 
lot  of  descendants  of  Hezekiah  who  should 
be  eunuchs  in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  Babylon  ^'^, 
associated  only  with  those  intriguing  pests  of 
Eastern  courts'^,  a  lot  in  itself  worse  than 
the  sword  (although  to  Daniel  God  over- 
ruled it  to  good)  and  Zedekiah's  sons  were 
slain  before  his  eyes  and  his  race  extinct. 
Jehoiakim  died  a  disgraced  death,  and 
Jehoiachin  was  imprisoned  more  than  half 
the  life  of  man. 

And  all  such  as  are  clothed  with  strange  ap- 
parel. Israel  was  reminded  by  its  dress,  that 
it  belonged  to  God.  It  was  no  great  thing  in 
itself;  a  band  of  dark  blue  '*  upon  the  fringes  af 
the  four  corners  of  their  garments.  But  the  band 
of  dark  blue  was  upon  the  high-priest's  mitre, 
with  the  plate  engraved,  ^''Holiness  to  the 
Lord,  fastened  upon  it ;  with  a  band  of  dark 
blue  also  was  the  breastplate  '"  bound  to  the 
ephod  of  the  high-priest.  So  then,  simple  as 
it  was,  it  seems  to  have  designated,  the  whole 
nation,  as  "a  kingdom  of  priests,  an  holy  nation. 
It  was  appointed  to  them,  "*  that  ye  may  look 
upon  it,  and  remember  all  the  commandments  of 
the  Lord  and  do  them,  and  that  ye  seek  not  after 
your  own  heart  and  your  oufn  eyes,  after  which 
ye  use  to  go  a  whoring  ;  that  ye  may  remember 
and  do  all  My  commandments,  and  be  holy  unto 
your  God.  They  might  say,  "  it  is  but  a  band 
of  blue;  "  but  the  band  of  blue  was  the  soldier's 
badge,  which  marked  them  as  devoted  to  the 
service  of  their  God  ;  indifference  to  or  shame 
of  it  involved  indifference  to  or  shame 
of  the  charge  given  them  therewith,  and  to 
their  calling  as  a  peculiar  people.  The 
choice  of  the  strange  apparel  involved  the 

"  lb.  xxxix.  6,  Iii.  25-27. 

12  la.  xxxix.  7.  See  Daniel  the  prophet  p.  16. 

isSeelb.  p.  21,22. 

1*  Nu.  XT.  38.  De.  xxil.  12.  «  Ex.  xxvlil.  36. 

19  lb.  xxxix.  21, 

"  lb,  xix,  6.  1"  Nu.  XV.  39,  40. 


242 


ZEPHANIAH. 


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and  the  king's  children, 
.  and  all  such  as  are  clothed 
with  strange  apparel. 

9  In  the  same  day  also 
will  I  punish  all  those  that 


choice  to  be  as  the  nations  of  the  world ; 
'  we  wili  be  as  the  hecUhen,  as  the  families  of  the 
countries. 

All  luxurious  times  copy  foreign  dress,  and 
with  it,  foreign  manners  and  luxuries  ; 
whence  even  the  heathen  Romans  were  zeal- 
ous against  its  use.  It  is  very  probable  that 
with  the  foreign  dress  foreign  idolatry  was 
imported  *.  The  Babylonian  dress  was  very 
gorgeous,  such  as  was  the  admiration  of  the 
simpler  Jews.  ^Her  eaptahis  and  rulers  clothed 
in  perfection,  girded  with  girdles  upon  their  loins, 
ivith  flowing  dyed  attire  upon  their  heads.  Ezekiel 
had  to  frame  words  to  express  the  Hebrew 
idea  of  their  beauty.  Jelioiakim  is  reproved 
among  other  things  for  his  luxury  *.  Out- 
ward dress  always  betokens  the  inward  mind, 
and  in  its  turn  acts  upon  it.  An  estranged 
dress  betokened  an  estranged  heart,  whence  it 
is  used  as  an  image  of  the  whole  spiritual 
mind  *.  "  ®  The  garment  of  the  sons  of 
the  king  and  the  apparel  of  princes  which 
we  receive  in  Baptism,  is  Clirist,  accord- 
ing to  that.  Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  Put  ye  on  bowels  of  mercy,  goodness, 
humility,  patience,  and  the  rest.  Wherein 
we  are  commanded  to  be  clothed  with  the 
new  man  from  heaven  according  to  our 
Creator,  and  to '  lay  aside  the  clothing  oithe  old 
man  with  his  deeds.  Whereas  then  we  ought 
to  be  clothed  in  such  raiment,  for  mercy  we 
put  on  cruelty,  for  patience,  impatience,  for 
righteousness,  iniquity;  in  a  word,  for  virtues, 
vices;  for  Christ,  Antichrist.  Wlience  it  is 
said  of  such  an  one,  *  He  is  clothed  ivith  curs- 
ing as  with  a  garment.  These  the  Lord 
will  visit  most  manifestly  at  His  Coming." 
"^Thinkest  thou  that  hypocrisy  is  strange 
apparel  f  Of  a  truth.  For  what  stranger 
apparel  than  sheeps'  clothing  to  ravening 
wolves  ?  What  stranger  than  for  him 
who  ^'^  within  is  fidl  of  iniquity,  to  appear 
outwardly  righteous  before  men*" 

9.  /  will  punish  all  tltose  that  le/ip  on  the 
thresliold.  Neither  language  nor  history  nor 
context  allow  this  to  be  understood  of  the 

1  Ezek.  XX. :«. 

"Jon.  Ra^hi  and  8.  Jer.  connect  it  with  idolatiy. 
»  Ezek.  xxiii.  12, 1.").  «  Jer.  xxii.  14, 15. 

'  Rom.  xiii.  14,  Col.  Hi.  12,  Eph.  iv.  24. 
•S.  Jer. 

7  Eph.  iv.  2-2.  «  Ps.  cix.  17.  »  Riip. 

"J  8.  Matl.  xxiii.  28. 
"  |r\30  is  used  1  Sam.  v.  4,  6,  Ezek.  Ix.  3,  x.  4, 18, 

xlvi.  2,  xlvii.  1 ;  elsewhere  f|D.    There  is  a  trace  of 

this  explanation  in  the  Chald,  "  who  walk  in  the 
laws  of  the  I'liilistinc!?,'  and  in  S.  Jerome,  doubt- 


leap   on   the   threshold, 
which   fill  their  masters', 
houses  with   violence  and 
deceit. 

10  And  it  shall  come  to 


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idolatrous  custom  of  Ashdod,  not  to  tread  on 
the  threshold  "  of  the  temple  of  Dagon.  It 
had  indeed  been  a  strange  infatuation  of 
idolatry,  that  God's  people  should  adopt  an 
act  of  superstitious  reverence  for  an  idol  in 
the  very  instance  in  which  its  nothingness 
and  the  power  of  tlie  true  God  had  been 
shewn.  Nothing  is  indeed  too  brutish  for 
one  who  chooses  an  idol  for  the  true  God, 
preferring  Satan  to  the  good  God.  Yet  the 
superstition  belonged  apparently  to  Ashdod 
alone;  the  worship  of  Dagon,  although 
another  form  of  untrue  worship,  does  not  ap- 
pear, like  that  of  Baal,  to  have  fascinated 
the  Jews  ;  nor  would  Zephaniah,  to  express 
a  rare  superstition,  have  chosen  an  idiom, 
which  might  more  readily  express  the  con- 
trary, that  they  "leapt  on  the  threshold," 
not  over  it  '^.  They  are  also  tlie  same  per- 
sons, who  leap  on  the  threshold,  and  who  Jill 
their  inaster^  houses  with  violence  and  deceit. 
Yet  this  relates,  not  to  superstition,  but  to 
plunder  and  goods  unjustly  gotten.  As  then, 
before,  he  had  declared  God's  judgments 
upon  idolatry,  so  does  he  here  upon  sins 
against  the  second  table,  whether  by  open 
violence,  or  secret  fraud,  as  do  also  Habak- 
kuk '',  and  Jeremiah  '*.  All,  whether  open  or 
hidden  from  man,  every  wrongful  dealing, 
(for  every  sin  as  to  a  neighbor's  goods  falls 
under  these  two,  violence  or  fraud)  shall  be 
avenged  in  that  day.  Here  again  all  which 
remains  is  the  sin.  They  enriched,  as  they 
thouglit,  their  masters,  by  art  or  by  force ; 
they  schemed,  plotted,  robbed  ;  they  succeeded 
to  their  heart's  wish  ;  but,  "  ill-gotten,  ill- 
spent  ! "  They  filled  tlieir  masters'  homes  quite 
full ;  but  wherewitli  ?  with  violence  and 
deceit,  which  witnessed  against  tliem,  and 
brought  down  the  judgments  of  God  upon 
them. 

10.  A  cry  from  the  fish-gaie.  The  fish-gate 
was  probably  in  the  North  of  the  wall  of  the 
second  city.  For  in  Nchemiah's  rebuilding, 
the  restoration  began  at  the  sheep-gate  ^\  ^so 
called  doul)tless,  because  the  sheep  for  the 

less  from  his  Jewisli  teachers.  Isaiali's  reproof 
that  they  hnrc  soothnai/ers  tike  the  Philistines,  ii.  6,  is 
altogether  different. 

'■••Si^  jSt  is,  in  the  only  other  pl.ice.  Cant.  ii.  8. 
"houndiuK  o/i  the  mountains;"  "bonmlinti  over"' 
(like  our  "leapt  a  wall  ")  hnppen.s  to  be  expressed 
by  an  ace,  2  Sam.  xviii.  30,  P.'J.  xviii.  3'>;  "passing 
over"  had  been  expressed  more  clearly  by  n09 
S;',  as  In  Eji.  xil.  23,  27. 

>«  Hnl>.  i.  2,  ri.  h  Jer.  v.  27.  "  Neh.  Hi.  1. 


CHAPTEE  I. 


J43 


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pass  in  that  day,  saith  the 
.Lord,  that  there  shall  be 
p2  chr.  33. 14.    the  iioise  of  a  cry  from  p  the 


sacrifices  were  brought  in  by  it)  which,  as 
being  near  the  temple,  was  repaired  by  the 
priests  ;  then  it  ascended  Northward,  by  two 
towers,  the  towers  of  Mcah  and  Hananecl ;  then 
two  companies  repaired  some  undescribed 
part  of  the  wall  \  and  then  another  company 
built  the  fish-gate  ^.  Four  companies  are  then 
mentioned,  who  repaired,  in  order,  to  the  old 
gate,  which  was  repaired  by  anotlier  com- 
pany^. Three  more  companies  repaired 
beyond  these ;  and  they  left  Jerusalem  unto  the 
broad  wall*.  After  three  more  sections  re- 
paired by  individuals,  two  others  repaired  a 
second  measured  portion,  and  the  tower  of  the 
furnaces^.  This  order  is  reversed  in  the 
account  of  the  dedication  of  the  walls.  The 
people  being  divided  *  into  two  great  companies 
of  them  that  give  thanks,  some  place  near  the 
tower  of  the  furnaces  was  the  central  point, 
from  which  both  parted  to  encompass  the 
city  in  opposite  directions.  In  this  account, 
we  have  two  additional  gates  mentioned,  the 
gate  of  Ephraim ',  between  the  broad  ivall  and 
the  old  gate,  and  the  prison-gate,  beyond  the 
sheep-gate,  from  which  the  repairs  had  begun. 
The  gate  of  Ephraim  had  obviously  not  been 
repaired,  because,  for  some  reason,  it  had  not 
been  destroyed.  Else  Nehemiah,  who  de- 
scribes the  rebuilding  of  the  wall  so  minute- 
ly, must  have  mentioned  its  rebuilding.  It 
was  obviously  to  the  North,  as  leading  to 
Ephraim.  But  the  tower  of  Hananeel  must 
have  been  a  very  marked  tower.  In  Zecha- 
riah  Jerusalem  is  measured  from  North  to 
South,  ^from  the  toiver  of  Hananeel  unto  the 
king's  winepresses.  It  was  then  itself  at  the 
North-East  corner  of  Jerusalem,  where 
towers  were  of  most  importance  to  strengthen 
the  wall,  and  to  command  the  approach  to 


«  lb.  3.         3  lb.  4-6.         ♦  lb.  7,  8. 
•  lb.  xii.  31-38.  '  lb.  39. 

»  See  ab.  p.  50.         w  B.  J.  v.  42. 


1  Neh.  iii.  2. 

5  lb.  9-11. 

8Zech.xiv.  10. 

»  lb.  V.  32. 

12  Pierotti,  "  Jerusalem  explored "  p.  32,  from 
whom  this  account  is  taken.  Signor  Pierotti's  work 
is  "  the  fruit  of  eight  years  of  continual  labor 
devoted  to  a  study  of  the  topography  of  Jerusalem 
upon  the  spot,  in  which  I  have  been  constantly 
occupied  in  excavating  and  removing  the  rubbish 
accumulated  over  the  place  during  so  many  cen- 
turies, in  retracing  the  walls,  in  examining  the 
monuments  and  ancient  remains,  and  in  penetrat- 
ing and  traversing  the  conduits  and  vaults." — "  I 
have,"  he  says,  "  made  excavations  and  watched 
those  made  by  others,  have  formed  intimacies  with 
the  inhabitants  of  the  country,  have  sought  for 
information  on  the  spot,  regardless  of  personal  risk, 
have  worked  with  my  own  hands  underground, 
and  so  have  obtained  much  knowledge  of  tliat 
which  lies  below  the  surface  of  the  soil  in  Jeru- 
salem."   Jerusalem  explored  Pref.  p.  viii. 

13  1)  At  the  meat-bazaar  near  the  convent  of  S. 
Mary  the  Great.  "  In  digging  down  to  the  rock  to 
lay  the  new  foundations,  fo  feet  below  the  surface. 


fish  gate,  and  an  howling 
from  the  second,  and  a  great . 
crashing  from  the  hills. 


Before 

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the  wall  either  way.  The  fish-gate  then,  lying 
between  it  and  the  gate  of  Ephraim,  must  have 
been  on  the  North  side  of  the  city,  and  so  on 
the  side  where  the  Chaldean  invasions  came  ; 
yet  it  must  have  been  much  inside  the  present 
city,  because  the  city  itself  was  enlarged  by 
Herod  Agrippa  on  the  North,  as  it  was  un- 
accountably contracted  on  the  South  ".  The 
then  limits  of  Jerusalem  are  defined.  For 
Josephus  thus  describes  the  second  wall.  "  '"It 
took  its  beginning  from  that  gate  which  they 
called  Gennath,  which  belonged  to  the  first 
wall ;  it  only  encompassed  the  northern 
c|uarter  of  the  city  and  reached  as  far  as  the 
tower  of  Antonia."  The  tower  of  Antonia 
was  situated  at  the  North-West  angle  of  the 
comer  of  the  temple.  The  other  end  of  the 
wall,  the  Gennath  or  garden  gate,  must  have 
opened  on  cultivated  land ;  and  Josephus 
speaks  of  the  gardens  on  the  N.  and  N.  W. 
of  the  city  which  were  destroyed  by  Titus  in 
levelling  the  ground  ".  But  near  the  tower 
of  Hippicus,  the  North-Western  extremity 
of  the  first  wall,  no  ancient  remains  have 
been  discovered  by  excavation ''' ;  but  they 
have  been  traced  North,  from  "  an  ancient 
•Jewish  semi-circular  arch,  resting  on  piers 
18  feet  high,  now  buried  in  rubbish."  These 
old  foundations  have  been  traced  at  three 
places  '*  in  a  line  on  the  East  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  (which  lay  consequently  outside 
the  city)  up  to  the  judgment  gate,  but  not 
North  of  it  '*.  The  line  from  West  to  East, 
i.  e.,  to  the  tower  of  Antonia,  is  marked 
generally  by  "  very  large  stones,  evidently  of 
Jewish  work,  in  the  walls  of  houses,  especially 
in  the  lower  parts  '^."  They  are  chiefly  in 
the  line  of  the  Via  Dolorosa. 

The  fish-gate  had  its  name  probably  from  a 

I  came  upon  large  stones,  boldly  rusticated  and 
arranged  in  a  manner  that  reminded  me  of  the 
Phoenician  work  of  the  time  of  Solomon."  2)  on 
the  East  of  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection.  3) 
"close  to  the  West  of  the  present  Judgment  gate." 
"  In  digging  down  for  the  rock,  I  found,  18  feet 
below  the  surface,  a  fragment  of  a  wall,  resembling, 
in  all  respects,  that  first  described."    lb.  p.  .33. 

1*  This  appeared  from  excavations  made  in  repair- 
ing the  then  Russian  consulate,  and  from  "  enoui- 
ries  of  all  who  in  former  years  had  built  in  ttii.s 
neighborhood."  lb. 

15  "  These  were  found  when  the  Effendi  Kadduti 
repaired  and  partly  rebuilt  the  house  in  the  Via 
Dolorosa  at  the  Station  of  Veronica.  A  similar 
discovery  was  made  by  the"  Mufti  in  strengthening 
his  house  at  the  Station  of  Simon  of  Cyrene,  and  bv 
the  Effendi  Soliman  Giari,  opposite  to  the  Mufti's 
house  on  the  North.  The  Armenian  Catholic  monks 
requested  me  to  examine  and  level  a  piece  of  land, 
at  the  Station  of  the  first  fall  of  Christ ;  which,  as 
representative  of  his  nation,  he  had  just  bought. 
In  the  lower  part  of  the  wall  enclosing  it  on  the 
north,  very  large  stones  and  an  ancient  gate  were 
found.    In  the  foundation-  of  thf  Austrian  hospice, 


244 


ZEFHANIAH. 


Before 
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cir.  630. 

»  Jam.  5. 1. 


11  'Howl,  ye  inhabit- 
ants of  Maktesh,  for  all 
the    merchant    people 


are    cut    down ; 
that  bear  silver 
off. 


all   they 
are   cut. 


Before 
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oil-.  030. 


fish-market  (markets  bein?  in  the  open 
places  near  the  gates  ')  the  fish  being  brought 
either  from  the  lake  of  Tiljerias  or  from 
Joppa.  Near  it,  the  wall  ended,  which  Mu- 
nasseh,  after  his  restoration  from  Babylon '•', 
built  u'Uhout  the  city  of  David,  on  the  West  side 
of  Gihon,  in  the  valley.  This,  being  unpro- 
tected by  its  situation,  was  the  weakest  part 
of  the  city.  "  ^  The  most  ancient  of  the 
three  walls  could  be  considered  as  impreg- 
nable, as  much  on  account  of  its  extreme 
thickness,  as  of  the  height  of  the  mountain  on 
which  it  was  built,  and  the  depth  of  the 
valleys  at  its  base,  and  David,  Solomon  and 
the  other  kings  neglected  nothing  to  place 
it  in  this  state."  Where  they  had  made 
themselves  strong,  there  God's  judgment 
»hould  find  them. 

And  a  holding  from  the  second  city,  as  it  is 
supplied  in  Nehemiah,  who  mentions  the 
prefect  set  over  it  *.  It  was  here  that  Hul- 
dah  tiie  prophetess  lived  ^  who  prophesied 
the  evils  to  come  upon  Jerusalem,  after  Jo- 
siah  should  be  gathered  to  his  grave  in  pence. 
It  was  probably  the  lower  city,  which  was 
enclosed  by  the  second  wall.  It  was  a 
second  or  new  city,  as  compared  to  the 
original  city  of  David,  on  Mount  Moriah. 
On  this  the  enemy  who  had  penetrated  by 
the  fish-gate  would  first  enter ;  then  take  the 
strongest  part  of  the  city  itself.  Gareb  *  and 
Bezetha  were  outside  of  the  then  town ; 
they  would  tlien  be  already  occupied  by  the 
enemy  before  entering  the  city. 

A  great  crashing  from  the  hilh.  These  are 
probably  Zion,  and  Mount  Moriah  on  which 
the  temple  stood,  and  so  the  capture  is  de- 
scribed as  complete.  Here  should  be  not  a 
cry  or  howling  only,  but  an  utter  destruc- 
tion'. Mount  Moriah  was  the  seat  of  the 
worship  of  God;  on  Mount  Zion  was  tlie 
state,  and  the  abode  of  the  wealthy.  In  hu- 
man sight  they  were  impregnable.  The 
.lebusites  mocked  at  David's  siege,  iis  think- 
ing their  city  impregnable'*;  but  God  Avas 
with  David  and  he  took  it.  He  and  liis 
.successors  fortilied  it  yet  more,  but  its  true 
defence  was  that  the  Lord  was  round  about  JIus 

laid  in  1857,  to  the  north  of  the  Armenian  property, 
large  stones  were  discovered,  and  also  further  to 
the  East,  in  the  new  convent  of  the  Daughters  of 
.Sion."    Pierotti  pp.  3.3,  34. 

'  See  2  Kgs  vii.  1.  Xeh.  xiii.  If.,  19. 

>2  Chr.  x.xxiii.  14.  «.Io9.  de  B.  J.  v.  4.  2. 

*  N'eh.  xi.  9,  E.  V.  "  was  second  over  the  city  "  on 

Hccount  of  the  absence  of  the  article,  Tj;n  S>.' 
njtyD.  1  prefer  taking  it,  as  in  a  sort  of  apposi- 
ti'^n,  a'*  Ewald  does,  Lohrb  n.  287, 1.  p.  734.  ed.  8. 

»!'  Kings  xxii.  14.  2Chr.  xxxiv.  22.  It  is  called  by 
Juaepl.ns  aAA>),  "anuih..!     iity,  .\ut.  xv.  11,  &. 


people^,  and  when  He  withdrew  His  pro- 
tection, then  this  natural  strength  was  but 
their  destruction,  tempting  them  to  resist 
first  the  Chaldseans,  then  the  Eomans. 
Human  strengtli  is  but  a  great  crash,  falling 
by  its  own  weight  and  burying  its  owner. 
"This  threefold  cry^",  from  three  parts  of  the 
city,  had  a  fulfillment  before  the  destruction 
by  the  Romans.  In  the  lower  part  of  the 
city  Simon  tyrannized,  and  in  the  middle 
John  raged,  and  there  was  a  great  crashing 
from  the  hills,  i.  e.,  from  tl>e  temple  and 
citadel  where  was  Eleazar,  who  stained  the 
very  altar  of  the  temple  with  blood,  and  in 
the  courts  of  the  Lord  made  a  pool  of  blood 
of  divei-s  corpses."  "  "  In  the  assaults  of  an 
enemy  the  inhabitants  are  ever  wont  to  flee 
to  the  tops  of  the  hills,  thinking  that  the 
difficulty  of  access  will  be  a  hindrance  to 
him,  and  will  cut  oft' the  assaults  of  the  pur- 
suers. But  when  God  smiteth,  and  recjuireth 
of  the  despisers  the  penalties  of  their  sin,  not 
the  most  towered  city  nor  impregnable  cir- 
cuits of  walls,  not  height  of  hills,  or  rough 
rocks,  or  pathless  difficulty  of  ground,  will 
avail  to  the  sufferers.  Repentance  alone 
saves,  softening  the  Judge  and  allaying  His 
wrath,  and  readily  inviting  the  Creator  in 
His  inherent  goodness  to  His  appropriate 
gentleness.  Better  is  it,  with  all  our  might 
to  implore  that  we  may  not  ofiend  Him.  But 
since  human  nature  is  prone  to  evil,  and  ^  in 
many  things  we  all  offeml,  let  us  at  least  by 
repentance  invite  to  His  wonted  clemency 
the  Lord  of  all.  Who  is  by  nature  kind." 

11.  Howl,  yc  inhabitants  of  Maktesh,  lit. 
Mortar ",  "  in  which,"  S.  Jerome  says, 
"  com  is  pounded ;  a  hollow  vessel,  and  hi 
for  the  use  of  medical  men,  in  which  properly 
ptisans  are  wont  to  be  beaten  (or  made). 
Striking  is  it,  that  Scripture  s;iith  not, '  who 
dwell  in  the  valley  or  in  the  alley,'  but  wlio 
dwell  in  the  mortar,  because  as  corn,  when  the 
pestle  striketh,  is  l)ruised,  so  the  army  of  the 
enemy  shall  rush  down  upon  you  "."  The 
place  intended  is  probal)ly  so  much  of  the 
valley  of  the  Tyrojja'on,  which  intei-sected 
Jerusalem  from  North  to  South,  as  was  en- 

•Jer.  xxxi.  39. 

'Not,  as  .some,  "aery  of  destruotion  "  as  in  Is. 
XV.  5.  Isaiah  ha.s  indeed  the  words  T^iy  T^Tiy}  "  cry 
of  destruction,"  but  here  T^'p^'H,  tH"'',  1312'  are 

plainly  parallel  to  one  another. 

8  2  Sam.  V.  6.        »  Ps.  cxxv.  2.        w  From  Rup. 

"S.  Cyr.  "S.James  iii.  2. 

isProv.  xxvil.  22.  It  is  also  a  proper  name  in 
Jud.  XV.  19,  since  I  •^hi  in  which  it  was  situate 

rn^3  "^tyXt,  was  a  piv»per  name,  lb.  and  9,  and  11 
»d.  dcr. 


CHAPTER  I. 


245 


Beforf^ 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


12  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass  at  that  time,  that  I 
will  search  Jerusalem  with 


closed  by  the  second  wall,  on  the  North,  and 
tlie  first  wall  on  the  South.  The  valley 
" '  extended  as  far  as  the  fountain  of  Siloam," 
and  united  with  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  a 
little  below  Ophel.  It  was  "  ^  full  of 
houses,"  and,  from  its  name  as  well  as  from 
its  situation,  it  was  probably  the  scene  of 
petty  merchandise,  where  the  occasions  in 
which  men  could  and  did  break  the  law  and 
offend  God,  were  the  more  continual,  be- 
cause they  entered  into  their  daily  life,  and 
were  a  part  of  it.  The  sound  of  the  pestle 
was  continually  heard  there  ;  another  sound 
should  tliereafter  be  heard,  when  they  should 
not  bruise,  but  be  themselves  bruised.  The 
name  Maktesh  was  probably  chosen  to  express 
how  their  false  hopes,  grounded  on  the  pre- 
sence of  God's  temple  among  them  while  by 
their  sins  they  profaned  it,  should  be  turned 
into  true  fears.  They  had  been  and  thought 
themselves  Mikdash,  "a  holy  place,  sanc- 
tuary ; "  they  should  be  Maktesh  ^,  wherein 
all  should  be  utterly  bruised  in  pieces. 

"  *  Whoso  considereth  the  calamities  of 
that  siege,  and  how  the  city  was  pressed  and 
hemmed  in,  will  feel  how  aptly  he  calls  them 
the  inhabitants  of  a  mortar;  for,  as  grains  of 
corn  are  brought  together  into  a  mortar,  to 
the  end  that,  when  the  pestle  descendeth, 
being  unable  to  fly  off,  they  may  be  bruised, 
so  the  people  flowing  together,  out  of  all  the 
countries  of  Judsea,  was  narrowed  in  by  a 
sudden  siege,  and  through  the  savage  cruelty 
of  the  above  leaders  of  the  sedition,  was  unut- 
terably tortured  from  within,  more  than  by 
the  enemy  without." 

For  all  the  merchant  people  [lit.  the  people  of 
Canaan']  are  cut  down;  i.e.,  "*they  who  in 
deeds  are  like  the  people  of  Canaan,"  ac- 
cording to  that,  ®  Thou  art  of  Canaan  and  not 
of  Jiidah,  and,  '  Thy  father  is  an  Amorite  and 
thy  mother  a  Hittite  So  our  Lord  says  to  the 
reprobate  Jews,  '^  Ye  are  of  your  father  the 
devil. 

All  they  that  bear  [lit.  ^  all  laden  with']  silver 
are  cut  off.  The  silver,  wherewith  they  lade 
themselves,  being  gotten  amiss,  is    a  load 

1  See  Signer  Pierotti's  map. 

2  Jos.  B.  J.  V.  4. 1. 

3  The  two  words  do  so  occur  in  an  epistle  of  the 
Samaritans  (Cellar.  Epist.  Sichemit.  p.  25)  Ues. 

*  8.  Jer.  8  ch.  «  Hist,  of  Susannah  56. 

"  Ezek.  xvi.  3.  See  also  on  Hosea  xii.  7,  ab.  p.  121. 
"  S.  John  viii.  44.  ,  , 

•A  passive  adj.  (7'CDp  from  lIDp)-    As  an  act. 

adj.  O'COp  from  iDp)  it  would  rather  imply  that 

Vhey  cast  it  on  others. 

WNif.,  of  Esau  by  enemies  Ob.  6,  Pih.,  for  Laban's 


candles,  and  punish   the    chr'Yst 
men  that  are  f ""  settled  on 2Ei.5^__ . 

,1.1  » ii     i  •        t  Heb.  curded, 

their   lees:   'that  say  in      or, ttiickened. 


'Jer.  48. 11.  Amos  6. 1. 


'  Ps.  94.  7. 


upon  them,  weighing  them  down  until  they 
are  destroyed. 

12.  I  will  search  [lit.  diligently].  The  word 
is  always  used  of  a  minute  diligent  search, 
whereby  places,  persons,  things,  are  searched 
and  sifted  one  Ijy  one  in  every  corner,  until 
it  be  found  whether  a  thing  be  there  or  no'". 
Hence  also  of  the  searching  out  of  every 
thought  of  the  heart,  either  by  God '',  or  in 
repentance  by  the  light  of  God  '*. 

Jerusalem  with  candles :  so  that  there  should 
be  no  corner,  no  lurking-place  so  dark,  but 
that  the  guilty  should  be  brought  to  light. 
The  same  diligence,  which  Eternal  Wisdom 
used,  to  iseek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost, 
'^  liijhting  a  candle  and  searching  diligently,  till  It 
find  each  lost  piece  of  silver,  the  same  shall 
Almighty  God  use  that  no  hardened  sinner 
shall  escape.  "  '*  What  the  enemy  would  do, 
using  unmingled  phrensy  aL^ainst  the  con- 
quered, that  God  fitteth  to  His  own  Person, 
not  as  being  Himself  the  Doer  of  things  so 
foreign,  but  rather  permitting  that  what 
comes  from  anger  should  proceed  in  judg- 
ment against  the  ungodly."  It  was  an  image 
of  this,  when,  at  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by 
the  Romans,  they  "  '^dragged  out  of  common 
sewers  and  holes  and  caves  and  tombs, 
princes  and  great  men  and  priests,  who  for 
fear  of  death  had  hid  themselves."  How 
much  more  in  that  Day  when  the  secrets  of  all 
heartsshall  be  revealed  by  Him  Who  '®  searcheth 
the  hearts  and  reins,  and  to  Whose  Eyes", 
which  are  like  flaming  Fire,  all  things  are  naked 
and  open!  The  candles  wherewith  God 
searcheth  the  heart,  are  men's  own  con- 
sciences'^. His  Own  revealed  word'**,  the 
lives  of  true  Christians^".  These,  through 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  each,  may  enlighten  the 
heart  of  man,  or,  if  he  takes  not  heed,  will 
rise  in  judgment  against  him,  and  shew  the 
falsehood  of  all  vain  excuses.  "  -'  One  way 
of  escape  only  there  is.  If  we  judge  ourselves, 
we  shall  not  be  judged.  I  will  search  out 
my  own  ways  and  my  desires,  that  He  Who 
shall  search  out  Jeruscdem  with  candles,  may 
find  nothing  in  me,  unsought  and  unsifted. 

idols,  Gen.  xsxi.  35  ;  for  Joseph'.s  cup,  lb.  xliv.  12  ; 
for  David  in  hiding  place.«,  1  Sam.  xxiii.  23;  Ahab's 
house,  1  Kgs  XX.  6 ;  for  worshipers  of  God  in 
Baal's  temple,  2  Kgs  x.  23 ;  in  Caves  of  Carmel.  Am. 
ix.  3,  (See  vol.  i.  pp.  .33fV333) ;  Divine  wisdom  Pr.  ii. 
4,  God's  wavs,  Ps.  Ixxvii.  7.  The  form  is  intensive 
here.  "      "  Pr.  xx.  27.  12  Lam.  iii.  40. 

13  S.  Luke  XV.  8.  "  S.  Cyr. 

15  S.  Jer.  See  Jos.  de  B.  J.  vi.'94.  vii.  2  fin. 

16  Ps.  vii.  9,  xxvi.  2,  Jer.  xi.  20,  xvii.  10,  xx.  12,  Rev. 
ii.  23.  "  lb.  i.  14.  is  Prov.  xx.  27. 

10  Ps.  cxix.  104.  Pr.  vi.  23.  2  Pet.  i.  19. 

20  Phil.  ii.  15.  *i  S.  Bern.  ,Serm.  55  in  Cant. 


240 


ZEl'UANIAll. 


Fefore 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


their  heart,  The  Lord 
will  not  do  good,  neither 
will  he  do  evil. 

13  Therefore  their 


For  He  will  not  twice  judge  the  same  thing. 
Would  that  I  might  so  follow  and  track  out 
all  my  oH'ences,  that  in  none  I  need  fear  His 
piercing  Eyes,  in  none  be  ashamed  at  the 
light  of  His  candles  !  Now  I  am  seen,  but  I 
see  not.  At  hand  is  that  Eye,  to  Whom  all 
things  are  open,  although  Itself  is  not  open. 
Once  ^  I  shall  know,  even  as  lean  known.  Now 
/  know  in  part,  but  I  am  not  known  in  part, 
but  wholly." 

The  men  that  are  settled  on  their  /ee.^,  stiffened 
and  contracted '^  The  image  is  from  wine 
which  becomes  harsli,  if  allowed  to  remain 
upon  the  lees,  unremoved.  It  is  drawn  out 
by  Jeremiah*,  Moib  hath  been  at  ease  *j'rom 
his  youth,  and  he  hath  settled  on  his  lees,  and  hath 
not  been  emptied  from  vessel,  to  vessel,  neither  hath 
he  gone  into  ciptivity;  therefore  his  taste  re- 
mained in  him,  and  his  scent  is  not  changed.  So 
they  upon  whom  no  changes  come,  fear  not 
God^.  Tlie  lees  are  the  refuse  of  the  wine, 
yet  stored  up  (so  the  word®  means)  with  it, 
and  the  wine  rests,  as  it  were,  upon  them. 
So  do  men  of  ease  rest  in  things  defiled  and 
defiling,  tlieir  riches  or  their  pleasure,  which 
they  hoard  up,  on  which  they  are  bent,  so 
that  they  "  '  lift  not  their  mind  to  things 
above,  but,  darkened  with  foulest  desires,  are 
hardened  and  stiffened  in  sin." 

That  say  in  their  heart,  not  openly  scoffing, 
perhaps  thinking  that  they  believe ;  but 
people  do  believe  as  they  love.  Their  most 
inward  belief,  the  belief  of  their  heart  and 
affections,  wliat  they  wish,  and  the  hidden 
spring  of  their  actions,  is.  The  Lord  will  not 
do  good,  neither  will  He  do  evil.  They  act  as 
believing  so,  and  by  acting  inure  themselves 
to  believe  it.  They  think  of  God  as  far 
away,  "  Is  not  God  in  the  height  of  heaven  ? 
And  behold  the  height  of  the  stars,  how  high  they 
are!  And  thou  sayest.  How  doth  God  know? 
Can  Hejmlge  through  the  dark  cloud  f  Thick 
clouds  are  a  covering  to  Him,  that  He  seeth  not  ; 
and  He  walketh  in  the  circuit  of  heaven.  *  The 
ungodly  in  the  pride  of  his  heart  (thinketh) ; 
He  will  not  enquire;  all  his  devices  (speak). 
There  is  no  God.      Strong  are  his  ways  at  all 

» 1  Cor.  xiii.  12. 

'J<£)p  is  used  in  two  cases  of  the  (as  it  were) 

••congealing  of  the  waves  when  they  stood  on  an 
'leap  VjX.  x/.  8;  of  the  curdling  into  cheese  Joh  .x. 
10.  Jon.  paraphrases  "who  are  tramiuil  in  tlieir 
possessions."  The  Arable  authorities,  Aoulw.Tanch. 
I'avid  B.  AiiT.  agree  in  the  sen.se  "concealed,"  and 
do  not  call  in  tlie  Arab.  3p  which  is  primarily 

"dried,"  then  is  used  of  the  wrinkling  of  a  cloth  in 
drying,  or  of  the  face  of  the  old.  not  "contracted  " 
Ks  Ues.    Un  Zech.  ziv.  6,  see  ibid. 


j  goods   shall   become   a    c^r'^jIt 
I  booty,  and  their  houses  a      ^"-  '"'-^■ 


desolation :  they  shall  also 

/  .       «Deut.  28. 30,39. 

build  houses,  but  'not  in-  Amos 5.11. 


times;  on  high  are  Thy  judgments  out  of  his 
sight.  ^°  They  slay  the  vidotv  and  the  stranger, 
and  murder  the  fatherless,  and  they  say,  The 
Lord  shall  not  see,  neither  shall  the  God  of  Jacob 
regard  it.  ^^ Such  things  they  did  imagine  and 
ivere  deceived ;  for  their  own  wickedness  blinded 
them.  As  for  the  mysteries  of  God,  they  knew 
them  not.  ^'^  Faith  without  works  is  dead.  Faith 
which  acts  not  dies  out,  and  there  comes  in 
its  stead  this  other  persuasion,  that  God  will 
not  repay.  There  are  more  Atheists  than 
believe  tliemselves  to  be  such.  These  act  as 
if  there  were  no  Judge  of  their  deeds,  and  at 
last  come,  themselves  to  believe  that  God 
will  not  punish  ^'.  What  else  is  the  thought 
of  all  worldlings,  of  all  who  make  idols  to 
themselves  of  any  pleasure  or  gain  or  ambi- 
tion, but  "  God  will  not  punish?"  "God 
cannot  punish  the  [wrongful,  selfish,]  indul- 
gence of  the  nature  which  He  has  made." 
"  God  will  not  be  so  precise."  "God  will  not 
punish  witii  everlasting  severance  from  Him, 
the  sins  of  this  short  life."  And  they  see  not 
that  they  ascribe  to  God,  what  He  attributes 
to  idols  i.  e.,  not-gods.  '*  Do  good  or  do  evil, 
that  we  may  be  dismayed  and  behold  it  together. 
^^  Be  not  afraid  of  them  ;  for  they  cannot  do  evil, 
neither  also  is  it  in  them  to  do  good.  These 
think  not  that  God  does  good ;  for  they  as- 
cribe their  success  to  their  own  diligence, 
wisdom,  strength,  and  thank  not  God  for  it. 
They  think  not  that  He  sends  them  evil. 
For  they  defy  Him  and  His  laws,  and  think 
that  they  shall  go  unpunished.  What  re- 
mains but  that  He  should  be  as  dumb  an 
idol  as  those  of  the  heathen  ? 

13.  Therefore  their  goods,  lit.  And  their 
strength.  It  is  the  simple  sequel  in  God's 
Providence.  It  is  a  continued  narrative. 
God  will  visit  those  who  say,  tiiat  God  does 
not  interfere  in  man's  affairs,  and,  it  shall  be 
seen  '®  whose  v:ords  shall  stand,  God's  or  their's. 
All  which  God  had  threatened  in  tiie  law 
siiall  be  fulfilled.  God,  in  the  fulfillment 
of  the  punishment,  which  He  had  foretold 
in  the  law  ",  would  vindicate  not  only  His 
present  Providence,  but  His  continual  gov- 


'topu^. 


« See  Ps.  Iv  19. 
'  Dion. 


» lb.  xciv.  6, 6. 
"S.  Jas.  ii.  20. 


*  Jer.  xlviil.  11. 

8  Job  xxii.  12-14. 
B  Ps.  X.  4,  5. 
n  Wisd.  ii.  21-22. 
13  la.  V.  19,  Mai.  ii.  17. 

*■•  Is.  xli.  23.    Perhaps  Zeph.  meant  to  suggest  this 
by  using  words  which  God  bv  Isaiah  had  used  of 
idols. 
>6  Jer.  X.  6.  ««  lb.  xUv.  X. 

1'  Lev.  xzvi.  32,  33.  Deut.  xxviii. 


CHAPTER  I. 


247 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  626. 

>■  Mic.  6. 15. 


habit  them;  and  they  shall 
plant  vineyards,  but  "not 
drink  the  wine  thereof. 


emment  of  His  own  world.  All  which  is 
strength  to  man,  sliall  the  rather  fail,  be- 
cause it  is  strength,  and  they  presume  on  it 
and  it  deceives  them.  Its  one  end  is  to  be- 
come a  prey  of  devils.  Kiches,  learning,  rule, 
influence,  powei-,  bodily  strength,  genius, 
eloquence,  popular  favor,  shall  all  fail  a  man, 
and  he,  when  stripped  of  them,  shall  be  the 
more  bared  because  he  gathered  them  around 
him.  "  ^  Wealth  is  ever  a  runaway  and  has 
no  stability,  but  rather  intoxicates  and  in- 
clines to  revolt  and  has  unsteady  feet.  Ex- 
ceeding folly  is  it  to  think  much  of  it.  For  it 
will  not  rescue  those  lying  under  the  Divine 
displeasure,  nor  will  it  free  any  from  guilt, 
when  God  decreeth  punishment,  and  bringeth 
the  judgment  befitting  on  the  transgressors. 
How  utterly  useless  this  eagerness  after 
wealth  is  to  the  ungodly,  he  teacheth,  say- 
ing, that  their  strength  shall  be  a  prey  to  the 
Chaldsean." 

And  their  houses  a  desolation.  " '  For  they 
are,  of  whom  it  may  be  said  very  truly,  '■'  This 
is  the  man  that  took  not  God  for  his  strength,  but 
trusted  unto  the  multitude  of  his  riches,  and 
strengthened  h  imself  in  his  ivickedness.  But  if 
indeed  their  houses  are  adorned  costlily,  they 
shall  not  be  theirs,  for  they  shall  be  burned, 
and  themselves  go  into  captivity,  leaving  all 
in  their  house,  and  deprived  of  all  which 
would  gladden.  And  this  God  said  clearly 
to  the  king  of  Judah  by  Jeremiah,  ^  Thou 
hast  budded  thyself  a  large  house  and  wide 
chambers,  ceiled  with  cedar,  and  painted  tcith 
vermilion.  Shalt  thou  reign  because  thou  closest 
thyself  luith  cedar  f"  "*As  the  house  of  the 
body  is  the  bodily  dwelling,  so  to  each  mind 
its  house  is  that,  wherein  through  desire  it 
is  wont  to  dwell,"  and  desolate  shall  they  be, 
being  severed  for  ever  from  the  things  they 
desired,  and  for  ever  deserted  by  God.  They 
slmll  also  build  houses  but  not  inhcdtit  them,  as 
the  rich  man  said  to  his  soul,  ''Soul,  thou  hast 
much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years. — Thou  fool, 
this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thex  ; 
then  whose  shall  those  things  be,  which  thou  hast 
provided?  Before  the  siege  by  the  Romans, 
Jerusalem  and  the  temple  had  been  greatly 
beautified,  only  to  be  destroyed.  And  they 
shall  plant  vineyards,  but  not  drink  the  wine 
thereof.  This  is  the  woe,  first  pronounced  in 
the  law^  often  repeated  and  ever  found 
true.  Wickedness  makes  joy  its  end,  yet 
never  finds  it,  seeking  it  where  it  is  not,  out 
of  God. 

14.  The  great  Day  of  the  Lord  is  near.    The 


14  ''The  great  day 
the  Lord  is  near,  it 
near,  and  hasteth  greatly ,» Joel  2.  i,  ii. 


r^f         Before 
CHRIST 
•.  626. 


IS. 


1  S.  Cyr. 

sjer.xxii.  14,15. 
»  S.  Luke  xii.  19,  20. 


aPs.  Hi.  7. 

♦  S.  Greg.  Mor.  viii.  14. 

•  Deut.  xxviii.  39. 


Prophet  again  expands  the  words  of  Joel, 
accumulating  words  expressive  of  the  terrors 
of  that  Day,  shewing  that  though  '  the  great 
and  very  terrible  Day  of  the  Lord,  a  day  (Joel 
had  said**)  of  darkness  and  gloominess,  of 
clouds  and  of  thick  darkness,  which  was  then 
coming  and  nigh  at  hand^,  had  come  and  was 
gone,  it  was  only  a  forerunner  of  others; 
none  of  them  final ;  but  each,  because  it  was 
a  judgment  and  an  instance  of  the  justice  of 
God,  an  earnest  and  forerunner  of  other 
judgments  to  the  end.  Again,  a  great  Day 
of  the  Lord  was  near.  This  Day  had  itself,  so 
to  speak,  many  hours  and  divisions  of  the 
day.  But  each  hour  tolleth  the  same  knell 
of  approaching  doom.  Each  calamity  in  the 
miserable  reigns  of  the  sons  of  Josiah  was 
one  stroke  in  the  passing-bell,  until  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldseans,  for 
the  time  closed  it.  The  judgment  was  com- 
plete. The  completeness  of  that  excision 
made  it  the  more  an  image  of  every  other 
like  day  until  the  final  destruction  of  all 
which,  although  around  or  near  to  Christ, 
shall  in  the  Great  Day  be  found  not  to  be 
His,  but  to  have  rejected  Him.  " '"  Truly 
was  vengeance  required,  ^^from  the  blood  of 
righteous  Abel  to  the  blood  of  Zechanah,  whom 
they  slew  between  the  temple  and  the  Altar,  and 
at  last  when  they  said  of  the  Son  of  God, 
1-  His  blood  be  upon  us  and  upon  our  children, 
they  experienced  a  bitter  day,  because  they 
had  provoked  the  Lord  to  bitterness ;  a  Day, 
appointed  by  the  Lord,  in  which  not  the 
weak  only  but  the  mighty  shall  be  bowed 
down,  and  wrath  shall  come  upon  them  to 
the  end.  For  often  before  they  endured  the 
wrath  of  the  Lord,  but  that  wrath  was  not  to 
the  uttermost.  What  need  now  to  describe 
how  great  calamities  they  endured  in  both 
captivities,  and  how  they  who  rejected  the 
light  of  the  Lord,  walked  in  darkness  and 
thick  darkness,  and  they  who  would  not  hear 
the  trumpet  of  the  solemn  feast-days,  heard 
the  shout  of  the  enemy.  But  of  the  fenced 
cities  and  lofty  corner-towers  of  Judaea,  which 
are  till  now  destroyed  even  to  the  ground, 
the  eyes,  I  deem,  can  judge  better  than  the 
ears.  We  especially,  now  living  in  that 
province,  can  see,  can  prove  what  is  written. 
We  scarcely  discern  slight  traces  of  ruins  of 
what  once  were  great  cities.  At  Shiloh, 
where  was  the  tabernacle  and  ark  of  the  tes- 
tament of  the  Lord,  scarcely  the  foundations 
of  the  altar  are  shewn.  Rama  and  Bethoron 
and  the  other  noble  cities  built  by  Solomon, 

'  Joel  il.  31.  8  lb.  2.  » lb.  1. 

10  S.  Jer.  "  S.  Matt.  xxiiL  35. 

"  lb.  xxvii.  26. 


248 


ZEPIIAXIAH. 


Before  ^    g^gji  the  voice  of  the  day 
cir.  G-T,.      of  the  Lord  :  the  mighty 
man  shall  cry  there  bit- 
terly. 


are  shewn  to  be  little  villages.  Let  us  read 
Joseplius  and  the  prophecy  of  Zephaniah ; 
we  shall  see  his  history  before  our  eyes.  And 
this  must  be  said  not  only  of  tlie  captivity, 
but  even  to  the  present  day.  The  treacherous 
husbandmen,  having  slain  the  servants,  and, 
at  la^t,  the  Son  of  God,  are  prevented  from 
entering  Jerusalem,  except  to  wail,  and  they 
purchase  at  a  price  leave  to  weep  the  ruin 
of  their  city,  so  that  they  who  once  bought 
the  Blood  of  Christ,  buy  their  tears  ;  not  even 
their  tears  are  costless.  You  may  see  on  the 
day  that  Jerusalem  was  taken  and  destroyed 
by  the  Romans,  a  people  in  mourning  come, 
decrepit  old  women  and  old  men,  in  aged  and 
ragged  wretchedness,  shewing  in  their  bodies 
and  in  their  guise  the  wrath  of  the  Lord. 
The  hapless  crowd  is  gathered,  and  amid  the 
gleaming  of  the  Cross  of  Christ,  and  the 
radiant  glory  of  His  Resurrection,  the  stand- 
ard also  of  the  Cross  shining  from  Mount 
Olivet,  you  may  see  the  people,  piteous  but 
unpilied,  bewail  the  ruins  of  their  temple, 
tears  still  on  their  cheeks,  their  arms  livid 
and  their  hair  dishevellel,  and  the  soldier 
asketh  a  guerdon,  that  they  may  be  allowed 
to  weep  longer.  And  doth  any,  when  he  seeth 
this,  doubt  of  the  day  of  trouble  and  distress, 
the  day  of  darkness  and  gloominess,  the  day  of 
clouds  and  thick  darkness,  the  day  of  the  trumpet 
and  alarm  f  For  they  have  also  trumpets  in 
their  sorrow,  and,  according  to  the  prophecy, 
i\xe  voice  oi  the  solemn  fea^t-day  is  turned  into 
mourning.  They  wail  over  the  ashes  of  the 
Sanctuary  and  the  altar  destroyed,  and  over 
cities  once  fenced,  and  over  the  high  towers 
of  the  temple,  from  which  they  once  cast 
headlong  James  the  brother  of  the  Lord." 

But  referring  the  Day  of  the  Lord  to  tlie 
end  of  the  world  or  the  close  of  the  life  of 
each,  it  too  is  near ;  near,  the  prophet  adds 
to  impress  the  more  its  nearness  ;  for  it  is  at 
hand  to  each  ;  and  when  eternity  shall  come, 
all  time  shall  seem  like  a  moment,  '  A  thousand 
years,  when  prist,  are  like  a  watch  in  the  night  ; 
one  fourth  part  of  one  night. 

And  ha'tteth  greatly.  For  time  whirls  on 
more  rapidly  to  each,  year  by  year,  and  when 
God's  judgments  draw  near,  the  tokens  of 
them  thicken,  and  troubles  sweep  one  over 
the  other,  events  jostle  against  each  other. 
Tlie  voice  of  the  day  of  the  Lord.  That  Day, 
when  it  cometh,  shall  leave  no  one  in  doubt 


>  Pa.  xc.  4. 
•Ecclus.  xll.l. 
»  Rev.  vl.  15-17. 


«S.John  v.28,29. 
♦  Eecl.  vill.  8. 
•Ps.  xiv.  6. 


15  ^That  day  w  a  day    ohr°i8T 
of  wrath,  a  day  of  trouble      ^^^-  ^-^- 


1    J  .     ,  J  n    f  Isai.  22. 5. 

and  distress,  a  day  oi     jer. ao. 7. 
wasteness   and   desolation,      Amos's.'is." 


what  it  meaneth  ;  it  shall  give  no  uncertain 
sound,  but  shall,  trumpet-tongued,  proclaim 
the  holiness  and  justice  of  Almighty  God  ; 
its  voice  shall  be  the  Voice  of  Christ,  which 
'^  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  and  come 
forth;  they  that  have  done  good,  unto  the  resur- 
rection of  life  ;  and  they  that  have  done  evil  wito 
the  resurrection  of  damnation. 

The  mighty  men  shall  cry  there  bitterly  ;  for 
^  bitter  is  the  remembrance  of  death  to  a  man  that 
liveth  at  rest  in  his  possessioiis,  unto  the  Tnan  that 
hath  nothing  to  vex  him,  and  that  hath  prosperity 
in  all  things;  and*,  There  is  no  mighty  man 
that  hath  power  over  the  spirit  to  retain  the 
spirit;  neither  hath  he  power  in  the  day  of 
death  ;  and  there  is  no  discharge  in  that  war; 
neither  shall  wickedness  deliver  those  that  are 
given  to  it.  Rather,  wrath  shall  come  upon 
°the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  the  great  men  and 
the  rich  men  aiul  the  mighty  men,  and  they  shall 
will  to  hide  themselviis  from  the  Face  of  Him 
that  sitteth  on  the  Throne  and  from  the  wrath  of 
the  Lamb  ;  for  the  great  Lay  of  His  wrath  is 
come :  and  who  shall  be  able  to  stand  f 

The  mighty  men  shall  cry  there  bitterly.  The 
prophet  has  spoken  of  time,  the  day  of  the 
Lord.  He  points  out  the  more  vividly  the 
unseen  sight  and  place,  there;  so  David  says, 
"  There  they  feared  a  fear.  He  sees  the  place ; 
he  hears  the  bitter  cry.  So  nigh  is  it  in 
fact ;  so  close  the  connection  of  cause  and 
effect,  of  sin  and  punishment.  There  shall 
be  a  great  and  bitter  cry,  when  there  shall  be 
no  place  for  repentance.  It  shall  be  a 
'  mighty  cry,  but  mighty  in  the  bitterness  of 
its  distress.  '^Mighty  men  shall  be  mightily 
tormented,  i.  e.,  those  who  have  been  mighty 
against  God,  weak  against  Satan,  and  shall 
have  used  their  might  in  his  service. 

15.  A  day  of  wrath,  in  which  all  the  wrath 
of  Almighty  God,  which  evil  angels  and  evil 
men  have  treasured  to  them  for  that  day, 
siiall  be  poured  out :  the  day  of  wrath,  because 
then  they  shall  be  brought  face  to  face  before 
the  Presence  of  God,  but  thenceforth  they 
shall  be  cast  out  of  it  for  ever. 

A  day  of  trouble  and  distress.  Both  words 
express,  how  anguish  shall  narrow  and  hem 
tiiem  in  ;  so  that  there  shall  be  no  escape ; 
above  them,  God  displeased;  below,  the 
flames  of  Hell ;  around,  devils  to  drag  them 
away,  and  Angels  casting  them  forth  in 
bundles  to  bum  them;  without,  the  books  which 

»The  Arab,  word,  tl^V,  la  used  of  "a  loud  shrill 
cry."    It  occurs  only  here  and  (Hif.)  in  Is.  xlii.  12. 
*  Wisd.  vi.  6. 


CHAPTER  I. 


249 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  626. 


■  Jer.4.19. 


a  day  of  darkness  and 
.  gloominess,  a  day  of  clouds 
and  thick  darkness, 

16  A  day  of  '  the  trum- 
pet and  alarm  against  the 
fenced  cities,  and  against 
the  high  towers. 

17  And   I   will  bring 


shall  be  opened ;  and  within,  conscience  leav- 
ing them  no  escape. 

A  day  of  wasfeness  aiid  desolation,  in  which 
all  things  shall  return  to  their  primeval 
void,  before  the  Spirit  of  God  brooded  upon  the 
face  of  the  vaters,  His  Presence  being  alto- 
gether withdrawn. 

A  day  of  darkness  and  gloominess;  for  sun 
and  moon  shall  lose  their  brightness,  and  no 
brightness  from  the  Lamb  shall  shine  upon 
the  wicked,  but  they  shall  be  driven  into 
outer  darkness. 

A  day  of  clouds  and  thick  darkness,  hiding 
from  them  the  Face  of  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness, and  covering  Him,  so  that  their  prayers 
should  not  pass  through  ^ 

16.  A  day  of  the  trumpet  and  alarm^,  i.  e., 
of  the  loud  blast  of  the  trumpet,  which 
sounds  alarm  and  causes  J.  The  word^  is 
especially  the  shrill  loud  noise  of  the  trum- 
pet (for  sacred  purposes  '  Israel  itself,  as 
ruling  all  the  movements  of  the  tabernacle 
and  accompanying  their  feasts) ;  then  also 
of  the  "  battle  cry."  They  had  not  listened 
to  the  voice  of  the  trumpet,  as  it  called 
them  to  holy  service ;  now  they  shall  hear 
*  the  voice  of  the  Archangel  and  the  trump  of 
God. 

Against  the  high  towers,  lit.  comers  *,  and  so 
corner-towers.  This  peculiarity  describes  Je- 
rusalem, whose  walls  ^were  made  arti- 
ficially standing  in  a  line  curved  inwards,  so 
that  the  flanks  of  assailants  might  be  ex- 
posed." By  this  same  name  '  are  called  the 
mighty  men  and  chiefs  of  the  people,  who, 
humanly  speaking,  hold  it  together  and  sup- 
port it ;  on  these  chiefs  in  rebellion  against 
God,  whether  devils  or  evil  men,  shall 
punishment  greatly  fall. 

17.  /  vM  bring  distress  upon  nun.     I  will 

'Lam.  iii.  44. 

2 "Alarm"  seems  to  be  used  in  the  sense  of 
"sounding  alarm,"  alarum. 

8n>'nn.  *  l  Thess.  Iv.  le.  ^SeeE.  M.  on 
iii.  6.  It  is  the  corner  of  a  house,  of  a  street,  of  a 
court,  a  city.  Hence  "the  gate  of  the  corner,"  2 
Kgs  xiv.  13,  2  Chr.  xxvi.  9,  Jer.  xxxi.  38.  In  2  Chr. 
xxvi.  15,  r\1J£)  cannot  be  "battlements"  (as  Ges. 
ifer.)  since  the  engines  were  erected  upon  them. 
Neither  then  here  is  there  any  ground  to  invent  a 
new  meaning  for  the  word. 

6Tac.  Hist.  V.  11.  Jos.  de  B.  J.  v.  5.  3. 

r  Jud.  XX.  2.  1  8am.  xiv.  38,  Is.  xix.  13.  Zeeh.  x.  4. 

*  Jer.  X.  18.    Moses  had  said  this  of  His  instru- 


Before 


distress   upon   men,   that    Qgj^jgj 
they  shall  "walk  like  blind      «>■•  e^e. 


men,  because   they   have    ' P®*?*- js. 29. 

'  _  •'  Isai.  59. 10. 

sinned  against  the  Lord  : 

and    "their    blood    shall    "Ps.tq.s. 

be    poured    out    as    dust, 

and    their    flesh   "as    the 

dung. 


'  Ps.  83. 10. 
Jer.  9.  22. 
&  16.  4. 


hem  them  in,  in  anguish  on  all  sides.  God 
Himself  shall  meet  them  with  His  terrors, 
wherever  they  turn.  *  /  uill  hem  them  in, 
that  they  iimy  find  it  so. 

That  they  shall  walk  like  blind  men,  utterly 
bereft  of  counsel,  seeing  no  more  than  the 
blind  which  way  to  turn,  grasping  blindly 
and  franticly  at  anything,  and  going  on  head- 
long to  their  own  destruct'c.n.  So  God  fore- 
warned them  in  the  law  ;  ^  Thou  shall  grope 
at  noon  day,  as  the  blind  gropeth  in  darkness ; 
and  Job,  of  the  wicked  generally,  ^°  They  meet 
with  the  darkness  in  the  day-time,  and  grope  in 
the  noon-day  as  in  the  night ;  and, ''  They  grope 
in  the  dark  ivithout  light,  and  He  maketh  them 
to  stagger  like  a  drunken  man ;  and  Isaiah 
foretelling  of  those  times,  '^  We  grope  for  the 
wall,  as  the  blind;  and  we  grope,  as  if  we  had 
no  eyes;  we  stumble  in  the  noon-day  as  in  the 
night.  Because  they  have  sinned^  against  the 
Lord,  and  so  He  hath  turned  their  wisdom 
into  foolishness,  and  since  they  have  despised 
Him,  He  hath  made  them  objects  of  con- 
tempt **.  Their  blood  shall  be  poured  out  like 
dust,  as  abundant  and  as  valuefess;  utterly 
disregarded  by  Him,  as  Asaph  complains, 
^*  their  blood  have  they  shed  like  water ;  con- 
temptible and  disgusting  as  what  is  vilest ; 
their  flesh  ^*  as  the  dung,  refuse,  decayed, 
putrefied,  ofTensive,  enriching  by  its  decay 
the  land,  which  had  been  the  scene  of  their 
luxuries  and  oppressions.  Yet  the  most 
ofiensive  disgusting  physical  corruption  is 
but  a  faint  image  of  the  defilement  of  sin. 
This  punishment,  in  which  the  carrion- 
remains  should  be  entombed  only  in  the 
bowels  of  vultures  and  dogs,  was  especially 
threatened  to  Jehoiakim ;  ^®  He  shall  be  buried 
with  the  burial  of  an  ass,  dragged  and  cast  forth 
beyond  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,. 

ments.  And  He  shall  hem  thee  in,  in  all  thy  gates. 
Deut.  xxviii.  52. 

« lb.  29.     10  Job  v.  14.    "  lb.  xii.  25.     ^  Is.  lis.  10. 

13 1  Sam.  ii.  30. 

1*  Ps.  Ixxix.  3.  'IQHf  is  used  of  the  pouring  out  both 
liquids  and  solids. 

15  Insulated  as  the  use  is,  DITI 7  must  have  had  the 
meaning  of  the  Arab,  bn"?  "flesh."  So  LXX  Ch. 
Vulg.  Sjrr.  David  B.  Abr.  Abulw.  Tanch.,  Anon-Arab. 
Tr.,  retain  the  word  in  Arabic;  Abulw.  notices  that 
"  the  Heb.  is  akin  to  the  Arabic  word."  Tanch.  cites 
Job  vi.  7.  1*  Jer.  xxii.  19. 


250 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

•1  Prov.  11.  4. 
Ezek.  7. 19. 


18  '^  Neither  their  silver 

.  iior  their  gold  shall  be  able 

to  deliver  them  in  the  day 

of  the  Lord's  wrath ;  but 

the   whole   land   shall   be 


18.  Neither  their  silver  nor  their  gold  shall  be 
able  to  deliver  them  in  the  day  of  the  Lord's 
wrath.  Gain  unjustly  gotten  wa-s  the  cause  of 
their  destruction.  For,  as  Ezekiel  closes  the 
like  description  ;  "  ^  They  shall  cast  their 
silver  into  the  streets,  and  their  gold  shall  be 
removed ;  their  silver  and  their  gold  sliall 
not  be  able  to  deliver  them  in  the  day  of  the 
wrath  of  the  Lord  ;  they  shall  not  satisfy 
their  souls  nor  HU  their  bowels:  became  it  w 
the  stumhlincj  block  of  their  iniquity."  Much 
less  shall  any  possession,  outwanl  or  inward, 
be  of  avail  in  the  Great  Day  ;  since  in  death 
the  rich  man's  ^  pomp  shall  not  follow  him, 
and  every  gift  which  he  has  misused,  whether 
of  mind  or  spirit,  even  the  knowledge  of  God 
without  doing  His  Will,  shall  but  increase 
damnation.  "  Sinners  will  then  have  noth- 
ing but  their  sins." 

Here  the  prophet  uses  images  belonging 
more  to  the  immediate  destruction  ;  at  the 
close  the  words  again  widen,  and  belong,  in 
their  fullest  literal  sense,  to  the  Day  of 
Judgment.  The  whole  land,  rather,  as  at  the 
beginning,  the  whole  earth  shall  be  devoured  by  the 
fire  of  His  jealousy  ;  for  He  shall  nuike  even  a 
speedy  riddance  of  all  them  that  dwell  in  the 
land :  rather.  He  shall  make  an  utter,  yea  alto- 
gether '  a  terrific  destruction  *  of  all  the  dwellers 
of  the  earth.  What  Nahum  had  foretold  of 
Nineveh  *,  He  shall  make  the  place  thereof  an 
utter  consumption,  that  Zephaniah  foretells  of 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  world.  For  what 
is  this,  the  whole  earth  shall  be  devoured  by  tlie 
fire  of  His  jealousy,  but  what  S.  Peter  siiys, 
*  the  earth  also  and  the  works  that  are  therein 
shall  be  burned  up  f  And  what  is  that  he  says, 
He  shaU  make  all  the  dwellers  of  the  earth  an 
utter,  yea  altogether  a  hasty  destruction,  but  a 
general  judgment  of  all,  who  belong  to  the 
world,  whose  home,  citizenship,  whose  whole 
mind  is  in  the  world,  not  as  true  Christians, 
who  are  strangers  and  pilgrims  here,  and 
their  ''citizenship  is  in  Heaven?  These  God 
shall  make  an  utter,  terrific,  speedy  destruc- 
tion, a  living  death,  sf)  that  they  shall  at 
once  l)Oth  be  and  not  be ;  be,  as  continued  in 
l)eing  ;  not  be,  as  having  no  life  of  God,  but 
only  a  continued  death  in  misery.     And  this 


•  Ezek.  vii.  10. 


sPs.  xlix.  17. 


>  "jX  "  nothing  but." 

*  TlhT'ili  unites  here  the  senses  of  terror  and 
destruction,  as  in  Ps.  civ.  29.  Thou  hidest  Thy  face, 
they  arc  troubled,  pSn3'  and  perish ;  Is.  Ixv.  23,  they 


Before 
CHRIST 

his  jealousy:  for  'he  shall      p"-  s^o. 


devoured    by  the   fire  of 

-:  i 

make  even  a  speedy  rid- 
dance of  all  them  that 
dwell  in  the  land. 


ch.  3.  8. 
'ver.  2,  3. 


shall  be  through  the  jealousy  of  Almighty 
God,  that  Divine  quality  in  Him,  whereby 
He  loves  and  wills  to  be  loved,  and  endures 
not  those  who  give  to  others  the  love  for 
which  He  gave  so  much  and  which  is  so 
wholly  due  to  Himself  Alone.  " "  Thou 
demandest  my  love,  and  if  I  give  it  not,  art 
wroth  with  me,  and  threatenest  me  with 
grievous  woes.  Is  it  then  a  slight  woe  to 
love  Thee  not  ? "  What  will  be  that  anger, 
which  is  Infinite  Love,  but  which  becomes, 
through  man's  sin.  Hate  ? 

II.  Having  set  forth  the  terrors  of  the 
Judgment  Day,  the  prophet  adds  an  earnest 
call  to  repentance ;  and  then  declares  how 
judgments,  forerunners  of  that  Day,  shall 
fall,  one  by  one,  on  those  nations  around,  who 
know  not  God,  and  shall  rest  upon  Nineveh, 
the  great  beautiful  ancient  city  of  the  world. 
" "  See  the  mercy  of  God.  It  had  been 
enough  to  have  set  before  the  wise  the  vehe- 
mence of  the  coming  evil.  But  because  He 
willeth  not  to  punish,  but  to  alarm  only, 
Himself  calleth  to  repentance,  that  He  may 
not  do  what  He  threatened."  "  '"  Having 
set  forth  clearly  the  savageness  of  the  war 
and  the  greatness  of  the  suffering  to  come,  he 
suitably  turns  his  discoui-se  to  the  duty  of 
calling  to  repentance,  when  it  was  easy  to 
persuade  them,  being  terrified.  For  sometimes 
when  the  mind  has  been  numbed,  and  ex- 
ceedingly bent  to  evil,  we  do  not  readily 
admit  even  the  will  to  repent,  but  fear  often 
drives  us  to  it,  even  against  our  will.  He 
calls  us  then  to  friendship  with  Himself. 
For  as  they  revolted,  became  aliens,  serving 
idols  and  giving  up  their  mind  to  tlieir  pa.s- 
sions,  so  they  would,  as  it  were,  retrace  their 
steps,  and  lay  hold  of  the  friendship  of  Ciod, 
choosing  to  serve  Him,  nay  and  Him  Alone, 
and  obey  His  commandments.  Wherefore 
while  we  have  time,  while  the  Lord,  in  His 
forbearance  as  God,  gives  way,  let  us  enact 
repentance,  supplicate,  say  weeping,  "  remem- 
ber not  the  Sin-s  and  o/Te/ircs'  of  my  youth  ;  let  us 
unite  ourselves  with  Him  by  sanctificatioii 
and  sobriety.  So  siiall  we  be  slieltered  in 
the  day  of  wi-ath,  and  wash  away  tiie  stain  of 
our  falls,  before  the  Day  of  the  Lord  come 

shnll  not  bear  nSnsS  for  destruction,  !|  }yy  kS 

pnS. 

'  6  See  ab.  on  Nahum  i.  8.  p.  13*. 
•2  Pet.  iil.  13. 
'  Heb.  xi.  13.  Phil.  ill.  20. 
»  S.  Aug.  Conf.  1.  5.  p.  3.  Oxf.  Tr. 
»S.  Jer.  "S.  Cyr.  "  Ps.  XXT.  7. 


CHAPTER  11. 


251 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


CHAPTER  11. 

1  An  exhortcUion  to  repentance. 
4  The  jitjdgment  of  the  Philis- 
tines, 8  of  Moab  and  Amnion, 
12  of  Ethiopia  and  Assyria. 


upon  us.  For  the  Judge  will  come,  He  will 
come  from  heaven  at  the  due  season,  and 
will  reward  each  according  to  his  work." 

1.  Gather  yourselves  together,  yea  gather  to- 
gether ^,  rather,  Sift  yourselves,  yea  sift  ^.  The 
exact  image  is  from  gathering  stubble  or  dry 
sticks,  which  are  picked  up  one  by  one,  with 
search  and  care.  So  must  men  deal  with  the 
dry  and  withered  leaves  of  a  past  evil 
life.  The  English  rendering  however  comes 
to  the  same  meaning.  We  use,  "  collect  one's 
self"  for  bringing  one's  self,  all  one's  thoughts, 
together,  and  so,  having  full  possession  of 
one's  self.  Or  gathering  ourselves  might  stand 
in  contrast  with  being  "  abroad,"  as  it  were, 
out  of  ourselves  amid  the  manifoldness  of 
things  seen.  "  *  Thou  who,  taken  up  with 
the  business  of  the  world,  hurriest  to  and  fro 
amid  divers  things,  return  to  the  Church  of 
the  saints,  and  join  thyself  to  their  life  and 
assembly,  whom  thou  seest  to  please  God,  and 
bring  together  the  dislocated  members  of  tliy 
soul,  which  now  are  not  knit  together,  into 
one  frame  of  wisdom,  and  cleave  to  its  em- 
brace." Gather  yourselves  into  one,  wherein 
ye  have  been  scattered ;  to  the  One  God, 
from  Whom  they  had  wandered,  seeking 
pleasure  from  His  many  creatures ;  to  His 
one  fold  and  Church,  from  which  they  had 
severed  themselves  outwardly  by  joining  the 
worship  of  Baal,  inwardly,  by  serving  him 
and  his  abominable  rites  ;  joining  and  joined 
to  the  assembly  of  the  faithful,  by  oneness  of 
faith  and  life. 

In  order  to  repent,  a  man  must  know  him- 
self thoroughly  ;  and  this  can  only  be  done 
by  taking  act  by  act,  word  by  word,  thought 
by  thought,  as  far  as  he  can,  not  in  a  confused 
heap  or  mass,  as  they  lie  in  any  man's  con- 
science, but  one  by  one,  each  picked  up  apart, 
and  examined,  and  added  to  the  sear  unfruit- 
ful heap,  plucking  them  as  it  were,  and  gath- 
ering them  out  of  himself,  that  so  they  may, 
by  the  Spirit  of  burning,  the  fire  of  God's 
Spirit  kindling  repentance,  be  burned  up, 
and  not  the  sinner  himself  be  fuel  for  fire 
with  them.      The  word    too  is    intensive, 

1  The  Eng.  Vers,  follows  the  LXX  Ch.  Svr.,  8.  Jer., 
which  render  "  Gather  yourselves  together,"  as  if, 
from  the  first  meaning,  "  gather  dry  sticks  or  stub- 
ble" it  came  to  signify  "gather"  generally,  and 
thence,  in  the  reflective  form,  "  gather  yourselves 
together." 

i*  The  word  is  first  used  of  gathering  dry  stubble 
together  (Ex.  v.  7, 12.)  then  of  "dry  sticks"  one  by 
one  (Nu.  xv.  32,  33, 1  Kgs  xvii.  10, 12.).  A  heathen 
speaks  of  "gathering  out  thorns  "  (tfaicavSi^en')  i.  e., 
minutely  examining  and  bringing  out  to  light 
every  fault.  (Cic.  ad  Att.  vl.  6.  2.)  Ana  another  writes 
to  his  steward,  "Shalt  thou  with  stronger  hand  pull 


"RATHER  yourselves    ^§fllj 

together,   yea,  gather       cir.  63o. 
together,  O  nation    ||not 
desired ; 


'Joel  2.  16. 
1  Or,  not 
desirous. 


"  Gather  together  all  which  is  in  you,  thor- 
oughly, piece  by  piece "  (for  the  sinner's 
whole  self  becomes  chaff,  dry  and  empty). 
To  use  another  image,  "  Sift  yourselves  thor- 
oughly, so  that  nothing  escape,  as  far  as  your 
diligence  can  reach,  and  then — And  gather 
on,  i.  e.,  "  glean  on  ;  "  examine  yourselves, 
"  not  lightly  and  after  the  manner  of  dis- 
semblers before  God,"  but  repeatedly,  glean- 
ing again  and  again,  to  see  if  by  any  means 
anything  have  escaped :  continuing  on  the 
search  and  ceasing  not.  The  first  earnest 
search  into  the  soul  must  be  the  beginning,  not 
the  end.  Our  search  must  be  continued,  until 
there  be  no  more  to  be  discovered,  i.  e.  when 
sin  is  no  more,  and  we  see  ourselves  in  the 
full  light  of  the  Presence  of  our  Judge.  For 
a  first  search,  however  diligent,  never  thor- 
oughly reaches  the  whole  deep  disease  of  the 
whole  man ;  the  most  grievous  sins  hide 
other  grievous  sins,  though  lighter.  Some 
sins  flash  on  the  conscience,  at  one  time,  some 
at  another  ;  so  that  few,  even  upon  a  diligent 
search,  come  at  once  to  the  knowledge  of  all 
tlieir  heaviest  sins.  When  the  mist  is  less 
thick,  we  see  more  clearly  what  was  before 
one  dark  dull  mass  of  imperfection  and  misery. 
"  *  Spiritual  sins  are  also  with  difficulty  sifted, 
(as  they  are,)  by  one  who  is  carnal.  Whence 
it  happens,  that  things  in  themselves  heavier 
he  perceives  less  or  very  little,  and  conscience 
is  not  grieved  so  much  by  the  memory  of 
pride  or  envy,  as  of  impurities  and  crimes." 
So  having  said,  "  Sift  youreelves  through 
and  through,"  he  says,  "sift  on."  A  dili- 
gent sifting  and  search  into  himself  must  be 
the  beginning  of  all  true  repentance  and 
pardon.  "  "  What  remains,  but  that  we  give 
ourselves  wholly  to  this  work,  so  holy,  and 
needful  ?  ®  Let  us  search  and  try  our  ivays  and 
our  doings,  and  let  each  think  that  he  has 
made  progress,  not  if  he  find  not  what  to 
blame,  but  if  he  blame  what  he  finds.  Thou 
hast  not  sifted  thyself  in  vain,  if  thou  hast 
discovered  that  thou  needest  a  fresh  sifting  ; 
and  so  often  has  thy  search  not  failed  thee, 
as  thou  judgest  that  it  must  be  renewed.  But 

out  thorns  from  my  field,  or  I  from  my  mind  ? " 
Hor.  Ep.  i.  14.  4.    3  s.  Jer.    *  S.  Bern,  de  Cons.  c.  5. 

6  Id.  Serm.  58.  in  Cant.  fin. 

*Lam.  iii.  40.  The  two  words,  search  and  try, 
ISn,  "Ipn  are  both  used  of  a  deep  search  of  a 

thing  which  lies  deep  and  hidden.  Both  originally 
mean  "  dig."  Both  are  used  of  a  Divine  knowledge 
of  the  inmost  soul ;  the  former  of  the  mind  as  en- 
lightened by  God  (Prov.  xx.  27),  the  latter  of  God's 
searching  it  out  Himself  (Jer.  xvii.  10.  Ps.  xliv.  22 
(21)  cxxxix.  1.  Job  xiii.  9,  and  of  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom, Job  xxviii.  27. 


252 


ZEPHANIAH. 


chrTst  ^  Before   the  decree 

<*"••  "^^-  bring  forth,  before  the  day 

kjob^i.  18.  pass  "as  the  chaff,  before 

isai.n.  13.  *the  fierce   anger  of  the 

Hos.  13.  3.  -r 

•  2 Kin. 23. 26.  Lord  come  upon  you, 
before  the  day  of  the 
Lord's  anger  come  upon 
you. 


if  thou  ever  dost  tliis,  when  there  is  need, 
tliou  dost  it  ever.  But  ever  remember  that 
tliou  needest  help  from  above  and  the  mercy 
of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  Who  is  over  all, 
Ciod  blessed  for  ever."  The  whole  course  of 
self-examination  then  lies  in  two  words  of 
Divine  Scripture.  And  withal  he  Avarns 
them,  instead  of  gathering  together  riches 
which  shall  not  be  able  to  deliver  them  in  the 
(lay  of  trouble,  to  gather  themselves  into  them- 
selves, and  so  judge  themselves  llioroughly^, 
that  they  he  not  judged  of  the  Lord'^. 

0  nation  not  desired^,  i.  e.,  having  nothing 
in  itself  to  be  desired  or  loved,  but  rather,  for 
its  sin,  hateful  to  God.  God  yearneth  with 
jjity  and  compassion  over  His  creatures ;  He 
*  hath  a  desire  to  the  work  of  His  Hands.  Here 
Israel  is  spoken  to,  as  what  he  had  made  him- 
self, hateful  to  God  by  his  sins,  although  still 
an  object  of  His  tender  care,  in  what  yet  re- 
mained to  him  of  nature  or  grace  which  was 
from  Himself. 

2.  Before  the  decree  bring  forth.  God's 
word  is  full  (as  it  were)  of  the  event  which 
it  foretelleth  ;  it  contains  its  own  fulHllment 
in  itself,  and  travaileth  until  it  come  to  pass, 
giving  signs  of  its  coming,  yet  delaying  until 
the  full  time.  Time  is  said  to  bring  forth 
what  is  wrought  in  it.  Thou  knowest  not, 
v'hal  a  day  shall  bring  forth. 

Biforc  the  day  yjass  as  the  chaff,  or,  paren- 
thetically,/(X-ccAajf^/te  (Zai/ /»a5.s'efA  by.  God's 
counsels  lie  wrapt  up,  as  it  were,  in  the  womb 
of  time,  wherein  lie  hitles  them,  until  the 
moment  which  He  has  appointed,  and  they 
break  forth  suddenly  to  those  who  look  not 
for  them.  The  mean  season  is  given  for  re- 
pentance, i.  e.,  the  day  of  grace,  the  span  of 
repentance  still  allowed,  which  is  continu- 
ally whirling  more  swiftly  by ;  and  woe,  if  it 

>  iioucpii/oTf,  which  answers  to  the  intensive  form 
here,  "jiulso  vourselves  through  and  through." 

i  1  Cor.  .XI.  31",  32. 

3  The  E.  M.  has  "  or  not  desirous,"  the  word 
'IDDJ-^'Knifying  to  long.  Gen.  xxxi.  30.  Ps.  Ixxxiv. 

3.  But  in  botli  planes  the  object  of  desire  is  men- 
tioni.'d,  "thy  father's  honse,"  in  Gen.,  "the  courts 
of  tlio  Lord,"  in  the  Ps.  Israel  had  strong  but  bad 
longings.  "  Not  desirous"  would  not  bv  itself  con- 
vey, "  navine  no  desire  to  return  to  God,"  or  as  Ch., 
"who  willeth  not  to  return  to  the  law."  The  same 
objection  lies,  over  and  above,  to  the  rendering 
"  unashamed,"  coll. Chald.  fjOJ  "turned pale "  from 


Before 


3  -^  Seek  ye  the  Lord,    c  h  r  i  s  t 
'  all  ye  meek  of  the  earth,      •=•»••  c3o. 


which  have  wrought  his  ■»  Ps.  loa.  4. 

.     ,  1        •    1  Amos  5. 6. 

judgment;  seek  righteous-  «Ps. 7g. 9. 

ness,  seek  meekness:   'it  'Joei2. u 

'  Amos  5. 15. 

may  be  ye  shall  be  hid  in  Jonah  3. 9. 

the  day  of  the  Lord's 

anger, 


be  fruitless  as  chafT!  Those  who  profit  not 
by  it  shall  also  be  as  chatfj  carried  away  piti- 
lessly by  the  wiiirlwind  to  destruction.  Time, 
on  which  eternity  hangs,  is  a  slight,  uncer- 
tain thing,  as  little  to  be  counted  upon,  as  the 
light  dry  particles  which  are  the  .sport  of  the 
wind,  driven  uncertainly  hither  and  thither. 
But  when  it  is  pa.-ised,  then  cometh,  not  to 
them,  but  upon  them,  from  Heaven,  over- 
M'helming  them,  ^  abiding  upon  them,  not  to 
pass  away,  the  heat  of  the  anger  of  Almighty 
God.  This  warning  he  twice  repeats,  to  im- 
press the  certainty  and  speed  of  its  coming  ^. 
It  is  the  warning  of  our  Lord,  '  Take  heed, 
lest  that  day  come  upon  you  unawares. 

3.  Seek  ye  the  Lord.  He  had  exhorted  sin- 
ners to  penitence;  he  now  calls  the  righteous 
to  persevere  and  increase  more  and  more. 
He  bids  them  seek  diligently^,  and  that  with  a 
three-fold  call,  to  seek  Him  from  Whom  they 
received  daily  the  three-fold  blessing". 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  as  he  had  just 
before  threatened  (iod's  impending  judg- 
ment with  the  same  use  of  the  mysterious 
number,  three.  They,  whom  he  calls,  were 
already,  by  the  grace  of  God,  7)ieek,  and  had 
wrought  His  judgment.  "  ^^  Submitting  them- 
selves to  the  word  of  God,  they  had  done  and 
were  doing  the  judgment  of  God,  judging 
themselves  that  they  be  not  judged;  the  begin- 
ning of  which  judgment  is,  as  sinners  and 
guilty  of  death,  to  give  themselves  to  the 
Cross  of  the  Lord,  i.  e.,  to  be  "  baptized  in  i/w 
Death  and  be  buried  ivith  Him  by  Baptism  into 
death  ;  but  the  perfection  of  that  judgment  or 
righteousness  is,  to  tvalk  in  newiicss  of  life,  as 
He  rose  from  the  dead  throuqh  the  glory  of  the 
Father." 

'"'^  Since  the  meek  already  have  God 
through  grace  as  the  Possessor  and  Dweller 

shame,  disgrace,  horror.  Buxt.  For  there  is  noth- 
ing to  limit  the  "turning  pale"  to  "shame."  The 
root  tlD3  in  Heb.  only  means  "  longed,"  Ps.  xvii. 

12,  Job  xiv.  l.'i,  of  which  nO^J  is  here  the  passive. 
People  turn  pale  from  fear  or  horror,  not  from 
shame. 

*  Job  xiv.  15.    The  word  is  the  same. 

6  8.  John  iii.  36.  •  Gen.  xli.  32. 

'S.  Luke  xvi.  34. 

8  The  Hel)rew  form  is  Intensive. 

»  Nu.  vi.  23-26.  '»  Rup. 

I     "  Rom.  vi.  3,  4.  "  Diou, 


CHAPTER  II. 


25: 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


«Jer.  47.  4,5. 
Ezek.  25. 15. 
Amos  1.  6,  7,  8.  Zech.  9.  5,  6, 


4  ^  For  '  Gaza  shall  be 
foi*saken,  and  Ashkelon  a 
desolation:  they  shall 


in  their  heart,  how  shall  they  seek  Him  but 
that  they  may  have  Him  more  fully  and 
more  perfectly,  knowing  Him  more  clearly, 
loving  Him  more  ardently,  cleaving  to  Him 
more  inseparably,  that  so  they  may  be  heard 
by  Him,  not  lor  themselves  only,  but  for 
others  ?  "  It  is  then  the  same  Voice  as  at 
the  close  of  the  Revelation,  '  the  righteous,  let 
hhnbe  still  more  righteous;  the  holy,  let  him  be 
still  more  holy.  They  are  the  meek,  who  are 
exhorted  diligently  to  seek  meekness,  and  they 
who  had  ivrought  His  judgment,  who  are  dili- 
gently to  seek  Righteousness.  And  since  our 
Lord  saitli,  ^  Learn  of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart.  He  bids  "  ^  those  who  imitated 
His  meekness  and  did  His  judgment,  to  seek 
the  Lord  in  their  meekness."  Meekness  and 
Righteousness  may  be  His  Attributes,  Who 
is  All-gentleness  and  All-Righteousness,  the 
Fountain  of  all,  wheresoever  it  is,  in  gentle- 
ness receiving  penitents,  and,  as  the  Righteous 
Judge,  giving  the  crown  of  righteousness  to  those 
who  love  Him  and  keep  His  commandments,  yea 
He  joineth  righteousness  with  meekness, 
since  without  His  mercy  no  man  living  could 
be  justified  in  His  Sight.  "  *  God  is  sought 
by  us,  when,  of  our  choice,  laying  aside  all 
listlessness,  we  thirst  after  doing  what  pleases 
Him ;  and  we  sliall  do  judgment  too,  when 
we  fulfill  His  Divine  law,  working  out  what 
is  good  unshrinkingly ;  and  we  shall  gain 
the  prize  of  righteousness,  when  crowned 
with  glory  for  well-doing  and  running  the 
well-reported  and  blameless  way  of  true  piety 
to  God  and  of  love  to  the  brethren  ;  for  ^  love 
is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law." 

It  may  he  ye  shall  be  hid  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord^s  anger.  " "  Shall  these  too  then 
scarcely  be  hid  in  the  day  of  the  Lord's  anger  f 
Doth  not  the  Apostle  Peter  say  the  very 
same  ?  ^  If  it  first  begin  at  its,  tvhat  shall  be  the 
end  of  them  that  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  God  ? 
And  if  the  nghteous  scarcely  be  saved,  where 
shall  the  ungodly  and  the.  sinner  appear?  So 
then,  although  any  he  meek,  although  he  have 
■wrought  the  judgment  of  the  Lord,  let  him  ever 
suspect  himself,  nor  think  that  he  has  already 
attained,  since  neither  can  any  righteous  be 
saved,  if  he  be  judged  without  mercy."  '"^He 
saith,  it  may  be  ;  not  that  there  is  any  doubt 
that  the  meek  and  they  who  perseveringly 
seek  God,  shall  then  be  saved,  but,  to  convey 
how  difficult  it  is  to  be  saved,  and  how  fear- 


iRev.xxil.il.  2S.  Matth.  xi.  29. 

»  8.  Jer.  « 8.  Cyi".               *  Rom.  xiii.  10. 

«  Rup.  f  1  8.  Pet.  iv.  17, 18.            8  Dion. 

»P9.  xxvii.  5.  wib.  xxxi.20.      "  Isai.  xxxii.  2. 

i«Ib.  V,  6.  "ii.4-7.                    "  lb.  8-10. 


drive  out  Ashdod  "at  the 
noon  day,  and  Ekron  shall 
be  rooted  up. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

kjer.  6.  4, 
&  15.  8. 


ful  and  rigorous  is  the  judgment  of  God." 
To  be  hid  is  to  be  sheltered  from  wrath 
under  the  protection  of  God  ;  as  David  says, 
^  In  the  time  of  trouble  He  shall  hide  me;  and, 
^^  Thou  shah  hide  them  [that  trust  in  Thee"]  in 
the  secret  of  Thy  presence  from  the  jmde  of  man; 
Thou  shalt  keep  them  secretly  in  a  pavilion  from 
the  strife  of  tongues.  And  in  Isaiah,  ^^  A  Man 
shall  be  as  an  hiding-place  from  the  ivind,  and  a 
covert  from  the  tempest;  and,  '^  There  shall  be  a 
tabernacle  for  a  shadow  in  the  daytime  from  the 
heat,  and  for  a  place  of  refuge,  and  for  a  covert 
from  storm  and  from  rain. 

4.  For.  As  a  ground  for  repentance  and 
perseverance,  he  goes  through  Heathen  na- 
tions, upon  whom  God's  wrath  should  come. 
"^  As  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  after  visions 
concerning  Judah,  turn  to  other  nations 
round  about,  and  according  to  the  chai-acter 
of  each,  announce  what  shall  come  upon 
them,  and  dwell  at  length  upon  it,  so  doth 
this  prophet,  though  more  briefly."  And 
thus  under  five  nations,  who  lay  West,  East, 
South  and  North,  he  includes  all  mankind 
on  all  sides,  and,  again,  according  to  their  re- 
spective characters  toward  Israel,  as  they  are 
alien  from,  or  hostile  to  the  Church ;  the 
Philistines^^,  as  a  near,  malicious,  infesting 
enemy  ;  Moab  and  Amnion  '*,  people  akin  to 
her  (as  heretics)  yet  ever  rejoicing  at  her 
troubles  and  sufferings  ;  Ethiopians  '^,  distant 
nations  at  peace  with  her,  and  which  are,  for 
the  most  part,  spoken  of  as  to  be  brought 
unto  her;  Assyria^**,  as  the  great  oppressive 
power  of  the  world,  and  so  upon  it  the  fall 
desolation  rests.  In  the  first  fulfillment,  be- 
cause Moab  and  Amnion  aiding  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, (and  all,  in  divers  ways,  wronging 
God's  people  ^^),  trampled  on  His  sanctuary, 
overthrew  His  temple  and  blasphemed  the 
Lord,  the  prophecy  is  turned  against  them. 
So  then,  before  the  captivity  came,  while  Jo- 
siah  was  yet  king,  and  Jerusalem  and  the 
temple  were,  as  yet,  not  overthrown,  the 
prophecy  is  directed  against  those  who 
mocked  at  thera.  Gaza  shall  be  forsaken.  Out 
of  the  five  cities  of  the  Philistines,  tlie  Pro- 
phet pronounces  woe  upon  the  same  four  as 
Amos  '*  before,  Jeremiah  "*  soon  after,  and 
Zechariah  '^°  later.  Gath,  then,  the  fifth,  had 
probably  remained  with  Judah  since  Uzziah  ^' 
and  Hezekiah  ^'^  In  the  sentence  of  the  rest, 
regard  is  had  (as  is  so  frequent  in  the  Old 


w  V.  12. 

"  Is.  xvi.  4,  Am.  i.  13-15.  ii.  1-3, 
42.  xlix.  1.  Ezek.  xx.  3,  6,  8. 
18  Am.  i.  6-8.       19  Jer.  xxv.  20. 
21  2  Chr.  xxvl.  6. 


>»  13-15. 
Jer.  xtviii.  27-30, 

20  Zech  ix.  5,  6. 
'^■2  Kgs  xvlii  ij. 


254 


ZETIIANIAH. 


Testament)  to  the  names  of  the  places  them- 
selves, that,  henceforth,  the  name  of  the 
place  might  suggest  the  thought  of  the  doom 
pronounced  upon  it.  Tlie  names  expressed 
boastfuhiess,  and  so,  in  the  Divine  judgment, 
carried  their  own  sentence  witli  them,  and  this 
sentence  is  pronounced  by  a  sliglit  change  in 
the  word.  Thus  'Azzah  (Gaza,)  strong  sliall 
be  'Azoobah,  desolated  ;  Ekron,  deep-rooting  •, 
shall  Teaker,be  uprooted;  the  Cherethites  (cutters 
off)  shall  become  {Cheroth)  diggings;  Chebel, 
the  band  of  the  sea  coast,  shall  be  in  another 
sense  Chebel,  an  inheritance'^,  divided  by  line 
to  the  remnant  of  Judah  ;  and  Ashdod  {the 
waster^)  shall  be  taken  in  their  might,  not  by 
craft,  nor  in  the  way  of  robbers,  but  driven 
forth  violently  and  openly  in  the  noon-dag. 

For  Gaza  shall  be  forsaken.  Some  vicis- 
situdes of  these  towns  have  been  noted 
already*.  The  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy 
is  not  tied  down  to  time ;  the  one  marked 
contrast  is,  that  the  old  heatiien  enemies  of 
Judah  should  be  destroyed,  the  house  of 
Judah  should  be  restored,  and  should  re-enter 
upon  the  possession  of  tiie  land,  promised  to 
them  of  old.  The  Philistine  towns  had,  it 
seems,  nothing  to  fear  from  Babylon  or 
Persia,  to  whom  they  remained  faithful  sub- 
jects. Tiie  Ashdodites  (who  probably,  as 
the  most  important,  stand  for  the  whole  ^) 
combinel  with  Sanballat,  the  Ammonites  ami 
the  Arabians'^,  to  hinder  the  rebuilding  of  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem.  Even  an  army  was 
gathered,  headed  by  Samaria^.  They  gave 
themselves  out  as  loyal,  Jerusalem  as  rebel- 
lious'*. The  old  sin  remaining,  Zechariah 
renewed  the  sentence  by  Zephaniah  against 
the  four  cities';  a  prophecy,  which  an  un- 
believer also  has  recognized  as  picturing  the 
march  of  Alexander"*.  ""AH  the  other 
cities  of  Palestine  having  submitted,"  Gaza 
alone  resisted  the  conqueror  for  two  or  five 
months.  It  had  come  into  the  hands  of  the 
Persians  in  the  expedition  of  Cambyses 
against  E^ypt  '*.  The  Gazreans  having  all 
perished  fighting  at  their  posts,  Alexander 
sold  the  women  and  children,  and  re-peopled 
the  city  from  the  neighborhood  ".    Palestine 

1  It  eeems  to  me  most  probable  that  the  origin  of 
the  meanings  is  preserved  in  the  Ch.  Ip^V  "root," 

(which  itself  is  the  source  of  otlicr  metaplioric 
meanings,  as,  "the  root  of  a  thing;"  "  the  root"  i.  e., 
the  foundation  "of  faitli,"  its  fundamental  doc- 
trines ;  "  the  root,"  in  Lexicography,  see  Bu.xtorf ), 
and  that  the  ChaUI.  "1p^  "  pluck  up,  remove,"  mid 

^liy,  here  and  Eccl.  iii.  2,  is  a  denominative.    The 

Proper  Name  is  older  probably  than  even  Moses. 

^ii.  5,7. 

3  The  root  nnc?  has  throughout,  the  meaning  of 
"  wasting,"  not  of  "  strength."  "HE'  "  the  Almighty," 

itt  proltablv  from  a  kindred  root,  mt£^- 

<See  on  "Amos  i.  C-8,  vol.  1.  p.  244-247. 

i>  Their  language  alone  in  mentioned  Neh.  Ix.  24, 
nnniyK,  in  contrast  with  Jewish  rCniH'  ;  but 
Ueither  is  it  nieiitionvl  ihin  the  Jew-  married  luiy 


lay  between  the  two  rival  successors  of  .Alex- 
ander, the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucidw,  and  felt 
their  wars'*.  Gaza  fell  through  mischance 
into  the  hands  of  Ptolemy  '*,  11  years  after  the 
death  of  Alexander  '^  and  soon  after,  was 
destroyed  by  Antiochus"  (B.  C.  198),  "  pre- 
serving its  faith  to  Ptolemy"  as  before  to  the 
Persians,  in  a  way  admired  by  a  heathen  histo- 
rian. In  the  Maccabee  wars,  Judas  Maccabseus 
chiefly  destroyed  the  idols  of  Ashdod,  but  also 
^'' spoiled  their  cities  ;  Jonathan  set  it  on  fire, 
with  its  idol-temple,  which  was  a  sort  of  cita- 
del to  it  '* ;  Ascalon  submitted  to  him  '* ;  Ekron 
with  its  borders  were  given  to  him  by  Alex- 
ander Balas  ^*';  he  burnt  the  suburbs  of  Gaza''"; 
Simon  took  it,  expelled  its  inhabitants,  filled 
it  with  believing  Jews  and  fortified  it  more 
strongly  than  before  ^ ;  but,  after  a  year's 
siege,  it  was  betrayed  to  Alexander  Jannaeus, 
who  slew  its  senate  of  500  and  razed  the  city 
to  the  ground  ^^.  Gabinius  restored  it  and 
Ashdod  ".  After  Herotl's  death,  Ashd<xl  was 
given  to  Salome  ''*  ;  Gaza,  as  being  a  Greek 
city  ''^,  was  detached  from  the  realm  of  Arche- 
laus  and  annexed  to  Syria.  It  was  destroyed 
by  the  Jews  in  their  revolt  when  Florus  was 
"  procurator,"  A.  D.  55  '".  Ascalon  and  Gaza 
must  still  have  been  strong,  and  were  prob- 
ably a  distinct  population  in  the  early  times 
of  Antipater,  father  of  Herod,  when  Alexan- 
der and  Alexandra  set  him  over  all  Idumaea, 
since  "  he  is  said "  then  "  '^*  to  have  made 
friendship  with  the  Arabs,  Gazites  and  Asca- 
lonite-s,  likeminded  with  himself,  and  to 
have  attached  them  by  many  and  large 
presents." 

Yet  though  the  inhabitants  were  changed, 
the  hereditary  hatred  remained.  Philo  in 
his  Embassy  to  Cains,  A.  D.  40,  used  the 
strong  language,  "  ^^  The  Ascalonites  have  an 
implacable  and  irreconcilable  enmity  to  the 
Jews,  their  neighbors,  who  inhabit  the  holy 
land."  This  continued  toward  Christians. 
Some  horrible  atrocities,  of  almost  incon- 
ceivable savagery,  by  those  of  Gaza  and  Asca- 
lon A.  D.  3(51,  are  related  by  Theodoret** 
and  Sozomen^'.  ""'■'Who  is  ignorant  of  the 
madness  of  the  Gazseans'.'"  asks  S.  Gregory 


other  Philistine  women.    If  Gath  was  destroyed, 
Ashdod  lay  nearest  to  them. 

«Neh.  iv.  7.  Ub.  2.  8  lb.  ii.  19.  vi.  6. 

»Zech.  ix. 

10  Eichhorn  Einl.  iv.  605.  See  Daniel  the  Proph. 


p.  280.  sqq. 
"  Polvb.  Reliq.  xvi.  40. 
1^  Arrian  ii.  27. 
'6  Diod.  Sic.  xix.  84. 


"  Mela  i.  11. 
i<  Polyb.  V.  68. 


'«  Hecat.  in  Jos.  c.  Ap.  i.  22  0pp.  ii.  455. 
•"  1  Mace.  v.  G8.     »«  lb.  x.  84.    «  IK  86.     «>Ib.  80. 
51  Ih.  xi.  r,l.  ^  lb.  xiii.  43-48. 

'•a  Jos.  Ant.  xiii.  1.3.  3.  =*  lb.  xiv.  5.  a. 

•■«  lb.  xvii.  8.  1.  *  r5  J.  ii-  «•  -^ 

2'  KaTtaKariTov,  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  18.  1. 
28  Ant.  xiv.  1.  3. 

»  Philo  Log.  ad  Caium  T.  11.  p.  076  Mang.  Th« 
rords  are  dtrv^^ardf  iit  koI  oicaTaAAaKTov  Svixiiiofia. 
snThood.  H.  E.  ill.  7.  «  Sot.  H.  E.  v.  10. 

-'•-'I  inii.  J,  ill  .liiliau.  i-.  :iH. 


CHAPTER  II, 


255 


of  Nazianzus,  of  the  times  of  Julian.  This 
was  previous  to  the  conversion  of  the  great 
Gazite  temple  of  Marna  into  a  Christian 
Church  by  Eudoxia  ^  On  occasion  of  Con- 
stantine's  exemption  of  the  Maiunias  Gazse 
from  their  control,  it  is  alleged,  that  they 
were  "  ''  extreme  Heathen."  In  the  time  of 
the  Crusades  the  Ascalonites  are  described  by 
Christians  as  their  "  ^  most  savage  enemies." 

It  may  be,  that  a  likeness  of  sin  may  have 
continued  on  a  likeness  of  punishment.  But 
the  primary  prediction  was  against  the  peo- 
ple, not  against  the  walls.  The  sentence, 
Gaza  shall  be  forsaken,  would  have  been  ful- 
tilled  by  the  removal  or  captivity  of  its 
inhabitants,  even  if  they  had  not  been 
replaced  by  others.  A  prediction  against 
any  ancient  British  town  would  have  been 
fulfilled,  if  the  Britons  in  it  had  been  replaced 
or  exterminated  by  Danes,  and  these  by 
Saxons,  and  these  subdued  by  the  Normans, 
though  their  displacers  became  wealthy  and 
powerful  in  their  place.  Even  on  the  same 
site  it  would  not  be  the  same  Gaza,  when  the 
Philistine  Gaza  became  Edomite,  and  the 
Etlomite  Greek,  and  the  Greek  Arabian  *. 
Ashdod  (as  well  as  Gaza)  is  spoken  of  as  a 
city  of  the  Greeks*  ;  New  Gaza  is  spoken  of 
as  a  mixture  of  Turks,  Arabians,  Fellahs, 
Bedouins  out  of  Egypt,  Syria,  Petrpea®. 
Felix  Faber  says,  "  there  is  a  wonderful  com- 
mixture of  divers  nations  in  it,  Ethiopians, 
Arabs,  Egyptians,  Syrians,  Indians  and 
eastern  Christians  ;  no  Latins '."  Its  Jewish 
inhabitants  fled  from  it  in  the  time  of  Napo- 
leon :  now,  with  few  exceptions  it  is  inhab- 
ited by  Arabs  **. 

But  these,  Ghtlzzeh,  Eskalon,  Akir,  Sedud, 
are  at  most  successors  of  the  Philistine  cities, 
of  which  there  is  no  trace  above  the  surface 
of  the  earth.  It  is  common  to  speak  of 
"  remnants  of  antiquity,"  as  being  or  not  being 
to  be  found  in  any  of  them;  but  this  means, 
that,  where  these  exist,  there  are  remains 
of  a  Greek  or  Roman,  not  of  a  Philistine  city. 


'"This  too  we  see  to  be  fulfilled  in  our  times. 
The  temple  of  Serapis  at  Alexandria,  and  of  Marna 
at  Gaza,  rose  to  be  temples  of  the  Lord."  S.  Jerome 
on  Is.  xvii. 

^€9  avoi' 'EAArji'i'^ouCTtj'.     Soz.  V.  3. 

3  William  of  Tyre  (pp.  917,  840,  865)  calls  them 
"  hydra  immanissima,"  "  hostes  immanissimi  " — 
"Jike  restless  gnats  persevering  in  the  purpose  of 
injuring."  comp.  pp.  781,  787,  797.  "Ascalona  was 
ever  an  adversary  of  Jerusalem."  Robertus  Mon- 
achus  p.  77.  in  v.  Raumer  Pahest.  p.  17.3,  ed.  4.  It 
was  called  "  the  spouse  of  Syria,"  as  an  impregnable 
fortress.  *See  on  Amos  i.  6.  vol.  i.  p.  244. 

s  Ps.  Epiphanius  de  vitis  Proph.  p.  24(i. 

6  Ritter  xvi.  49. 

■'  Fabri  Evagatorium  T.  ii.  p.  379. 

8  Schwartz,  d.  Heil.  Land  p.  91.  185:5. 

9 "Passing  through  Azotus.  between  which  and 
Jamnia,  which  is  situate  on  the  sea,  [i.  e.  the  mari- 
time Jamnia]  we  left  Aecaron  on  one  side."  Fulcher. 
Carnot.  A.  D.  1100.  Gesta  Peregr.  Franc,  c.  23  p.  4G4 
quoted  Raumer's.  verb. 

10  de  loeis  Hebr.  T.  iii.  p.  146.  Vail. 

H  Porter  Handb.  p.  275: 


Of  the  four  cities,  Akkaron,  Ekron,  ("  the 
firm-rooting  ")  has  not  left  a  vestage.  It  is 
mentioned  by  name  only,  after  the  times  of 
the  Bible,  by  some  who  passed  by  it".  Tliere 
was  "  a  large  village  of  Jews"  so  called  in  tlie 
time  of  Eusebius  and  S.  Jerome  ^"j  ''  between 
Azotus  and  Jamnia."  Now  a  village  of 
"  "  about  -50  mud  houses  without  a  single  rem- 
nant of  antiquity  except  2  large  finely  built 
wells  "  bears  the  name  of  Akir.  S.  Jerome 
adds,  "Some  think  that  Aecaron  is  the  tower 
of  Strato,  afterward  called  Cfesarea."  This 
was  perhaps  derived  from  misunderstanding 
his  Jewish  instructor  ^^.  But  it  shows  how- 
entirely  all  knowledge  of  Ekron  was  then 
lost. 

Ashdod  or  Azotus  which,  at  the  time  when 
Zephaniah  prophesied,  held  out  a  twenty- 
nine  years'  siege  against  Psammetichus,  is 
replaced  by  "  '^  a  moderate  sized  village  of 
mud  houses,  situated  on  the  Eastern  declivity 
of  a  little  flattish  hill,"  "entirely  modern, 
not  containing  a  vestige  of  antiquity."  "  A 
beautiful  sculptured  sarcophagus  with  some 
fragments  of  small  marble  shafts,"  "  near  the 
Khan  on  the  S.  W."  belong  of  course  to  later 
times.  "  The  whole  south  side  of  the  hill 
appears  also,  as  if  it  had  been  once  covered 
with  buildings,  the  stones  of  which  are  now 
thrown  together  in  the  rude  fences."  Its 
Bishops  are  mentioned  from  the  Council  of 
Nice  to  A.  D.  536  ^*,  and  so  probably  continued 
till  the  Mohammedan  devastation.  It  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  Talmud  '*.  Benjamin  of 
Tudela  calls  it  Palmis,  and  says,  "  it  is  des- 
olate, and  there  are  no  Jews  in  it^^" 
""Neither  Ibn  Haukal  [Yacut],  Edrisi, 
Abulfeda,  nor  William  of  Tyre  mention  it." 

Ascalon  and  Gaza  had  each  a  port,  Maiuma 
Gazse,  Maiuma  Ascalon  ;  lit.  "  a  place  on  the 
sea"  (an  Egyptian  name'*)  belonging  to 
Ascalon  or  Gaza.  The  name  involves  that 
Ascalon  and  Gaza  themselves,  the  old  Phil- 
istine towns,  were  not  on  the  sea.  They 
were,  like  Athens,  built  inland,  perhaps  (as 

12  "  The  verse,  Ekron  shall  be  uprooted,  the  Talmud 
says,  relates  to  Ccesarea,  the  daughter  of  Edom, 
which  is  situate  among  tiie  sands.  It  does  not 
mean  that  Ekron  is  Cfesarea,  which  would  be  absurd, 
but  only  shews  its  hatred  against  that  citv,  and  fore- 
tells its  destruction,  resting  on  a  Biblical  text,  as  is 
the  habit  of  the  talmudists."  Keubauer  Geogr.  du 
Talmud  p.  92.  See  also  lb.  p.  12.  Estori  in  his 
Kaftor  uperach  gives  ''"IDp  as  another  name  of 

"ypy,  but  Zunz  quotes  the  Suceah  f  276.  as  distin- 
guishing  '"^D'p    from    |r"^D'p  Cfesarea  (on  the 

geogr.  of  Pal.  App.  to  Benj.  Tud.  ii.  441.) 

>3  Porter  Handb.  pp.  272,  273.       "  Reland  p.  609. 

16  It  does  not  appear  in  Neubauer,  Geographie  du 
Talmud. 

"J"  Palmis,  which  is  Ashdod  of  the  Pliilistines." 
J(3  ed.  Asher. 

"  Asher  note  lb.  T.  ii.  p.  99. 

18 "  The  name  Maiuma  seems  to  belong  to  the 
Egyptian  language,  and  to  offer  the  two  words  ma 
lOM  "  place  by  the  sea."  Quntrem6re,  les  sultaos 
Mamlouks  de"Mnkrizi  T.  i.  2  App.  p.  229, 


256 


ZEPHAXIAH. 


has  been  conjectured)  from  fear  of  the  raids  ; 
of  pirates,  or  of  inroads  from  those  who 
(like  tlie  Philistines  themselves  probably, 
or  some  tribe  of  them)  might  come  from  the 
sea.  The  port  probably  of  both  was  built  in 
much  later  times;  the  Egyptian  name  implies 
that  they  were  built  by  Egyptians,  after  the 
time  when  its  kings  jS'ecos  and  Apries, 
(Pharaoh-Xecho  and  Pharaoh-Hophra,  who 
took  Gaza')  made  Egypt  a  naval  power '^. 
This  became  a  characteristic  of  these  Phil- 
istine cities.  They  themselves  lay  more  or 
less  inland,  and  had  a  city  connected  with  them 
of  the  same  name,  on  the  shore.  Thus  there 
was  an  "^Azotus  by  the  sea,"  and  an 
"  Azotus  Ispinus."  There  were  "  *  two  lam- 
niae,  one  inland."  But  Ashdod  lay  further 
from  the  sea  than  Gaza ;  Yamnia,  (the  Yab- 
neel  of  Joshua  *,  in  Uzziah's  time,  Yabneh  *) 
I'urther  than  Ashdod.  The  port  of  Yamnia 
was  burnt  by  Judas'. 

The  name,  Maiumas,  does  not  appear  till 
Christian  times,  though  "the  port  of  Gaza" 
is  mentioned  by  Strabo*:  to  it,  Alexander 
brought  from  Tyre  the  machines,  witli  which 
he  took  Gaza  itself.  That  port  then  must 
liave  been  at  some  distance  from  (iaza. 
Each  port  became  a  town,  large  enough  to 
have,  in  Christian  times,  a  Bishop  of  its  own. 
The  Epistle  of  John  of  Jerusalem,  inserted  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Council  of  Constantinople, 
A.  D.  536,  written  in  the  name  of  Palestine 
i.,  ii.,  and  iii.,  is  signed  by  a  Bishop  of  Main- 
men  of  Ascalon,  as  well  as  by  a  Bishop  of 
Ascalon,  as  it  is  by  a  Bishop  of  Maiumas  of 
Gaza  as  well  as  by  a  Bishop  of  Gaza '". 
Yabne,  or  Yamnia,  was  on  a  small  emi- 
nence ",  6j  hours  from  the  sea  '^.  The  Maiu- 
mas Gazse  became  the  more  known.  To  it, 
as  being  Christian,  Constantine  gave  the 
right  of  citizensiiip,  and  called  it  Constantia 
from  his  son,  making  it  a  city  indepemlent 
of  Gaza.  Julian  the  Apostate  gave  to  Gaza 
(whicli,  though  it  had  Bishops  and  Martyrs, 
had  a  heathen  temple  at  the  bqginningof  the 
5th  century)  its  former  jurisdictiDU  over  it, 
and  though  about  20  furlongs  ollj  it  was 
called  "the  maritime  portion  of  Gaza'^." 
It  had  thencefortii  the  same  municipal  offi- 
cers ;  but,  "  as  regards  tiie  Cliurch  alone," 
.Sozomen  adds,  "  they  still  ap{)ear  to  be  two 
cities ;  each  has  its  own  Bishop  and  clergy, 
and  festivals  and  martyrs,  and  commemora- 
tions of  those  who  had  been  their   Bishops, 

1  Jer.  xlvii.  1. 

2  See  Herod,  ii.  150,  IGl.  and  Rawlinson  on  ii.  182. 
Jler.id.  T.  ii.  p.  277. 

^'A^wTo?  jTopaAos.  Excerpta  in  Grroca  notitia 
Patriarch,  in  Rpland  p.  2ir>.  Scliwarz  (d.  heil.  Land 
p.  1)1.)  plaeos  Ashdod  at  an  hour  from  the  "Medi- 
terranean." 

♦  Plln.  N.  H.  V.  12.  'Josh.  XV.  11.. 

»2  Chr.  xxvi.  R.  '  2  Mace.  xii.  9. 

"Straboxvi.  2,  30.  p.  769. 

»"  The  engines,  with  which  he  took  Tyre,  being 
sent  for  bv  him,  arrive  from  the  sea."    .4rr.  11.  27. 

10  ("one  T.  V.  11(14.  Col. 


and  boundaries  of  the  fields  around,  whereby 
the  altars  which  belong  to  each  Episcopate 
are  parted."  The  provincial  Synod  decided 
against  the  desire  of  a  Bishop  of  Gaza,  in 
Sozomen's  time,  who  wished  to  bring  tbe 
Clergy  of  the  Maiumites  under  him.-^el  I,  ruling 
that  "  although  deprived  of  their  civil  priv- 
ileges by  a  heathen  king,  tiiey  should  not 
be  deprived  of  those  of  the  Cliurcii." 

In  A.  D.  400,  then,  the  two  cities  were 
distinct,  not  joined  or  running  into  one 
another. 

S.  Jerome  mentions  it  as  "  "  Maiumas,  the 
emporium  of  Gaza,  7  miles  from  the  desert 
on  the  way  to  Egypt  by  the  sea ;  "  Sozomen 
speaks  of  "'*Gaza  by  the  sea,  which  they 
also  call  Maiumas;"  Evagrius,  "'^that  which 
they  also  call  Maiumas,  which  is  over  against 
the*^city  Gaza,"  "  "  a  little  city."  Mark  the 
deacon  A.  D.  421,  say.^  ""*\Ve  sailed  to  the 
maritime  portion  of  Gaza,  which  they  call 
Maiumas,"  and  Antoninus  Martyr,  about  the 
close  of  the  vi""  century,  "'"we  came  from 
Ascalon  to  Mazoniates,  and  came  thence,  aiter 
a  mile,  to  Gaza, — that  magnificent  and  lovely 
city."  This  perhaps  explains  how  an  anony- 
mous Geographer,  enumerating  tlie  places 
from  Egypt  to  Tyre,  says  so  distinctly, 
"  ^^  after  Kinocorura  lies  the  new  Gaza,  being 
itself  also  a  city;  then  the  desert  Gaza,"  (writ- 
ing, we  must  suppose,  after  some  of  the  destruc- 
tions of  Gaza);  and  S.  Jerome  could  say  equally 
positively ;  "  ^^  The  site  of  the  ancient  city 
scarce  yields  the  traces  of  foundations ;  but 
the  city  now  seen  was  built  in  another  place 
in  lieu  of  that  which  fell." 

Keith,  who  in  1844  explored  the  spot, 
found  wide-spread  traces  of  some  extinct 
city. 

"  ^'■^  At  seven  furlongs  from  the  sea  the 
manifold  but  minute  remains  of  an  ancient 
city  are  yet  in  many  places  to  be  found — In- 
numerable fragments  of  broken  pottery, 
pieces  of  glass,  (some  beautifully  stained) 
and  of  polished  marble,  lie  thickly  spread  in 
every  level  and  hollow,  at  a  considerable 
elevation  an<l  various  distances,  on  a  space  of 
several  square  miles.  In  fifty  diflerent 
places  tliey  profusely  lie,  in  a  level  space  far 
firmer  than  the  surrounding  sands,"  "  from 
small  patches  to  more  open  spaces  of  twelve 
or  twenty  thousand  square  yards."  "The 
oblong  sand-hill,  greatly  varied  in  its  eleva- 
tion and  of  an  undulated  surface,  tlirougliout 

11  Irbv  and  Mancles  p.  ^T. 

iSMichaud  et  Poujoulat  Corrcsp.  d'Orieut  v.  p. 
373,  374. 

i»  Soz.  V.  3. 

i<  Vita  8.  Hilarion.  n.  3.  0pp.  ii.  15.  Vail. 

16  Soz.  vii.  21.  10  Ev.  ii.  ,5.  "  lb.  8. 

18  Marcus  Diao.  A.  D.  421,  in  vita  S.  Porphyrii,  c.  8. 
ap.  Holland.  Feb.  2<>. 

i»  Itin.  B.  Antonini,  pp.  24,  25. 

^'  Hudson  Geograph.  Minores  T.  iv.  p.  39. 

s'T.  iii.  p.  218. 

K  Keith  on  prophecv,  from  personal  exftmlnntion- 
pp.  37S,  379, 


CHAPTER  II. 


257 


which  they  recur,  extends  to  the  W.  and  W. 
S.  W.  from  the  sea  nearly  to  tlie  environs 
of  the  modern  Gaza."  "  "  In  attempts  to 
cultivate  the  sand  (in  1832)  liewn  stones 
were  tbund,  near  tlie  old  port.  Remains  of 
an  old  wall  reached  to  the  sea. — Ten  large 
fragments  of  wall  were  embedded  in  the 
sand.  About  2  miles  off  are  fragments  of 
another  wall.  Four  intermediate  fountains 
still  exist,  nearly  entire  in  a  line  along  the 
coast,  doubtless  pertaining  to  the  ancient 
port  of  Gaza.  For  a  short  distance  inland, 
the  debris  is  less  frequent,  as  if  marking  the 
space  between  it  and  the  ancient  city,  but  it 
again  becomes  plentiful  in  every  hollow. 
About  half  a  mile  from  the  sea  we  saw  three 
pedestals  of  beautiful  marble.  Holes  are 
still  to  be  seen  from  which  hewn  stones  had 
been  taken." 

On  the  other  hand,  since  the  old  Ashk«lon 
had,  like  Gaza,  Jamnia,  Ashdod,  a  sea-port 
town,  belonging  to  it  but  distinct  from  itself, 
(the  city  itself  lying  distinct  and  inland), 
and  since  there  is  no  sjjace  for  two  towns  dis- 
tinct from  one  another,  within  the  circuit  of 
the  Ashkelon  of  the  crusades,  which  is  limi- 
ted by  the  nature  of  the  ground,  there  seems 
to  be  no  choice  but  that  the  city  of  the  cru- 
sades, and  the  present  skeleton,  should  have 
been  the  Maiumas  Ascalon,  the  sea-port. 
The  change  might  tlie  more  readily  take 
place,  since  the  title  "  port  "  was  often  omit- 
ted. The  new  town  obliterated  the  memory  of 
the  old,  as  Neapolis,  Naples,  on  the  shore, 
has  taken  place  of  the  inland  city  (whatever 
its  name  was),  or  Utrecht,  it  is  said,  has  dis- 
placed the  old  Roman  town,  the  remains  of 
which  are  three  miles  off  at  Vechten  \  or 
Sichem  is  called  Neapolis,  Nablous,  which 
yet  was  3  miles  off ''.  Er-riha  is,  probably, 
at  least  the  second  representative  of  the  an- 
cient Jericho ;  the  Jericho  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, built  by  Herod,  not  being  the  Jericho 
of  the  prophets.  The  Corey ra  of  Greek 
history  gave  its  name  to  the  island  ;  it  is 
replaced  by  a  Corfu  in  a  different  but  near 
locality,  which  equally  gives  its  name  to  the 
island  now.  The  name  of  Venetia  migrated 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  province,  who  fled 
from  Attila,  some  23  miles,  to  a  few  of  the 
islands  on  the  coast,  to  become  again  the 
name  of  a  great  republic  ^.  In  our  own 
country,  "  old  Windsor  "  is  said  to  have  been 
the  residence  of  the  Saxon  numarchs ;  the 

iReland  who  lived  at  Utrecht,  says  tliat  Roman 
antiquities  were  daily  dug  up  at  Vechten,  where 
were  the  remains  of  a  Roman  fort.    Pal.  p.  lOo. 

3  S.  .Jerome. 

s  Gibbon  c.  35. 

*  In  like  way  Alresford,  Rasford,  Brentford,  Goole, 
Isleworth,  must  have  been  at  one  time,  New  Air. 
New  Basford  &c.  but,  as  the  more  considerable,  have 
appropriated  the  name  which  belonged  to  both  the 
old  and  new  places. 

6  Willermus  Tyr.  Hist.  xvii.  22.  In  Gesta  Dei  per 
Francos  p.  924.  The  solidity  of  the  walls  and  of 
the  cement  are  described  in  the  ~ame  way,  in  the 

17 


present  Windsor,  was  originally  "  new  Wind- 
sor : "  old  Sarum  was  the  Cathedral  city, 
until  the  reign  of  Henry  iii :  but,  as  the  old 
towns  decayed,  the  new  towns  came  to  be 
called  Windsor,  iSarum,  though  not  the 
towns  which  tirst  had  the  name.  What  is 
now  called  Shoreham,  not  many  years  ago, 
was  called  "  new  Shoreham,"  in  distinction 
from  the  neighboring  village  ^ 

WiUiam  of  Tyre  describes  Ashkelon  as 
"  *  situated  on  the  sea-shore,  in  the  form  of 
a  semi-circle,  whose  chord  or  diameter  lies 
on  the  sea-shore ;  but  its  circumference  or 
arc  on  the  land,  looking  East.  The  whole 
city  lies  as  in  a  trench,  all  declining  toward 
the  sea,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  raised 
mounds,  on  which  are  walls  with  numerous 
towers  of  solid  masonry,  the  cement  Leing 
harder  than  the  stone,  with  walls  of  due 
thickness  and  of  height  proportionate;  it  is 
surmounted  also  with  outer  walls  of  the  same 
solidity."  He  then  describes  its  four  gates, 
E.  N.  S.  toward  Jerusalen),  Gaza,  Joppa, 
and  the  W.,  called  the  sea-gate,  because 
"  by  it  the  inhabitants  have  an  egress  to  the 
sea." 

A  modern  traveler,  whose  description  of 
the  ruins  exactly  agrees  with  this,  says, 
"  *"  the  walls  are  built  on  a  ridge  of  rocks  that 
winds  round  the  town  in  a  semicircular  di- 
rection and  terminates  at  each  end  in  the 
sea;  the  ground  falls  within  the  walls  in  the 
same  manner,  that  it  does  without,  so  that  no 
part  of  it  could  be  seen  Irom  the  outside  of 
the  walls.  There  is  no  bay  nor  shelter  for 
shipping,  but  a  small  harlor  advancing  a 
little  way  into  the  town  toward  its  eastern 
extremity  seems  to  have  been  lormed  for  the 
accommodation  of  such  small  craft  as  were 
used  in  the  better  days  of  the  city."  The 
harbor,  moreover,  was  larger  during  the  cru- 
sades, and  enabled  Ascalon  to  receive  sup- 
plies of  corn  from  Egypt  and  thereby  to  pro- 
tract its  siege.  Sultan  Bibars  filled  up  the 
port  and  cast  stones  into  the  s^a,  A.  D.  1270, 
and  destroyed  the  remains  of  the  fortifica- 
tions, for  fear  that  the  Franks,  after  their 
treaty  with  the  king  of  Tunis,  should  bring 
back  their  forces  against  Islamism  and  estab- 
lish themselves  there  '.  Yet  Abull'eda,  who 
wrote  a  few  years  later,  calls  it  "  one  of  the 
Syrian  ports  of  Islam**." 

This  city,  so  placed  on  the  sea,  and  in 
which  too  the  sea  enters,  cannot  be  the  Ash- 
latter  part  of  the  17th.  cent,  by  d'Arvieux  and 
Padre  Malone  da  Maleo  Terra  Santa  p.  471. 

6  Dr.  Richardson,  Travels  along  the  Mediterr.  ii. 
p.  201. 

f  According  to  Ibn  F^rat  in  Reinaud  Chroniques 
Arabes  n.  xcvi.  Michaud,  Biblioth.  des.  Croisades 
iv.  525. 

8  Ab.  Tab.  Syrife  p.  78.  Kohler.  1;;r\,  a  gap,  open- 
ing, access,  or  an  enemy's  frontier,  (Freytag)  "  is  in 
ordinary  Arabic,  used  for  a  port,  as  r\1T3  ')j,^7\ 

'theportof  Beyrout'and  HtD'OT    "l^Tl  "the  port 
of  Damietta.'  "    Prof.  Chenery. 


258 


ZErHAMAH. 


kelon,  which  had  a  fKjrt,  which  was  a  town 
distinct  from  it.  The  Ascalon  of  the  Philis- 
tines, which  existed  down  into  Christian 
times,  must  have  heen  inland. 

Benjamin  of  Tudela  in  tlie  12th  cent,  who 
had  been  on  the  spot,  and  who  is  an  accurate 
eyewitness ',  says,  "  From  Ashdod  arc  two 
parasangs  to  Ashkelonali'-' ;  this  is  new  Ash- 
kelon  which  Ezra  the  i)riest  built  on  the  sea- 
shore, and  they  at  first  called  it  Benibra  ■', 
and  it  is  distant  from  the  old  Ashkelon, 
which  is  desolate,  four  parasangs."  When 
the  old  Ashkelon  perished,  is  unknown.  If, 
as  seems  probable  from  some  of  the  antiqui- 
ties dug  up,  the  Ashkelon,  at  which  Herod 
was  born  and  which  he  Ijeaulified,  was  tiie 
seaport  town,  commerce  probably  attracted 
to  it  gradually  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neighboring  town  of  Ascalon,  as  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Piraeus  now  exceeds  that  of 
Athens. 

The  present  Ashkelon  is  a  ghastly  skele- 
ton ;  all  the  frame-work  of  a  city,  but  none 
there.  "  The  soil  is  good,"  but  the  "  peas- 
ants who  cultivate  it "  prefer  living  outside  in 
a  small  village  of  mud-huts,  exposed  to  winds 
and  sand-storms,  because  they  think  that  God 
has  abandoned  it,  and  that  evil  spirits  (the 
Jan  and  the  Ghfil)  dwell  there*. 

Even  the  remains  of  antiquity,  where  they 
exist,  belong  to  later  times.  A  hundred  men 
excavated  in  Ashkelon  for  14  days  in  hopes 
of  finding  trea.sure  there.  They  dug  18  feet 
below  the  surface,  and  found  marble  shafts,  a 
Corinthian  capital,  a  colossal  statue  with  a 
Medusa's  head  on  its  chest,  a  marble  pave- 
ment and  white-marble  pedestal  ^  The 
excavation  reached  no  Philistine  Ashkelon. 

"  Broken  pottery,"  "  pieces  of  glass," 
"  fragments  of  polished  marl)Ie,"  "  of  ancient 
colunms,  cornices  &c.^"  were  the  relics  of  a 
Greek  Gaza. 

Though  then  it  is  a  superfluity  of  fulfill- 
ment, and  what  can  be  found  belongs  to  a 
later  city,  still  what  can  be  seen  has  an  im- 
pressive correspondence  with  the  words  Gaza 
is  forsaken;  for  there  are  miles  of  fragments 
<jf  some  city  connected  with  (iaza.  The 
present  Gaza  occupies  the  soutliern  half  of  a 
hill  built  with  stone  for  the  Moslem  conquer- 

•'  p.  JO-  2.  ed.  Asher.  The  enumeration  of  "  about 
200  RaVjbanite  Jews,"  with  the  names  of  the  chief, 
".'\l)out40  karaites,  and  about ^ocCiithmans"  sliew.s 
pursonal  acquaintanet".  Tlie  former  name  of  the 
"  new  .Ascalon  "  and  flie  supposed  distance  of  the 
niins  of  the  old,  he  must  have  learned  on  the  spot. 

*  Benj.  Tud.  pronounces  the  new  city  Ashlcelona, 
as  the  Latins  did.  When  speaking  iiimseif,  he 
savs  Ashkelon. 

^"Benibra"  looks  like  a  corruption  of  jTD 
n^OJ,  "a  place  of  pure  water,"  like  "  Bebatcn, 
Mi'doni,  Beestera,  Bcgahar  '  &c.  in  Roland.  (117.  sqq. 
The  Gadite  town  of  that  name  becomes  in  Eus. 
/3n9i/a|3pi(.  S.  .leroiii-'  has  aiioihcr  Benamerium,  N. 
or  Zoar,  now  N'mairab.  Tristrani  Land  of  Moab  p. 
J7.  A  well  in  Ascalon  is  miiilioncd  by  F-jisebius. 
"There  arc  many  we  IN  (named)  in  Scripture  and 
•re  V6t  shewn  in  the  i-ountry  iif  Oerar,  and  at  .•\sc»- 


ors  of  Palestine.  '' '  Even  the  traces  of  its 
former  existence,  its  vestiges  of  antiquity,  are 
very  rare ;  occasional  columns  of  marble  or 
gray  granite,  scattered  in  the  streets  and 
gardens,  or  nsed  as  thresholds  at  tiie  gates 
and  doors  of  iiouses,  or  laid  upon  the  front 
of  watering-troughs.  One  fine  Corinthian 
capital  of  white  marble  lies  inverted  in  the 
middle  of  the  street."  These  belong  then  to 
times  later  than  Alexander,  since  whose  days 
the  very  site  of  Gaza  must  have  changed  its 
aspect. 

Ashkelon  Judl  be  a  desolation.  The  site  of 
the  port  of  Ascalon  was  well  chosen,  strong, 
overhanging  the  sea,  fenced  from  the  land, 
stretciiing  forth  its  arms  toward  the  Medi- 
terranean, as  if  to  receive  in  its  bosom  the 
wealth  of  the  sea,  yet  shunned  by  the  poor 
hinds  around  it.  It  lies  in  such  a  living 
death,  tiiat  it  is  ""one  of  the  most  mournful 
scenes  of  utter  desolation  "  which  a  traveler 
"even  in  this  land  of  ruins  ever  beheld." 
But  this  too  cannot  be  the  Philistine  city. 
The  sands  which  are  pressing  hard  upon  the 
solid  walls  of  the  city,  held  back  by  them  for 
the  time,  yet  threatening  to  overwhelm  "  the 
spouse  of  Syria,"  and  which  accumulated  in 
the  plain  below,  must  have  buried  the  old 
Ashkelon,  since  in  this  land,  where  the  old 
names  so  cling  to  the  spot,  there  is  no  trace 
of  it. 

Ekron  shall  be  xiprooled ;  and  at  Akir  and 
Esdlid  " '  celebrated  at  present,  for  its  scor- 
pions," the  few  stones,  which  remain,  even  of 
a  later  town,  are  but  as  gravestones  to  mark 
the  burial  place  of  departed  greatness. 

"^"In  like  way,  all  who  glory  in  bodily 
strength  and  worldly  power  and  say,  By  (he 
strength  of  my  hand  I  have  done  it,  shall  be  left 
desolate  and  brought  to  nothing  in  the  daj' 
of  the  Lord's  anger."  And  "  the  waster," 
they  who  by  evil  words  and  deeds  injure  or 
destroy  others  and  are  an  offence  unto  them, 
these  shall  be  cast  out  shamefully,  into  ovd  r 
darkness  "'^  when  the  .saints  shall  receive  the 
fullest  brightness"  in  the  mid-day  of  the  Sim 
of  Rigiiteousness.  The  judgment  shall  not 
be  in  darkness,  save  to  them,  but  in  mid-day, 
so  that  the  justice  of  God  shall  be  clearly 
seen,  and  darkness  itself  shall  l)e  turned  into 

Ion."  \.  <f>piap.  William  of  Tyre  .says:  "It  has  no 
fountains,  either  within  the  compass  of  the  walls,  or 
near  it;  fjut  it  abounds  in  wells,  both  within  and 
without,  which  supply  palatable  water,  fit  for  drink- 
ing. For  greater  caiition  the  inhabitants  had  built 
some  cisterns  within,  to  receive  rain-water.  Benj. 
of  T.  also  says,  "There  in  the  midst  of  the  city  is  a 
well  which  "they  call  Beer  Ibrahim-al-khalil  [the 
well  of  Abraham  the  friend  (of  God)]  which  he  dug 
in  the  days  of  the  I'hilistines."  Keith  mentions 
"20  fountains  of  excellent  water  opened  upanewby 
Ibrahim  Pasha."  p.  274. 

♦  Mr.  Cyril  tiraham  in  Keith  p.  .'57i>. 

•'•  Travels  of  Ladv  H.  Stanhope,  iii.  l.v.nlby. 

«  Keith  p.  378.  '  Robinson  Travels  ii.  38. 

S.Smith  lb.  p.  06  note. 

•Volncv  Vovage  en  Syrie  c.  :n.  p.  :U1.  Keith  p. 
370.  '        ■        >»S.  Jer.  "  Rup. 


CHAPTER  II. 


269 


5  Woe  unto  the  iiihab- 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir-  630.      itants  of '  the  sea  coast,  the 


•  Ezek.  25. 16. 


*  Jos.  1.3.  3 


nation  of  the  Cherethites ! 
the  word  of  the  Lokd  is 
against  you ;  O  "  Canaan, 
the  land  of  the  Philistines,  I 
will  even  destroy  thee,  that 


light,  as  was  said  to  David,  *  Thou  didst  this 
thing  secretly,  but  I  ivill  do  it  before  all  Israel 
and  before  the  sun  ;  and  our  Lord,  ^  Whatso- 
ever ye  have  spoken  in  daj'kness  shall  be  heard  in 
the  light;  and  that  ivhirh  ye  have  spoken  in  the 
ear  in  closets  shall  be  proclaimed  upon  the  house- 
tops ;  and  St.  Paul,  '^the  Lord  shcdl  come,  Who 
bothwiU  bring  to  light  the  liidden  things  of  dark- 
ness, and  ivill  make  manifest  the  counsels  of  the 
heart.  And  "  they  who  by  seducing  worrls  in 
life  or  in  doctrine  uprooted  others,  shall  be 
themselves  rooted  up*." 

5.  The  woe  having  been  pronounced  on  the 
five  cities  apart,  now  falls  upon  the  whole 
nation  of  the  Cherethites  or  Pliilistines. 
The  Cheretliites  are  only  named  as  equiva- 
lent to  the  Philistines,  probably  as  oi-iginally 
a  distinct  immigration  of  tlie  same  people  ^. 
The  name  is  used  by  the  Egyptian  slave  of 
the  Amalekite  ^  for  those  whom  the  author 
of  the  fii'st  book  of  Samuel  calls  Philis- 
tines^. Ezekiel  uses  the  name  parallel 
with  that  of  Philistines,  with  reference  to  the 
destruction  which  God  would  bring  upon 
them  ". 

The  tvmxl  of  the  Lord  comes  not  to  them,  but 
upon  them,  overwhelming  them.  To  them 
He  speaketh  not  in  good,  but  in  evil ;  not  in 
grace,  but  in  anger;  not  in  mercy,  but  in 
vengeance.  Philistia  was  the  first  enemy 
of  the  Church.  It  shewed  its  enmity 
to  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  would  fain 
that  they  should  not  sojourn  among  them  ^. 
They  were  the  hindrance  that  Israel  should 
not  go  straight  to  the  promised  land  ^''. 
When  Israel  passed  the  Red  Sea,  "  sorroiv 

•  2  Sam.  xii.  12.     ^s.  Luke  xii.  3.      *!  Cor.  iv.  5. 

<  S.  Matth.  XV.  13.     s  See  on  Am.  ix.  7.  vol.  i.  p.  .333. 
6 1  Sam.  XXX.  14.  ^  lb.  16. 

*  Q-n'^iD  nX  'mDH  Ezek.  xxv.  Ifi.  It  may  be 
that  they  were  so  called  as  coming  from  Crete  as 
the  LXX  supposed,  rendering  "Cretans"  in  Ezek., 
and  here  (as  also  the  Syr.)  "sojourners  of  the  Cre- 
tans." Hence  perhaps  also  Tacitus'  statement 
(Uist.  V.  2.)  that  the  Jews  had  been  expelled  from 
Crete.  Tlie  other  versions  render  the  word  as  an 
appellative,  "  destroying  "  or  "  destroyed."  Aq.  and 
e,  eOvoi  6\eOpLOi'.  Tlieod.  eScos  bXeOpias   Symm.  ^Ovos 

oAeSptudjuei'oi'.  S.  Jer.  gives  perditorem. 

■'Gen.  xxi.  .34.  xxvi.  14, 15,  28.         ^"  Ex.  xiii.  17. 

n  lb.  XV.  14.  i^Gen.  XV.  21. 

'i*  The  words  '•  baud  of  the  >ea  "  are  repeated  with 
emphasis,  vers,  5,  ii,  and  the  first  words  v.  7. 

'*  So  Kim.  Ibu  Denan  has, "  eaves  which  shepherds 
inhabit;"  Arab,  transl.  "domiciles  which  shep- 
herds dig."  Abulw,,  and  Tanchnui  derive  it  from 
pn J  2  Kgs.  vi.  23.  "  a  feast."  Abulw.  thinks  this  not 


there  shall  be  no  inhabitant. 


Before 
CHRIST 

6  And   the  sea   coast      ^^^-  630- 


shall  be  dwellings  and  cot-  ^^^^  ^^  ^.^  „ 
tages  for  shepherds,  'and  ^jt^.^*^  ^■^ 
folds  for  flocks.  Mf->j-  ' 

<K  5.  7,  0. 

7  And   the    coast   shall      Hag.  1.12. 

&  2. 2. 
be  for   "the   remnant   of     ver. 9. 


took  hold  of  them.  They  were  close  to  salva- 
tion in  body,  but  far  in  mind.  They  are 
called  Canaan,  as  being  a  chief  nation  of  it  '^'\ 
and  in  that  name  lay  the  original  source  of 
their  destruction.  They  inherited  the  sins 
of  Canaan  and  with  them  his  curse,  prefer- 
ring the  restless  beating  of  the  barren,  bitter 
sea  on  which  tliey  dwelt,  "the  Avaves  of  this 
troublesome  world,"  to  being  a  part  of  the 
true  Canaan.  They  would  absorb  the  Church 
into  the  world,  and  master  it,  subduing  it  to 
the  heathen  Canaan,  not  subdue  themselves 
to  it,  and  become  part  of  the  heavenly 
Canaan. 

6.  The  sea-coast^^  shall  be  dwellings  and  cot- 
tages, lit.  cuttings  or  diggings  ^*.  This  is  the 
central  meaning  of  the  word  ;  the  place  of 
the  Cherethites  (the  cutters  off)  shall  be 
cheroth  of  shepherds,  places  which  they  dug 
up  that  their  flocks  might  be  enclosed  therein. 
The  tracts  once  fiill  of  fighting  men,  the 
scourge  of  Judah,  should  be  so  desolate  of  its 
former  people,  as  to  become  a  sheep-walk. 
Men  of  peace  should  take  the  place  of  its 
warriors. 

So  the  shepherds  of  the  Gospel  with  their 
flocks  have  entered  into  possession  of  war- 
like nations,  turning  them  to  the  Gospel. 
They  are  shepherds,  the  chief  of  whom  is 
that  Good  Shepherd,  Who  laid  down  His 
Life  for  the  sheep.  And  these  are  the  sheep 
of  whom  He  speaks,  ^*  Other  sheep  I  have, 
which  are  not  of  this  fold;  them  also  I  must  bring, 
and  they  shcdl  hear  My  Voice;  and  there  shall 
be  onefold  and  One  Shepherd. 

7.  And  the  coast  shall  be.  Or  probably  ^®,  It 

improbable,  as  an  irregular  plural.  Tanchum, 
"  stations  of  shepherds  where  they  turn  their  flocks 
to  feed  and  sit  down  to  eat,  or  places  in  which  they 
dig  for  watering  the  flocks."  The  climate  of  Judsea, 
however,  does  not  admit  of  underground  habita- 
tions, like  Nineveh,  and  in  the  country  of  the  Phil- 
istines flocks  would  be  supplied  by  wells  with 
trenches.  No  Arabic  authority  suggests  a  deriva- 
tion from  npi  "nest"  (as  Evvald).  The  allusion  to 
Cherethim  would  be  lost  by  this  invented  root. 
Rashi  has  "a  place  where  the  shepherds  eat."  A. 
E.  explains  r\^2,  as  if  it  were  from  ri^D,  "  which 
the  shepherds  lh"lD  for  themselves."  The  Moabite 
stone  has  i"\n">3:D  ■■  '^^-  apparently,  of  "a  ditch" 
"  or  moat." 

15  S.  John  X.  16.      I 

i«  Grammatically,  72n  may  be  either  the  subject 
or  predicate.  For  even  in  prose  (Josh  xix.  29.)  it  is 
used  without  the  article,  of  the  sea-co.ist,  the  men- 
tion of  the  sea  having  preceded,  '-the  goings  forth 


2G0 


ZE^UA^■1AH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  6:ii>. 


II  Or,  when,  <tc. 


the  house  of  Judah ;  they 
shall  feed  thereupon;  in 
the  houses  of  Ashkelon 
shall  they  lie  down  in  the 
evening :    1 1  for  the  Lord 


shairbe  a  portion  for  the  remnant  of  the  house  of 
Judah.  lie  uses  the  word,  employed  in  tlie 
first  assignment  of  the  land  to  Israel  ^ ;  and 
of  the  whole  peojjle  as  belonging  to  God, 
"  ''  Jacob  is  tlie  bt  of  His  inheritance."  The 
tract  of  the  .sra,  which,  with  the  rest,  was  as- 
signed to  Israel,  which,  for  its  unfaithful- 
ness, was  seldom,  even  in  part,  possessed,  and 
at  this  time,  was  wholly  forfeited,  should  be 
a  portion  for  tlie  mere  remnant  which  should 
he  brought  back.  David  used  the  word  in 
Ills  psalm  of  thanksgiving,  when  he  had 
brought  the  ark  to  the  city  of  David,  iiow 
<iod  liad  "^confirmed  the  covenant  to  Israel, 
saying,  Unto  thee  will  I  give  the  land  of 
<  anaan,  the  lot  of  your  inheritance ;  "  and 
Asaph,*  He  cu-it  out  the  heathen  brfore  them  and 
ilivided  to  them  an  inheritance  by  line.  It  is  the 
revei-sal  of  the  doom  threatened  by  Micah, 
''  IViou  .ihnlt  have  none,  that  shall  cast  a  cord  by 
lot  in  the  congrerjation  of  the  Lord.  The  word 
i>  revived  by  Ezekicl  in  his  ideal  division  of 
tiie  land  to  the  restored  people".  '  The  (fifts 
and  callinxj  of  God  are  ivithout  repentance.  The 
promise,  whidi  had  slumbered  during  Israel's 
faithlessness,  should  be  renewed  to  its  old 
extent.  "  *  There  is  no  prescription  against 
tlie  Church."  The  boat  threatens  to  sink; 
it  is  tossed,  half-submerged,  by  the  waves; 
but  its  Lord  rebukes  the  wind  and  the  sea; 
wind  a)id  sea  obey  Him,  and  there  is  a  yreat 
calm  ". 

For  the  remnant  of  the  house  of  Judah.  Yet, 
wlio  save  lie  in  Whose  hand  are  human 
wills,  could  now  i'oresee  that  Judah  should, 
like  the  ten  triljes,  reljel,  be  carried  captive, 
and  yet,  though  like  and  worse  than  Israel 
in  its  sin  ''^,  should,  unlike  Israel,  be  restored  ? 
The  re-building  of  Jerusalem  was,  their 
enemies  pleaded,  contrary  to  sound  policy  "  : 
the  plea  was  for  the  time  accepted;  for  the 
rebelliims  of  Jerusalem  were  recorded  in  the 
ciironicles  of  Babylon'^.  Yet  the  falling 
short  of  the  complete  restoration  depended 
on  tlieir  own  wills.  God  turned  again  their 
captivity ;    Init   they,  only,  ivhose  spirit    God 

thereof  were  to  the  sea,  73np  to  Mizpeh."     Yet 

iliere  is  no  emphasis  in  the  repiitition  of  the  word 

liom  the  prpceding  verse.  T)io  LXX  renders  73n 
a*  the  Hiibjeut,  the  Ch.  Vule.  as  the  pvedicHtc. 

'"The  ten  portions  of  Manasseh;"  Josh.  xvii. ."). 
■'  Why  hast  thou  given  me  one  lot  and  one  portion?" 
J  I'.  14.  "out  of  the  ;jor<ion  of  tiie  children  of  Jiidali 
was  the  inheritance  of  the  children  of  Simeon."  lb. 
xix.  !t. 

«  l>fiit.  xxxii.  11.  ••'ichi-   xvi    iM,  I>M,  .•V.  II. 


their  God  shall "  visit  them, 
and  °  turn  away  their  cap- . 
tivity. 

8  ^"I  have  heard  the 
reproach   of  Moab,   and 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  C.30. 

">  Ex.  4.  31. 

Luke  1.  08. 
°  Ps.  126.  1. 

Jer.  29. 14. 

Ph.  3.  20. 
P  Jer.  48.  27. 

Ezek.  25.  8. 


stirred,  willed  to  return.  The  temporal 
restoration  was  the  picture  of  the  spiritual. 
They  who  returned  had  to  give  up  lands  and 
possessions  in  Babylonia,  and  a  remnant  only 
chose  the  land  of  promise  at  such  cost. 
Babylonia  was  as  attractive  as  Egj'pt 
formerly. 

In  the  houses  of  Ashkelon  shall  they  lie  dou-n 
in  the  evening.  One  city  is  named  for  all. 
They  shall  lie  down,  he  says,  continuing  the 
image  from  their  flocks,  as  Isaiah,  in  a  like 
passage  '^,  The  first-born  of  the  poor  shall  feed, 
and  the  needy  shall  lie  down  in  safety. 

The  true  Judah  shall  overspread  the 
world  ;  but  it  too  shall  only  be  a  remnant  ; 
these  shall,  in  safety,  "r/o  in  and  out 
and  find  pasture.  In  the  evening  of  the  world 
they  shall  find  their  rest ;  lor  then  also  in 
the  time  of  Anti-Christ,  the  Church  shall  be 
but  a  remnant  still.  For  the  Lord  their  God 
shall  visit  them,  for  He  is  the  Good  Shepherd, 
Who  came  to  seek  the  one  sheep  which  was 
lost  and  Who  says  of  Himself,  '■'  /  will  seek 
that  which  ivas  lost,  ami  bring  again  that  which 
was  driven  away,  and  u-ill  bind  up  that  which 
W(.s  broken,  and  will  strengthen  that  which  was 
sick;  and  Who  in  the  end  will  more  com- 
pletely turn  aivay  their  captivity,  bring  His 
banished  to  their  everlasting  home,  the  Par- 
adise from  which  they  have  been  exiled,  and 
separate  for  ever  the  sheep  from  the  goats 
who  now  ojipress  and  scatter  them  abroad  ^^ 

8.  /,  "i'(iod.  Who  know  all  things,  / 
heard  1.  e.,  have  known  witiiin  Me,  in  jNIy 
mind,  not  anew  but  from  eternity,  and  now  1 
shew  in  effect  that  I  know  it ;  wiierefore  I 
say  that  I  hear,  because  I  act  alter  the  man- 
ner of  one  who  perceiveth  something  anew." 
I,  the  just  Judge,  heard  "*.  He  was  present 
and  heard,  even  when,  because  He  avenged 
not,  He  seemed  not  to  hear,  but  laid  it  np  in 
store  with  Him  to  avenge  in  the  due  time'". 

The  reproach  of  Moab  aitd  the  reviling  of  the 
children  of  Ammon,  whereby  they  have  reproached 
My  people.  Both  words,  reproached,  reviled, 
mean,  primarily,  cutting  speeches  ;  both  are 

<P8.  Ixxviii.  56.      6Mie.  ii.  5.     «  Ezeli.  xlvii.  13. 

7  Rom.  xi.  29. 

8 "Nullum  tempus  ecclesi»,"  though  said  of  its 
propertv. 

OS.  Matt.  viii.  20,27. 

w  Jer.  iii.  8-11.  Ezck.  xvi.  4i)-.'i2.  xxiii.  11. 
u  Ezra  ix.  12-16.  »«  Ih.  19-22.  '»  Is.  iv.  30. 

i<S.Johnx.9.      i^Ezclc.xxxiv.lC.      ">  lb.  17-19. 
"  Dion. 

'".See  Is.  xvi.  tJ.  Jer.  xlviii.  39.  Ezek.  xxxv.  12, 13. 
'"Dent  xxxii.  :!l,  3.'). 


CHAPTER  ir. 


261 


■^  the  reviliugs  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Ammon,  whereby 
1  Ezek.  26. 3, 6.  they  have  reproached  my 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


intensive,  and  are  used  of  blaspheming  God 
as  unable  to  help  His  people,  or  reviling  His 
people  as  forsaken  by  Him.  If  directed 
against  man,  they  are  directed  against  God 
through  man.  So  David  interpreted  the 
taunt  of  Goliah,  '  reviled  the  amies  of  (he 
living  God,  and  the  Philistine  cursed  David 
by  his  gods '^.  In  a  Psalm  David  comidalns, 
^  the  reproaches  of  th:  ya  that  reproached  Thee  are 
fallen  upon  me ;  and  a  Psalm  which  cannot 
be  later  than  David,  since  it  declares  the 
national  innocency  from  idolatry,  connects 
with  their  defeats,  the  voice  of  him  ^that 
reproacheth  and  blasphemeth  (joining  the  two 
words  used  here).  The  sons  of  Corah  say, 
^with  a  sword  in  my  bones,  mine  enemies  reproach 
me,  while  they  say  daily  unto  me,  where  is  thy 
God?  So  Asaph,  *  The  enemy  hath  reproached, 
the  foolish  people  hath  blasphemed  Thy  Name; 
and,  'we  are  become  a  reproach  to  our  neighbors. 
Wherefore  should  the  heathen,  say,  vjhere  is  their 
God?  render  unto  our  neighbors — the  reproach 
wherewith  they  have  reproaclied  Thee,  0  Lord. 
And  Ethan,  *  Remember,  Lord,  the  reproach  of 
Thy  servants — ivherewith  Thine  enemies  have  re- 
proached, 0  Lord,  ivhereivith  they  have  reproached 
the  footsteps  of  Thine  Anointed. 

In  history  the  repeated  blasphemies  of 
Sennacherib  and  his  messengers  are  expressed 
by  the  same  words.  In  earlier  times  the  re- 
markable concession  of  Jephthah,  ^  Wilt  not 
thou  possess  what  Chemosh  thy  god  giveth  thee  to 
possess  ?  so  ivhomsoever  the  Lord  our  God  shall 
drive  out  before  us,  them  will  we  possess,  implies 
that  the  Ammonites  claimed  their  land  as  the 
gift  of  their  god  Chemosh,  and  that  that  war 
was,  as  that  later  by  Sennacherib,  waged  in 
the  name  of  the  false  god  against  the  True. 

The  relations  of  Israel  to  Moab  and  Am- 
mon have  been  so  habitually  misrepresented, 
that  a  review  of  those  relations  throughout 
their  whole  history  may  correct  some  wrong 
impressions.  The  first  relations  of  Israel 
toward  them  were  even  tender.  God  re- 
minded His  people  of  their  common  relation- 
ship and  forbade  him  even  to  take  the 
straight  road  to  his  own  future  possessions, 
across  their  land  against  their  will.  '"  Dis- 
tress them  not,  nor  contend  with  them,  it  is  said 
of  each, /o/- 1  tvill  not  give  thee  of  their  land  for 
a  possession  ;  for  I  have  given  it  unto  the  chil- 
dren of  Lot  for  a  possession.  Idolaters  and 
hostile  as  they  were,  yet,  for  their  father's 

1 1  Sam.  xvii.  26,  36,  45.  coll.  10.  25. 

- 1  Sam.  xvii.  43.  s  p,.  ixix.  10  (0). 

<  lb.  xliv.  16(17).  6ib.  xlii.  10. 

6  lb.  Ixxiv.  10, 18.  ^  lb.  Ixxix.  4, 10, 12. 

8  lb.  Ixxxix.  .50,  51.  9  Jud.  xi.  24. 

WDeut.  ii.  9,-19.  njud.  xi.  18. 

12  Deut.  li.  10,  20, 21.  W  Nu.  xxi.  25,  31. 


p  c  0  p  1  e,   and  "■  magnified    ^  h  jfYs  t 
themselves  against  their      c"'-  630. 
border.  'Jer.  49.  i. 


sake,  their  title  to  their  land  had  the  same 
sacred  sanction,  as  Israel's  to  his.  /,  God 
says,  hare  given  it  to  them  as  a  possession. 
Israel,  to  their  own  manifest  inconvenience, 
^'  went  along  throuqh  the  wilderness,  and'  com- 
passed the  land  of  £dom,  and  the  land  of  MoaJb, 
but  came  not  within  the  border  of  Moab.  By 
destioying  Sihon  king  of  the  Amorites  and 
Og  king  of  Bashan,  Israel  removed  fomuida- 
ble  enemies,  who  had  driven  Moab  and 
Ammon  out  of  a  portion  of  the  land  which 
they  had  conquered  from  the  Zamzummim 
and  Anakim  '■',  and  who  threatened  the  re- 
mainder. '^  Israel  dwelt  in  all  the  cities  of  the 
Amorites. 

Heshbon,  Dibon,  Jahaz,  Medeba,  Nophah 
were  cities  in  the  land  of  the  Amorites,  in  which 
Israel  dwelt.  The  exclusion  of  Moab  and 
Ammon  from  the  congregation  of  the  Lord 
to  the  tenth  generation  '*  was  not,  of  course, 
from  any  national  antipathy,  but  intended  to 
prevent  a  debasing  intercourse  ;  a  necessary 
precaution  against  the  sensuousness  of  their 
idolatries.  Moab  was  the  first  ^'  in  adopting 
the  Satanic  policy  of  Balaam,  to  seduce 
Israel  by  sensuality  to  their  idolatries;  but 
the  punishment  was  appointed  to  the  part- 
ners of  their  guilt,  the  Midianites  '®,  not  to 
Moab.  Yet  Moab  was  the  second  nation, 
whose  ambition  God  overruled  to  chasten 
His  people's  idolatries.  Eglon,  king  of  Moab, 
united  with  himself  Ammon  and  Amalek 
against  Israel.  The  object  of  the  invasion 
was,  not  the  recovery  of  the  country  which 
Moab  had  lost  to  the  Amorites  but,  Palestine 
proper.  The  strength  of  Moab  was  appar- 
ently not  sufficient  to  occupy  the  territory  of 
Reuben.  They  took  possession  only  of  the 
city  of  palm  trees^'^ ;  either  the  ruins  of  Jer- 
icho or  a  spot  close  by  it ;  with  the  view 
apparently  of  receiving  reinforcements  or  of 
securing  their  own  retreat  by  the  ford.  This 
garrison  enabled  them  to  carry  their  forays 
over  Israel,  and  to  hold  it  enslaved  for  18 
years.  The  oppressiveness  of  this  slavery  is 
implied  by  the  cry  and  conversion  of  Israel 
to  the  Lord,  which  was  always  in  great  dis- 
tress. The  memory  of  Eglon,  as  one  of  the 
oppressors  of  Israel,  lived  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  in  the  days  of  Samuel '®.  In  the  end, 
this  precaution  of  Moab  turned  to  its  own 
destruction ;  for,  after  Eghm  was  slain, 
Ephraim,  under  Ehud,  took  the  fords,  and 

»  DeiU.  xxiii.  3. 

I*  Nu.  XXV.  1,3.  The  rank  of  the  Midianitish  lady 
who  gave  herself  as  a  partner  of  the  sin  of  the 
Simeonite  chief  (lb.  6, 14, 15, 18.)  shews  how  much 
store  the  Midianites  set  on  that  seduction. 

i«  lb.  17.  and  xxxi. 

1'  Jud.  iii.  13.  i>  1  Sam.  xli.  9. 


202 


zKrii  vxiAir. 


the  who).'  garrison,  10.000  of  M.>a))'a  war- 
rioi"s,  '  every  strong  iwiii  ami  ewry  nuin  of 
might,  were  intercepted  in  their  retreat  and 
peri:?hed.  I"or  a  long  time  after  tliis,  we 
liear  of  no  fresh  invasion  by  Moab.  Tlie 
trans-Jonlanic  tribes  remained  in  unques- 
tioned possession  of  tlieir  land  for  300 
years  ^,  when  Amraon,  not  Moab,  raised  the 
claim,  '■*  I.irael  took  away  my  land,  althougli 
claiming  the  land  down  to  the  Arnon,  and 
already  being  in  possession  of  the  Southern- 
most portion  of  that  land,  Aroer,  since  Israel 
smote  him  from  Aroer  unto  Minnith  *.  Tlie 
land  then,  according  to  a  law  recognized  by 
nations,  belonged  by  a  twofold  right  to  Israel ; 
1)  that  it  had  been  won,  not  from  Moab,  but 
from  the  conquerors  of  Moab,  the  right  of 
Moab  having  passed  to  its  conquerors  * ;  2) 
that  undisputed  and  unbroken  possession 
"  for  time  immemorial  "  as  we  say,  800  years, 
ought  not  to  be  disputed®.  The  defeat  by 
Jephthah  stilled  them  for  near  50  years  till 
the  beginning  of  Saul's  reign,  when  tliey 
refused  the  ofler  of  the  men  ojf  J'tbesh-G Head 
to  serve  them,  and,  with  a  mixture  of  inso- 
lence and  savagery,  annexed  as  a  condition 
of  accepting  tliat  entire  submission,  '  that  I 
may  thrust  out  all  your  right  eyes,  to  lay  it  as  a 
reproach  to  Israel.  The  signal  victory  of 
Saul*  still  did  not  prevent  Amnion,  as  well 
as  Moab,  from  being  among  the  ene- 
mies whom  Saul  worsted^.  The  term 
enemies  implies  that  they  were  the  assailants. 
The  history  of  Naomi  shews  their  prosperous 
condition,  tliat  the  famine,  which  desolated 
Judali '°,  did  not  reach  them,  and  that  they 
were  a  prosperous  land,  at  peace,  at  that 
time,  with  Israel.  If  all  the  links  of  the 
genealogy  are  preserved  '\  Jesse,  David's 
fatlier,  was  grandson  of  a  Moabitcss,  Kuth, 
and  perhaps  on  this  ground  David  entrusted 
his  parents  to  tlie  care  of  the  king  of  Moab  '■'. 
Sacred  history  gives  no  hint,  what  was  the 
cause  of  his  terrible  execution  upon  Moab. 
Hut  a  Psalm  of  David  speaks  to  God  of  some 


1  .lud.  iii.  29.  «  lb.  xi.  26. 

3  lb.  13.  *Ib. :«. 

*  Grotius  de  jure  belli  et  pacis,  iii.  c.  vi.  n.  vii.  and 
notes. 

"Id.  lb.  ii.  c.  iv.  n.  ii.  and  ix.  and  note?. 

'1  Sam.  xi.  1,  2.  Mb.  11. 

*i''iy^n,  not,  "vexed."  lb.  xiv.  47. 

i"  Kuth  i.  1.  "  lb.  iv.  21,  22. 

12  1  Sam.  xxii.  3,  4.  >»  Ps.  Ix.  3-5.         "  lb.  tit. 

•5  It  was  probably  the  narrow  valley  some  three 
miles  long  between  the  Northern  end  of  that  re- 
inarl<able  salt  mountain,  the  Jel)el  or  Kliasm  Vfi- 
(lum  and  the  d<'ad  sea.  See  the  description  in 
'I'ristram's  Land  of  Isr.,  p.  326  sqq.  At  its  N.  ex- 
tremity at  the  mouth  of  Wady  Zuweirah  there  are 
considerable  traces  of  (perhaps  Roman)  buildings. 
A  tower  placed  here  would  command  the  entrance 
of  the  valley  of  salt,  anfi  this  may  well  have  been 
the  site  of  the  city  of  salt. 

i«  .los.  XV.  62. 

"  .Seetzen  guessed  (Reisen  ii.  .356)  and  Robinson 
considered  it  certain  (ii.  li»9)  that  "the  valley  of 
salt "  was  the  lower  part  of  the  'Arabah,  close  to  the 
J)ead  s.'a,  Victwecn  Kdnm  and  Judrea.     But  i.  This 


iilow,  uudtT  which  Israel  had  reeled.  "  0 
God,  Thou  hast  abhorred  um,  uml  broken  us  i» 
pieces;  Thou  hast  been  wroth  :  Thou  hoj^t  made 
the  land  to  tremble  and  cloren  it  asunder  ;  heal 
its  breaches,  for  it  shaketh  ;  Thou  ha.it  shewed 
Thy  people  <i  hard  thing,  Thou  ha.'it  made  it 
drink  wine  of  reeling ;  and  thereon  David  ex- 
presses his  confidence  that  God  would  hum- 
ble Moab,  Edom,  Philistia.  While  David 
then  was  engaged  in  the  war  with  the  Syrians 
of  Mesopotamia  and  Zobah  ^*,  Moab  must 
have  combined  with  Edom  in  an  aggressive 
war  against  Israel.  The  valley  of  salt  '^,  where 
Joab  returned  and  defeated  them,  was  pro- 
bably within  Judah,  since  the  city  of  sall^^  was 
one  of  the  six  cities  of  the  wilderness. 
Since  they  had  defeated  Judah,  they  must 
have  been  overtaken  there  on  their  return". 

Yet  this  too  was  a  religious  war.  "Thou," 
David  says  ^*,  "hast  given  a  banner  to  them 
that  fear  Thee,  to  be  raised  aloft  becau.se  of 
the  truth." 

There  is  no  tradition,  that  the  kindred 
Psalm  of  the  sons  of  Corah,  Psalm  xliv. 
belongs  to  the  same  time.  Yet  the  protesta- 
tions to  God  of  the  entire  absence  of  idolatry 
could  not  have  been  made  at  any  time  later 
than  the  early  years  of  Solomon.  Even 
were  there  Maccabee  Psalms,  the  Maccabees 
were  but  a  handful  among  apostates.  They 
could  not  have  pleaded  the  national  freedom 
from  unfaitlifulness  to  God,  nor,  except  in 
two  subordinate  and  self-willed  expeditions '^ 
were  they  defeated.  Under  the  Persian  rule, 
there  were  no  armies  nor  wars  ;  no  immunity 
from  idolatry  in  the  later  history  of  Judah. 
Judah  did  not  in  Hezekiah's  time  go  out 
against  Assyria ;  the  one  battle,  in  which 
Josiah  was  slain,  ended  tlie  resistance  t<> 
Egypt.  Defeat  was,  at  the  date  of  this  Psalm, 
new  and  surprising,  in  contrast  witli  God's 
deliverances  of  obi  ^" ;  yet  the  inroad,  by 
which  they  had  suffered,  was  one  of  spoil- 
ing ■^',  not  of  subdual.  Y''et  this  too  was  a 
religious  war,  from  their  neighbors.     They 

is  spoken  of  as  a  "  great  plain  "  (Seetzen  p.  .355)  and 
although  the  word  X'J  if  twice  used  of  as  large  val- 
ley; (1)  the  valley  over  against  Baal  Peer,  where  all 
Israel  was  encamped  Deut.  iii.  29,  iv.  46;  2)  that  of 
Zcphathah,  where  Asa,  with  an  army  of  580,000  men, 
defeated  Zorah  the  Ethiopian  with  l,00fi,n(Hl  (2  Chr. 
xiv.  10)  this  is  the  exception.  In  eleven  other 
places  it  is  used  of  a  narrow  vallev.  ii.  The  depres- 
sion, South  of  the  Dead  Sea  down  to  the  Red  Sea, 
had,  in  the  time  of  Moses,  the  same  title  as  now,  the 
"  Arabah,"  Deut.  i.  1.  ii.  8.  iii.  The  space,  near  the 
Dead  Sea,  which  is  salt,  "the  Sebkha,  or  desolate 
.«and-swamp"  (Tristram  Moab,  p.  41.)  is  impracti- 
cable for  men;  much  more  for  an  army.  "The 
Sebkha  or  salt-flat  is  a  large  fiat,  of  at  least  6  by  10 
miles  from  N.  to  S.  Taught  by  the  experience  of 
JI.  de  Saulcv,  we  made  no  attempt  to  cross  it  to  the 
northwards,"  as  the  mud  would  have  been  far  too 
deep  and  treacherous  for  us  to  pass  in  safety  "  (Id. 
Land  of  Isr.ael,  p.  336.).  "The  land  South  of  the 
Sebkha  is  not  salt,  but  rich  and  fertile"  (Id.  p.  338). 
See  de  Saulcy  Voyage  en  Syrie  4c.  p.  248-266. 

19  Ps  Ix  4  i»l  Mace.  v.  ,".6-60.  07. 

soPs.'xIlr.  1-3.  siib.  10,  la. 


CHAPTER  II. 


263 


Were  slain  for  the  sake  of  God  ',  they  were 
covered  with  shame  on  account  of  the 
reproaches  and  blasphemies  '^  of  those  who 
triumphed  over  <jcid,  as  powerless  to  help  ; 
they  were  a  scorn  and  derision  to  the  petty 
nations  around  them.  It  is  a  Psalm  of  un- 
shaken faitli  amid  great  prostration :  it 
describes  in  detail  what  the  Ixth  Psalm 
sums  up  in  single  heavy  words  of  imagery  ; 
but  both  alike  complain  to  God  of  what  Ilis 
people  had  to  sutler  for  His  sake. 

Tlie  insolence  of  Amnion  in  answer  to 
David's  message  of  kindness  to  their  new 
king,  like  that  to  the  men  of  Jabesli  Gilead, 
seems  like  a  deliberate  purpose  to  create 
hostilities.  The  relations  of  the  previous 
king  of  Ammon  to  David,  had  been  kind  ^, 
perhaps,  because  David  being  a  fugitive  from 
Israel,  they  supposed  him  to  be  Saul's  enemy. 
The  enmity  originated,  not  with  the  new 
king,  but  with  the  princes  of  the  children  of 
Amnion*.  David's  treatment  of  these 
nations*  is  so  unlike  his  treatment  of  any 
others  whom  he  defeated,  that  it  implies  an 
internecine  warfare,  in  which  the  safety  of 
Israel  could  only  be  secured  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  its  assailants. 

Mesha  king  of  IVIoab  records  one  war,  and 
alludes  to  others,  not  mentioned  in  Holy 
Scripture.  Pie  says,  that  before  his  own 
time,  "  Omri,  king  of  Israel,  afflicted  Moab 
many  days  ;"  that  "his  son  [Ahab]  succeeded 
him,  and  he  too  said,  '  I  will  afflict  Moab.'  " 
This  affliction  he  explains  to  be  that  "  ®  Omri 
possessed  himself  of  the  land  of  Medeba" 
[expelling ',  it  is  implied,  its  former  occu- 
piei-s]  "  and  that "  (apparently,  Israel ") 
"  dwelt  therein,"  "  [in  his  days  and  in]  the 
days  of  his  son  forty  years."  He  was  also  in 
possession  of  Nebo,  and  "  the  king  of  Israel " 
(apparently  Omri,)  "  buil[t]  Jahazand  dwelt 
in  it,  when  he  made  war  with  me.""  Jahazwas 
near  Dibon.  In  the  time  of  Eusebius,  it  was 
still  "pointed  out  between  Dibon  and 
Medeba  i"."  Mesha  says,  "  And  I  took  it  to 
annex  it  to  Dibon."     It  could  not,  according 

I  Ps.  xliv.  22.  2  lb.  13, 14.         «  2  Sam.  x.  2.  3. 
*  lb.  3.  5  lb.  viii.  2.  xii.  31. 

^Kin  no  ps  n«  no;;  ty"\'i. 

'  This  lies  in  the  word  JJ?T1. 

8  A  gap  in  the  broken  stone  probably  contained 
the  subject.  I  see  that  Sehlottman  also  supplied, 
"  Israel ; "  Dr.  Ginsburg  conjectured,  less  probably, 
"  the  enemy." 

^  In  this  place  only  Mesha  speaks  of  the  king  of 
Israel's  war  with  him  in  the  past.  Elsewhei-e  he 
speaks  of  himself  only  as  beins  on  the  offensive. 
"I  fought  against  the"^city''  [.\taroth] ;  "I  fought 
against  it"  [Nebo];  "go  down,  fight  against  Horo- 
naim."  The  king  of  Israel  is  apparently  the  same- 
tliroughout,  Omri. 

wg.  Jerome  de  situ  loc.  Hebr.  0pp.  iii.  2.30,  v. 
"leo-o-a,  "  Jassa,  where  Sihon  king  of  the  Amorites  is 
defeated." 

II  Nu.  xxi.  23-25.  la  Deut.  ii.  36. 
""Theruinsof  Araayr  ("l'N;*'';>UheAroerof  the 

Scriptures,  standing  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice." 
Burckhardt,  travels  in  Syria  p.  372. 


to  Mesha  also,  have  been  S.  of  the  Arnon, 
since  Aroer  lay  between  Dibon  and  tiie 
Arnon,  and  Mesha  would  not  have  annexed 
to  Dibim  a  town  beyond  the  deep  and  difficult 
ravine  of  tlie  Arnon,  with  Aroer  lying 
between  them.  It  was  certainly  N.  of  the 
Arnon,  since  Israel  was  not  permitted  to 
come  within  the  border  of  Moab,  but  it  wa.s 
at  Jahaz  that  Sihon  met  them  and  fought 
the  battle  in  which  Israel  defeated  him  and 
gained  po.ssession  of  his  land,  from  the  Arnon 
to  the  Jabbok^^.  It  is  said  also  that  ^^/sme/ 
dwelt  in  the  land  of  the  Amorites  from  Aroer 
which  is  on  the  edge  of  the  river  Arnon  ^'^,  and 
the  city  which  vi  in  the  river  ^*  unto  Gilead. 
^°  Aroer  on  the  edge  of  the  river  Arnon,  and  the 
city  which  is  in  the  river  Arnon,  again  occur  in 
describing  the  southern  border  of  Reuben, 
among  whose  towns  Jahaz  is  mentioned, 
with  Beth-Baal-Meon  and  Kiriathaim,  which 
have  been  identified. 

The  afflicting  then  of  I\Ioab  by  Omri, 
according  to  Mesha,  consisted  in  this,  that 
he  recovered  to  Israel  a  portion  of  the  allot- 
ment of  Reuben,  between  9  and  10  hours  in 
length '®  from  N.  to  S.,  of  which,  in  the  time 
of  Israel's  weakness  through  the  civil  wars 
which  followed  on  Jeroboam's  revolt,  Moab 
must  have  dispossessed  Reuben.  Reuben 
had  remained  in  undisturbed  possession  of  it, 
from  the  first  expulsion  of  the  Amorites  to 
the  time  at  least  of  Rehoboam,  about  five 
hundred  years '^  "The  men  of  Gad"  still 
"  dwelt  in  Ataroth,"  Mesha  says,  "  from  time 
immemorial." 

The  picture,  which  Mesha  gives,  is  of  a 
desolation  of  the  southern  portion  of  Reuben. 
For,  "  I  rebuilt,"  he  says,  "  Baal-Meon, 
Kiriathaim,  Aroer,  Beth-bamoth,  Bezer, 
Beth-Diblathaim,  Beth-baal-Meon."  Of 
Beth-Bamoth,  and  probably  of  Bezer,  Mesha 
says,  that  they  had  previously  been  de- 
stroyed^*. But  Reuben  would  not,  of  course, 
destroy  his  own  cities.  They  must  then 
have  been  destroyed  either  by  Mesha's 
father,  who  reigned  before  him,  when  invad- 

1*  "  Near  the  confluence  of  the  Ledjoum  and  the 
Mojeb"  [.\rnon]  "about  1  mile  E.  of  the  bridge 
across  the  Mojeb,  there  seems  to  be  a  fine  verdant 
pasture  ground,  in  the  midst  of  which  stands  a  hill 
with  some  ruins  upon  it."  Burckhardt  lb.  373,  4. 

15  Josh.  xiii.  16, 18. 

16  The  distance  is  taken  from  Porter's  Hand-book 
pp.  299-301. 

"  The  beginning  of  Rehoboam's  reign  is,  in  the 
received  Chronology,  477.  B.  C. 

i!*I  built  Beth-Bamoth,  for  it  was  destroyed;  I 
built  Bezer,  for  "  [the  rest  is  conjecture.  There  are 
only  two  letters,  which  may  be  y_j;  or  i;f,  perhaps 
21^  "forsaken"]  nj3    probably,  in  such   simple 

Hebrew,  signifies,  in  regard  to  a!l  the  towns,  built. 

It  is  the  one  word  used  of  the  king  of  Israel  and  of 
i  Mesha,  "he  built;"  "I  built,"  altliough  it  is  rarely 
,   used  of  building  on  to  existing  towns  and  fortifying 

them.  (1  Kgs  xv.  17.  2  Chr.  xi.  7.)  It  is  probably 
I  here  used  of  re-building;  since  the  cause  of  the 
I  building  was  the  previous  destruction. 


2B4 


ZEPIIAMAII. 


iiig  Koiilicn,  or  by  Oniri,  wlien  driving  back 
Moab  into  his  own  land,  and  expelling  liim 
from  these  cities.  Fossibly  they  were  dis- 
mantled only,  since  Mesha  speaks  only  of 
Omrl's  OLCupying  Medeba,  Ataroth,  and 
Jahaz.  He  hold  these  three  cities  only, 
leaving  the  rest  dismantled,  or  dismantling 
thcni,  unable  to  place  defenders  in  them,  and 
unwilling  to  leave  them  as  places  of  aggres- 
sion for  Moab.  But  whether  they  ever  were 
fortilied  towns  at  all,  or  how  they  were  deso- 
lated, is  mere  conjecture.  Only  they  were 
desolated  in  these  wars. 

But  it  appeai-s  from  Mesha's  own  state- 
ment, that  neither  Omri  nor  Ahab  invaded 
Moab  proper.  For  in  speaking  of  his  suc- 
cessful war  and  its  results,  he  mentions  no 
town  S.  of  the  Arnon.  He  must  have  been  a 
tributary  king,  but  not  a  foot  of  his  land  was 
taken.  The  subsequent  war  was  not  a  mere 
revolt,  nor  was  it  a  mere  refusal  to  pay 
tribute,  of  which  Mesha  makes  no  complaint. 
Nor  could  the  tribute  have  been  oppressive 
to  him,  since  the  spoils,  left  in  the  encamp- 
ment of  Moab  and  his  allies  shortly  after  his 
revolt,  is  evidence  of  such  great  wealth. 
The  refusal  to  pay  tribute  would  have 
involved  nothing  further,  unless  Ahaziah 
had  attempted  to  enforce  it,  as  Hezekiah 
refused  the  tribute  to  Assyria,  but  remained 
in  his  own  borders.  But  Ahaziah,  unlike 
his  brother  Jehoram  who  succeeded  him, 
seems  to  have  undertaken  nothing,  excei)t 
the  building  of  some  ships  for  trade '. 
Mesha's  war  was  a  renewal  of  the  aggression 
on  Reuben.    • 

Heshbon  is  not  mentioned,  and  therefore 
must,  even  after  the  war,  have  remained 
with  Reuben. 

Mesha's  own  war  was  an  exterminating 
war,  as  far  as  he  records  it.  "  I  fought 
against  the  city,"  [Ataroth],  he  says,  "  and 
took  it,  and  killed  all  the  mighty  of  the  city 
for  the  well-pleasing  of  Chemosh  and  of 
Moab;"  "I  f)U,dit  against  it  [Xebo]  from 
break  of  day  till  no  )n  and  took  it,  and  slew 
all  of  it,  7000  men  ;  tha  ladies  and  maidens  I 
devoted  to  Ashtar  tlhemosh  ;  "  to  be  dese- 
crated to  the  degradations  of  that  sensual 
idolatry.  The  words  too  '"'Israel  perished 
witii  an  everlasting  destruction"  stand  clear, 
wli  ;tiier  they  express  M(!sha's  conviction  of 
the  past  or  his  h  pe  of  the  future. 

The  war  also,  on  the  part  of  Moab,  was  a 
war  of  his  idol  Chemosh  against  God. 
{'iiemosh,  from  first  to  last,  is  the  agent. 
"  Chemosh    was    angry    with     his     land ; " 

>  2  Chr.  XX.  35,  Sfi. 

»A  Vjreak  in  the  stone  leaves  the  Pubject  uncer- 
tain, "  In  my  flay  said  [  ].  and  I  will  look 
upon  him  arid  upon  his  house,  and  Isra:"!  pprishod 
with  an  ovf-rlasting  destruction."  Sehlottman 
conjectures,  probably,  "Chemosh."  Gannoau  ren- 
ders as  if  it  were  past,  igK.  so  Haug,  Geiger,  Neu- 

bauer,  Wright;  Sehlottman,  Noldeke,  and  Ginsburg, 
fts  luture,  njX,  though  Giusburg  alouo  roudors, 


"Chemosh  [was  pleased]  with  it  in  my 
days ; "  "I  killed  the  mighty  for  the  well- 
pleasing  of  Chemosh ; "  "1  took  captive 
thence  all  [  ]  and  dragged  it  along  before 
Chemosh  at  Kiriath  ;"  "  Chemosh  said  to  me, 
Uo  and  take  2sebo  against  Israel ; "  "I  de- 
voteil  the  ladies  and  maidens  to  Ashtar- 
Chemosh  ; "  "  i  took  thence  the  vessels  of 
1H\" Hand  dragged-'  them  before  Chemosh ; " 
"  Chemosh  drove  him  [the  king  of  Israel] 
out  before  [ray  face];"  "Chemosh  said  to 
me,  Go  down  against  Horonaim."  "Che- 
mosh [         ]  it  in  my  days." 

C(mtemporary  with  this  aggressive  war 
against  Israel  must  have  been  the  invasion 
by  *  the  children  of  Moab  and  the  childre-a  of 
Ammon,  the  great  midtitude  from  bei/ond  the  sea, 
from  Syria,  in  the  reign  of  Jehoshaphat, 
which  brought  such  terror  upon  Judah.  It 
preceded  the  inva.sion  of  Moab  by  Jehos- 
haphat in  union  with  Jehoram  and  the  king 
of  Edom.  For  the  invasion  of  Judah  by 
Moab  and  Ammon  took  place,  while  Ahab's 
son,  Ahaziah,  was  still  living.  For  it  was  after 
this,  tjiat  Jehoshaphat  joined  with  Ahaziah  in 
making  ships  to  go  to  Tarshish  '.  But  the 
expedition  against  Moab  was  in  union  with 
Jehoram  who  succeeded  Ahaziah.  The 
abundance  of  wealth  which  the  invaders  of 
Judah  brought  with  them,  and  the  precious 
jewels  with  which  they  had  adorned  them- 
selves, shew  that  this  was  no  mere  maraud- 
ing exiiedition,  to  spoil ;  but  that  its  object 
was,  to  take  possession  of  the  land  or  at  least 
of  some  portion  of  it.  They  came  by  entire 
surprise  on  Jehoshaphat,  who  heard  of  them 
first  when  they  were  at  Hazazon-Tamar  or 
Engedi,  some  36^  miles  from  Jerusalem". 
He  felt  himself  entirely  unequal  to  meet 
them,  and  cast  himself  upon  God.  There 
was  a  day  of  public  humiliation  of  Judah  at 
Jerusalem.  '  Out  of  all  the  cities  of  Judah  they 
came  to  seek  the  Lord.  Jehoshaphat,  in  his 
public  prayer,  owned,  ^tve  have  no  might 
against  this  great  company  lohich  comrth  against 
us;  neither  know  we  what  to  do;  but  our  eyes 
are  upon  Thee.  He  appeals  to  God,  that  He 
had  forbidden  Israel  to  invade  Ammon, 
Moab,  and  Moimt  Seir,  so  that  they  turned 
away  from  them  and  destroyed  tiicm  not ; 
and  now  these  rewarded  them  by  "'coming 
to  cast  us  out  of  Thy  possession  which  Thou 
hast  given  us  to  inherit."  One  of  the  sons  of 
Asaph  foretold  to  the  congregation,  that  they 
miglit  go  out  fearlessly  ;  for  they  shnidd  not 
have  occasion  to  fight.  A  Psalm,  ascril)ed  to 
Asaph,  records  a  great  invasion,  the  object  of 

"And  Israel  said,  I  shall  destroy  it  for  ever,"  which 
is  impossible. 

"The  word  in  Hebrew  is  used  of  contumelious 
dragging  along  the  ground. 

*2Chr.  XX.  l,-2. 

6  lb.  3"),  ■■iC).  "And  nfler  tins  did  .Tehoshaphat king 
of  Judah  join  himself  witli  Ahaziah." 

«  300  stadia.  Jos.  Ant.  ix.  1.  2. 

T2Chr.  XX.  4.  •lb.  13.  »  lb;  10. 


CHAPTER  ir. 


265 


which  was  the  extermination  of  larnel. 
^  They  have  said  ;  Come  and  Id  us  cut  them  off 
from  being  a  nation,  that  the  name  of  Israd 
may  be  no  more  in  remembrance.  It  had  been 
a  secret  confederacy.  '^  They  have  taken  cruftij 
counsel  against  Thy  people.  It  was  directed 
against  God  Himself,  i.  e.  His  worship  and 
worshipers.  "^  For  they  have  taken  coan.nel  in 
heart  together  ;  against  Thee  do  thry  make  a  cove- 
nant. It  was  a  combination  of  the  surround- 
ing petty  nations ;  Tyre  on  the  N.,  the 
Philistines  on  the  W.;  on  the  South  the 
Amalekites,  Ishmiulites,  Hagarenes ;  E:!St- 
ward,  Edom,  Geba!.  Moali,  Amnion.  I5ut 
its  most  characteristic  feature  was,  that 
Assur  (this  corresponds  with  no  period  after 
Jehoshaphat)  occupies  a  subordinate  place  to 
Edom  and  Moab,  putting  them  forward  and 
helping  them.  Assur  also,  Asaph  says*,  is 
joined  ivith  them;  they  have  become  an  arm 
to  the  children  of  Lot.  This  agrees  with 
the  description,  there  is  come  against  thee 
a  great  multitude  from  beyond  the  sea,  from 
Syria. 

Scripture  does  not  record,  on  what  ground 
the  invasion  of  Moab  by  Jehorara  and 
Jehoshaphat,  with  the  tributary  king  of 
Edom,  was  directed  against  Moab  proper ;  but 
it  was  the  result  doubtless  of  the  double  war 
of  Moab  against  Reuben  and  against  Judah. 
It  was  a  war,  in  which  the  strength  of  Israel 
and  Moab  was  put  forth  to  the  utmost. 
Jehoram  had  mustered  all  Israel  ^ ;  Moab 
had  gathered  all  who  had  reached  the  age  of 
manhood  and  upward,  ^ every  one  who  girded 
on  a  girdle  and.  upward.  The  three  armies, 
which  had  made  a  seven  days'  circuit  in  the 
wilderness,  were  on  the  point  of  perishing  by 
thirst  and  falling  into  the  hands  of  Moab, 
when  Elisha  in  God's  name  promised  them 
the  supply  of  their  want,  and  complete  vic- 
tory over  Moab.  The  eager  cupidity  of 
Moab,  as  of  many  other  armies,  became  the 
occasion  of  his  complete  overthrow.  The 
counsel  with  wliii  h  Elisha  accompanied  his 
prediction,  ''ye  shall  smite  every  fenced  city 
and  every  choice  city,  and  every  good  tree  ye  shall 
fell,  and  all  springs  of  water  ye  slihll  stop  up, 
and  every  good  piece  of  land  ye  shall  vjaste  with 
stones,  was  directed,  apparently,  to  dislodge 
an  enemy  so  inveterate.  For  water  was 
essential  to  the  fertility  of  their  land  and 
their  dwelling  there.  We  hear  of  no  special 
infliction  of  death,  like  what  Mesha  records 
of  himself.  The  war  was  endel  by  the  king 
of  Moab's  sacrificing  the  heir-apparent  of 
the  king  of  Edom  •*,  which  naturally  created 
great  displeasure  against  Israel,  in  whose  cause 

'Pp.  Ixxxiii.  4.         2  lb.  3.         3  ib.  5.        <Ib.  8. 
5  2Kgs.  iii.  6.  6Ib.  21.  '  Ib.  19. 

8  See  on  Am.  ii.  12.  vol.  i.  p.  2G8. 
"This  is  marked  on  the  Moabite  stone,  as  a  sub- 
sequent and  distinct  expedition. 
»0  2  Kgs  xiii.  20.  n  Ib.  x.  :i.3. 

12  See  on  Amos  i.  13.  vol.  i.  p.  252.      »  2  Kga  xvi.  25. 


Edom  thus  sufiered,  so  that  they  departod  to 
tiieir  own  land  and  tinally  revolted. 

Their  departure  apparently  broke  up  the 
siege  of  Ar  and  the  expedition.  Israel  ap- 
parently was  not  strong  enough  to  carry  on 
the  war  without  Edom,  or  feared  to  remaiti 
with  their  armies  away  from  their  own  land, 
as  in  the  time  of  David,  of  which  Edom 
might  take  the  advantage.  We  know  only 
the  result. 

Moab  probably  even  extended  her  border 
to  the  South  by  the  conquest  of  Horonaim^. 

.\fter  this,  Moab  is  mentioned  only  on  oc- 
casion of  the  miracle  of  the  dead  man,  to 
whom  God  gave  life,  when  cast  into  Elisha's 
sepulchre,  as  he  came  in  contact  with  his 
bones.  Like  the  Bedaween  now,  or  the 
Amalekites  of  old,  '"  the  bands  of  Moab  came 
into  the  land,  as  the  year  came.  Plunder,  year 
by  year,  was  the  lot  of  Israel  at  the  hands  of 
Moab. 

On  the  East  of  Jordan,  Israel  must  have 
remained  in  part  (as  Mesha  says  of  the  Ga- 
dites  of  Aroer)  in  their  old  border.  For 
after  this,  Hazael,  in  Jehu's  reign,  smote 
Israel  ^^from  Aroer  which  is  by  the  river  Arnon  ; 
and  at  that  time  probably  Amnion  joined 
with  him  in  the  exterminating  war  in  Gilead, 
destroying  life  before  it  had  come  into  the 
world,  that  they  might  enlarge  their  border  ^'^. 
Jeroboam  ii,  B.  C.  825,  restored  Israel  to  the 
sea  of  the  plain  ^'^,  i.  e.,  the  dead  sea,  and,  (as 
seems  probable  from  the  limitation  of  that 
term  in  Deuteronomy^*,  under  Ashdoth-Pisgah 
Eastward)  to  its  Northern  extremity,  lower 
in  latitude  than  Heshbon,  yet  above  Nebo 
and  Medeba,  leaving  accordingly  to  Moab  all 
which  it  had  gained  by  Mesha.  Uzziah,  a 
few  years  later,  made  tlie  Ammonites  tribu- 
taries i»  B.  C.  810.  But  40  years  later  B.  C. 
771,  Pul,  and,  after  yet  another  30  years,  740, 
Tiglath-pileser  having  carried  away  the 
trans-jordanic  tribes  ^^,  Moab  again  possessed 
itself  of  the  whole  territory  of  Reuben. 
Probably  before.  For  B.  C.  726,  when  Isaiah 
foretold  that  "  tJie  glory  of  Moab  should  be  con- 
temned with  all  that  great  multitude,  he  hears 
the  wailing  of  Moab  throughout  all  his 
towns,  and  names  all  those  which  had  once 
been  Reuben's  and  of  whose  conquest  or 
possession  ■\Ioab  had  boasted  ^**,  Nebo,  Medeba, 
Dibon,  Jahaz,  Baiith ;  as  also  those  not 
conquered  then,  '"  Heshbon,  Elealeh ;  and 
those  of  Moab  proper,  Luhith,  Horonaira, 
and  its  capitals,  Ar-Moab  and  Kir-Moab. 
He  hears  their  sorrow,  sees  their  desolation 
and  bewails  with  their  weeping  ^''.  He  had 
prophesied   this    before  ^^,    and    now,   three 

"  Deut.  iii.  17.  is  2  Chr.  xxvi.  8. 

wiChr.  V.  26.  "Is.  xvi.  14. 

18  lb.  XV.  1,  2,  4.  1»  Ib.  4,  5.  1. 

20  Ib.  xvi.  9. 

21 "  That  the  prophecy  must  be  from  any  other 

older  prophet,  is  an  inference  from  grounds  of 
nought."  Del. 


2G(J 


ZEl'llAMAll. 


years  '  belore  iu  fulfillinenl  by  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  he  renews  it.  This  tender  sorrow 
for  Moab  lias  more  tlie  character  of  an  elegy 
than  of  a  denunciation ;  so  that  he  could 
sciircely  lament  more  tenderly  the  ruin  of 
his  own  people.  He  mentions  also  distinctly 
no  sin  there  except  pride.  The  pride  of 
Moab  seems  something  of  common  notoriety 
and  speech.  We  liare  lie.ard'^.  Isaiah  accu- 
mulates Words,  to  express  the  haughtiness  of 
Moab;  the  pride  of  Moab;  exceediiuj  proud; 
Ills  pride  and  his  hauyhtiness  and  his  wrath  *, 
pride  overpassing  bounds,  upon  others.  His 
words  seem  to  be  formed  so  sis  to  keep  this 
one  bared  thought  before  us,  as  if  we  were  to 
.say  "  pride,  prideful,  proudness,  prideful- 
ness ; "  and  withal  the  unsubstautialness  of 
it  all,  </te  unsabalantiaiitf/  of  his  lies  ^  Pride 
is  the  source  of  all  ambition ;  so  Moab  is  pic- 
tured as  retiring  within  her  old  bounds,  the 
fords  of  Arnon,  and  thence  asking  for  aid ; 
lier  petition  is  met  by  the  counter-petition, 
that,  if  she  would  be  protected  in  the  day  of 
troulile,  the  out-casts  of  Israel  might  lodge 
witli  her  now:  be  thou  a  covert  to  her  from  the 
face  of  the  spoiler  ^  The  prophecy  seems  to 
mark  itself  out  as  belonging  to  a  time,  after 
the  two  and  a  half  tribes  had  been  desolated, 
as  stragglers  sought  refuge  in  Moab,  and 
when  a  severe  infliction  was  to  come  on 
Moab:  the^remaant  shall  be  small,  small  not 
grexut. 

Yet  Moab  recovered  this  too.  It  was  a 
weakening  of  the  nation,  not  its  destruction. 
Some  126  years  after  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah, 
30  years  after  the  prophecy  of  Zephaniah, 
Moab,  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah,  was  in  entire 
j)rosperity,  as  if  no  visitation  had  ever  come 
upon  her.  What  Zephaniah  says  of  the 
luxuriousness  of  his  people,  Jeremiah  says  of 
Moab ;  ' Moib  m  one  at  ease  from  his  youth ; 
he  is  resting  on  Aw  lees  ;  and  he  hath  not  be^n 
emptied  from  ve.'isel  to  vessel,  neither  hath  he  gone 
into  captivity.  "  They  say,  We  are  mighty  and 
strong  men  for  tlie  war.  Moab  was  "  a  strong 
staff,  a  beautUtd  rod ;  '•*  he  magnified  himself 
against  the  Lord ;  "  Israel  was  a  derision  to 
him;  Ae  s^tpyjerf /or Joi/ at  his  distress.  Jere- 
miah repeats  and  even  strengthens  Isaiah's 
description  of  his  pride;  ^'^his  pride,  proud, 
he  repeats,  exceedingly  ;  his  loftiness,  again  his 
pride  J  his  arroganr.y,  and  the  huughtine.fs  of  his 
hfart.  lis  strong  holds  ^^  were  unharmed;  all 
its  cities, /«/•  anl  near,  are  counted  one  l)y 
one,  in  their  prosperity  '*;  its  summer-fruits 
and  vintage  were  plenteous ;  its  vines,  lux- 
uriant ;  all  was  joy  and  shouting.  Whence 
should  this  evil  come?     Yet  so  it  was  with 


>  l.s.  xvi.  13,  14. 


«  lb.  6. 


*y\2  P  kS.  »I8.  xvi.  4,  6. 


«Ib.  14. 
»Uj.  17. 
^Ib.  29. 


'Jor.xlvlil.il.  «Ib.  14. 

'«lb.  20.  »lb.  27. 

"lb.  lb.  i«  lb.  1,  3,  5,  21-24. 


fcJoJoiu  and  (jioiuorrah  just  before  its  ovet"- 
throw.  It  was,  for  beauty,  '*a  paradise  of 
God;  vxll-mitered  everyivliere;  as  the  garden  of 
the  Lord,  like  the  land  if  Egypt.  In  the 
movmng  ^'' the  smoke  of  the  iiDiiiiry  went  up  as 
the  smoke  of  the  furnare.  Tlie  destruction 
foretold  by  Jeremiah  is  far  other  than  the 
aHliction  spoken  of  by  Isaiah.  Isaiah  prophe- 
sies only  a  visitation,  which  should  reduce 
her  people:  Jeremiali  foretells,  as  did 
Ziphaniaii,  captivity  and  the  utter  destruc- 

I  tion  ol  her  cities.  The  destruction  foretold 
is  comj)lete.      Not  of  individual  cities  only, 

I  but  ot  the  whole  he  saith,  ^'  Moab  is  destroyed. 
'"  The  spoiler  sliall  come  upon  every  city,  and  no 
city  shall  escape,  and  the  valley  shall  perish  and 
the  high  places  sliall  be  destroyed,  as  the  Lord 
hath  spoken.  Moab  himself  was  to  leave  his 
land.  ^^  Flee,  save  your  lives,  and  ye  shall  be 
like  the  heath  in  the  wilderness.  Chemosh  shall 
go  forth  into  captivity  ;  his  priests  and  his  princes 
together.  Give  pinions  unto  3Ioab,  thai  it  may 
flee  and  get  away,  and  her  cities  shall  be  a  desola- 
tion ;  for  there  is  none  to  dwell  therein.  It  was 
not  only  to  go  into  captivity,  but  its  home 
was  to  be  destroyed.  '""^  /  will  send  to  her  those 
v)ho  shall  upheave  her,  and  they  shall  upheave  her, 
and  her  vessels  they  shall  empty,  all  her  flagons 
(all  that  aforetime  contained  her)  they  shall 
break  in  pieces.  ^'-  Moab  is  destroyed  and  her 
cities;  '" the  spoiler  of  3Ioab  is  come  upon  her; 
he  hath  destroyed  the  strongholds.  The  subse- 
quent history  of  the  Moabites  is  in  the 
words,  '^^  Leave  the  cities  and  dwell  in  the  rock, 
dwellers  of  Moab,  and  be  like  a  dove  which  nesteth 
in  the  sides  of  the  mouth  of  the  pit.  The  pur- 
pose of  Moab  and  Ammon  against  Israel 
which  Asaph  conijilains  of,  and  which  Mesha 
probably  speaks  of,  is  retorted  upon  her. 
"■'*  Li  Ileshbon  they  have  devised  evil  against  it ; 
come  and  let  us  cut  it  off  from  being  a  nation. 
Moab  shall  be  destroyed  from  being  a  people, 
because  he  hath  magnified  himself  against  the 
Lord. 

Whence  should  this  evil  come?  They 
had,  with  the  Ammonites,  been  faithful  ser- 
vants of  'Nebuchadnezzar  against  J  udah  ". 
Their  concerted  conspiracy  with  Edom,Tyre, 
Zidon,  to  which  they  invited  Zedekiah'-'",  was 
dissolved.  Nebuchadnezzar's  march  against 
Jiuhea  did  not  touch  them  ;  for  they  ^''  skipped 
with  Joy  at  Israel's  distresses.  The  connection 
of  Baalis,  king  of  the  Ammonites,  with  Ish- 
mael  '^^  the  assassin  of  Geilaliah,  whom  the 
king  of  Babylon  made  governor  over  the 
land  ^'■'  out  of  their  own  people,  probablv 
brought  down  the  vengeance  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar.    For  Chalda?ans  too  were  included  in 


«Gen.  xiii.  10. 

10  lb.  xix.  28 

'Mer.  xlviii.4. 

"lb,  8.            i9Ib.  xvii.  6. 

snib.  xlviii.  12. 

«  lb.  15.            «  lb.  18. 

Mlh.  28. 

M  lb.  2,  42. 

S6  2  IvRMXXiv.  2. 

wjer.  xxvii.  2  sqq. 

«T  lb.  xlviii.  27. 

IBIb.  xl.  14.  xli.  10 

»2  KgH  XXV.  22-2fi.  Jer.  xl,  6.  xli.  1. 


CHAPTER  IT. 


2fi7 


the  slaughter'.  The  l)low  seeuif^  tu  hare 
been  aimed  at  the  existence  of  the  people ; 
for  the  murder  of  Gedaliah  followed  upon 
the  rallying  of  the  Jews  ^out  of  ail  the  places 
luhither  ihey  luid  been  driven.  It  returned  on 
Amnion  itself,  and  on  Moab  who  probably  on 
this,  as  on  former  occasions,  was  associated 
with  it.  The  two  nations,  who  had  escaped 
at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  were  w  arred 
upon  and  subdued  by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the 
23d  year  of  his  reign ',  the  5th  after  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem. 

And  then  probably  followed  that  complete 
destruction  and  disgraced  end,  in  which 
Isaiah,  in  a  distinct  prophecy,  sees  Moab 
trodden  down  by  God  as  *  the  heap  of  straw  is 
trodden  doum  in  the  waters^  of  the  dunghill, 
and  he  (Moab)  stretcheth  forth  his  hands  in  the 
midst  thereof,  as  the  sii'immer  stretcheth  forth  his 
hands  to  sivim,  and  He,  God,  shall  bring  down 
his  pride  with  the  treacheries  of  his  hands.  It 
speaks  much  of  the  continued  hostility  of 
Moab,  that,  in  prophesying  the  complete  de- 
liverance for  which  Israel  waited,  the  one 
enemy  whose  destruction  is  foretold,  is  Moab 
and  those  pictured  by  Moab.  ®  We  have 
waited  for  Him  and  He  will  save  iis — For  in 
this  mountain  (Zion)  shall  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
rest,  and  Moab  shall  be  trodden  down  under  Him. 

After  this,  Moab,  as  a  nation,  disappears 
from  history.  Israel,  on  its  return  from  the 
captivity,  was  again  enticed  into  idolatry  by 
Moabite  and  Ammonite  wives,  as  well  as  by 
those  of  Ashdod  and  others',  Canaanites, 
Hittites,  Perizzites,  Jebusites,  Egj'ptians, 
Amorites*.  Sanballat  also,  who  headed  the 
opposition  to  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem, 
■was  a  Moabite*;  Tobiah,  an  Ammonite'". 
Yet  it  went  no  further  than  intrigue  and  the 
threat  of  war.  They  were  but  individuals, 
who  cherished  the  old  hostility.  In  the  time 
of  the  Maccabees,  the  Ammonites,  not  Moab, 
with  a  mighty  power  and  much  people  were  in 
possession  of  the  Eeubenite  cities  to  Jazar  ". 
It  was  again  an  exterminating  war,  in  which 
the  Jews  were  to  be  destroyed  '^.  After  re- 
peated defeats  by  Judas  Maccab?eus,  the 
Ammonites    hired   the  Arabians  '*    (not   the 

Uer.  xli.  3.  2Ib.  xl.  12. 

3  Jcs.  Ant.  X.  9,  7.  *  Is.  xxv.  10-12. 

6  '03  Chethib.  « Is.  xxv.  9. 10. 

7  Ne'h.  xiii.  23-26.  «  Ezr.  ix.  1. 
9  Neh.  ii.  10.  iv.  1-8.                         « lb.  iv.  2,  9. 

"  1  Mace.  V.  6,  8.  >2  lb.  9,  10,  27. 

13  lb.  39.  »  lb.  45.  >6  Ant.  i.  11.  3. 

'•i  Dial.  n.  119,  p.  218.  Oxf.  Tr. 

1'  Anon,  in  Job  ap.  Origen  i.  852. 

i^Seeizen  Reisen  i.  412. 

I'e.  g.  "%  of  an  hour  further,  we  reached  the 
ruins  of  el-Eale ;  IJ^  hour  further,  we  came  to 
HiisbAn;  beside  some  overthrown  pillars,  nothing 
important  is  found  here.  On  the  E.,  about  1^  hour, 
are  the  ruins  of  Shelul :  after  an  hour  on  this  plain 
we  came  lo  3  wasted  places,  close  together;  3^  an 
hour  further,  wc  reached  the  ruinsof  what  formerly 
was  MadabA;  y^  an  hour  further  lay  the  ruined 
village  of  Tu^me;  above  an  hour  to  the  W.  the  im- 
portant ruins  of  Mai*in."    lb.  407,  8. 


Moabites)  (o  help  than,  and  Juda.'i,  although 
victorious,  was  obliged  to  remove  the  whole 
Israelite  population,  '*  all  that  were  in  the  land 
of  Gilead,  from  the  least  unto  the  (jreatest,  even 
their  wives,  and  their  children,  and  their  stuff,  a 
very  great  host,  to  the  end  they  might  come  into 
the  land  of  Judwa.  The  whole  population 
was  removed,  obviously  lest,  on  the  with- 
drawal of  Judas'  army,  they  should  be  again 
imperilled.  As  it  was  a  defensive  war  against 
Amnion,  there  is  no  mention  of  any  city, 
south  of  the  Arnon,  in  Moab's  own  territory. 
It  was  probably  with  the  view  to  magnify 
descendants  of  Lot,  that  Josephus  speaks  of 
the  Moabites  as  being  "even  yet  a  very  great 
nation  '^."  S.  Justin's  account,  that  there  is 
"  '^  even  now  a  great  multitude  of  Ammon- 
ites," does  not  seem  to  me  to  imply  a 
national  existence.  A  later  writer  says, 
"  "  Now  not  only  the  Edomites  but  the  Am- 
monites and  Moabites  too  are  included  in  the 
one  name  of  Arabians." 

Some  chief  towns  of  Moab  became  Roman 
towns,  connected  by  the  Roman  road  from  Da- 
mascus to  Elath.  Ar  and  Kir-Moab  in  Moab 
proper  became  Areopolis  and  Charac-Moab, 
and,  as  well  as  Medeba  and  Heshbon  in  the 
country  which  had  been  Reuben's,  preserve 
traces  of  Roman  occupancy.  As  such,  they 
became  Christian  Sees.  The  towns,  which 
were  not  thus  revived  as  Roman,  probably 
perished  at  once,  since  they  bear  no  traces  of 
any  later  building. 

The  present  condition  of  Moab  and  Am- 
nion is  remarkable  in  two  ways;  1)  for  the 
testimony  which  it  gives  of  its  former  ex- 
tensive population ;  2)  for  the  extent  of  its 
pi'esent  desolation.  "  How  fearfully,"  says 
an  accurate  and  minute  observer  "*,  "  is  this 
residence  of  old  kings  and  their  land  wasted  ! " 
It  gives  a  vivid  idea  of  the  desolation,  that 
distances  are  marked,  not  by  villages  which 
he  passes  but  by  ruins'*.  "™From  these 
ruined  places,  which  lay  on  our  way,  one 
sees  how  thickly  inhabited  the  district 
formerly  was."  Yet  the  ground  remained 
fruitful.  It  was  partly  abandoned  to  wild 
plants,  the  wormwood  and  other  shrubs  ^' ; 

20  lb.  411. 

21  "A  little  N.  of  el-Ea!e  we  came  on  good  soil, 
which  however  lay  wholly  uncultivated  and  was 
mostly  overgrown  with  the  prickly  little  Bull^n, 
which  gave  the  country  the  look  of  "moor-ground." 
Seetzen  Travels,  i.  406.  "  The  soil  here  (Heshbon) 
is  in  this  district  excellent,  but  it  lies  wholly  un- 
cultivated and  serves  only  for  pasture  to  the  little 
herds  of  sheep,  goats,  kine  and  camels  of  the 
Arabs."  lb.  p.  407.  "The  AraVjs  cultivate  a  little 
ground  near  Madaba."  p.  409.  "The  land  (the 
other  side  the  Muieb  [Arnon]  and  so  in  Moab  proper) 
had  little  grass,  but  there  was  an  extraordinary 
quantity  of  wormwood  on  it.  Yet  the  soil  seems 
excellent  for  wheat,  although  no  spot  was  culti- 
vated. Large  spots  had  the  look  of  our  moors  from 
the  quantity  of  wormwood  and  other  little  shrubs." 
p.  410.  "  Here  and  there,  there  were  tokens  of 
cultivation,  uheatfields;  the  wheat  was  good." 
p.  412. 


:>68 


ZEPHAXIAH. 


partly,  the  artificial  irrigation,  essential  to 
cultivation  in  tliis  land,  was  destroyed ' ; 
here  and  there  a  patcli  was  cultivated ;  the 
rest  remained  barren,  because  the  crops 
might  become  the  pre}'  of  the  spoiler''',  or 
the  thin  popuhuion  had  had  no  heart  to  cul- 
tivate it.  A  list  of  33  destroyed  places,  wiiich 
still  retained  ihoir  names,  was  given  to 
Seetzen ',  "of  which  many  were  cities  in 
times  of  old,  and  be>ide  these,  a  great  num- 
ber of  other  wasted  villages.  One  sees  Irom 
this,  that,  in  the  days  of  old,  this  land  was 
extremely  peopled  and  flourishing,  and  that 
destructive  ware  alone  could  produce  the 
present  desolation."  And  thereon  he  adds 
the  names  of  40  more  ruineil  places.  Others 
say  :  "  *  The  whole  of  the  fine  plains  in  this 
quarter  "  [the  S.  of  Moab]  "  are  covered  with 
sites  of  towns,  on  every  eminence  or  spot 
convenient  for  the  construction  of  one ;  and 
as  all  the  land  is  capable  of  rich  cultivation, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  country,  now 
so  deserted,  once  presented  a  continued  pic- 
ture of  plenty  and  fertility."  "  ^  Every 
knoll "  [in  the  highlands  of  Moab]  "  is  cov- 
ered with  shapeless  ruins. — The  ruins  con- 
sist merely  of  heaps  of  squared  and  well- 
titting  stones,  which  apparently  were  erected 
without  mortar."  "*One  description  might 
serve  for  all  these  Moabite  ruins.  The  town 
seems  to  have  been  a  svstem  of  concentric 


iSee  Jlr.  Tristram's  picture  of  "a  ruin-covered 
ridge  by  an  itriinense  tanlv  of  solid  masonry,  140 
yards  by  110  yards,  at  Ziza.  From  tlic  surface  of 
the  water  to  tlie  edge  of  tlie  tank  was  17  feet  0 
inches.  The  masonry  was  simply  magnitieent. 
The  whole  system  and  artificial  sluices  were  pre- 
cisely similar  to  ancient  works  for  irrigation  in 
India  and  Ceylon. — Such  works  easily  explain  to 
us  the  enormous  population,  of  which  the  ruined 
cities  give  evidence.  Everywhere  is  some  arti- 
ficial means  of  retaining  the  occasional  supplies  of 
rain  water.  So  long  as  these  precious  structures 
remained  in  order,  cultivation  was  continuous  and 
famines  remained  unknown. — The  Islamite  iuva- 
."ion  left  the  miserable  remnants  of  a  dense  and 
thriving  nation  entirely  dependent  on  the  neigh- 
boring countries  for  their  supply  of  corn  :  a  depen- 
dence which  must  continue  till  these  border  lands 
are  secure  from  the  inroad  of  the  predatory  bands 
of  the  East."  Land  of  .Moab  pp.  18?.-186.  At  KustuI 
is  "a  massive  wall  in  the  plain,  about  (iOO  yards  in 
length  across  the  valley  and  18  feet  thick,  built  to 
dam  up  the  water  in  the  gentle  depression,  the 
head  of  the  wady."  lb.  c.  12.  p.  220.  "Gfir  el  Mesr;'ia, 
as  far  as  the  soil  can  be  watered,  evinces  a  lux- 
uriant fertility.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  it  is 
a  waste."  Seetz.  ii.  .'}52.  "  G6r  el  Zi'ipnia  owes  its 
Iruitfulness  entirely  to  the  water  of  the  Wady  el 
Hossa,  which  is  guided  to  the  fields  in  many  canals. 
Mut  only  a  very  small  portion  of  this  e.xceedingly 
rich  soil  is  cultivated,  the  rest  is  overgrown  with 
bushes  and  shrubs,  wherein  very  many  wild  boars, 
hyenas  and  other  wild  animals  live."  In.  355.  "  This 
water  too  [of  the  Nimm(''ry]  is  said  formerly  to 
have  been  used  for  watering  some  fields,  of  which 
there  is  now  no  trace."  lb.  :i54. 

s  "  True,  the  land  is  not  our's,  but  our  people  are 
many,  ana  who  shall  dare  to  prevent  tiiem  from 
going  where  they  please?  You  will  find  them 
everywhere,  if  the  land  is  good  for  them."  Answer 
of  Beni  Sakkr  Sheikh,  Tristram  Moab.  c.  15.  p.  28. 

s  lb.  410. 

*  Irby  and  Mangles  (May  14)  p.  113. 


circles,  huilt  round  a  central  fort,  and  outside 
the  buililings  the  ring's  continue  as  terrace- 
walks,  the  gardens  of  the  old  city.  The  ter- 
races are  continuous  lietween  the  twin  hil- 
locks and  intersect  each  other  at  the  foot." 
"  '  Ruined  villages  and  towns,  broken  walls 
that  once  enclosed  gardens  and  vineyards,  re- 
mains of  ancient  roads;  everything  in  Moab 
tells  of  the  immense  wealth  and  population, 
which  that  country  must  have  once  enjoyed." 

The  like  is  observed  of  Amnion  ®.  His 
was  direct  hatred  of  the  true  religion.  It 
was  not  mere  exultation  at  the  desolation  of 
an  envied  people.  It  was  hatred  of  the  wor- 
ship of  God.  "''Thussaith  the  Lord  God; 
Because  thou  saUht,  Aha,  against  My  sanctuary, 
because  it  teas  profaned ;  and  against  the  land 
of  Israel,  because  it  was  desolated ;  and  against 
the  house  of  Judah,  because  they  went  into 
captivity."  The  like  temper  is  shewn  in  the 
boast,  " '°  Because  that  Moab  and  Seir  do  say  ; 
Behold  the  house  nf  Judah  is  like  unto  the 
heathen"  i.  e-,  on  a  level  with  tiiem. 

Forbearing  and  long-suflering  as  Almighty 
God  is,  in  His  inlinite  mercy.  He  does  not, 
for  that  mercy's  sake,  bear  the  direct  defiance 
of  Himself.  He  allows  His  creatures  to  for- 
get Him,  not  to  despise  or  defy  Him.  And 
on  this  ground,  perhaps.  He  gives  to  His 
prophecies  a  fullillment  beyond  what  the 
letter  requires,  that  they  may  be  a  continued 

5  Tristram,  Land  of  Moab,  pp.  100, 101. 

6  lb.  09. 

'  Palmer,  desert  of  the  Exodus  ii.  473,  474. 

•^''East  of  As.^alt,  including  Amnion,  are  thirty 
ruined  or  deserted  places  of  wliich  names  are  given 
in  Dr.  Smith's  Arabic  lists."  Keith  Prophecy  p. 
274.  ".All  this  country,  formerly  so  populous  and 
flourishing,  is  now  changed  into  a  vast  desert." 
Seetzen  Brief  account  *o.  p.  34.  lb.  p.  263.  "The  I'ar 
greater  part  of  this  country  is  uninhabited,  being 
abandoned  to  the  wandering  Aralis,  and  the  towns 
and  villages  are  in  a  state  of  total  ruin."  Id.  p.  37. 
lb.  "  Two  hours  from  Szalt  we  came  upon  some 
peasants,  who  were  ploughing  some  little  fields 
near  what  was  a  little  fountain."  Seetzen  i.  405. 
"The  soil  was  excellent;  but  only  here  and  there 
we  saw  a  little  spot  cultivated,  and  this  by  the 
Aduftn  .Arabs."  p.  40(1.  "The  country  that  lay  in  our 
route  [near  Daboah]  though  now  bare  of  wood,  pre- 
sented a  great  extent  of  fertile  soil,  lying  entirely 
waste,  though  equal  to  any  of  the  very  best  portions 
of  Galilee  and  Samaria,  and  capable  of  producing 
sustenance  for  a  large  population.  Around  us,  in 
every  direction,  were  remains  of  more  than  50 
towns  or  villages,  once  maintained  by  the  produc- 
tive soil,  over  which  they  were  so  thickly  studded." 
Buckingham  Travels  among  the  Arab  tribes  p.  6f>. 
"At  Mahanafish  we  had  arrived  at  a  very  elevated 
part  of  the  plain,  which  had  continued  fertile 
throughout  the  whole  distance  from  .\mmon."  p. 
81.  "S.  S.  E.  of  Yedoody  we  pushed  our  way  over  a 
continuous  tract  of  fertile  soil,  capable  of  the  high- 
est cultivation.  Throufjhout  the  whole  extent  of 
the  plain  were  seen  ruined  towns  in  every  direc- 
tion, before,  behind,  on  each  side,  generally  seated 
on  small  eminences,  all  at  a  short  distance  from 
each  other,  and  all,  as  far  as  we  had  yet  seen,  bear- 
ing evident  marks  of  former  opulence.  There  was 
not  a  tree  in  sight;  but  my  guide  assured  me,  that 
the  whole  of  the  plaii>  was  covered  with  the  finest 
soil,  and  capable  of  being  made  the  most  productive 
corn-land  in  the  world."  lb.  p.  86. 

»Ezek.  XXV.  3.  wib.  8. 


CHAPTER  II. 


26» 


witness  to  Him.  The  Ammonites,  some 
1(500  yeai-8  ago,  ceased  to  "  be  remembered 
among  the  nations."  But  as  Isineveh  and 
Babylon,  and  the  cities  of  Sodom  and  Go- 
morrah, by  being  what  they  are,  are  wit- 
nesses to  His  dealings,  so  the  way  in  which 
Moab  and  Amnion  are  still  kept  desolate  is 
a  continued  picture  of  that  first  desolation. 
Both  remain  rich,  fertile ;  but  the  very 
abundance  of  their  fertility  is  the  cause  of 
their  desolation.  God  said  to  Amnion,  as 
the  retribution  on  his  contumely:  "there- 
fore, behold,  I  give  thee  to  the  children  of 
the  East  for  a  possession,  and  they  shall  set 
their  encampments  in  thee,  and  place  their 
dwellings  in  thee ;  they  shall  eat  thy  fruit 
and  tliey  shall  drink  thy  milk ;  and  I  will 
make  Kabbah  a  dwelling-place  of  camels, 
and  the  children  of  Amnion  a  couching- 
place  for  flocks."  Of  j\Ioab  He  says  also, 
"  '■'  I  will  open  the  side  of  Moab  from  the 
cities,  which  are  on  his  frontiers,  the  glory 
of  the  country,  unto  the  men  of  the  East  with 
the  Ammonites."  And  this  is  an  exact 
description  of  the  condition  of  the  land 
at  this  day.  All  travelers  describe  the 
richness  of  the  soil.  We  have  seen  this  as  to 
Moab.  But  the  history  is  one  and  the  same. 
One  of  the  most  fertile  regions  of  the  world, 
full  of  ruined  towns,  destitute  of  villages 
or  fixed  habitations,  or  security  of  property, 
its  inhabitants  ground  down  by  those,  who 
have  succeeded  the  Midianites  and  the 
Amalekites,  the  children  of  the  East.  "  Thou 
canst  not  find  a  country  like  the  Belka,"  says 
the  Arabic  proverb^,  but  "the  inhabitants 
cultivate  patches  only  of  the  best  soil  in  that 
territory  when  they  have  a  prospect  of  being 
able  to  secure  the  harvest  against  the  invasion 
of  enemies."  "  We  passed  many  ruined 
cities,"  said  Lord  Lindsay  *,  "  and  the 
country  has  once  been  very  populous,  but,  in 
35  miles  at  least,  we  did  not  see  a  single  vil- 
lage ;  the  whole  country  is  one  vast  pastur- 
age, overspread  by  the  flocks  and  herds  of  the 
Anezee  and  Beni  Htissan  Bedouins." 

The  site  of  Rabbath  Amman  was  well 
chosen  for  strength.  Lying  "^in  a  long 
valley "  through  which  a  stream  passed, 
"  the  city  of  waters"  could  not  easily  be  taken, 
nor  its  inhabitants  compelled  to  surrender 
from  hunger  or  thii-st.  Its  site,  as  the  eastern 
bound  of  Persea  ^,  " '  the  last  place  where 
water  could  be  obtained  and  a  Irontier  for- 
tress against  the  wild  tribes  beyond,"  marked 
it  for  preservation.  In  Greek  times,  the  dis- 
putes i'or  its  jjossession  attest  the  sense  of  its 


1  Ezek.  XXV.  4,  5.  =  lb.  8.  10. 

3  Burokhardt  Syria  p.  3f)9.  "  Ou  lioth  sides  of  the 
road "  (near  Naour)  "  were  the  vestiges  of  ancient 
field-enclosures."  lb.  305. 

■*  Travels  p.  279. 

'  Irby  and  Mangles  June  14.  c.  8.  p.  146. 

"Jos.  B.J.  ill.  3.  3. 

'  Grote  in  Snnith  Bibl.  Diet.  v.  Rabbuli. 


importance.  In  Roman,  it  was  one  of  the 
chief  cities  of  the  Decapolis,  though  its  popu- 
lation was  said  to  be  a  mixture  of  Egyptians, 
Arabians,  Phoenicians  **.  The  coins  of  Roman 
Emperors  to  the  end  of  the  second  century 
contain  symbols  of  plenty,  where  now  reigns 
utter  desolation  *.  In  the  4th  century,  it 
and  two  other  now  ruined  places,  Bostra  and 
Gerasa,  are  named  as  "  most  carefully  and 
strongly  walled."  It  was  on  a  line  of  rich 
commerce  filled  with  strong  places,  in  sites 
well  selected  for  repelling  the  invasions  of 
the  neighboring  nations '".  Centuries  ad- 
vanced. It  was  greatly  beautified  by  its 
Roman  masters.  The  extent  and  wealth  of 
the  Roman  city  are  attested  both  by  the  re- 
mains of  noble  edifices  on  both  sides  of  the 
stream,  and  "  by  pieces  of  pottery,  which  are 
the  traces  of  ancient  civilized  dwelling, 
strcAved  on  the  earth  two  miles  from  the  city. 
"  '^  At  this  place,  Amman,  as  well  as  Gerasa 
and  Gamala,  three  colonial  settlements  with- 
in the  compass  of  a  day's  journey  from  one 
another,  there  were  five  magnificent  theatres 
and  one  ampitheatre,  besides  temples,  baths, 
aqueducts,  naumachia,  triumphal  arches." 
"'*Its  theatre  was  the  largest  in  Syria;  its 
colonnade  had  at  least  50  columns."  The 
difference  of  the  architecture  shews  that  its 
aggrandizement  must  have  been  the  work  of 
different  centuries:  its  "  castle  walls  are  thick, 
and  denote  a  remote  antiquity  ;  large  blocks 
of  stone  are  piled  up  without  cement  and  still 
hold  together  as  well  as  if  recently  placed." 
It  is  very  probably  the  same  which  Joab 
called  David  to  take,  after  the  city  of  waters 
had  been  taken ;  within  it  are  traces  of  a 
temple  with  Corinthian  columns,  the  largest 
seen  there,  yet  "not  of  the  best  Roman 
times." 

Yet  Amman,  the  growth  of  centuries,  at 
the  end  of  our  6th  century  was  destroyed. 
For  "  ^*  it  was  desolate  before  Islam,  a  great 
ruin."  "'^No  where  else  had  we  seen  the 
vestiges  of  public  magnificence  and  wealth  in 
such  marked  contrast  with  the  relapse  into 
savage  desolation."  But  the  site  of  the  old 
city,  so  well  adapted  either  for  a  secure  re- 
fuge for  its  inhabitants  or  for  a  secure  de- 
pository for  their  plunder,  was,  on  that  very 
ground,  when  desolated  of  its  inhaliitants, 
suited  for  what  God,  by  Ezekiel,  said  it  would 
become,  a  place,  where  the  men  of  the  East 
should  stable  their  flocks  and  herds,  secure 
from  straying.  What  a  change,  that  its 
temples,  the  centre  of  the  worship  of  its  suc- 
cessive  idols,  or  its  theatres,  its   places   of 


8  Strabo  xvi.  2.  33.  p.  700.  Cas. 

9  Ritter,  West-Asien  viii.  1157. 
lOAmm.  Marc.  xiv.  8. 13. 

11  Buckingham  Arab  Tribes  p.  67,  73.        "  lb.  77. 
13 See    Biirokhardt's    description    of    its    ruins. 
Travels  in  Syria  pp.  357-300. 
"Abulf.  Tab.  Syr.  p.  91. 
''Tristram  Laud  of  Israel  p.  561. 


270 


ZEPHAXIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

'  Isai.  15. 

.ler.  48. 

Ezek.  25.  9. 

Amos  2. 1. 
'Amos  1.  13. 


9  Therefore  as  I  liv^, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
the  God  of  Israel,  Surely 
'  Moab  shall  be  as  Sodom, 
and  'the  children  of  Am- 


luxury  or  of  pomp,  should  be  stables  for  that 
drudge  of  miin,  the  camel,  and  the  stream 
which  gave  it  the  proud  title  of  "city  of 
waters  "  their  drinking  trough  !  And  yet  of 
the  cities  wiiose  destruction  is  prophesied, 
this  is  foretold  of  Rabbah  alone,  a.s  in  it  alone 
is  it  fulfilled  !  "  Amnion,"  says  Lord  Lind- 
say ',  "  was  situated  on  both  sides  of  the 
stream ;  the  dreariness  of  its  present  aspect  is 
quite  indescribable.  It  looks  like  the  abode 
of  death  ;  tlie  valley  stinks  with  dead  camels ; 
one  of  them  w:is  rotting  in  the  stream  ;  and 
though  we  Siiw  none  among  the  ruins,  they 
were  absolutely  covered  in  every  direction 
with  their  dung."  "  Bones  and  skulls  of 
camels  were  mouldering  there  [in  the  area 
of  the  ruined  theatre]  and  in  the  vaulted 
galleries  of  this  immense  structure."  "  It  is 
now  (juite  deserted,  except  by  the  Bedouins, 
who  water  their  flocks  at  its  little  river,  de- 
scending to  it  by  a  ivady,  nearly  opposite  to  a 
theatre  (in  which  Dr.  Mac  Lennan  saw  great 
herds  and  flocks)  and  by  the  akiha.  Re-as- 
cemling  it,  we  met  sheep  and  goats  by  thous- 
ands, and  camels  by  hundreds."  Another 
says  '^,  "  The  space  intervening  between  the 
river  and  the  western  hills  is  entirely  cov- 
ered with  tbe  remains  of  buildings,  now  only 
u.sed  for  shelter  for  camels  and  sheep." 
Buckingham  mentions  incidentally,  that  he 
was  prevented  from  sleeping  at  night  '"  •'  by 
tiie  bleating  of  flocks  and  the  neighing  of 
horses,  barking  of  dogs  &c."  Another  speaks 
of  '•  *  a  small  stone  building  in  the  Acropolis 
now  used  as  a  shelter  for  flocks."  While  he 
was "  ^  traversing  the  ruins  of  the  city,  the 
number  of  goats  and  sheep,  which  were  driven 
in  among  them,  was  exceedingly  annoying, 
however  remarkable,  as  fulfilling  the  pro- 
phecies." "  ^  Before  six  tents  fed  sheep  and 
camels."  "'Ezekiel  points  just  to  these, 
(xx.  6.)  which  passage  8eetzen  cites".     .\nd 

>  The  Holy  Land  pp.  279.  281,  283. 
«G.  Robinson's  travels  in  Palestine  and  Syria  ii. 
175. 

3  Travels  among  the  Arab  tribes,  Ruins  of  Animon, 
p.  73. 

4  Lord  C.  Hamilton  in  Keith  p.  271. 

'•  Id.  lb.  p.  2(>9.  ">8eetzen  Reison  i.  3'j4. 

'  Prof.  Krnse  Anmerkung.  lb.  T.  iv.  p.  21i>. 

M.  31.  »  Is.  xiii.  2(t. 

'"See  Rioh  Mein.  p.  27,  .3t).  Bnekinjslmni  ii.  .(117. 
Sir  R.  K.  Porter  Travels  ii.  342.  387.  Keniuir  Mi- 
inoirs  p.  279.  Keppel's  Narr.  i.  179,  180.  Layard  Niii. 
and  Bab.,  quoted  by  Keith  on  Prophecv  pp.  4iiii, 
4i'.7.  '1  Kzek.  X  XV.  4,  T).  n .S.  John  v.  -If,. 

"*  1  Sam.  xvii.  2(i,  3i;.  '♦  Jer.  x.  10. 

'•2  Kg.s  xi.x.  I.  !"■>.  i>>,Ier.  xxiii.  3i;. 


mon  as  Gomorrah,  "^  even 
the  breeding  of  nettles, 
and  saltpits,  and  a  perpet- 
ual desolation  :  "  the  resi- 
due of  my  people  shall 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

«  Gen.  19.  26. 

Deut.  29.  23. 

Isai.  13. 19. 

k  34.  13. 

Jer.  49. 18. 

&50.40. 
»  ver.  7. 


in  fact  the  ruins  are  still  used  for  such 
stalls." 

The  prophecy  is  the  very  opposite  to  that 
upon  Babylon,  though  both  alike  are  pro- 
phecies of  desolation.  Of  Babylon  Isaiah 
prophesies,  "  ^  It  shall  never  lie  inhabited, 
neither  shall  it  bedwelt  in  from  generation  to 
generation  ;  neitlier  shall  the  Arabian  pitch 
tent  there,  neither  shall  the  sheplierds  make 
fold  there,  but  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall 
lie  there,  and  their  houses  shall  be  full  of 
doleful  creatures;  and  the  ostriches  shall 
dwell  there,  and  the  jackals  shall  cry  in  their 
desolate  houses,  and  howling  creatures  in 
their  plea.sant  palaces."  And  the  ruins  are 
full  of  wild  beasts  ^^.  Of  Kabbah  Ezekiel 
prophesied  that  it  should  be  ""a  possession 
for  the  men  of  the  East,  and  I,"  God  says, 
"  will  make  Kabbah  a  stable  for  camels,  and 
the  Ammonites  a  couching-place  for  flocks  ;" 
and  man's  lawlessness  fulfills  the  will  and 
word  of  God. 

9.  There/ore  «s  /  lire,  saith  Ihe  Lord  of  hosU. 
Life  specially  belongs  to  God,  since  He 
Alone  is  Underived  Life.  '■'  He  hath  life  in 
Himself.  He  is  entitled  "  the  living  God," 
as  here,  in  tacit  contrast  with  the  dead  idols 
of  the  Philistines  ^*,  with  idols  generally  " ; 
or  against  the  blasphemies  of  Sennacherib  '^ 
the  mockeries  of  scoffers '*,  of  the  awe  of  His 
presence  ",  His  might  for  His  people  '*  ;  as 
the  object  of  the  soul's  longings  '**,  the  near- 
ness in  the  Gospel,  children  of  the  living  God'^". 
Since  He  can  swear  by  no  greater,  He  sware  by 
Himself '^^.  Since  mankind  are  ready  mostly 
to  believe  that  God  means  well  with  them, 
but  are  slow  to  think  that  He  is  in  earnest  in 
His  threats,  God  employs  this  .sanction  of 
what  He  says,  twice  only  in  regard  to  His 
promises  or  His  mercy  '^'^ ;  everywhere  else  to 
give  .solemnity  to  His  threats '".  The  appeal 
to  the  truth  of  His  own  being  '*  in  supjwrt  of 

"  Deut.  V.  25  (26  Heb.)  »« Josh.  iii.  lo. 

i»  Ps.  of  sons  of  Korah.  xlii.  2.  Ixxxiv.  2. 

so  Hos.  i.  10  [ii.  1.  Heb.]  «  Heb.  vi.  13. 

M  Is.  xlix.  18.  Ezek.  xxxiii.  10. 

23  Num.  xiv.  21,  [of  the  glory  which  God  shoulil 
havi-  in  all  the  world  from  h\i  chastisement  of  Is- 
rael] 28.  Deut.  xxxii.  4o,  [adding  dSij'S]  Jer.  xxii. 
24.  Ez.  v.  11.  xiv.  IG,  18,  20.  xvi.  48.  [as  Judge]  xvii.  16, 
19.  xviii.  3.  [in  rebuke]  xx.  3,  31,  3.!.  xxxiii.  27. 
xxxiv.  8.  XXXV.  11.  In  the  same  sense,  /  mrvar  bo 
Miiscif  Jer.  xxii.  5.  xlix.  13.  hath  sworn  bi/  Hiinatif 
.\m.  vi.  8.  by  the  excelleni\v  of  Jacob,  viil.  7. 

2*Ges.  Maurer,  &••.  [with  a  strange  conoeptiou  of 
Oi>d]  render  "  ita  vir.iHi."  Fwald  rightly,  ''as  true 
a.s  I  live," 


CHAPTEK  II. 


271 


reiii- 


CHR°/sT    ^P*^^^   them,  and  the  reui- 
cir.  630.      ]2aut  of  my   people   shall 
possess  them. 


the  truth  of  His  words  is  part  of  the  grandeur 
ot  the  prophet  Ezekiel  in  whom  it  chiefly 
occurs.  God  says  in  the  same  meaning,  by 
Myself  have  I  stvorn,  of  promises  which  re- 
quired strong  faith  '. 

Saith  the  Lord  ofHosln.  Their  blasphemies 
had  denied  the  very  being  of  God,  as  God,  to 
Whom  they  preferred  or  likened  their  idols  ; 
they  had  denied  His  power  or  that  He 
could  avenge,  so  He  names  His  Name  oi' 
power,  the  Lord  of  the  hosts  of  heaven  against 
their  array  against  His  border,  I,  the  Lord  of 
hosts  Who  can  fulfill  what  I  threaten,  and  the 
God  of  Israel  Who  JNIyself  am  wronged  in 
My  people,  will  make  3foub  as  Sodom,  and 
the  children  of  Amnion  as  Gomorrah.  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah  had  once  been  flourishing 
cities,  on  the  borders  of  that  land,  which 
Israel  had  won  frojn  the  Amorite,  and  of 
which  Moab  and  Ammon  at  different  times 
possessed  themselves,  and  to  secure  which 
Ammon  carried  on  that  exterminating  war. 
For  they  were  to  the  East  of  the  plain  be- 
tween Bethel  and  Ai,  where  Lot  made  his 
choice,  in  the  plain  or  circle  of  Jordan  '■*,  the 
well  known  title  of  the  tract,  through  which 
the  Jordan  flowed  into  the  Dead  Sea.  Near 
this,  lay  Zoar,  (Ziara^)  beneath  the  caves 
whither  Lot,  at  whose  prayer  it  had  been 
spared,  escaped  from  its  wickedness.  Moab 
a«id  Ammon  had  settled  and  in  time  spread 
from  the  spot,  wherein  their  forefathers  had 
received  their  birth.  Sodom,  at  least,  must 
have  been  in  that  part  of  the  plain,  which  is  to 
the  East  of  the  Joi'dan,  since  Lot  was  bidden 
to  flee  to  the  mountnins,  witii  his  wife  and 
daughtei-s,  and  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
river,  which  would  have  been  a  hindrance*. 
Then  it  lay  probably  in  that  "  *  broad  belt  ol" 
desolation"  in  the  plain  of  Shittim,  as  Go- 
morrah and  others  of  the  Pentapolis  may 
have  lain  in  "the  sulphur-sprinkled  ex- 
panse "  between  El  Riha  [on  the  site  of 
Jericho]  and  the  dead  sea,  "  covered  with 
layei-s  of  salt  and  gypsum  which  overlie  the 
loamy  subsoil,  literally  fulfilling  the  descrip- 
tions of  Holy  Writ  (says  an  eye  witness), 
*  Brimstone  and  salt  and  burning,  that  if  is  not 

1  Gen.  xxii.  16.  (so  often  referred  to)  Is.  xlv.  23,  or 
by  Thy  Right  Hand,  i.  e.  the  might  which  He  would 
put  forth. 

2  Gen.  xiii.  1,3,11. 

^  See  the  description  of  Ziara  "  once  a  place  of 
considerable  importance  "  in  Tristram,  land  of  Moab 
pp.  .128,  330.  4  Gen.  xix.  17-23. 

6  Tristram,  Land  of  Israel,  p.  367. 

«  Deut.  xxix.  23.      '  Ps.  evii.  34.      8  jer.  xlix.  18. 

"Job  XXX.  7. 

10  Jon.  has  rniSo  :  the  Peschito,  Xn''?'?.  and,  re- 
markably, does  not  use  a  name  coincidiMit  with  the 


10  This  shall  they  have 
^  for  their  pride,  because 
they  have  reproached  and 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

y  Isai.  16.  6. 
Jer.  48.  29. 


soivn  nor  beareth,  nor  any  grass  groweth  therein  : 
'' a  fruitful  land  turned  into  saltness.  ^  No  man 
shall  abide  there,  neither  shall  a  son  of  maii 
dwell  in  it."  An  elaborate  system  of  artificial 
irrigation  was  carried  through  that  cis-Jord- 
anic  tract,  which  decayed  when  it  was  deso- 
lated of  man,  and  that  desolation  prevents  its 
restoration. 

The  doom  of  Moab  and  Ammon  is  rather 
of  entire  destruction  beyond  all  recovery, 
than  of  universal  barrenness.  For  the 
imagery,  that  it  should  be  the  breeding  [lit. 
jjossessioni  of  nettles  would  not  be  literally 
compatible,  except  in  diflerent  localities,  with 
that  of  saltpits,  which  exclude  all  vegetation. 
Yet  both  are  united  in  Moab.  The  soil  con- 
tinues, as  of  old,  of  exuberant  fertility;  yet 
in  part,  from  the  utter  neglect  and  insecurity 
of  agriculture  it  is  abandoned  to  a  rank  and 
encumbering  vegetation  ;  elsewhere,  from  the 
neglect  of  the  former  artificial  system  of  in'i- 
gation,  it  is  wholly  barren.  The  plant  named 
is  one  of  rank  growth,  since  outcasts  could 
lie  concealed  under  it".  The  preponderating 
authority  seems  to  be  for  molldch  "*,  the  Bed- 
awin  name  of  the  "mallow,"  Prof.  E.  H. 
Palmer  says ","  which,"  he  adds,  "I  have 
seen  growing  in  rank  luxuriance  in  Moab, 
especially  in  the  sides  of  deserted  Arab 
camps." 

The  residue  of  My  people  shall  spoil  them,  and 
the  remnant  of  My  people  shall  possess  them. 
Again,  a  renmant  only,  but  even  these  shall 
prevail  against  them,  as  was  first  fulfilled  in 
Judas  Maccabieus  ''^. 

10.  This  shall  tliey  hare  for  their  pride,  lit. 
This  to  them  instead  of  their  pride.  Contempt 
and  shame  shall  be  the  residue  of  the  proud 
man  ;  the  exaltation  shall  be  gone,  and  all 
which  the}'  shall  gain  to  themselves  .shall 
be  .shame.  Moab  and  Ammon  are  the  types 
of  heretics  ^^.  As  they  were  akin  to  the  peo- 
ple of  God,  but  hating  it ;  akin  to  Abraham 
through  a  lawless  birth,  but  ever  molesting  the 
children  of  Abraham,  so  heretics  profess  to  be- 
lieve in  Christ,  to  be  children  of  Christ,  and  yet 
ever  seek  to  overthrow  the  faith  of  Christians. 
As  the  Church  says,  ^*My  mother's  children  are 

Heb.  7lin  sc.  X/Jin,  a  sort  of  vetch.  Abulwalid 
prefers  the  PlwDi  but  mentions  the  iJK'^n  "arti- 
choke" (Host  Nachrichten  von  Maroko  u.  Fez.  p. 
538)  as  an  "opinion;"  R.  Tanchum  adopts  it,  but 
gives  TXO^n  as  an  "opinion  "  and  says  that  "alto- 
gether it  belongs  to  the  prickly  plants ; "  Kimchi 
says,  that  "some  count  it  a  nettle;  others,  a  this- 
tle." On  rn'7D  see  Bochart  Hieroz.  ii.  223-228,  ed. 
Leipz. 

"  Ms.  letter.  •«  1  Mace.  v.  6-8. 

13  S,  Jer.  and  Rup.  '■*  r»nt.  i.  5. 


272 


ZEPHA^'IAH. 


^„„.„„    msLsnified  themselves 


Before 


cir.  630. 


.against  the  people  of  the 
Lord  of  hosts. 

11  The  Lord  will  be 


angry  with  me.  They  seem  to  liave  escaped  tlie 
overthrow  of  Sodom  and  (iomorrah  (heathen 
sins),  and  to  have  found  a  place  of  reluge 
(Zoar) ;  and  yet  they  are  in  darkness  and 
cannot  see  the  liglit  of  faith  ;  and  in  an 
unlawful  manner  they  mingle,  against  ail 
right,  the  falsehood  of  Satan  with  the  truth 
of  God  ;  so  that  their  doctrines  become,  in 
part,  doctrines  of  clevik,  in  part  have  isome 
stamp  of  the  oiiginal  truth.  To  them,  as  to 
the  Jews,  our  Lord  says,  Ye  are  of  your  father 
the  devil.  Wliile  they  profess  to  be  children 
of  God,  they  claim  by  their  names  to  have 
God  for  their  Father  (Moab)  and  to  be  of 
His  people  (Ammon),  while  in  hatred  to  His 
true  children  they  forfeit  both.  As  Moab 
seduced  Israel,  so  they  the  children  of  the 
Cliurch.  They  too  enlarge  themselves  against 
the  borders  of  the  (.'liurch,  rending  oil'  its 
children  and  making  themselves  the  (Jhurcli. 
They  too  utter  reproaches  and  revilings 
against  it.  "  Take  away  their  reviling.s," 
says  an  early  father',  "against  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  the  Prophets,  and  God  the 
Creator,  and  they  have  not  a  word  to  utter.'' 
They  too  '■*  remove  the  old  landmar/cs  which  the 
fathers  (tlie  Prophets  and  Apostles)  have  set. 
And  so,  barrenness  is  their  portion  ;  as,  after 
a  time,  heretics  ever  divide,  and  do  not  mul- 
tiply ;  they  are  a  desert,  being  out  of  the 
Church  of  God  :  and  at  last  the  remnant  of 
Judah,  the  Church,  possesses  them,  and 
absorbs  them  into  herself. 

11.  The  Lord  ivill  be  terrible  unto  [upon"] 
them,  i.  e.  upon  Moab  and  Ammon,  and  yet 
not  in  themselves  only,  but  as  instances  of 
His  just  judgment.  Whence  it  follows,  For 
He  wiU  famish  all  ther/ods  of  the  earth.  "  ^  Mis- 
erable indeed,  to  whom  the  Lord  is  terrible  ! 
Whence  is  this  ?  Is  not  God  by  Nature  sweet 
and  pleasurable  and  serene,  and  an  (Object 
of  longing?  For  the  Angels  ever  desire 
to  look  into  Him,  and,  in  a  wonderful 
and  unspeakal)le  way,  ever  look  and 
ever  long  to  look.  For  miseralile  they, 
whose  conscience  makes  them  shrink  from 
the  face  of  Love.  Even  in  this  life  tliey  feel 
this  shrinking,  and,  as  if  it  were  some  lessen- 

1  Tert.  de  Procscr.  Hcer.  c.  42,  p.  493.  Oxf.  Tr. 
a  lb.  c.  ,37.  p.  488.  «  Kup. 

*  Rom.  i.  18. 

6  There  is  no  reason  to  abate  tlie  irony  by  render- 
ing "destroy."    nnj  i.«  contrasted  with  rrDiyO  I-"- 

xvii.  4,  as  Ls  n?"1  Is.  x.  10;  nn,  of  the  land,  with 

njpK'  Nu.  .\iii.  20;  of  the  sheep,  with  T^\'^2  Kz- 

xxxiv.  20.    In  Ps.  CTl.  16.  Jin  Is  used  met.  for  a 

wu^tiug,  emaciating  sickness:  In  Mlc.  vi.  JO,  of  "an 


terrible  uiito  them  :  for  he  ^^  h  r*Ys  t 
■will  t  famish  all  the  gods      cir.  C30. 

of   the  earth  ;   '  and  ??ie?i  make  lean. 

shall   worship   him,  every  joVn  4. 21. 


ing  of  their  grief,  they  deny  it,  as  though 
this  could  destroy  the  truth,  which  they 
hold  down  in  unrighteousness*." 

For  He  will  /a>?ii.s/i  *  all  the  gods  of  the  earth, 
taking  away  *  the  fat  of  their  sacrifices,  and  the 
ivine  of  their  drink-offerings.  Within  80  years 
from  the  death  of  our  Lord ',  the  governor 
of  Pontus  and  Bithynia  wrote  officially  to  the 
Roman  Emperor,  tiiat  "  **  the  temi)les  had 
been  almost  left  desolate,  the  sacred  rites 
had  been  for  a  long  time  intermitted,  and 
tluit  the  victims  had  very  selilom  lound  a 
j)urchaser,"  before  the  persecuticm  of  the 
Christians,  and  consulted  him  as  to  the 
amount  of  its  continuance.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  century,  it  was  one  of  the  Heathen 
complaints,  wliich  tiie  Christian  Apoh)gist 
had  to  answer,  "'they  are  daily  melting 
away  the  revenues  of  our  temples."  The 
Prophet  began  to  speak  of  the  subdual  of 
Moab  and  Ammon ;  he  is  liorne  on  to  the 
triumphs  of  Christ  over  all  the  gods  of  the 
Heathen,  when  tlie  worship  of  God  should 
not  be  at  Jerusalem  only,  but  they  shall  worship 
Him,  every  one  from  his  place. 

Even  all  the  isles  of  the  heathen.  For  this  is 
the  very  note  of  the  Gospel,  tliat  "'"each 
who  through  faith  in  Christ  was  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  by  Him,  and 
with  Him,  worshipeth  from  his  place  God  the 
Father ;  and  God  is  no  longer  known  in 
Judiea  only,  but  tlie  countries  and  cities  of 
tiie  Heathen,  though  they  be  separated  b}' 
tiie  intervening  sea  from  Judieii,  no  less  draw 
nigh  to  Christ,  pray,  glorify,  thank  Him 
unceasingly.  For  formerly  "//('s-  name  was 
great  in  Israel,  but  now  He  is  well  known  to 
all  everywhere ;  earth  and  sea  are  lull  of 
His  glory,  and  so  every  one  worshipeth  Him 
from  his  place  ;  and  this  is  what  is  said,  ''M.s  / 
live,  saith  the  Lord,  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled, 
with  the  glory  of  the  Lord."  The  isles  are  any 
distant  lands  on  the  seashore '^  especially  the 
very  distant";  but  also  Asia  Minor'*  and 
the  whole  coast  of  Europe,  and  even  the 
Indian  Archipelago'®,  since  tlie  ivory  and 
el)ony  came  from  its  many  isles.  Zephaniah 
revives  the  term,  by  which  Moses  had  spoken 

ephah  of  emaciation"  i.  e.  scant;  in  Is.  xxiv.  6,  'T1 
is  sickness;  (sec  Ew.  Lehrb.  149.  g.)  [all.]  ' 

0  Dent,  x.xxii.  38. 

"  Between  A.  D.  103-105. 

8  Plinv  Epist,  x.  32.  p.  .584.  ed.  Steph. 

"Tert.  Apol.  c.  42.  see  p.  90.  note  o.  Oxf.  Tr. 
>»S.  Cyr. 

»Ps.  ixxvi.  1.  »Nu.  xiv.  21. 

"  Jer.  XXV.  22.  sqq.  Ez.  xxvi.  IS.sqq.  Ps.  Ixxli.  10. 
»« Is.  Ixvi.  19.  "  Dan  xl.  1,  8, 

'"  Ez.  xxvii.  15.    Ge3.  Thes.  sub.  v. 


CHAPTER  II. 


273 


cHR°/sT    ^°®  ^^'^^  ^^®  place,  even 
<='''■  630.      nil  "the  isles  of  the  hea- 
»Gen.  10. 5.       then. 


of  the  dispersion  of  the  sons  of  Japhet; 
"  ^  By  these  were  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles 
divided  in  tiieir  lands,  every  one  after  his 
tongue."  He  adds  the  word,  all;  all,  wher- 
ever they  had  been  dispersed,  every  one  from 
his  place,  shall  worship  God.  One  universal 
worship  shall  ascend  to  God  from  all  every- 
where. So  Malachi  prophesied  afterward  ; 
"  ■^  From  the  rising  up  of  the  sun  even  to  the 
going  down  of  the  same  My  Name  shall  be 
great  among  the  Gentiles,  and  in  every  place 
incense  shall  be  ofiered  unto  God  and  a  pure 
offering;  for  My  Name  shall  be  great  among 
the  heatiien,  saith  the  Lord  of  heists."  Even 
a  Jew  ^  says  here:  "  Tliis,  without  doubt, 
refers  to  the  time  to  come,  when  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  world  shall  know  that  the 
Lord  is  God,  and  that  His  is  the  greatness 
and  power  and  glory,  and  He  shall  be  called 
the  God  of  the  whole  earth."  The  isles  or 
coasts  of  the  sea  are  the  more  the  emblem  of 
the  Church,  in  that,  "  *  lying,  as  it  were,  in 
the  sea  of  this  world  and  encompassed  by  the 
evil  events  in  it,  as  with  bitter  waters,  and 
lashed  by  the  most  vehement  waves  of  perse- 
cutions, the  Churches  are  yet  founded,  so 
that  they  cannot  fall,  and  rear  themselves 
aloft,  and  are  not  overwhelmed  by  afflictions. 
For,  for  Christ's  sake,  the  Churches  cannot 
be  shaken,  and  *  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  them." 

12.  Ye  Ethiopians  also,  ye  shall  be  slain  by 
My  sword,  lit.  Ye  Ethiopians  also,  the  slain  of 
My  sicord  are  they.  Having  summoned  them 
to  His  throne,  God  speaks  of  them,  not  to  them 
any  more ;  perhaps  in  compassion,  as  else- 
where in  indignation  ^  The  Ethiopians 
were  not  in  any  direct  antagonism  to  God 
and  His  people,  but  allied  only  to  their  old 
oppressor,  Egypt.  They  may  have  been  in 
Pharaoh  Isecho's  army,  in  resisting  which, 
as  a  subject  of  Assyria,  Josiah  was  slain : 
they  are  mentioned'  in  that  army  which 
Nebuchadnezzar  smote  at  Carchemish  in  the 
4th  year  of  Jehoiakim.  The  prophecy  of 
Ezekiel  implies  rather,  that  Etliiopia  should 
be  involved  in  the  calamities  of  Egypt,  than 
that  it  should  be  itself  invaded.     "®  Great 

iGen.  X.  5.  The  phrase,  D'Un  "X,  occurs  only 
in  these  two  places. 

2  Mai.  i.  11.  »  Abarbanel.  *  S.  Cyr. 

»  S.  Matt.  xvi.  18. 

6  Is.  xxii.  10,  "  What  hast  thou  here,  and  whom 
hast  thou  here,  that  thou  hast  hewed  thee  here  a 
.•sepulchre  ?  Hewing  him  out  on  high  his  sepulchre, 
graving  in  the  rock  a  dwelling  for  him."  Alie.  i.  2, 
"Hear,  ye  people,  all  of  them."  Deut.  xxxii.  15, 
"  Thou  art  waxen  fat,  art  grown  think,  art  covered 
with  fatness;  and  he  forsook  God  Who  made  him, 
and  lightly  esteemed  the  Rock  nf  hi^  salvation." 

18 


12  ^"Ye  Ethiopians    chrTst 
also,  ye  shall  he  slain  by      cir.  eso. 

0  ^„  „.„„„j  ''Isai.  18. 1. 

°  my  sword.  &  20. 4. 

0  Ps.  17. 13.  Jer.  46.  9.   Ezek.  30.  9. 


terror  shall  be  in  Ethiopia,  when  the  slain  shall 
fall  in  Egypt."  "  "  Ethiopia  and  Lybia  and 
Lydia  &c.  and  all  the  men  of  the  land  that  is 
in  league,  shall  fall  with  these,  by  the  sword." 
"  '"  They  also  that  uphold  Egypt  shall  fall." 
Syene '",  the  frontier-fortress  over  against 
Ethiopia,  is  especially  mentioned  as  the 
boundary  also  of  the  destruction.  "Messen- 
gers," God  says  ^',  "  shall  go  forth  from  Me 
to  make  the  careless  Ethiopians  afraid," 
while  the  storm  was  bursting  in  its  full  deso- 
lating force  upon  Egypt.  All  the  other 
cities,  whose  destruction  is  foretold,  are  cities 
of  lower  or  upper  Egypt '''. 

But  such  a  blow  as  that  foretold  by  Jere- 
miah and  Ezekiel  must  have  fallen  lieavily 
upon  the  allies  of  Egypt.  We  have  no 
details;  for  the  Egyptians  would  not,  and 
did  not  tell  of  the  calamities  and  disgraces 
of  their  country.  No  one  does.  Josephus, 
however,  briefly  but  distinctly  says'^,  that 
after  Nebuchadnezzar  had  in  the  23d  year 
of  his  reign,  the  5th  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  "reduced  into  subjection  Moaband 
Ammon,  he  invaded  Egypt,  with  a  view  to 
subdue  it,"  "  killed  its  then  king,  and  having 
set  up  another,  captured  for  the  second  time 
the  Jews  in  it  and  carried  them  to  Babykin." 
The  memory  of  the  devastation  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar lived  on  apparently  in  Egypt,  and  is 
a  recognized  fact  among  the  Mohammedan 
historians,  who  had  no  interest  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  Jewish  prophecy,  of  wliich  it  does  not 
appear  that  they  even  knew.  Bokht-nasar 
[jSebuchadnezzar],  they  say,  "'*made  war 
on  the  son  of  Nechas  [Necho],  slew  him  and 
ruined  the  city  of  Memphis  and  many  other 
cities  of  Egypt :  he  carried  the  inhabitants 
captive,  without  leaving  one,  so  that  Egypt 
remained  waste  forty  years  without  one  in- 
liabitant."  Another  says,  "  '^  The  refuge 
which  the  king  of  Egypt  granted  to  the  Jews 
who  fled  from  Nebuchadnezzar  brought  this 
war  upon  it :  for  he  took  them  under  his 
protection  and  would  not  give  them  up  to 
their  enemy.  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  revenge, 
marched  against  the  king  of  Egypt  and 
destroyed    the    country."      "  One    may    be 

'  Jer.  xlvi.  9.  8  Ezek.  xxx.  4. 

9  lb.  5.  10  lb.  6.  "lb.  9. 

12  Zoan,  Aven,  Pi-beseth,  Tehaphnehes,  Sin,  on  the 
Eastern  boundary;  Noph  [Memphis]  the  capital  of 
Lower  Egypt;  Pathros,  probably  a  district  of  Upper 
Egypt:  iCo  [Thebes]  its  capital ;"  Syene,  its  last  town 
to  the  South. 

18  Ant.  X.  9.  7.  See  further  Sir  G,  Wilkinson,  Man- 
ners and  customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  i.  173- 
179.    Pusey's  Daniel  the  Prophet  pp.  -276-277. 

"Makrizi  in  De  Sacv,  Abdallatif  Relation  de 
I'Egvpte  p.  217,  1^  Abdallatif  1,  e.  p.  184, 


274 


ZEPHANIAH. 


CHRIST        ^^  ^^^  ^®  ^^^^  Stretch 
cir.  630.      out  his  hand   against  the 


"Ezek^^ii^i      north,  and  *  destroy  As- 

Nah.  i.  1.  4  2.  10.  &  3.  15, 18. 


certain,"  says  a  good  authority ',"  ^h^t  the 
conquest  of  Egypt  by  Nebuchadnezzar  was  a 
tradition  generally  spread  in  Egypt  and 
questioned  by  no  "one."  Ethiopia  was  then 
involved,  as  an  ally,  and  as  far  as  its  contin- 
gent was  concerned,  in  the  war,  in  which 
Nebuchadnezzar  desolated  Egypt  for  those 
40  years.  But,  although  this  fulfilled  the 
prophecy  of  Ezekiel,  Isaiah,  some  sixty  years 
before  Zephaniah,  prophesied  a  direct  con- 
quest of  Ethiopia.  /  have  given,  God  says  '•', 
Egypt  as  thy  ransom,  Ethiopia  and  Seba  for 
thee.  It  lay  in  God's  purpose,  that  Cyrus 
should  restore  His  own  people,  and  that  his 
ambition  should  find  its  vent  and  compen- 
sation in  the  lands  beyond.  It  may  be  that, 
contrary  to  all  known  human  policy,  Cyrus  re- 
stored the  Jews  to  their  own  land,  willing 
to  bind  them  to  himself,  and  to  make  them  a 
frontier  territory  toward  Egypt,  not  subject 
only  but  loyal  to  himself.  This  is  quite  con- 
sistent with  the  reason  which  he  assigns ; 
*  2%e  Lord  God  of  heaven  hath  given  me  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  ;  and  He  hath  charged  me 
to  build  Him  an  house  at  Jerusalem  which  is  in 
Judah  ;  and  with  the  statement  of  Josephus, 
that  he  was  moved  thereto  by  "  *  reading 
the  prophecy  which  Isaiah  left,  210  yeai-s 
before."  It  is,  alas !  nothing  new  to  Chris- 
tians to  have  mixed  motives  for  their  actions : 
the  exception  is  to  have  a  single  motive, 
"  for  the  glory  of  God."  The  advantage  to 
himself  would  doubtless  flash  at  once  on  the 
founder  of  a  great  empire,  though  it  did  not 
suggest  the  restoration  of  the  Jews.  Egypt 
and  Assyria  had  always,  on  either  side, 
wished  to  possess  themselves  of  Palestine, 
which  lay  between  them.  Anyhow,  one 
Persian  raonarch  did  restore  the  Jews ;  his 

1  De  Saoy  1.  c.  who  quotes  AbutfMa  [see  his  hist. 
rtUte-Islam.  p.  102.  he  could  not  find  the  names  of 
Egyptian  kings  between  Shishak  and  the  Pharaoh 
who  was  the  contemporary  of  Nebuch.]  Masudi,  No- 
sairi,  also. 

2  Is.  xliii.  3.  '  Ezr.  i.  2,  3. 

<  Ant.  xi.  1.  2.  ''  Herod,  i.  1.53. 

«  lb.  214  and  Rawl.  notes  p.  :inO.  '  Herod,  iii.  97. 
«Sir  G.  Wilkinson  in  Rawl.  Herod,  ii.  487.  n.  10. 
»  Her.  vii.  69.  "*  i-  4. 

11  £3'1,  DK/'I.     The  ordinary  force  of  the  abridged 

form  of  the  future  with  1  is  consecutive,  viz.,  that 
the  action  so  joined  on  is  the  result  of  the  pre- 
ceding; "interoede  with  the  Lord  "Ip'l,  that  He 

may  take  away,"  lit.  "and  Ho  mav  take  away." 
Ex.  X.  17.  Gesenius'  instances  are  all  of  this  sort. 
In  Hif.  of  the  regular  verb,  .Jiid.  xiv.  15,  1  Sam.  vii. 
3,  Job  xi.  fi,  xii.  7.  Jer.  xlii.  3.  (Lehrg.  p.  321.)  verbs 
lj,»,  Kal.  Nu.  XXV.  4,  Jud.  vi.  3o,  Is.  1.  2,  1  Kgs  xxi. 
10,  2  Kgs.  V.  10,  2  Chr.  xxix.  10,  xxx.  6,  8.  (lb.  p.  403.) 

Hif.  Ex.  viii.  4,  X.  17.  Nu.  xxl.  7.  (lb.  n.4t«)  verb  nS. 
Ez.  X.  12,  Is.  ii.  -.'o,  Is.  xxxvlil.  21,  1  Kgs  xx.  2ii,  ,Ier. 


Syria;   and    will    make    chrTIt 
Nineveh  a  desolation,  and      '^^''-  ^^- 
dry  like  a  wilderness. 


successor  possessed  himself  of  "  Egj'pt,  and 
part,  at  lea.st,  of  Ethiopia."  Cyrus  wished,  it 
is  related  ^,  "  to  war  in  person  against  Baby- 
lon, the  Bactrians,  the  Saca?,  and  Egypt." 
He  perished,  as  is  known,  before  he  had 
completed  *  the  third  of  his  purposed  con- 
quests. Cambyses,  although  after  the  con- 
quest of  Egypt  he  planned  ill  his  two  more 
distant  expeditions,  reduced  " '  the  Ethio- 
pians bordering  upon  Egypt "  ["  *  lower  Ethio- 
pia and  Nubia"],  and  these  "brought  gifts" 
permanently  to  the  Persian  Sovereign.  Even 
in  the  time  of  Xerxes,  the  Ethiopians  had  to 
furnish  their  contingent  of  troops  against  the 
Greeks.  Herodotus  describes  their  dress  and 
weapons,  as  they  were  reviewed  at  Doriscus'. 
Cambyses,  then,  did  not  lose  his  hold  over 
Ethiopia  and  Egypt,  when  forced  by  the 
rebellion  of  Pseudo-Smerdis  to  quit  Egypt. 

13.  Zephaniah  began  by  singling  out 
Judah  amid  the  general  destruction,  ^°  I  will 
also  stretch  out  My  Hand  upon  Judah;  he 
suras  up  the  judgment  of  the  world  in 
the  same  way ;  He  will  stretch  out,  or.  Stretch 
He  forth ",  His  Hand  against  the  North  and 
destroy  Asshur,  and  make  Nineveh  a  desolation. 
Judah  had,  in  Zephaniah's  time,  nothing  to 
fear  from  Assyria.  Isaiah  ^'^  and  Micah  '*  had 
already  foretold,  thnt  the  captivity  would  be 
to  Babylon.  Yet  of  Assyria  alone  the  pro- 
phet, in  his  own  person,  expresses  his  own 
conformity  with  the  mind  of  God.  Of  others 
he  had  said,  the  word  of  the  Lord  is  against 
you,  0  Canaan,  and  I  will  destroy  thee; 
As  Hive,  saith  the  Lord,  Moab  shall  be  as  Sodom. 
Ye  also,  0  Ethiopians,  the  slain  of  My  sword 
are  they.  Of  Assyria  alone,  by  a  slight  in- 
flection of  the  word,  he  expresses  that  he 
goes  along  with  this,  which  he  announces. 

xxiii.  18.  (lb.  p.  428).  Such  are  also  Hos.  xiv.  6,  7, 9. 
Sometimes  a  prayer  seems  to  be  thus  interwoven 
with  prediction  a's,  Nu.  xxiv.  7,  "her  seed  shall  be 
in  many  waters,  and  exalted  be  (D'^'l)  his  king 

above  Amalek,  and  exalted  shall  be  his  kingdom" 
and  lb.  9,  "  And  Israel  doeth  valiantly ;  and  rule  one 
(TTI)  from  Jacob."  Is.  xxxv.  1,  2,  "Wilderness 
and  dry-place  shall  be  glad  for  them,  and  let  the 
desert  rejoice  (Sjm)  and  it  shall  blossom  as  the 
Autumn-crocus,  it  shall  blossom  abtmdantly;  ami 
joy  it,  (Sjni)  yea  with  joy  and  jubilee:  the  glory 
of  Lebanon  is  given  to  it:  they  shall  see  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,  the  excellency  of  our  God."  The  pe- 
culiarity here  is,  that  it  stands  so  apart  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  preceding,  with  which  1  connects  it. 
The  shade  of  meaning  is  so  fine,  that  the  Verss.  and 
Rabbins  pass  over  it,  rendering  simply  future  a< 
do  modern  commentators,  except  Keil,  and  Ewald 
who  corrects  d  n3K'1  arbitrarily  and  against  hi  .-• 
tory.  i«  is.  xxxix.  fi.  i»  Mlc.  iv,  M, 


CHAPTER  II. 


275 


14  And  •  flocks  shall  lie 


Before 
CHRIST 

<^'''-  ^^^-      down  in  the  midst  of  her, 
all  Hhe  beasts  of  the  na- 


•  ver.  6 
f  Is.  13.  21,22. 
II  Or,  pelican. 
s  Is.  34.  11,  14. 

\\  Or,  knops,  or,  ,  ^•    ^  ^ 

chapiters.        lodge  m  the  1 1  upper  Imtels 


tions:  both  the  ||^ cormo- 
rant and  the  bittern  shall 


He  does  not  say  as  an  imprecation,  "May  He 
stretch  forth  His  hand  ; "  but  gently,  as  con- 
tinuing his  prophecies,  and,  joining  on 
Asshur  with  the  rest ;  only  instead  of  saying 
"  He  will  stretch  forth,"  by  a  form  almost 
insulated  in  Hebrew,  he  says.  And  stretch  He 
forth  His  Hand.  In  a  way  not  unlike,  David 
having  declared  God's  judgments,  The  Lord 
irieth  the  righteoi^s ;  and  the  wicked  and  the 
lover  of  violeiice  doth  His  soul  ahhor,  subjoineth, 
On  the  nicked  rain  He  snares,  signifying  that 
he  (as  all  must  be  in  the  Day  of  judgment), 
is  at  one  with  the  judgment  of  God.  This 
is  the  last  sentence  upon  Nineveh,  enforcing 
that  of  Jonah  and  Nahum,  yet  without  place 
of  repentance  now.  Pie  accumulates  words 
expressive  of  desolateness.  It  should  not 
only  be  a  desolation ',  as  he  had  said  of 
Ashkelon,  Moab  and  Ammon,  but  a  dry, 
parched'^,  unfruitful^  land.  As  Isaiah, 
under  the  same  words,  prophesies  that  the 
dry  and  desolate  land  *  should,  by  the  Gos- 
pel, be  glad,  so  the  gladness  of  the  world 
should  become  dryness  and  desolation. 
Asshur  is  named,  as  though  one  individual^, 
implying  the  entireness  of  the  destruction  ; 
all  shall  perish,  as  one  man ;  or  as  gathered 
into  one  and  dependent  upon  one,  its  evil 
King.  The  North  is  not  only  Assyria,  in  that 
its  armies  came  upon  Judah  from  the  North, 
but  it  stands  for  the  whole  power  of  evil  ®, 
as  Nineveh  for  the  whole  beautiful,  evil, 
world.  The  world  with  "  the  princes  of  this 
world  "  shall  perish  together. 

14.  And  flocks  shall  lie  down  in  the  midst  of 
her.  No  desolation  is  like  that  of  decayed 
luxurj'.  It  preaches  the  nothingness  of  man, 
the  fruitlessness  of  his  toils,  the  fleetingness 
of  his  hopes  and  enjoyments,  and  their  baf- 
fling when  at  their  height.  Grass  in  a  court 
or  on  a  once  beaten  road,  much  more,  in  a 


1  none/ Zeph.  ii.  4.  9. 

^rr'V  of  absence  of  water,  Job  xxx.  3.  Ps.  Ixiii.  2. 

cv.  41.  cvii.  35.    Is.  xli.  18.  Jer.  ii.  6.  Ez.  xix.  13.  Hos. 
ii.  5. 

3  Is.  liii.  2. 

^rr^fl  13nD  is.  xxxv.  l.  Jer.  joins  n'X  I^IO 

nni^M,  1. 12. 

s  Asshur  is  used  in  this  way  of  the  people,  con- 
sidered in  and  with  their  king.  Is.  xxx.  .31.  xxxl.  8. 

•See  Is.  xiv.  13.  ?  lb.  xvii.  2. 

*  lb.  xxxii.  14.  Comp.  Jer.  vi.  2. 

•'U  "nation,"  of  gregarious  creatures,  locusts, 
Oo.  i.  6,  Ii.  2;  DJ?,  "ants,"  Pr.  xxx.  25.  "conies,"  lb. 
26.    Comp.  tWifa  xiji'wc  Ao.  "apium  popuH,"  "equo- 


of    it ;    their    voice    shall    ^  h  rYs  t 
sing  in  the  windows ;  deso-      °^^-  '^^o- 
lation    shall    be    in    the 
thresholds:    1 1  for  he  shall  1  Oi.  «<'•''«» '*« 

' '  hath  uncovered. 

uncover    the    "cedar"'  Jer.  22. 14. 
work. 


town,  speaks  of  the  passing  away  of  what  has 
been,  that  man  was  wont  to  be  there,  and  is  not, 
or  is  there  less  than  he  was.  It  leaves  the 
feeling  of  void  and  forsakenness.  But  in 
Nineveh  not  a  few  tufts  of  grass  here  and 
there  shall  betoken  desolation,  it  shall  be 
one  wild  rank  pasture,  where  flocks  shall  not 
feed  only,  but  lie  down  as  in  their  fold  and 
continual  resting-place,  not  in  the  outskirts 
only  or  suburbs,  but  in  the  very  centre  of 
her  life  and  throng  and  busy  activity,  in  the 
mi'cfei  o//ie?-,  and  none  shall  fray  them  avt'ay. 
So  Isaiah  had  said  of  the  cities  of  Aroer, 
'  they  shall  be  for  flocks,  which  shall  lie  down 
and  none  shall  make  them  afraid,  and  of  Judah 
till  its  restoration  by  Christ,  that  it  should 
be  *«  joy  of  wild  asses,  a  pasture  of  flocks. 
And  not  only  those  which  are  wont  to  be 
found  in  some  connection  with  man,  but  all 
the  beasts  of  a  nation  ^,  the  troops  of  wild  and 
savage  and  unclean  beasts  which  shun  the 
dwellings  of  man  or  are  his  enemies,  these  in 
troops  have  their  lair  there. 

Both  the  pelican '°  and  the  [liedgehog  '^]  shall 
lodge  in  the  upper  lintels  thereof.  The  chapiters 
[E.  M.]  or  capitals  of  the  pillars  of  the 
temples  and  palaces  shall  lie  broken  and 
strewn  upon  the  ground,  and  among  those 
desolate  Iragments  of  her  pride  shall  unclean 
animals  haunt.  The  pelican  has  its  Hebrew 
name  from  vomiting.  It  vomits  uj)  the  shells 
which  it  had  swallowed  whole,  after  they 
had  been  opened  by  the  heat  of  the  stomach, 
and  so  picks  out  the  animal  contained  in 
them  ''^,  the  very  image  of  greediness  and  un- 
cleanness.  It  dwells  also  not  in  deserts  only 
but  near  marshes,  so  that  Nineveh  is  doubly 
waste. 

A  voice  shall  sing  in  the  ivindows.  In  the 
midst  of  the  desolation,  the  muteness  of  the 
hedgehog  and  the  pensive  loneliness  of  the 

rum  gentes, '  Virg.  Georg.  iv.  430.  Arab.  TVpii  Bocii. 

Hieroz.  ii.  408.  Leipz. 

I'' The  most  probable  rendering,  as  explaining  the 
etymology.  The  d  render  "  pelican  "  Ps.  cii.  7.  Lev. 
xi.  18;  Aq.  Sj'mm.Th.,  Is.  xxxiv.  11;  Aq.  here.  The 
p^p  of  the  Talmudists  (Xpp  Jerus.  Targ.  ap.  Levy 

Lex.)  is  probably  the  same.    The  pelican  retires 
inland  to  consume  its  food.    Tristram,  Houghton, 
in  Smith  Bibl.  Diet.  v.  Pelican,  note. 
"  There  seems  a  consent  that  the  IQp  is  the 

hedgehog  or  porcupine  (as  in  Aram,  and  Arab.)  o, 
S.  Jer.  R.  Nathan,  Rashi,  although  the  Arab  etj'm. 
"rolled  himself  round"  seems  uncertain. 
12  Aristot.  Anim.  ix.  10. 


276 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

i  Isai.  47.  8. 
k  Rev.  18.  7. 


15  This  is  the  rejoicing 
city  '  that  dwelt  carelessly, 
"  that  said  in  her  heart,  I 
am,  and  there  is  none  be- 
side  me:  how   is  she   be- 


solitary  pelican,  the  musing  spectator  is  even 
startled  by  the  gladness  of  a  bird,  joyous  in 
tlie  existence  which  God  has  given  it.  In- 
stead of  the  harmony  of  music  ^  and  men- 
singers  and  women-singers  in  their  palaces 
shall  be  the  sweet  music  of  some  lonely  bird, 
unconscious  that  it  is  sitting  )'/i  the  windows  of 
those,  at  whose  name  the  world  grew  pale, 
portions  of  the  outer  walls  being  all  which 
remain  of  her  palaces.  Desolation  shall  be 
('((  the  thresholds,  sitting,  as  it  were,  in  them ; 
everywhere  to  be  seen  in  tliem ;  the  more, 
because  unseen.  Desolation  is  something 
t)ppressive ;  we  feel  its  presence.  There,  as 
the  warder  watch  and  Avard  at  the  empty 
l)ortals,  where  once  was  the  fullest  throng, 
sliall  desolation  sit,  that  no  one  enter.  For 
He  shcdl  uncover  [hath  uncovered  E.  M.]  the 
cedar-work:  in  the  roofless  palaces,  the  carved 
cedar-work  shall  be  laid  open  to  wind  and 
rain.  Any  one  must  have  noticed,  how 
piteous  and  dreary  the  decay  of  any  house  in 
a  town  looks,  with  the  torn  paper  hanging 
uselessly  on  its  walls.  A  poet  of  our  own 
said  of  the  beautiful  ruins  of  a  wasted  monas- 
tery: 

"  For  the  gay  beams  of  lightsome  day 
Gild,  but  to  flout  the  ruins  gray." 

But  at  Nineveh  it  is  one  of  the  mightiest  cities 
of  the  world  which  thus  lies  waste,  and  the 
bared  cedar-work  had,  in  the  days  of  its  great- 
ness, been  carried  oflf"  from  the  despoiled 
Lebanon '''  or  Ilermon  '^. 

15.  This  utter  desolation  is  the  rejoicing 
city  (so  unlike  is  it,  that  there  is  need  to 
point  out  that  it  is  tlie  same) ;  this  is  she, 
who  was  full  of  joy,  exulting  exceedingly  *, 
but  in  herself,  not  in  God  ;  tliod  dwelt  carelessly, 

1  n?"lK  collective,  like  Hi* J.'  Jer.  vi.  C. 

»Ih.  xiv.  8.  xxxvii.  24.  Ezek.  xxxi.  1"3.  "In  the 
fragment  of  another  epigraph,  we  have  mention  of 
some  objects  also  of  wooS,  'brought  from  RIt.  Leba- 
non, (and  taken  up  to  the  mound)  from  the  Tigris.' " 
Layard,  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  p.  118.  "At  that 
time  the  countries  tliat  are  upon  Lebanon,  I  took 
possession  of,  to  the  great  sea  of  the  country  of 
Akkari,"  (the  Mediterranean,)  fr^m  Inscription.  lb. 
p. 3.')"), rW).  "The  conqueror  from  the  upper  passage 
of  the  Tigris  to  Lebanon  and  the  Great  Sea."  lb.  p. 
:iiil.  "Standing  one  day  on  a  distant  part  of  the 
mound,  I  i<melt  the  sweet  smell  of  burning  ce<iar; 
the  Arab  workmen  excavating  in  the  small  tenijile 
hail  dug  out  a  beam,  and  tlie  weather  bring  cold, 
had  at  once  made  a  tire  to  warm  thom-'elvcs.  The 
wood  was  cedar,  probably  one  of  the  very  beams 
mentioned  in  the  inscription,  as  brought  iroin  (he 
loreats  of  Lebanon,  by  the  King  who  built  the  edi- 
tiee.  After  a  lapse  of  nearly  3<)00  years,  it  had  re- 
tained its  oriirinal  fragrance.'     lb.  p.  ,'J'.7. 


come  a  desolation,  a  place    chrTIt 
for  beasts  to  lie  down  in !      ci"^-  63o. 


every  one  that  passeth  by  , ,  ^ 

•^  '■  •'  I  Job  27. 23. 

her  '  shall  hiss,  and  ""  wag      Lam.  2  15. 

°        Ezek.  27.  36. 

his  hand.  «>Nah.  3. 19. 


lit.  securely,  and  so  carelessly ;  saying  Peace 
and  safety^,  as  though  no  evil  would  come 
upon  her,  and  so  perishing  more  certainly 
and  miserably  ^  IViat  said  in  her  heart,  this 
was  her  inmost  feeling,  the  moving  cause  of 
all  her  deeds ;  /  am  and  there  is  none  beside 
me  ;  literally,  '  and  there  is  no  I  beside,  claim- 
ing the  very  attribute  of  God  (as  the  world 
does)  of  self-existence,  as  if  it  alone  were  /, 
and  otiiers,  in  respect  of  her,  were  as  nothing. 
Pantheism,  which  denies  tlie  being  of  God, 
as  Author  of  the  world,  and  claims  tlie  life 
in  the  material  world  to  be  God,  and  each 
living  being  to  be  a  part  of  God,  is  only  this 
self-idolatry,  reflected  upon  and  carried  out 
in  words.  All  the  pride  of  the  world,  all 
self-inilulgence  which  says,  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  ivc  die,  all  covetousness 
which  ends  in  this  world,  speaks  this  by  its 
acts,  /  a7id  no  I  beside. 

How  is  she  become  a  desolation,  has  passed 
wholly  into  it,  exists  only  as  a  desolation,  a 
place  for  beasts  to  lie  down  in,  a  mere  den  for 
the  wild  beasts.  Every  one  that  passeth  by  her 
shall  hiss  in  derision,  and  wag  [or  wai-e]  his 
handl  in  detestation,  as  though  putting  the 
hand  between  tliem  and  it,  so  as  not  to  look 
at  it,  or,  as  it  were,  motioning  it  away.  The 
action  is  diflereut  Irom  tliat  of  *  clapping  the 
hands  in  exuhation. 

"  It  is  not  difliciilt,"  S.  Jerome  says,  "  to 
explain  this  of  the  world,  that  when  the 
Lord  hath  stretclied  forth  His  Hand  over 
the  North  and  destroyed  the  Assyrian, 
the  Prince  of  this  world,  tlie  world  also 
perishes  together  with  its  Princes,  and 
is  brought  to  utter  desolation,  and  is 
pitied  by  none,  but  all  hiss  and  shake  their 
hands  at  its  rnin.    But  of  the  Church  it 

3  Rawl.  5.  Emp.  i.  385. 

*  l7|?,  (verb,  perhaps  i.  q.  dAoAd^w,)  is  exulting 
joy,  the  exultation  being  good  or  bad,  according  to 
its  object,  in  God  or  in  self  and  the  world  ;  in  God, 
Ps.  xxviii.  7,  Ixviii.  b,  xevi.  11,  cxlix.  ."i,  Hab.  iii.  18; 
Zeph.  iii.  14:  in  good,  Pr.  xxiii.  10;  in  God's  gifts, 
Ps.  Ix.  8,  cviii.  8;  in  evil,  Ps.  xciv.  3,  Jer.  xi.  15,  xv. 

17,  1. 11,  11.30;  over  an  enemy  2  Sam.  i.  20.  T'yJ.' 
(intens.)  Is.  xxii.  2,  xxiii.  7,  xxiv.  8,  xxxii.  13,  is 
used,  as  here,  of  a  city,  full  of  its  tumultuous,  self- 
eontident  excitement,  as  is  the  verb  Is.  xxiii.  1.;. 
and  fSj;  of  an  individual,  Jer.  v.  14.  [all.] 

6  I  Thess.  V.  3. 

•See  Jud.  xviii.  27. 

'  As  we  might  say  "no  second  I."  This  gives  an 
adeauat^  explanation  of  the  '  in  '03t^>  *s  no  othe' 
rendering  docs. 

«Nah.  iii.  19. 


CHAPTER  III. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1  A  sharp  reproof  of  Jeruscdem 
for  divers  sins.  8  An  exhor- 
tation to  wait  for  the  restoration 


seems,  at  first  sight,  blasphemous  to  say  that 
it  shall  be  a  patiiless  desert,  and  wild  beasts 
shall  dwell  in  her,  and  that  afterward  it 
shall  be  said  insultingly  over  her  ;  '  This  is 
the  city  given  up  to  ill,  which  dwelt  carelessly 
and  said  in  her  heart,  I  and  none  beside.'  But 
whoso  should  consider  that  of  the  Apostle, 
wherein  he  says,  ^  in  the  last  days  perilous 
times  shall  come,  and  what  is  written  in  the 
Gospel,  that  '^because  iniquity  shall  abound, 
the  love  of  many  shall  wax  cold,  so  that  then 
shall  that  be  fulfilled.  When  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh,  shall  He  find  the  faith  on  the  earth  ?  he 
will  not  marvel  at  the  extreme  desolation  of 
the  Church,  that,  in  the  reign  of  Antichrist, 
it  shall  be  reduced  to  a  desolation  and  given 
over  to  beasts,  and  shall  sufier  whatever  the 
Prophet  now  describes.  For  if  for  unbelief 
Ood  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  but  brake 
them  off,  and  turned  rivers  into  a  wilderness  and 
the  water-sprinys  into  a  dry  ground,  and  a  fruit- 
ful land  into  barrenness,  for  the  iniquity  of  them 
that  dwell  therein,  why  not  as  to  those  of  whom 
He  had  said,  **  He  iurneth  the  wilderness  into  a 
standing  water,  and  dry  ground  into  water- 
springs,  and  there  He  maketh  the  hungry  to 
dwell;  and  as  to  those  whom  out  of  the  wild 
olive  He  hath  grafted  into  the  good  olive  tree, 
why,  if  forgetiul  of  this  benefit,  they  depart 
from  their  Maker  and  worship  the  Assyrian, 
should  He  not  undo  them  and  bring  them 
to  the  same  thirst  wherein  they  were  before  ? 
Which,  whereas  it  may  be  understood  gener- 
ally of  the  coming  of  Anti-christ  or  of  the 
end  of  the  world,  yet  it  may,  day  by  day,  be 
understood  of  those  who  feign  to  be  of  the 
Church  of  God,  and  in  ivorks  deny  it,  are  hearers 
of  the  ivord  not  doers,  who  in  vain  boast  in  an 
outward  show,  whereas  herds  i.  e.  troops  of 
vices  dwell  in  them,  and  brute  animals  serv- 
ing the  body,  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  field 
which  devour  their  hearts  [and  pelicans,  i.  e. 
gluttons  *,  whose  god  is  their  belly']  and 
hedgehogs,  a  prickly  animal  full  of  spikes 
which  pricketh  whatever  it  toucheth.  After 
which  it  is  subjoined,  that  the  Church  shall 
therefore  suffer  this,  or  hath  suffered  it, 
because  it  lifted  itself  up  proudly  and  raised 

i2Tim.iii.  1-5.  2S.  Matt.  xxiv.  12.  3  Ps.  evii.  3.3-36. 
*  Rib.  6  Rup.  «  S.  Matt,  xxiii.  37. 

'  Rev.  iii.  12.  xxi.  10. 
8 'in  with  the  partie.,  as  a  vocative,  as  in  Am.  v. 

18.  Is.  xlv.  9,  10.    Mic.  i.  1.  Hab.  ii.  6,  9,  12,  15, 

19,  &c. 

•nXliO  from  «"10  =  mO.     This  seems  more 
probable  than  E.  V.  (from  a  meaning  given  to  'KT 


of  Israel,  14  and  to  rejoice  for  Before 
their  solvation  by  God.  ^  Jir^tao  "^ 

WOE  to  lit  her  that  is  ~^"^^^ 
^^     filthy   and   polluted,  {S'-^Sr"' 

to  the  oppressing  city ! 


its  head  like  a  cedar,  given  up  to  evil  works, 
and  yet  promising  itself  future  blessedness, 
and  despising  others  in  its  heart,  nor  think- 
ing that  there  is  any  other  beside  itself,  and 
saying,  /  am,  and  there  is  no  other  beside  me, 
how  is  it  become  a  solitude,  a  lair  of  beasts ! 
For  where  belbre,  dwelt  the  Father,  and  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  Angels  pre- 
sided over  its  ministries,  there  shall  beasts 
dwell.  And  if  we  understand  that,  every 
one  that  passeth  by  shall  hiss,  we  shall  ex- 
plain it  thus ;  when  Angels  shall  pass 
through  her,  and  not  remain  in  her,  as  was 
their  wont,  they  shall  le  amazed  and  marvel, 
and  shall  not  support  and  bear  her  up  with 
their  hand,  when  falling,  but  shall  lift  up 
the  hands  and  shall  pass  by.  Or  they  shall 
make  a  sound  as  those  who  mourn.  But  if 
we  understand  this  of  the  devil  and  his 
angels,  who  destroyed  the  vine  also  that  was 
brought  out  of  Egypt,  we  shall  say,  that 
through  the  soul,  which  before  was  the  tem- 
ple of  God  and  hath  ceased  so  to  be,  the  ser- 
pent passeth,  and  hisseth  and  spitteth  forth 
the  venom  of  his  malice  in  her,  and  not  this 
only,  but  setteth  in  motion  his  works  which 
figuratively  are  called  hands." 

"  ^  The  earlier  and  partial  fulfillment  of 
prophecy  does  not  destroy,  it  rather  con- 
firms, the  entire  fulfillment  to  come.  For 
whoso  heareth  of  the  destruction  of  mighty 
cities,  is  constrained  to  believe  the  truth  of 
the  Gospel,  that  the  fashion  of  this  world 
passeth  away,  and  that,  after  the  likeness  of 
Nineveh  and  Babylon,  the  Lord  will  in  the 
end  judge  the  whole  world  also." 

C.  III.  I.  The  "  woe,"  having  gone  round 
the  heathen  nations,  again  circles  round 
where  it  began,  the  *  Jerusalem  that  killed  the 
prophets  and  stoned  those  that  were  sent  unto 
her.  Woe  upon  her,  and  joy  to  the  holy 
Jerusalem,  the  new  Jerusalem  ',  the  Jerusalem 
which  is  from  above,  the  mother  of  us  all,  close 
this  pi'ophecy  ;  both  in  figure  ;  destruction  of 
her  and  the  whole  earth,  in  time,  the  emblem 
of  the  eternal  death ;  and  the  love  of  God,  the 
foretaste  of  endless  joy  in  Him. 

TFo"  rebellious  and  polluted^;  thou  oppressive 

Nah.  iii.  0.  and  from  H^^'^p  crop  of  bird  Lev.  i.  16.) 
or  LXX  ini.(j)av'ri^  (as  if  PlNIO,  as  a  few  Mss.  de  R.) 
or  S.  Jer.  "embittering,"  provocatrix  (as  if  n"lDn= 
K10),  or  Abarb.  "terrible"  (as  from  XT  which  is 
expressed  by  Nif.  X^IJ)  or  Drii.s.  "made  a  spec- 
tacle;" iropaS€i7(ixa-Ti^o/u.ei'r;,  cf.  nXID;  but  this  Is 
not  used  elsewhere,  though  the  verb  is  so  common. 


27S 


ZEPHANIAH. 


chr'Yst        ^  ^^^^  'obeyed  not   the 

c'r-  630.      voice ;   she   "  received   not 

»jer. 22. 21.       II  correction  ;  she   trusted 

I OT,'instruction.  not  in  the  Lord;  she  drew 

not  near  to  her  God. 

c  Ezek.  22. 27.  -.       xt  •  •  i  • 

Mic.3.9, 10, 11.      o  °  Her    princes   within 


city '  I  The  address  is  the  more  abrupt,  and 
bursts  more  upon  her,  since  the  prophet 
does  not  name  her.  He  uses  as  her  proper 
name,  not  her  own  name,  "  city  of  peace," 
but  "  rebellious,"  "  polluted  ;  "  then  he  sums 
up  in  one,  (hoii  oppressive  city. 

Jerusalem's  sin  is  threefold,  actively  re- 
belling against  God ;  then,  inwardly  defiled 
by  sin;  tht'ii  cruel  to  man.  fcjo  tlien,  toward 
Cforl,  in  IiltscII',  toward  man,  she  is  wholly 
tiirne.l  to  evil,  not  in  passing  acts,  but  in  her 
abi  ling  state,  1)  rebellious,  2)  defiled,  3) 
oppressive.  8iie  is  known  only  by  what  she 
has  become,  and  what  has  been  done  lor  her 
in  vain.  8he  is  rel)ellious,  and  so  had  had 
the  law  ;  defiled,  and  so  had  been  cleansed  ; 
and  therefore  her  state  is  the  more  hope- 
less. 

2.  She  obeyed  not  the  Voice,  of  God,  by  the 
law  or  the  prophets,  teaching  her  His  ways  ; 
and  when,  disobejang.  He  chastened  her, 
she  received  not  correction,  and  when  He  in- 
creased His  chastisements,  she,  in  the  declin- 
ing age  of  the  state  and  deepening  evil, 
turned  not  unto  Him,  as  in  the  time  of  the 
judges,  nor  ceased  to  do  evil. 

In  the  Lord  she  trusted  not,  but  in  Assyria  or 
Egypt  or  her  idols.  Our  practical  relation  to 
God  is  summed  up  in  the  four  words,  "  Mis- 
trust self;  trust  God."  Man  reverses  this, 
and  when  "  self-trust  "  has  of  course  failed 
liim,  then  he  "  mistrusts  God."  "  '■'  Such 
rarely  ask  of  God,  what  they  hope  they  may 
obtain  from  man.  They  strain  every  nerve 
of  their  soul  to  obtain  what  they  want ;  can- 
vass, flatter,  liivvn,  bribe,  court  favor  ;  and 
betake  themselves  to  God  when  all  human 
help  falls.  They  would  be  indebted,  not  to 
God,  but  to  tlieir  own  diligence.  For  the 
more  they  receive  of  God,  the  less,  tiiey  see, 
can  they  exalt  their  own  diligence,  the  more 
they  are  bound  to  thank  God,  and  obey  Him 
the  more  strictly." 

lb  her  God  she  drew  not  ni(/h,  even  in 
trouble,  when  all  draw  nigh  unto  Him,  wlio 

*  T^n  a.'5  a  separate  vocative,  a^s  Nu.  xv.  1.5.  Cant, 
vi.  1.  Is.  Hi.  18.  Mi.  ii.  7.  Ac,  and  in  the  N.  T. 
6  Po<n\eu9,  S.  Matt,  xxvii.  29.  o  uio?,  S.  Marl<  x.  47. 
6  TraTTjp  lb.  xiv.  3G,  &C. 

*  Rib.  on  Hos.  vii.  n.  39.  ^  £)ion. 

*  See  Hab.  i.  8. 

*  The  meaning  of  Piel,  in  Num.  xxiv.  8,  and  met. 
Ez.  xxiii.  34.  a.o  flenom.  from  poetic  pTJ.  "  l)one." 
The  Versa,  f^ave  the  meaning,  dronping  the  meta- 
phor, the  Lxx.  and  VhIr.  rendernig  "loft;"  Ch. 
"deferriug  to,  "  Syr.  "  wuitiinj  lor."    lu  Arab.  QIJ 


her  arc  roaring  lions;  her    d^'YIj 
judges  are  ''evening  wolves ;      c'""-  '"'^f- 


they  gnaw  not   the  bones  i  Hab.  i.  8. 
till  the  morrow. 

•4  Her  *  p  r  o  p  h  e  t  s  are  •  Jer.  23. 11, 32. 

,.    ,  ,    ^        /  Lam.  2.14. 

light  and  treacherous  per-   Hos.  9. 7. 


are  not  wholly  alien  from  Him  ;  she  drew 
not  near  by  repentance,  by  faith,  hope  or 
love,  or  by  works  meet  for  repentance,  but 
in  heart  remained  far  from  Him.  And  yet 
He  was  her  own  God,  as  He  had  shewn  Him- 
self in  times  past,  Who  changes  not,  while 
we  change  ;  is  faithful  to  us,  while  we  fail 
Him  ;  is  still  our  God,  while  we  forget  Him  ; 
wiiits,  to  have  mercy  upon  us;  sliines  on  us 
while  we  interpose  our  earth-born  clouds 
between  us  and  Him.  "  *  Not  in  body  nor 
in  place,  but  spiritually  and  inwardly  do 
we  approach  to  tlie  uncircurascribed  God," 
owning  Him  as  our  Father,  to  AVhoni  we 
daily  say  "  Our  Father." 

3.  The  propliet  having  declared  the  wick- 
edness of  the  whole  city,  i-ehearses  how  each 
in  Church  and  state,  the  ministers  of  God  in 
either,  wlio  should  have  corrected  the  evil, 
themselves  aggravated  it.  Not  enemies, 
without,  destroy  her,  but 

Her  princes  ^vithin  her,  in  the  very  midst  of 
the  flock,  whom  they  should  in  God's  stead 
feed  with  a  true  heart,  destroy  her  as  they  will, 
having  no  protection  against  them.  Her 
judges  are  even  ing  wolves  * ;  those  who  should 
in  the  Name  of  God  redress  all  grievances 
and  wrongs,  are  themselves  like  wild  beasts, 
when  most  driven  by  famine.  They  gnaw  not 
the  bones  *  /)7/  the  morrow  or  on  the  morrow  [lit. 
in  the  morning'].  They  reserve  nothing  till 
the  morning  light,  but  do  in  darkness  the 
works  of  darkness,  shrinking  from  the  light, 
and,  in  extreme  rapacity,  devouring  at  once 
the  whole  substance  of  the  poor.  As  Isaiah 
says,  ^  Thy  jvinces  are  rebellious  and  compan- 
ions of  thieves,  and  '  The  Lord  will  enter  into 
judgment  ivith  the  ancients  of  His  people  and  the 
princes  thereof :  for  ye  have  eaten  up  the  vine- 
yard :  the  spoil  of  the  poor  is  in  your  houses. 
And  ^zek'mX,^  Her  princes  in  the  midst  thereof 
are  like  rvolvcs,  ravening  the  prey  to  shed  blood, 
to  destroy  souls,  to  get  dishonest  gain. 

4.  Her  prophets  are  light,  boiling  and  bub- 
bling up,  like  water  boiling   over*,   empty 

signifies  "cut  off,"  spec,  wool  of  sheep,  fruit  of 

palm-trees  and  with  7  p.  "gaining  for  himself  or 
his  family.''  InSyr.  it  isl)  "cutoft;"  2)  "decreed;" 
not,  "reserved."  Abulw.  Kim.  Menach.  render 
"break"  as  denom. 

« Is.  i.  23.  '  Ih.  iii.  it.  8  Ez.  xxii.  27. 

*  nuns  being  used  by  Jeremiah  (xxiii.  32.)  of  the 
false  prophets  who  prnphesi/  false  dreams  ana  do  tell 
them  and  rniisr  My  people  to  err  hy  their  lies  and  by 
their  /i(;///-/(.s.s,  it  probably  has  the  same  meaniaj 
here;  tnuugh  IPIS  is  used  of  the  boiling  over  gf 


CHAPTER  III. 


279 


c  H  rTs  t    ^^^^  '  ^^^  priests  have  pol- 
cir.  G30.      luted  the  sanctuary,  they 
have  done  'violence  to  the 


'  Ezek.  22.  26. 


law. 


boasters  claiming  the  gift  of  prophecy, 
M'hich  they  have  not ;  "  boldly  and  rashly 
pouring  out  what  they  willed  as  they  willed ;" 
promising  good  things  which  shall  not  be. 
So  they  are  her  prophets,  to  whom  they  pro- 
phesy smooth  things,  "  '  the  prophets  of  this 
people  "  not  the  prophets  of  God  ;  treacherous 
persons  [lit.  men  of  treacheries]  wholly  given 
to  manifold  treacheries  against  God  in  Whose 
Name  they  spake  and  to  the  people  whom 
they  deceived.  "  ^  They  spake  as  if  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord  and  uttei'ed  everything 
against  the  Lord."  The  leaders  of  the  people, 
those  who  profess  to  lead  it  aright,  Isaiah 
says^,  are  its  misleaders.  Thy  prophets,  Jere- 
miah says  *,  have  seen  vain  and  foolish  things  for 
thee  ;  they  have  seen  for  thee  false  visions  and 
causes  of  banishment. 

Her  priests  have  polluted  her  sanctuary,  lit. 
holif)iess,  and  so  holy  rites,  persons  *,  things, 
places  (as  the  sanctuary),  sacrifices.  All 
these  they  polluted,  l)eing  themselves  pol- 
luted ;  they  polluted  first  themselves,  then  the 
holy  things  which  they  handled,  handling 
them  as  they  ought  not ;  carelessly  and  irrev- 
erently, not  as  ordained  by  God ;  turning 
them  to  their  own  use  and  self-indulgence, 
instead  of  the  glory  of  God ;  then  they  pol- 
luted them  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  ^making 
them  to  abhor  the  offering  of  the  Lord,  since, 
living  scandalously,  they  themselves  re- 
garded the  Ministry  entrusted  to  them  by 
God  so  lightly.  Their  ofiice  was  to  ''put 
difference  between  holy  and  unholy  and  between 
clean  and  unclean,  and  to  teach  the  children  all 
the  statutes  which  the  Lord  hath  spoken  unto 
them  by  Moses;  that  they  ^should  sanctify 
themselves  and  be  holy,  for  1  the  Lmxl  'your  God 
am  holy.  But  they  on  the  contrary,  God  says 
by  Ezekiel,  ^  hove  done  violence  to  My  law  ami 
have  profaned  My  holy  things;  they  have  made 
no  difference  betiveen  holy  and  profane,  and  have 
taught  none  between  clean  and  unclean.  Holy 
and  unholy  being  tlie  contradictory  of  each 
other,  these  changed  what  God  had  hallowed 
into  its  exact  contrary.  It  was  not  a  mere 
short-coming,  but  an  annihilation  (so  to 
speak),  of  God's  purposes. 

"  '*•  The  Priests  of  the  Church  then  must 

sensuality  (Gen.  xlix.  4.)  and  of  empty  wanton  men, 
Jud.  ix.  4.  In  .\rabic,  jnS  as  well  as  inS  is  used 
of  vairi-glorv;  in  Syr.  of  "impurity." 

iSee  Mic."ii.  11.  2S.  Jer. 

3  Is.  ix.  1.5.  [16.  Eng.]  ♦Lam.  ii.  14. 

*  Ezra  viii.  28.  *  1  Sam.  ii.  17. 

7  Lev.  X.  10, 11.  8  lb.  xi.  44.  xix.  2.  Ac. 

9  Ezek.  xxii.  26.  'o  S.  Cyr. 

»  Gal.  V.  X6. 


')  ^  The  just  Lord  "  is  in    ^  jBe^fo^re  ^ 
the  midst  thereof;  he  will.     ^ir.  rso. 


^     J       .    .       .^  ,  K  Deut.  32. 4. 

not   do   iniquity  :   j  every  h  ver.  15, 17. 

1    iU   1-      1-    •        1  •      See  Mic.  3. 11. 

morning  doth  he  bring  his  +  Heb.  morning 

by  morning. 


keep  strict  watch,  not  to  profane  holy  things. 
There  is  not  one  mode  only  of  profaning 
them,  but  many  and  divers.  For  Priests 
ought  to  be  purified  both  in  soul  and  body, 
and  to  cast  aside  every  form  of  abominable 
pleasure.  Rather  should  they  be  resplendent 
with  zeal  in  well-doing,  remembering  what 
S.  Paul  saith,  '^^walk  in  the  Spirit  and  ye  shall 
not  fulfill  the  lust  of  the  flesh." 

They  have  oppressed,  done  violence,  to  the  law, 
openly  violating  it  •^ ;  or  straining  it,  or  se- 
cretly wresting  and  using  its  forms  to  wrong 
and  violence,  as  in  the  case  of  Naboth  and  of 
Him,  of  Whom  Naboth  thus  far  bore  the 
Image.  "  ^*  We  have  a  law,  and  by  our  law  He 
ought  to  die.  Law  exists  to  restrain  human 
violence  ;  these  reversed  God's  ordinances  ; 
violence  and  law  changed  places  :  first,  they 
did  violence  to  the  majesty  of  the  law,  which 
was  the  very  voice  of  God,  and  then,  through 
profaning  it,  did  violence  to  man.  Forerun- 
ners herein  of  those,  who,  when  Christ  came, 
^*  transgressed  the  commandment  of  God,  and 
made  it  of  none  effect  by  their  traditions;  ^^ omit- 
ting also  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  judg- 
ment and  mercy  and  faith  ;  full  of  extortion  and 
excess ! 

5.  But,  beside  these  evening  ivolves  in  the 
midst  of  her,  there  standeth  Another  in  the 
midst  of  her.  Whom  they  knew  not,  and  so, 
very  near  ^^  to  them  although  they  would  not 
draw  near  to  Him.  But  He  was  near,  to  be- 
hold all  the  iniquities  which  they  did  in  the 
very  city  and  place  called  by  His  Name  and 
in  His  very  Presence  ;  He  was  in  her  to  pro- 
tect, foster  her  with  a  father's  love,  but  she, 
presuming  on  His  mercy,  had  cast  it  oflP. 
And  so  He  was  near  to  punish,  not  to  deliver ; 
as  a  Judge,  not  as  a  Saviour.  ""God  is 
everywhere,  Who  says  by  Jeremiah,  ^*'  /  fill 
heaven  and  earth.  But  since,  as  Solomon  at- 
testeth,  ^^  The  Lord  is  fur  from  the  wicked,  how 
is  He  said  here  to  be  in  the  midst  of  these 
most  wicked  men  ?  Because  the  Lord  is  far 
from  the  wicked,  as  regards  the  presence 
of  love  and  grace ;  still  in  His  Essence  He  is 
everywhere,  and  in  this  way  He  is  equally 
present  to  all." 

The  Lord  is  in  the  midst  tliereof ;  He  unll  not 

12  The  construction  with  the  ace.  of  person  occur.s 
Ezek.  xxii.  26,  Prov.  viii.  36,  Jer.  xxii.  3. 

13  S.  John  xix.  7.  "  S.  Matt.  xv.  6. 
15  lb.  xxiii.  23.  25. 

'5  The  words  in  HeVjrew  correspond  with  each 
other,  being  from  the  same  root,  n2*1p  "draw 

near;"  n3'lp3,  "  in  the  midst  of  her."  ver.  2,  3,  5. 


I 
1'  Dion.       I 


i»  Pr.  XV.  29. 


18  Jer.  xxiii.  24, 


280 


ZEPHANIAPL 


Before 

C  H  R  I  S  !• 

cir.  630. 

ijer.  3.  3. 
A  6.  15.  &  8.  12 


judgment  to  light,  he  fail- 
eth  not;  but  'the  unjust 
knoweth  no  shame. 

6  I  have  cut  off  the  na- 


do  iniquity.  " '  Since  He  is  the  primal  rule 
and  measure  of  all  righteousness ;  therefore 
from  the  very  fact  that  He  doeth  anytliing, 
it  is  just;  for  He  cannot  do  amiss,  being  es- 
sentially holy.  Therefore  He  will  give  to 
every  man  what  he  deserves.  Therefore  we 
chant,  ^  The  Lord  is  upright,  and  there  is  no 
unrirfhleousness  in  Him."  Justice  and  injus- 
tice, purity  and  impurity,  cannot  be  together. 
God's  Presence  then  must  destroy  the  sin- 
ners, if  not  the  sin.  He  was  in  the  midst  of 
them,  to  sanctity  them,  giving  them  His 
judgments  as  a  pattern  of  theirs ;  He  will  not 
do  iniquity:  but  if  they  heeded  it  not,  the 
judgment  would  fall  upon  themselves.  It 
were  for  God  to  become  ^  such  an  one  as  them- 
selves, and  to  connive  at  wickedness,  were  He 
to  spare  at  last  the  impenitent. 

Eviry  morning  [lit.  in  the  morning,  in  the 
mo  •ninj']  one  after  tlie  other,  quickly,  openly, 
daily,  continually,  bringiug  all  secret  thini^s, 
all  works  of  darkness,  to  light,  as  He  said  to 
David,  *  Thou  didst  it  secretly,  but  I  tvill  do 
this  thing  before  all  Israel,  and  before  the  sun. 
Duh  He  bring  His  judgments  to  light,  so  that 
no  sin  should  be  hid  in  the  brightness  of  His 
Light,  as  He  said  by  Hosea,  Thy  judgments 
are  a  light  which  goeth  forth.  "  *  Morning  by 
morning,  He  shall  execute  His  judgments, 
i.  e.,  in  bright  day  and  visibly,  not  restrain- 
ing His  anger,  but  bringing  it  forth  in  the 
midst,  an  1  making  it  cons])icuous,  and,  as  it 
were,  setting  in  open  vision  what  He  had 
foreanmunce  1."  Day  by  day  God  gives  some 
warning  of  His  judgments.  By  ciiastisements 
which  are  felt  to  be  His  on  this  side  or  on 
that  or  all  around,  He  gives  ensamples which 
speak  to  the  sinner's  heart.  He  faileth  not. 
As  Go  1  said  by  Habakkuk,  that  His  prom- 
ises, although  they  seem  to  linger,  were  not 
behind"  the  real  time,  which  lay  in  the 
Divine  mind,  so,  contrariwise,  neither  are 
His  judgments.  His  hand  is  never  missing' 
at  the  appointed  time.  Bat  the  unjust^,  he, 
whose  very  being  and  character,  iniquity,  is 
the  exact  contrary  to  what  he  had  saia  of  the 
perfection  of  God,  *  Who  doth  not  iniquity,  or, 
as  Moses  iiad  taught  them  in  his  song  '**,  all 
His  ways  are  judgment,  a  God  of  truth  and 

iDion.  sPs.  xcii.  15.  «Ib.  I.  21. 

*2  Sam.  xii.  12. 

6S.  Cyr.  «nab.  ii.  3. 

'  "injj'J  is  used  of  one  missing  when  a  muster  is 
made  (1  Sam.  xxx.  19,  2  Sam.  xvii.  22.  met.  Is.  xxxiv. 
10,  xl.  20,  lix.  15.);  here  only  of  God,  that  He  does 
not  fail  to  visit  at  the  time  when  He  ought  to  be 
locked  for 

•Sjj;.     »rh)};  ni^fy' vh.     '<>Deut.xxxii.4. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


tions:   their  ||  towers  are 
desolate ;    I    made  their 
streets  waste,  that  none    iior, comers, 
passeth   by:   their   cities 


without  iniquity  ",  ju.'tt  and  right  is  He.  Know- 
eth no  shame,  as  God  saith  by  Jeremiah, 
''  Thou  refusedst  to  be  ashamed.  '^  They  were  not 
at  all  ashamed,  7ieither  could  they  blush.  Even 
thus  they  would  not  be  ashamed  of  their 
sins,  ^*that  they  might  be  converted  and  God 
might  heal  them. 

6.  /  have  cut  off  [the]  nations.  God  appeals 
to  His  judgments  on  heathen  nations,  not  on 
any  particular  nation,  as  far  as  we  know  ; 
but  to  past  history,  whether  of  those,  of 
whose  destruction  Israel  itself  had  been  the 
instrument,  or  others.  The  judgments  upon 
the  nations  before  them  were  set  forth  to 
them,  when  they  were  about  to  enter  on  their 
inheritance,  as  a  warning  to  themselves  ^^ 
Dejile  not  ye  yourselves  in  any  of  these  things  ; 
for  in  all  these  have  the  natioTis  defied  themselves, 
which  I  cast  out  before  you:  and  the  land  is 
defiled;  therefore  I  do  visit  the  iniquity  thereof 
upon  it,  and  the  land  vomiteth  out  her  inhabit- 
ants. And  ye,  ye  shall  keep  My  statutes  and 
My  judgments  and  shall  not  commit  any  of  these 
abominations — And  the  land  shall  not  spue  you 
out  when  ye  d<file  it,  as  it  spued  out  the  nations 
ivhich  ivere  before  you.  The  very  possession 
then  of  the  land  was  a  warning  to  them  ;  the 
ruins,  which  crowned  so  many  of  its  hill- 
tops '",  were  silent  preachers  to  them ;  they 
lived  among  the  memories  of  God's  visita- 
tions ;  if  neglected,  they  were  an  earnest  of 
future  judgments  on  themselves.  Yet  God's 
judgments  are  not  at  one  time  only.  Sen- 
nacherib apjiealed  to  their  own  knowledge, 
''  Behold,  thou  hast  heard  what  the  kings  of 
Assyria  have  done  to  all  lands  by  destroying 
them  utterly.  Have  the  gods  of  tJie  nations 
delivered  them  which  my  fathers  have  destroyed* 
Hezekiah  owned  it  as  a  fact  which  he  knew : 
'*  Of  a  truth,  Lord,  the  kings  of  Assyria  have 
laid  waste  all  the  Tuitions  and  their  land.  And 
God  owns  him  as  His  instrument :  '"  Now  I 
have  brought  it  to  pass,  that  thou  shouldest  be  to 
lay  waste  defenced  cities  into  ruinous  heaps :  and, 
^'^  I  will  send  him  against  an  ungodly  nation,  and 
against  the  people  of  My  wrath  will  I  give  him  a 
charge,  to  take  the  spoil  and  to  take  the  prey,  and 
to  tread  them  down  as  the  mire  of  the  streets,  and 
says  of  him.  It  is  in  his  heart  to  destroy  and  to 

11  Si;'  VKl.      i«  Jer.  iii.  3.     "  lb.  vi.  15,  viii.  12. 

M  Is.  vi.  10. 

15  Lev.  xviii.  24,  2.5,  26,  28,  add  lb.  xx.  23. 

i« This  will  be  brouglit  out  bvthe  "Ordnance  sur- 
vey "  of  Palestine,  when  completed.  Isaiah  alludes 
to  them,  xvii.  9. 

I'ls.  xxxvil.  11, 13.  "lb.  18. 

i»Ib.  20. 

i)o  lb.  X.  6,  7,  and  the  graphic  picture  ib.  13, 14. 


CHAPTER  III. 


281 


chrTst    ^^'®   destroyed,  so  that 
cir-  630.      there  is  no  man,  that  there 
is  none  inhabitant. 
^.SoJer. 8. 6.         7  "I  said.  Surely  thou 


cut  off  nations  not  a  few.  The  king  of  Baby- 
lon too  he  describes  as  ^  the  man  that  made 
the  earth  to  tremble,  thai  did  shake  kingdoms, 
that  made  the  world  as  aimlderness,  and  destroyed 
the  cities  thereof.  Habakkuk  recently  de- 
scribed the  wide  wasting  by  the  Babylonians, 
and  the  helplessness  of  nations  before  him  ''. 
Their  towers,  corner  towers^,  the  most  care- 
fully fortified  parts  of  their  fortified  cities, 
are  desolate ;  I  made  their  streets  waste.  The 
desolation  is  complete,  within  as  well  as 
without ;  ruin  itself  is  hardly  so  desolate  as 
the  empty  habitations  and  forsaken  streets, 
once  full  of  life,  where 

"The  echoes  and  the  empty  tread 
Would  sound  like  voices  from  the  dead." 

7.  /  said,  surely  thou  wilt  fear  Me.  God 
speaks  of  things  here,  as  they  are  in  their 
own  nature.  It  could  not  but  be,  that  in  the 
very  presence  of  the  Hand  of  God,  destroy- 
ing others  but  as  yet  sparing  them,  they 
must  learn  to  fear  Him  ;  they  must  stand  in 
awe  of  Him  for  His  judgments  on  others ; 
they  must  be  in  filial  fear  of  Him  for  His 
loving  longsufTering  toward  themselves. 
"Thou  wilt  receive  instruction,"  corrected 
and  taught  through  God's  correction  of 
others  and  the  lighter  judgments  on  them- 
selves, as  Solomon  says,  *  I  looked,  I  set  my 
heart:  I  saw,  I  received  instruction.  He  saith, 
receive,  making  it  man's  free  act.  God  brings 
it  near,  commends  it  to  him,  exhorts,  entreats, 
but  leaves  him  the  awful  power  to  receive  or 
to  refuse.  God  speaks  with  a  wonderful  ten- 
derness. "  Surely  thou  wilt  stand  in  awe  of 
Me  ;  thou  wilt  receive  instruction  ;  thou  wilt 
now  do  what  hitherto  thou  hast  refused  to 
do."  There  was  (so  to  speak)  nothing  else 
left  for  them*,  in  sight  of  those  judgments. 
He  pleads  their  own  interests.  The  light- 
ning was  ready  to  fall.  The  prophet 
had,  in  vision,  seen  the  enemy  within   the 

J  Is.  xiv.  IG,  17.  *  Hab.  i.  14-16. 

3  See  on  i.  16.  Since  also  the  subjects  spoken  of 
in  this  verse  are  places,  the  metaph.  meaning  of 
r\1J3  "princes"  i.e.  corner-stones,  is  not  probable 
here,  although  lOtyj  is,  in  four  places,  used  of 
men. 

<  Prov.  xxiv.  32. 

s'nt^,  exclusively  of  all  besides.  All  the  mean- 
ings ascribed  to  1|X  are  but  different  ways  of  ex- 
pressing in  other  languages  the  primary  meaning, 
"  nothing  but." 

6  S.  Lulie  xix.  42.  f  Jon. 

8  Ex.  XX.  .5,  xxxiv.  7.  Nu.  xiv.  18. 

9  Ex.  xxxii.  34,  Is.  xiii.  11,  Jer.  xxlii.  2,  Hos.  1.4,  ii. 
13,  iv.  9,  Amos  iii.  2,  14;  beside  the  separate  cases 
of  a)  visiting  upon,  or  b)  visiting  the  sin.  See 
Ges. 


wilt  fear  me,  thou  wilt  re- 


Before 
CHRIST 

ceive  instruction  ;  so  their      <''''■  ^ao- 


dwelling  should  not  be  cut 
off,  howsoever  I  punished 


city.  Yet  even  now  God  lingers,  as  it  were, 
*  If  thou  hadst  known  in  this  thy  day,  the  things 
which  are  for  thy  peace. 

So  their  [Aer]  dwelling  should  not  be  cut  off. 
His  own  holy  land  which  He  had  given 
them.  A  Jew  paraphrases',  "And  He  will 
not  cut  off  their  dwellings  from  the  land  of 
the  house  of  My  Shechinah  "  ((xod's  visible 
Presence  in  glory).  Judah,  who  was  before 
addressed  thou,  is  now  spoken  of  in  the  third 
person,  her;  and  tliis  also  had  wonderful 
tenderness.  It  is  as  though  God  were  mus- 
ing over  her  and  the  blessed  fruits  of  her 
return  to  Him ;  "  it  shall  not  be  needed  to 
correct  her  further."  Howsoever  I  punished 
them :  lit.  all  (i.  e.,  all  the  oflences)  which  I 
visited  upon  her,  as  God  saith  of  Himself, 
"  *  visiting  the  sins  of  tlie  fathers  upon  the 
children,"  and  this  is  mostly  the  meaning 
of  the  words  ^  visit  upon.  Amid  and  not- 
withstanding all  the  ofiences  which  God  had 
already  chastised,  He,  in  His  love  and  com- 
passion, still  longeth,  not  utterly  to  remove 
them  from  His  Presence,  if  they  would  but 
receive  instruction  now  ;  but  they  would  not. 
Hma  often,  our  Lord  says'",  would  I  have 
gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen 
gaihereth  her  chickens  tinder  her  wings,  and  ye 
would  not.  But  indeed,  probably.  Of  a  truth  *' 
(it  is  a  word  strongly  affirming  what  follows) 
they  rose  early,  they  corrupted  all  their  doings  ; 
God  gave  them  His  warnings,  awaited  the 
result ;  they  lost  no  time,  they  began  with 
morning  light ;  they  hasted  to  rise,  burthened  '* 
themselves,  made  sure  of  having  the  whole 
day  before  them,  to — seek  God  as  He  had 
sent  His  Prophets,  '*  rising  early  and  sending 
them  ?  No,  nor  even  simply  to  do  ill,  but  of 
set  purpose  to  do,  not  this  or  that  corruptly, 
but  to  corrupt  all  their  doings.  "  '*  They  with 
diligence  and  eagerness  rose  early,  that,  with 
the  same  haste  wherewith  they  ought  to 
have  returned  to  Me,  they  might  shew  forth 

los.  Matt,  xxiii.  37. 

"  tDX  probably  (as  Ges.)=nn  Jos.  iii.  17.  iv.  5. 

The  adversative  force,  which  Gesenius  (Thes.  p. 
670)  and  Ewald  (Lehrb.  n.  105.  d.  p.  274.  ed.  8.)  think 
to  Ijelong  to  a  later  style,  lies  (as  so  often  in  other 
Heb.  particles)  in  the  tacit  contrast  of  the  sen- 
tences. Gesenius'  instances  of  this  "later  usage" 
are  Ps.  xxxi.  23.  (David's)  Ixvi.  19.  Ixxxii.  7.  Job 
xxxii.  8.  Is.  xlix.  4.  liii.  4.  Jer.  iii.  20,  and  this 
place. 

12 The  word  means  originally  "placed  on  the 
back ; "  then  is  used  of  a  traveler,  who  taking  his 
baggage  upon  him,  or  setting  it  on  his  camels,  sets 
out  m  very  early  dawn,  or  before  it,  as  is  the  prac- 
tice in  hot  countries. 

13  Jer.  vii.  13,  25,  xi.  7,  xxvi.  5.  xxix.  19. 

14  S.  Jer. 


282 


ZEPHANIAH. 


c  H  rTs  t    ^^^^"^ '  ^^^^  ^^^y  ^'^^^  early, 
cir.  cao.      cmcl   'corrupted  all  their 


I  Gen.  6. 12.  (loingS. 

&  37. 34.  '  8  f[[  Therefore  "  wait  ye 

Prov.  20. 22.  -xu    ii.      t 

upon  me,  saith  the  Lord, 
until  the  day  that  I  rise  up 


in  deed  what  they  had  conceived  amiss 
in  their  mind."  There  are  as  many  ag- 
gravations of  tlieir  sin  as  there  are 
words.  The  four  Hebrew  words  bespeak 
eagerness,  wilfulness,  completeness  enor- 
mity, in  sin.  They  rose  early,  themselves 
deliberately  corrupted,  of  their  own  mind 
made  oflensive,  all  their  doings,  not  slight 
acts,  but  deeds,  great  works  done  with  a  high 
hand  '. 

8.  Therefore  wait  ye  upon  [/o/*]  3fe.  God 
so  willeth  not  to  punish,  but  that  all  should 
lay  hold  of  His  mercy,  that  He  doth  not  hei-e 
t>ven  name  punishment.  Judah  had  slighted 
His  mercies  ;  He  was  ready  to  forgive  mU 
they  had  sinned,  if  they  would  lunc  receive 
instruction  ;  they  in  return  set  themselves  to 
corrupt  all  their  doings.  They  had  wholly 
forsaken  Him.  Therefore — we  should  liave 
expected,  as  elsewhere,  "  Therefore  I  will 
visit  all  your  iniquities  upon  3'ou."  But  not 
so.  The  chastisement  is  all  veiled  ;  the  pro- 
phet points  only  to  tlie  mercy  beyond.  There- 
fore trail  ye  for  Me.  All  the  interval  of 
chastisement  is  summed  up  in  these  words  ; 
i.  e.,  since  neither  My  mercies  toward  you, 
nor  My  chastisement  of  others,  lead  you  to 
obey  Me,  therefore  the  time  shall  be,  when 
My  Providence  shall  not  seem  to  be  over 
you,  nor  My  Presence  among  you  ^ ;  but 
then,  u'ait  ye  for  Me^  earnestly,  intensely, 
perseveringly,  until  the  day,  that  I  rise  tip  to 
the  prey.  The  day  is  probably  in  the  first 
instance,  the  deliverance  from  Babylon.  But 
the  words  seem  to  be  purposely  enlarged,  that 
they  may  embrace  other  judgments  of  God 
also.  For  the  words  to  gather  the  nation.'^, 
ansemhle  the  kingdoms,  describe  some  array  of 
nations  against  God  and  His  people ;  gather- 
ing themselves  for  their  own  end  at  that 
time,  but,  in  His  purpose,  gathering  them- 
selves for  their  own  destruction,  rather  than 
the  mere  tranquil  reunion  of  those  of 
different  nations  in  the  city  of  Babylon,  when 

'  ni/'/J?  are  flie  "mighty  works"  of  God,  or 
deeds  of  man's  might,  and.  as  such,  mostly  jireat 
crimes  in  the  siglit  or  (Joel.  So  even  the  heathen 
have  formed  from  "facio,"  "faeinus,"  of  deeds 
wliieh  they  too  held  to  involve  great  guilt. 

2  See  Hos.  iii.  .3-.0. 

*n3n  is  mostly  ft  longing  persevering  expeeta- 

tion  for  a  thing  or  person  which  as  yet  comes  not, 

when  the  delay  requires  patience;  for  God,  with  S, 
Ps.  xxxiii.  20,  Is.  viii.  7,  Ixiv  3;  His  promise,  Hab. 
11.  3,  and  (part.  Kal  in  sense  of  Pi.)  Is.  xxx.  18;  with 


to  the  prey :  for  my  deter-    ^  h  rTs  t 
mination  is  to  °  gather  the      ^'''-  ^^- 


nations,  that  I  may  asseni-    « .joei.  3. 2. 
ble  the  kingdoms,  to  pour 
upon  them  mine  indigna- 
tion, even  all  my  fierce  an- 


the  Medes  and  Persians  came  against  them. 
Nor  again  are  they  altogether  fultilled  in  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  or  any  other  event 
until  now.  For  although  then  a  vast  num- 
ber of  the  dispersed  Jews  were  collected 
together,  and  were  at  that  time  "*  broken 
oil"  and  out  of  covenant  with  God,  they 
could  hardly  be  called  nations,  (which  are 
here  and  before  *  spoken  of  in  contrast  with 
Judah),  much  less  kingdoms.  In  its  fullest 
sense  the  prophecy  seems  to  belong  to  the 
same  events  in  the  last  struggle  of  Anti-Christ, 
as  at  the  close  of  Joel  ^  and  Zechariah  \ 
With  this  agrees  the  largeness  of  the  de 
struction ;  to  pour  out  upon  them,  in  ful. 
measure,  emptying  out  so  as  to  overwhelm 
them  **,  Mine  indignation,  even  all  My  fierce 
auger ;  for  all  the  earth  shall  be  devoured  vnth 
the  fire  of  My  jealousy.  The  outpouring  of  all 
God's  wrath,  the  devouring  of  the  ic^ofe  earth, 
in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  words,  belongs  to 
the  end  of  the  world,  when  He  shall  say  to  the 
wicked,  "  Depart  from  Me,  ye  cursed,  into 
everlasting  fire."  In  lesser  degrees,  and  less 
fully,  the  substance  of  the  prophecy  has 
again  and  again  been  fulfilled  to  the  Jewish 
Church  before  Christ,  at  Babylon  and  under 
the  Maccabees  ;  and  to  the  Cliristian,  as  when 
the  Mohammedans  hemmed  in  Christendom 
on  all  sides,  and  the  waves  of  their  conquests 
on  the  East  and  West  threatened  to  meet, 
overwhelming  Christendom.  The  Church, 
having  sinned,  had  to  wait  for  a  while /o/-  God 
Who  by  His  Providence  withdrew  Himself, 
yet  at  last  delivered  it. 

And  since  the  whole  histoiy  of  the  Church 
lies  wrapt  up  in  the  Person  of  the  Redeemer, 
the  day  that  I  ?-i',se  up  to  the  prey,  is  especially 
the  Day  in  which  the  foundation  of  His 
Cliurch  was  laid,  or  that  in  which  it  siiall  be 
completed ;  the  Day  wliereon  He  rose  again, 
as  the  first-fruits,  or  that  Day  in  which  He 
shall  ^ stand  again  on  the  earth,  to  judge  it; 
^'^so  coming  even  as  He  went  up  into  Heaven. 

negative  Ps.cvi.  13;  for  death.  Job  iii.  20;  of  endur- 
ance, Uan.  xii.  12.  The  only  other  cases  are  'lying 
in  wait,'  Hos.  vi.  9.  waiting  for  the  end  of  Job's 
words.  Job  xxxii.4;  for  the  issue  of  the  mes.'sage  to 
Jehu,  2  Kgs  ix.  3;  till  dawn,  lb  vii.  !1;  and  of  God, 
waiting  for  us,  till  He  can  shew  us  mercy.  Is.  xxx. 
18  ■•Rom.  xi.  20.         tv.  6.        'Joel  iii.  2,  9-16. 

^  Zech.  xiv. 

8See  Ps.  Ixix.  24,  Ixxix  6,  Jer.  vl.  11,  x.  25,  zlv. 
16,  Ezek.  xxi.  31,  Rev.  xvi.  1. 

•Job  xix.  25.    It  is  the  same  word. 

10  Acts  1.  11. 


CHAPTliR  III. 


283 


for  all  the  earth  'shall 


C  H  B  I  S  T     &*^ 

cir.  630.      |-)e  devoured  with  the  fire 


'  ch.  1. 18.         of  my  jealousy. 


Then,  the  prey^  must  be,  what  God  vouch- 
safes to  account  as  His  gain,  the  prey  which 
is  taken  from  the  miyhty  ^,  and  the  lawful  cap- 
tivity, the  prey  of  the  terrible  one,  which  shall 
be  delivered;  even  that  spoil  which  the 
Father  bestowed  on  Him  Who  made  His  soul 
an  offering  for  sin'*,  the  goods  of  the  strong 
man  *whom  He  bound,  and  spoiled  us,  His 
lawful  goods  and  captives,  since  we  had  sold  ^ 
ourselves  under  sin  to  him.  "^Christ  lived 
again  having  spoiled  hell,  because  ^  it  was 
not  possible  [as  it  is  written]  that  He,  being  by 
nature  Life,  should  be  holden  of  death. 

Here,  Avhere  spoken  of  with  relation  to  the 
Church,  the  jealousy  of  Almighty  God  is  that 
love  for  His  people  •*,  which  will  not  endure 
their  ill-treatment  by  those  who  (as  all  Anti- 
Christian  power  doth)  make  themselves  His 
rivals  in  the  government  of  the  world. 

9.  For  then,  in  the  order  of  God's  mercies. 
The  deliverance  from  Babylon  was  the  fore- 
runner of  that  of  the  Gospel,  which  was  its 
object.  The  spread  of  the  Gospel  then  is 
spoken  of  in  the  connection  of  God's  Provi- 
dence and  plan,  and  time  is  overlooked.  Its 
blessings  are  spoken  of,  as  then  given  when 
the  earnest  was  given,  and  the  people,  from 
whom  according  to  the  flesh  Christ  was  to  be 
bom,  were  placed  anew  in  the  land  where 
He  was  to  be  born.  "  ^  The  prophet  springs, 
as  is  his  wont,  to  Christ  and  the  time  of  the 
new  law."  And  in  Christ,  the  End  of  the 
law,  the  prophet  ends. 

I  will  turn,  contrary  to  what  they  had  be- 
fore, to  the  people,  lit.  peoples,  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  a  pure  language,  lit.  a  purified  lip. 
It  is  a  real  conversion,  as  was  said  of  Saul  at 

1  "^J^  commonly  signifies  "eternity,"  Ij;  or  HJ^/; 

also  Gen.  xlix.  27,  Is.  xxxiii.  23.  (as  Ch.  KIJ^  &c-) 
" prey ; "  nowhere,  as  Ew.,  "attack." 

2  Is.  xlix.  24,  25.  3  lb.  liii.  10, 12. 
■•  S.  Matt.  xii.  29. 

6  Rom.  vii.  14.  coll.  Is.  1.  1,  Hi.  3. 

«  S.  Cvr.  '  Acts  ii.  24. 

8  See  on  Nah.  i.  2.  »  Lap. 

101  Sam.  X.  9.    in«  3S    )h    "   "ISri'l,  as  here 

n  Gen.  xi.  1,  6,  7,  9.  The  Jews  also  .saw  that  this 
was  a  reversal  of  the  confusion  of  Babel.  "  God, 
blessed  for  ever,  saith,  '  in  this  world,  on  account 
of  evil  concupiscence  (JTTn  "^li^  man's  natural 
corruption)  men  were  divided  into  70  languages; 
but  in  the  world  to  come,  all  shall  agree  with  one 
mind  to  call  upon  Mj'  Name ; '  "  alleemg  this  place. 
Tanchuma  f.  5.  1.  ap.  Schoettg.  ad  loo.  "  R.  Chiia 
said,  'thou  hearest  from  holy  Scripture,  that  all 
hangeth  from  the  word  of  the  mouth  ;'  for  after  the 
tongues  were  confounded,  it  is  added,  '  and  God 
dispersed  them  thence  '  But  in  the  time  to  come, 
what  is  written?  'Then  will  I  turn  &c.'"  Sohar, 
Gen  f.  58.  col.  217.  (Schoettg.  loc.  gen  n.  37).  Again 
it  is  said,  "  when  the  days  of  the  Messiah  shall 


9  For  then  will  I  turn    r- S^^'^H  n- 
to  the  people  p  a  pure  f  Ian-      cir-  63o. 
guage,  that   they  may  all    tHeb.^y*' 


the  beginning;  ^^  God  [lit.]  turned  to  him 
another  heart.  Before  the  dispersion  of  Babel 
the  world  was  '^  uf  one  lip,  but  that,  impure, 
for  it  was  in  rebellion  against  God.  Now  it 
shall  be  again  of  one  lip ;  and  that,  piwifed. 
The  purity  is  of  faith  and  of  life,  that  they 
may  call  upon  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  not  as 
heretofore  on  idols,  but  that  every  tongue 
should  confess  the  one  true  God,  Father  Son 
and  Holy  Ghost,  in  Whose  Name  they 
are  baptized.  This  is  purity  of  faith.  To 
^■■^  call  upon  the  Name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  is  the 
very  title  of  Christian  worship  ;  all  that  called 
upon  the  Name  of  Jesus,  the  very  title  of 
Christians  *^.  To  serve  Him  with  one  consent,  lit. 
with  one  shoulder,  evenly,  steadfastly,  not  un- 
equally yoked,  but  all  with  united  strength, 
bearing  Christ's  easy  yoke  and  one  another's 
burdens,  fulfilling  the  law  of  Christ.  This  is 
purity  of  life.  The  fruit  of  the  lips  is  the  sac- 
rifice of  praise  '*.  God  gave  back  one  pure 
language,  when,  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Author  of  purity,  came 
down  in  fiery  tongues  upon  the  Apostles, 
teaching  them  and  guiding  them  into  the 
whole  truth^^,  and  to  ^^ speak  to  every  one  in  his 
own  tongue,  wherein  he  ukis  born,  the  wonderful 
icoi^ks  of  God.  Thenceforth  there  was  to  be  a 
higher  unity  than  that  of  outward  language. 
For  speech  is  not  the  outer  sound,  but  the 
thoughts  which  it  conveys  and  embodies. 
The  inward  thought  is  the  soul  of  the 
words.  The  outward  confusion  of  Babel  was 
to  hinder  oneness  in  evil  and  a  worse  con- 
fusion. At  Pentecost,  the  unity  restored  was 
oneness  of  soul  and  heart,  wrought  by  One 
Spirit,  Whose  gift  is  the  one  Faith  and  the 


come,  boys  shall  know  the  hidden  things  of  wis- 
dom ;  for  then  shall  all  things  be  revealed,  as  is 
said.  Then  will  I  turn  &c"  lb.  f.  74.  col.  291.  lb.  ad 
loc.  And  of  its  fulfillment  in  the  conversion  of  the 
world,  "Who  would  have  expected  that  God  would 
raise  up  the  tabernacle  of  David,  which  was  fallen? 
and  yet  it  is  read,  In  that  day  I  will  raise  &c.  (Am. 
ix.  11).  And  who  would  have'  hoped  that  the  whole 
world  would  be  one  band?  as  in.  Then  will  I  turn 
&c."  Bereshith  rabVja  n.  88  fin.  Schoettg.  loci  gen. 
n.  18,  and  on  Gen.  xli.  44;  "Why  is,  'they  shall 
praise  Thee'  repeated  four  times  in  Ps.  Ixvii.  4? 
He  means,  'They  .shall  praise  Thee  with  their 
heart;  they  shall  praise  Thee  with  their  mouth; 
they  shall  praise  Thee  with  their  good  deeds,  and 
they  shall  praise  Thee  with  all  these,  as  it  is  said. 
For  then  will  I  turn  &c.'  and  the  Name  of  the  Lord 
is  no  other  than  the  King  Messiah,  according  to, 
'and  the  Name  of  the  Lord  cometh  from  far.'"  in 
Mart.  Pug.  Fid  f  327.  It  is  also  quoted  with  other 
places,  as  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  time  of  the  Messiah, 
Tikkune  Sohar  p.  60  (Schoettg.  Loc.  gen.  n.  80),  R. 
Moseh  in  Ibn  Ezra,  and  Ibn  Ezra  himself,  of  the 
second  temple.    Kimchi  "after  the  wars  of  Gog." 

12  Acts.  xxii.  16.  Rom.  x.  13. 

J»  Acts  ix.  14,  21, 1  Cor.  i.  2.  "  Heb.  xili.  15. 

>5S.  John  xvi.  13.  »«Act3  li.  8, 11. 


284 


ZEPHAXIAH. 


c  H  rTs  t    '^^^^  ^^P°"  ^^^  name  of  the 
_pin_63a___  LoKD,  to   serve  him  with 

+  Heb.  shoulder.  ,  . 

q  Ps.  68. 31.        one  T  consent. 
&14%V'         10  'From  beyond  the 

Mai.  1.'  11.  Acts  8.  27. 


one  Hope  of  our  calling,  in  the  One  Lord,  in 
"Whom  we  are  one,  grafted  into  the  one  body, 
by  our  Baptism  ^  The  Church,  then  created, 
is  the  One  Holy  Catholic  Church  ditlused 
throughout  all  the  world,  everywhere  with 
one  rule  of  Faith,  the  Faith  once  for  all  de- 
livered unto  the  saints,  confessing  one  God,  the 
Trinity  in  Unity,  and  serving  Him  in  the 
one  law  of  the  Gospel  with  one  consent. 
Christians,  as  Christians,  speak  the  same 
language  of  Faith,  and  from  all  quarters  of 
the  world,  one  language  of  praise  goes  up  to 
the  One  Go  I  ami  Father  of  all.  "  '^  God  di- 
vided tlie  tongues  at  Babel,  lest,  understand- 
ing one  another,  tliey  sh(juld  form  a  destruc- 
tive unity.  Through  proud  men  tongues 
were  divided ;  through  humble  Apostles 
tongues  were  gathered  in  one.  The  spirit 
of  pride  dispersed  tongues ;  the  Holy  Spirit 
gathered  tongues  in  one.  For  when  the 
Holy  Spirit  came  upon  the  disciples,  they 
spake  with  the  tongues  of  all,  were  under- 
stood by  all ;  the  dispersed  tongues  were 
gathered  into  one.  So  then,  if  they  are  yet 
angry  and  Gentiles,  it  is  better  for  them  to 
have  their  tongues  divided.  If  they  wish 
for  one  tongue,  let  them  come  to  the  Church  ; 
for  in  diversity  of  the  tongues  of  the  flesh, 
there  is  one  tongue  in  the  Faith  of  the  heart." 
In  whatever  degree  the  oneness  is  impaired 
within  the  Church,  while  there  is  yet  one 
Faith  of  the  Creeds,  He  Alone  can  restore  it 
and  turn  to  her  a  purified  langiUKje,  Wiio  first 
gave  it  to  those  who  waited  for  Him.  Both 
praise  and  service  are  perfected  above,  where 
the  Blessed,  with  one  loud  voice,  ^  shall  cry, 
Salvation  to  oar  God  which  sittelh  upon  the 
Throne  and  unto  the  Lamb  ;  bleiisincj  and  glory 
and  wisdim  awl  thanksgiving  and  honor  and 
power  and  might  be  unto  our  God  for  ever  and 
ever.  And  they  who  hare  come  out  of  great 
tribulation  and  have  washed  their  robes  and  made 
them  ivhite  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb,  shall  be 
before  the.  Throne  of  God  and  serve  Him  day 
and  night  in  His  Temple  *." 

1  Eph.  iv  3-6.  «8.  Aug.  in  Ps.  liv.  6, 

8  Rev  vii.lO,  12 
*  lb.  vii.  14.15. 
&See  ls!\iah  xviii.  i. 

9  K«-al(l  foniootures  013  n3  boranse  Nahnm 
spoaks  of  Ciish,  Phut  ami  I.iiliin  amonp  the  allios 
of  No-Amini>n  or  Thfbos,  and  ronriors  nnj;  "my 
incenses;"  first  remlerin;?  nn;,»  (Rz.  viii.ll)"/Ae 
smoke  of  the  r!oud  of  wrense."  But  thi.s  sense  is  not 
Uself  proved  (in  both  Syr  and  Arab  incense  is  ^£3J? 
not  "^ny)  nor  i.s  ineense  plural;  nor  is  there  any 
parallelism  of  Cush  and  Plint  in  Nahnm,  but  Phut 
and  Lubim  are  historically  named  as  allies  of  No. 


rivers  of  Ethiopia  my  sup-    ^  h  g'^^g  j 
pliants,  eveyi  the  daughter  __£Hi.£3a__ 
of  my  dispersed,  shall  bring 
mine  offering. 


10.  From  beyond  the  rivei-s^  of  Ethiopia, 
The  furthest  Southern  people,  with  whom 
the  .Jews  had  intercourse,  stand  as  the  type 
of  the  whole  world  beyond.  The  utmost 
bound  of  the  known  inhabited  land  should 
not  be  the  bound  of  the  Gospel.  The  con- 
version of  Abyssinia  is  one,  but  the  narrow- 
est fulfillment  of  the  prophecy.  The  whole 
new  world,  tliough  not  in  the  mind  of  the 
prophet,  Avas  in  the  mind  of  Him  Who 
spake  by  the  prophet. 

My  suppliants.  He  names  them  as  what 
they  shall  be  when  they  shall  come  to  Him. 
They  shall  come,  as  needy,  to  the  Fountain 
of  all  good,  asking  for  mercy  of  the  unfailing 
Source  of  all  mercy.  He  describes  the  very 
character  of  all  who  come  to  God  through 
Christ.  The  daughter  of  3fy  dispersed  ^.  God 
is,  in  the  way  of  Providence,  the  Father  of 
all,  although,  by  sin,  alienated  from  Him ; 
whence  S.  Paul  says,  we  are  the  offspring  of 
God ''.  They  were  dispersed,  severed  from  the 
oneness  in  Him  and  from  His  house  and 
family  ;  yet  still,  looking  on  them  as  already 
belonging  to  Him,  He  calls  them,  3fy  dis- 
persed, as  by  Caiaphas,  being  high-priest,  Ha 
prophesied  that  Jesus  should  dkfor  that  nation; 
and  not  for  that  nation  only,  but  that  also  Hi 
should  gather  together  in  one  the  children  of  God- 
that  ivere  scattered  abroad  ". 

ShaJl  bring  Mine  offering  '.  The  offering  is 
the  same  as  that  which  Malachi  prophesies 
shall  continue  under  the  New  Testament, 
which  ottering  was  to  be  offered  to  the  Name 
of  God,  not  in  Jerusalem,  but  '"  in  every  place 
from  the  rising  of  the  sun  unto  the  going  down  of 
the  same.  The  dark  skin  of  the  Ethiopian  is 
the  image  of  ingrained  sin,  which  man  could 
not  efface  or  change  "  :  their  conversion  then 
declares  how  those  steeped  in  sin  shall  be 
cleansed  from  all  their  darkness  of  mind, 
and  wa.shcd  white  from  their  sins  in  Bap- 
tism and  beautified  by  the  graceof  God. 
"  '^  The  word  of  prophecy  endeth  in  truth. 
For  not  only  through  the  Roman  empire  is 

'  Acts  xvii.  28.  8  S.  .John  xi.  ."SI,  .52. 

0 It  is  possible  also  to  render,  "from  beyond  the 
rivers  of  Ethiopia,  Mv  suppliants  the  dauchter  of 
Mv  di.spersed  shall  tliev  bring  as  Mine  otferinp;" 
and  this  some  have  preferred  on  account  of  the 
like  place  in  Isaiah  Ixvi.  •.'o,  "And  they  shall  lirmg 
all  voiir  brethren  for  an  ofterintr  nnto  tlie  Lord  out 
of  all  nations  *c."  But  the  word  nnj*D  alone  is 
common  to  the  two  passages,  and  the  words  "13^'0 

tj?13  nnjS  which  occur  In  Is.  xviii.  1,  and  73V 

"S  'ty  lb.  7,  make  me  think  that  this  place  rather 
was  in  tlie  prophet's  mind 
10 Mai.  i.  11.  "  ler.  xiii.  23.  "S.  Cyr. 


CHAPTER  III. 


285 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


11  In  that  day  shalt 

.thou  not  be  ashamed  for 

all  thy  doings,  wherein 

thou  hast  transgressed 

against  me :  for  then  I  will 


the  Gospel  preached,  but  it  circles  round  the 
barbarous  nations.  And  there  are  Churches 
everywhere,  shepherds  and  teachers,  guides 
and  instructors  in  mj-steries,  and  sacred 
altars,  and  the  Lamb  is  invisibly  sacrificed 
by  lioly  priests  among  Indians  too  and 
Ethiopians.  And  this  was  said  plainly  by 
another  j^ropliet  also  ^  For  I  am  a  great  King, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  My  Name  is  great  among 
the  heathen,  and  in  every  place  incense  is  offered 
to  My  Name  and  a  pure  sacrifice." 

11.  Ill  that  day  shalt  thou  not  be  ashamed  for 
all  thy  doings,  because  God,  forgiving  them, 
will  blot  them  out  and  no  more  remember 
them.  This  was  first  fulfilled  in  the  Gospel. 
" ''  No  one  can  doubt  that  when  Christ  caine  in 
the  flesh,  there  was  an  amnesty  and  remission 
to  all  who  believed.  For  we  are  justified  not 
by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but 
according  to  His  great  mercy.  But  we  have 
been  released  from  shame.  For  He  hath  re- 
stored us  to  freedom  of  access  to  God,  Who 
for  our  sakes  arose  from  the  dead,  and  for  us 
ascended  to  heaven  in  the  presence  of  the 
Father.  For  Christ,  our  Forerunner,  hath  as- 
cended for  us  now  to  appear  in  the  presence  of 
God.  So  then  He  took  away  tlie  guilt  of  all 
and  freed  believers  from  failures  and  shame." 
St.  Peter,  even  in  heaven,  must  remember 
his  denial  of  our  Lord,  yet  not  so  as  to  be 
ashamed  or  pained  any  more,  since  the  ex- 
ceeding love  of  God  will  remove  all  shame  or 
pain.  "  ^  Mighty  promise,  mighty  consola- 
tion. Now,  before  that  Day  comes,  the  Day 
of  My  Resurrection,  thou  wilt  be  ashamed 
and  not  without  reason,  since  thou  ownest 
by  a  true  confession,  ^  all  our  righteousnesses  are 
as  filthy  rags.  But  at  that  Day  it  will  not  be 
so,  especially  when  that  shall  be  which  I 
promise  thee  in  the  Prophets  and  tlie  Psalms, 
°  There  shall  be  a  Fountain  opened  for  sin  and 
for  uncleanness ;  whence  David  also,  exult- 
ing in  good  hope  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  saith, 
*  Thou  shalt  wash  me  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than 
snow.  For  though  he  elsewhere  saith,  '  they 
looked    unto   Him    and     were    lightened,   and 

iMal.  i.  11.  2  8.  Cyr.  3Rup. 

*Is.  Ixiv.  6.  6Zech.  .xiii.  1. 

sps.  li.  7.  'lb.  xxxiv.  5. 

8  Rom.  vi.  21.  9  Ps.  Ixxxix.  1. 

'"It  cannot  be  "those  that  exult  in  thy  highness;" 
for  niJ^J,  as  used  of  man,  always  has  a  bad  sense, 
"self-exaltntion." 
"  Rom.  ii.  17, 18-20,  23. 
'*As  in  E.  M.,  not,  because  of.  ri3J,  as  a  mental 

quality,  mostly  occurs  with  37  and  is  used  in  a 
liad   sense  of  liigh-mindedness=pride :  Ps.  exxxi. 


take  away  out  of  the  midst 
of  thee  them  that  "■  rejoice . 
in  thy  pride,  and  thou  shalt 
no  more  be  haughty  f  be- 
cause of  my  holy  mountain. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

r  Jer.  7.  4. 

Mic.  3.  11. 

Matt.  3.  9. 
f  Heb.  in  my 

holy. 


their  faces  were  not  ashamed,  yet  in  this 
mortal  life,  when  the  Day  of  My  Resur- 
rection doth  not  fully  shine  upon  thee, 
thou  art  after  some  sort  ashamed ;  as  it  is 
written,  •*  What  fruit  had  ye  then  in  those 
things  whereof  ye  are  now  ashamed?  but  that 
shame  will  bring  glory,  and,  when  that  glory 
cometh  in  its  )>lace,  will  wholly  pass  away. 
But  when  the  fullness  of  that  day  shall  come, 
the  fullness  of  My  Resurrection,  when  the 
members  shall  rise,  as  the  Head  hath  risen, 
will  the  memory  of  past  foulness  bring  any 
confusion  ?  Yea  the  very  memory  of  the 
miseries  will  be  the  richest  subject  of  singing, 
according  to  that,  ^  My  song  shall  be  alway  of 
the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord."  For  how 
shall  the  redeemed  forget  the  mercies  of  their 
redemption,  or  yet  how  feel  a  painful  shame 
even  of  the  very  miseries,  out  of  which  they 
were  redeemed  by  the  fullness  of  the  over- 
streaming  Love  of  God  ? 

For  then  will  I  take  away  out  of  the  midst  of 
thee  them  that  rejoice  in  thy  pride,  [^those  of  thee 
tvho  exult  in  pride  '**.]  All  coniusion  shall 
cease,  because  all  pride  shall  cease,  the  pa- 
rent of  sin  and  confusion.  The  very  gift  of 
Gdd  becomes  to  the  carnal  a  source  of  pride. 
Pride  was  to  the  Jew  also  the  great  hindrance 
to  the  recepti(m  of  the  Gospel.  He  made  his 
boast  of  the  law,  yea,  in  God  Himself,  that  he 
knew  Hk  will,  and  was  a  guide  of  others  ",  and 
so  was  the  more  indignant,  that  the  heathen 
was  made  equal  to  him,  and  that  he  too  was 
called  to  repentance  and  faith  in  Christ.  So, 
going  about  to  establish  his  own  righteousness,  he 
did  not  suhmit  himself  to  the  righteousness  of 
God,  but  shut  himself  out  from  the  faith  and 
grace  and  salvation  of  Christ,  and  rejected 
Himself.  So,  ^  thy  pride  may  be  the  pride  in 
being  the  people  of  God,  and  having  Abra- 
ham for  their  father.  And  thou  shalt  no  more 
be  haughty  ^^m  My  holy  mountain,  "  but  thou 
shalt  stand  in  the  great  and  everlasting 
abiding-place  of  humility,  knowing  perfectly, 
that  thou  now  '  knowest  in  part '  only,  and 
confessest  truly  that  no  one  ever  could  or  can 

1,  (David's),  Pr.  xviii.  12,  Ez.  xxviii.  2,  5, 17,  2  Chr 
xxvi.  10,  xxxii.  25 ;  absol.  in  a  bad  sense,  Is.  iii.  IG, 
Jer.  xiii.  15,  Ez.  xvi.  50.  It  is  used  of  eminence 
given  by  God,  Job  xxxvi.  7,  and  of  tne  Messiah  as 
exalted' by  Him,  Is.  Iii.  13.     Once  only,  2  Chr.  xvii. 

f',  ID;  HDJ  is  used  in  a  good  sense  of  Jehoshaphat, 
th;it,  being  exalted  by  God,  "his  heart  was  elevated 

in  the  ways  of  the  law."'  The  form  nHDJ  /  ^^  ^^^^ 
the  inf.  in  Ex.  xxix.  29,  xxx.  18,  xxxvi.  2,  Lev.  xv. 
32,  &c. 


286 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 

'  Isai.  14.  32. 
Zech.  11.  II. 
Matt.  .5.  3. 
1  Cor.  1.27,28. 
Jam.  2.  5. 


12  I  will  aho  leave  iu 
the  midst  of  thee  'an  af- 
flicted and  poor  people, 
and  they  shall  trust  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord. 


by  his  own  works  be  justified  in  the  sight  of 
God.  ^  For  all  have  sinned  and  come  short  of 
the  glory  of  God."  Pride  which  is  ever  offen- 
sive to  God,  is  yet  more  hideous  in  a  holy 
place  or  a  holy  office,  in  Mount  Sion  where 
the  temple  was  or  in  the  Christian  priest- 
hood. 

12.  And  I  will  also  leave  {over,  as  a  remnant, 
it  is  still  the  same  heavy  prophecy,  that  a 
remnant  only  shall  be  saved'^)  an  afflicted  and 
poor  people.  Priests,  (except  that  great  com- 
pany who  were  obedient  to  the  faith'*)  scribes, 
lawyers,  Pharisees,  Sadducees  were  taken 
away  ;  and  there  remained  "  *  the  people  of 
the  land,"  the  ^  unlearned  and  ignorant,  *  the 
iveak  things  of  the  world  and  the  things  de^'^pised 
who  bore  the  very  title  of  their  Master ',  the 
poor  and  needy  ;  poor  in  Spirit "  ;  poor  also  in 
outward  things,  since  they  who  had  lands,  sold 
them  and  they  had  all  things  common  ®.  They 
were  afflicted  above  measure  outwardly  in  the 
^"persecutions,  reproaches,  s}X)iling  of  their  ^oocfe, 
stripes,  deaths,  which  they  endured  for 
Christ's  sake.  They  knew  too  their  own 
poverty;  "'^knowing  themselves  to  be  sin- 
ners, and  that  they  were  justified  only  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ."  When  the  rest  were 
cast  out  of  the  midst  of  her,  these  should  be 
left  in  the  midst  of  her  (the  words  stand  in  con- 
trast with  one  another)  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Church.  And  they  shall  trust  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord.  "  As  they  looked  to  be  justified 
only  in  the  Xame  of  Christ,"  and  "  ^  trusted 
in  the  grace  and  power  of  God  alone,  not  in 
any  power  or  wisdom  or  eloquence  or  riches 
of  this  world,  they  converted  the  world  to  a 
faith  above  nature."  "'*  Conformed  in  this 
too  to  Christ,  Who  for  our  sakes  became 
poor  and  almost  neglected  both  His  divine 
glory  and  the  supereniinence  of  His  nature, 
to  subject  Himself  to  the  condition  of  a  ser- 
vant. So  then  those  instructed  in  His  laws 
after  His  example,  tiiink  humbly  of  them- 

1  Rom.  iii.  23. 

»  lb.  ix.  27.  See  ab.  on  Mic.  ii.  12.  p.  36. 

« .\ots  vi.  7. 

*  V^Kn    DJ?    the    uneducated,    this  people   that 

kiioiceth  not  the  law  (S.  John  vii.  4!1).  "one  in  wliom 
there  are  moral  not  intellectual  e.\cellenees." 
Rainbam  in  Buxt.  Lex.  Talm.  col.  1G26. 

'.\otsiv.  13.         •  1  Cor.  i.  27,  28.  'Ps.  xli.  1. 

«"J|»  is  not  simply  "poor,"  nor  1J^»  simply 
"meek."  'JJ?  is  one  "afflicted,"  in  whom  affliction 
has  produced  its  fruits ;  i Jj,«,  one  "  meek  "  but  in 
whom  patience  ha.s  been  tried  and  perfected;  a.'' 
the  same  class  are  meant  by  the  irrcoj^ol,  S.  Luke  vi. 
..■ti.  niid   thf  irTco;^oi  t<."   n->'«i'/»aTi,  S.  Mfltf.  v.  :t :  nnd. 


13 


The  remnant  of  Is-  (.  ^f'H  j 


rael  °  shall  not  do  iniquity, . 

*  nor   speak   lies  ;    neither    '  Mic  4. 7. 

^         ^  ch.  2.  7. 

shall  a  deceitful  toncrue  be    "1881.60.21. 

*=  »Isai.  63.  8. 

found  in  their  mouth :  for      Rev.  14. 5. 


selves.  They  became  most  exceedingly  loved 
of  God,  and  chiefly  the  divine  disciples,  who 
were  set  as  lights  of  the  world." 

13.  The  remnant  of  Israel,  the  same  poor 
people,  the  true  Israel  of  whom  God  said,  / 
leave  over  (the  word  is  the  same)  a  poor  people, 
few,  compared  with  the  rest  who  were  olind- 
ed  ;  of  whom  the  Lord  said,  /  know  ivhom  I 
have  chosen^*.  These  shall  not  do  iniquity  nor 
speak  lies.  "^^This  is  a  spiritual  adorning,  a 
most  beautiful  coronet  of  glorious  virtues. 
For  where  meekness  and  humility  are  and 
the  desire  of  righteousness,  and  the  tongue 
unlearns  vain  words  and  sinful  speech,  and 
is  the  instrument  of  strict  truth,  there  dawns 
a  bright  and  most  perfect  virtue.  And  this 
beseems  those  who  are  in  Christ.  For  the 
beauty  of  piety  is  not  seen  in  the  Law,  but 
gleams  forth  in  the  power  of  Evangelic 
teaching." 

Our  Lord  said  of  Nathanael,  '^  Behold  an 
Israelite  indeed,  in  ivhom  is  no  guile,  and  to  the 
Apostles,  ^^  I  send  you  forth  as  sheep  amomj 
wolves ;  be  ye  therefore  tvise  as  serpents  and 
harmless  as  doves  ;  and  of  the  first  Christians 
it  is  said,  *'  they,  continuing  daily  with  one  accord 
in  the  temple,  and  breaking  bread  from  house  to 
house  did  eat  their  meat  ivith  gladness  and  .«m« 
gleness  of  heart,  praising  G<xl  and  having  favor 
with  nil  the  people.  This  is  the  character  of 
Christians,  as  such,  and  it  was  at  first  ful- 
filled ;  '*  whosoever  is  born  of  God,  doth  not 
commit  sin;  ^^ tvhosoei'e)'  is  born  of  God  sinneth 
not  ;  but  he  that  is  begotten  of  God  keepeth  him- 
self, and  that  wicked  one  toucheth  him  not.  An 
Apologist,  at  the  close  of  the  second  century, 
could  appeal  to  the  Roman  Emperor  '^,  that 
no  Christian  was  found  among  their  crim- 
inals, "  unless  it  be  only  as  a  Christian,  or, 
if  he  be  anything  else,  he  is  forthwitii  no 
longer  a  Christian.  We  alone  then  are  inno- 
cent !  What  wonder  if  this  be  so,  of  neces- 
sity ?    And  truly  of  necessity  it  is  so.  Taught 

"  no  humility  without  humiliation,"  is  become  a 
Christian  proverb. 

» .Acts  ii.  44,  45,  iv.  .32,  35. 

w  .\cts  viii.  1,  ix.  2, 13,  14.  xii.  1,  2,  xiii.  50,  xiv.  .V 
22.  xxii.  Ac.  Rom.  viii.  17,  3.'>,  36.  xii.  14, 1  Cor.  ix.  l!t, 
2  Cor.  i.  8,  »,  xii.  10,  2  Thess.  i.  4,  2  Tim.  iii.  11,  12, 
Heh.  X.  32-34,  8  James  ii.  6,  7, 1  S.  Pet.  i.  6,  7.  iv.  13, 
Rev.  i.  n.  vi.  !)  Ac. 

»  Rup.     "Dion.     iss.  Cyr.         >«S.  John  xiii.  18. 

iiilb.  i.  47.        i« S.  Mat.  X.  16.        "  Acts  ii.  46,  47. 

'» 1  .S.  John  iii.  9.  "  lb.  v.  18. 

»Tert.  .\pol.  c.  44,  45.  See  al.«o  Justin  M.  1.  n.  34. 
S.  .\thenaKora.s,  n.  2,  Minutius  Felix  p.  333.  Theo- 
doret  de  cur.  Grrec.  aff.  Disp.  xii.  circ.  med  p.  1021 
sqq.  ed  Schultz;  Lncfiint.  v  0  cinotcd  11). 


CHAPTER  III. 


287 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630. 
y  Ezek.  34.  28. 

Mic.  4.  4. 

&  7.  14. 
>  Isai.  1-'.  0. 

&54.  1.  Zeclu2.  10.  &9.  9. 


^they   shall   feed   and   lie 
.  down,  and  none  shall  make 
them  afraid, 

14  ^  ^  Sing,  O  daughter 


innocence  by  God,  we  both  know  it  per- 
fectly, as  being  revealed  by  a  perfect  Master ; 
and  we  keep  it  faithfully,  as  being  committed 
to  us  by  an  Observer,  \Vho  may  not  be  de- 
spised." "'Being  so  vast  a  multitude  of 
men,  almost  the  greater  portion  of  every 
state,  we  live  silently  and  modestly,  known 
perhaps  more  as  individuals  than  as  a  body, 
and  to  be  known  by  no  other  sign  than  the 
reformation  of  our  former  sins."  Now  in 
the  Church,  which  "our  earth  dimm'd  eyes 
behold,"  we  can  but  say,  as  in  regard  to  the 
cessation  of  war'''  under  the  Gospel,  that 
God's  promises  are  sure  on  His  part,  that 
still  ^  Ifieij  that  are  C%'isfti  have  crucified  the 
flesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts,  that  the  Gos- 
pel is  *  a  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  that  the 
^preaching  of  the  Cross  is,  ^mto  us  which  are 
saved,  the  power  of  God;  ^  unto  them  that  are 
called,  Christ  is  the  power  of  God  and  the  rvisdcnn 
of  God;  that  those  who  will,  ''are  kept  by 
God  through  faith  unto  salvation ;  but  that 
now  too  "  they  are  not  cdl  Israel,  ivhich  are  of 
Israel,  and  that  *  the  faithlessness  of  man  does 
not  make  the  faith  of  God  of  none  effect.  "  '"The 
Church  of  God  is  universally  holy  in  respect 
of  all,  by  institutions  and  administrations  of 
sanctity ;  the  same  Church  is  really  holy  in 
this  world,  in  relation  to  all  godly  persons 
contained  in  it,  by  a  real  infused  sanctity  ; 
the  same  is  farther  yet  at  the  same  time 
perfectly  holy  in  reference  to  the  saints  de- 
parted and  admitted  to  the  presence  of  God ; 
and  the  same  Church  shall  hereafter  be  most 
completely  holy  in  the  world  to  come,  when 
all  the  members,  actually  belonging  to  it, 
shall  be  at  once  perfected  in  holiness  and 
completed  in  happiness."  Most  fully  shall 
this  be  fulfilled  in  the  Resurrection.  "  "  O 
blessed  day  of  the  Resurrection,  in  whose 
fullness  no  one  will  sin  in  word  or  deed  !  O 
great  and  blessed  reward  to  every  soul,  which, 
although  it  hath  now  done  iniquity  and  spoken 
fcdsehood,  yet  willeth  not  to  do  it  further ! 
Great  and  blessed  reward,  that  he  shall  now 
receive  such  immovableness,  as  no  longer  to 
be  able  to  do  iniquity  or  speak  falsehood, 
since  the  blessed  soul,  through  the  Spirit  of 
everlasting  love  inseparably  united  with  God 
its  Creator,  shall  now  no  more  be  capable  of 
an  evil  will !  " 

For  they  shall  feed ;  on  the  hidden  manna, 

1  Id.  ad  Seap.  n.  2,  p,  145.  Oxf.  Tr. 

2  See  ab.  on  Mic.  iv.  3  pp.  .56,  57. 

"Gal.  V.  24.  See  Dr.  Pusey's  Sermon,  "  Tlie  Gospel, 
ihe  power  of  God."    Lenten  Sermons,  pp.  300-321. 
*  Rom.  i.  If),  6  1  Cor.  i.  18,  «  Ih.  24. 


of  Zion ;  shout,  0  Israel ; 
be  glad   and   rejoice  with, 
all  the  heart,  O  daughter 
of  Jerusalem. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


"''^nourished  most  delicately  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  with  inward  delights,  and  spiritual 
food,  the  bread  of  life."  In  the  things  of  the 
body  too  was  '^  distribution  made  unto  evei-y  man 
according  as  he  had  need.  And  they  shall  lie 
douii  in  the  green  pastures  where  He  foldeth 
them;  and  none  shall  make  them  afraid,  "'for 
they  were  ready  to  suffer  and  to  die  for  the 
Name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  '*.  '^  They  departed 
from  the  presence  of  the  council  rejoicing  that 
they  were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  fw  His 
Name.  Before  the  Resurrection  and  the 
sending  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  how  great  was 
the  fearfulness,  unsteadfastness,  weakness  of 
the  disciples  ;  how  great,  after  the  infusion 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  their  constancy  and 
imperturbableness,  it  is  delightsome  to  esti- 
mate in  their  Acts,"  when  they  ^^bare  His 
Name  before  the  Gentiles  and  kings,  and  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  he  who  had  been  afraid 
of  a  little  maid,  said  to  the  High  Priest, 
''  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men. 
"  i«  When  Christ  the  Good  Shepherd  Who 
laid  down  His  life  for  His  sheep,  shone  upon 
us,  we  are  fed  in  gardens  and  pastured  among 
lilies,  and  lie  down  in  folds ;  for  we  are  folded 
in  Churches  and  holy  shrines,  no  one  scaring 
or  spoiling  us,  no  wolf  assailing  nor  lion 
trampling  on  us,  no  robber  breaking  thi'ough, 
no  one  invading  us,  to  steal  and  kill  and  de- 
stroy ;  but  we  abide  in  safety  and  partici- 
pation of  every  good,  being  in  charge  of  Christ 
the  Saviour  of  all." 

14.  Sing,  0  daughter  of  Sion ;  shout,  0  Is- 
rael ;  be  glad  and  rejoice  with  all  the  heart,  0 
daughter  of  Jerusalem.  Very  remarkable 
throughout  all  these  verses  is  the  use  of  the 
sacred  number  three,  secretly  conveying  to 
the  thoughtful  soul  the  thought  of  Him,  Fa- 
ther Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  the  Holy  and  Un- 
divided Trinity  by  Whose  operation  these 
things  shall  be.  Threefold  is  the  descrip- 
tion of  their  being  freed  from  sins ;  1)  they 
shall  not  do  iniquity,  2)  nor  speak  lies,  3) 
neither  shall  a  deceitful  tongue  be  found  in  their 
mouth.  Threefold  their  blessedness ;  They 
shall  1)  feed,  2)  lie  down,  3)  none  make  them 
afraid.  Threefold  the  exhortation  to  joy 
here;  '^^^Sing  to  God  the  Father;  shout  to 
God  the  Son ;  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  God 
the  Holy  Ghost,  which  Holy  Trinity  is  One 
God,  from  Whom  thou  hast  received  it  that 

US.  Pet.  i.  5.  SRom.  i.x.  6.  «Ib.  iii.  3. 

10  Bp.  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  Art.  ix. 
»  Rup.  i«  Dion. 

"  Acts  iv.  35.  1*  lb.  .xxl.  13.  i'  lb.  v.  41. 

lOAct-i  ix.  15.      iMb.v.29.      "S.Cvril.     i»Rnp. 


288 


ZEPHANIAH. 


chrTst       15  The   Lord   hath 

''''••  ^'•^^-      taken  away  thy  judgments, 

he  hath   cast  out  thine 

•John  1.49.       enemy:     *the    king    of 


thou  art  1)  the  daughter  of  Zion,  2)  Israel,  3) 
the  daughter  of  Jerusalem  ;  the  daughter  of  Zion 
by  faith, /*rae/  by  hope,  Jerusalemhy  charity." 
And  this  hidden  teaching  of  that  holy  mys- 
tery is  continued ;  ^  The  Lord,  God  the  Fa- 
tlier,  hath  taken  away  thy  judgments ;  He  God 
the  Son,  hath  cast  out  (cleared  quite  aimy)  thinie 
enemy  ;  the  king  of  Israel,  the  Lord,  the  Holy 
Ghost,  !.?  in  the  midst  of  thee  !  The  promise  is 
threefold,  1)  thou  shall  not  see  ei-il  any  more  ;  2) 
fear  thou  not;  3)  let  not  thine  hands  be  slack. 
The  love  of  God  is  threefold.  1)  He  will  re- 
joice over  thee  with  joy ;  2)  He  will  rest  in  His 
lore;  3)  He  will  joy  over  thee  ivith  singing. 
Again  the  words  in  these  four  verses  are  so 
framed  as  to  be/«Z-filled  in  the  end.  All  in 
this  life  are  but  shadows  of  that  fullness. 
First,  whether  the  Church  or  the  faithful 
soul,  she  is  summoned  by  all  her  names, 
daughter  of  Zion  ("the  thirsty"  athirst  for 
God)  Israel  ("Prince  with  God'')  Jerusalem 
("City  of  Peace").  By  all  she  is  called  to 
the  fullest  joy  in  God  with  every  expression 
and  every  feeling.  Sing;  it  is  the  inarticu- 
late, thrilling,  trembling  burst  of  joy ;  shout; 
again  the  inarticulate  yet  louder  swell  of  joy, 
a  trumpet-blast ;  and  then  too,  deep  witiiin, 
be  glad,  the  calm  even  joy  of  the  inward  soul ; 
exult,  the  triumph  of  the  soul  which  cannot 
contain  itself  for  joy  ;  and  this,  with  the  whole 
heart,  no  corner  of  it  not  pervaded  with  joy. 
The  ground  of  this  is  the  complete  removal 
of  every  evil,  and  tlie  full  Presence  of  God. 

15.  The  Lord  hath  taken  away  thy  judgments  ; 
her  own,  because  brought  upon  lier  by  her 
sins.  But  when  God  takes  away  the  chas- 
tisements in  mercy,  He  removes  and  forgives 
the  sin  toa.  Else,  to  remove  the  judgments 
only,  would  be  to  abandon  the  sinner.  He 
hath  cast  out,  lit.  cleared  quite  away  ^,  as  a  man 
clears  away  all  hindrances,  all  which  stands 
in  the  way,  so  that  there  should  be  none 
whatever  left — thine  enemy  ;  the  one  enemy, 
from  whom  every  hindrance  to  our  salvation 
comes,  as  He  saitii,  "^  Now  shall  the  prince  of 
this  world  be  cast  out.  The  King  of  Israel,  even 
the  Lord,  Christ  the  Lord,  is  in  the  midst  of 
thee,  of  Whom  it  is  said,  *  He  that  sitteth  on 
the  throne  shall  dwell  among  them,  and  Who 
Himself  saitii,  ^  Lo  I  am  ivlth  you  always  unto 
the  end  of  the  world.  ®  Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered    together  in   My  Name,   there  am.  I 


» V.  16. 

» Beside  tils'*  place,  tlie  word  in  used  of  "the 
fleoring  of  a  house,"  Gen.  xxiv.  31,  Lev.  xiv.  30; 
"II  way,"  !*<.  xl.  n,  Ivii.  II,  Ixii.  lO;  Mnl.  ill.  1; 
"ilf'iinii!:  gionnil,"  l^-*.  Ix.xx.  lu. 


Israel,  even  the  Lord,  "  is 
in    the    midst    of   thee:, 
thou  shalt  not  see  evil  any 
more. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  KW. 

i>ver.  5,  17. 
Ezek.  48.  35. 
Rev.  7. 15. 
&  21.  3,  4. 


171  the  midst  of  you.  He  Who  had  removed 
from  the  midst  of  her  the  proud.  Who  liad 
left  in  the  midst  of  her  tliose  with  whom 
He  dwelleth,  shall  Himself  dwell  in  the  midst 
of  her  in  mercy,  as  He  had  before  in  judg- 
ment ^  He  cleanseth  the  soul  for  His  in- 
dwelling, and  so  dwelleth  in  the  mansion 
which  He  had  prepared  for  Himself.  Thou 
shalt  not  see  evil  any  more.  For  even  the  re- 
mains of  evil,  while  we  are  yet  in  the  flesh, 
are  overruled,  and  ^ivork  together  to  good  to 
those  who  love  God.  They  cannot  separate  be- 
tween the  soul  and  Christ.  Kather,  He  is 
nearer  to  her  in  them.  We  are  bidden  to 
^  count  it  all  joy  when  we  fall  into  divers 
temptations,  for  ail  sorrows  are  but  medicine 
from  a  father's  hand.  "  ^°  And  truly  our  way 
to  eternal  joy  is  to  suffer  here  with  Christ, 
and  our  door  to  enter  into  eternal  life 
is  gladly  to  die  with  Christ,  that  we 
may  rise  again  from  death  and  dwell 
with  Him  in  everlasting  life."  So  in  the 
Revelation,  it  is  first  said  that  God  should 
dwell  with  His  people,  and  then  that  all  pain 
shall  cease.  "  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  is 
with  men,  and  He  ivill  dwell  with  them  and  be 
their  God.  And  God  shall  wipe  cdl  tears  from 
their  eyes;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death, 
neither  sorrow  nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be 
any  more  pain  ;  for  the  former  things  are  passed 
away.  "  '^  In  the  inmost  meaning  of  the  words, 
he  could  not  but  bid  her  rejoire  and  be  ex- 
ceeding glad  and  rejoice  with  her  whole 
heart,  her  sins  being  done  away  tiirou^h 
Clirist.  For  the  holy  and  spiritual  Zion,  the 
Church,  the  multitude  of  believers,  is  justi-' 
fied  in  Christ  Alone,  and  we  are  saved  by 
Him  and  from  Him,  escaj)ing  the  harms  of 
our  invisilile  enemies,  and  having  in  the 
midst  of  us  the  King  and  Go  1  of  all,  Who 
appeared  in  our  likeness,  the  Word  from 
God  the  Father,  tliroui;li  Whom  we  see  not 
evil,  i.  e.  are  freed  Irom  all  wlio  could  do  us 
evil.  For  He  is  the  worker  of  our  accept- 
ableness,  our  peace,  our  wall,  the  bestower  of 
incorruption,  the  dispenser  of  crowns,  \Vho 
lighteneth  the  assaults  of  devils,  Wlio  givitii 
us  to  '*  tread  on  serpents  and  scorpions  and  all 
the  power  of  the  enemy — through  Wiioiii  we 
are  in  good  hope  of  immortality  and  life, 
adoption  and  glory,  through  Whom  we  shall 
not  see  evil  any  more." 


8  S.  John  xii.  .HI.  *  Rev.  vii.  15. 

'S.  Matt,  xxviii.  20.  «  lb.  xviii.  20. 

'  Verses  11  12, 15,  5.  »  Rom.  viii.  28. 

«  S.  J.'>mes  1.  2.      10  Exhort,  in  Visit,  of  the  sick. 
»  Rev.  .\.\i.  3,  4.        12S.  Cvril.       I'S.  I.iilcp  x.  1'.*. 


CHAPTER  HI, 


289 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  G30. 

-  Is.  35.  3,  4. 
«  Heb.  12. 12. 
I  Ov,  faint. 


16  In  that  day  "  it  shall 
be  said  to  Jerusalem,  Fear 
thou  not :  and  to  Zion, 
*Let  not  thine  hands  be 
II  slack. 

17  The  Lord  thy  God 


16.  In  that  day  it  shall  be  said  to  Jerusalem, 
Fear  thou  not;  for  ^perfect  love  casteth  out 
fear  ;  whence  he  saith,  '■'  Fear  not,  little  flock  ; 
it  is  your  Father  s  good  pleaswe  to  give  you  the 
kingdom.  Who  then  and  what  should  the 
Cliurch  or  the  faithful  soul  fear,  since  might- 
ier is  He  that  is  in  her,  than  he  that  is  in  the 
uvrld  f  And  to  Zion,  Let  not  thine  hands  be 
slack,  through  faint-heartedness  ^,  but  work 
with  all  th}'  might ;  be  ready  to  do  or  bear 
anything ;  since  Christ  worketh  with,  in,  by 
thee,  and  *  in  due  time  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint 
not. 

17.  The  Lord  thy  God  in  the  midst  of  thee  is 
mighty  ;  He  will  save.  What  can  He  then  not 
do  for  thee,  since  He  is  Almighty?  What 
will  He  not  do  for  thee,  since  He  will  save? 
Whom  then  should  we  fear?  *  If  God  be  for 
lis,  who  can  be  against  us  f  But  then  was  He 
especially  in  the  midst  of  us,  when  God  ®  the 
Word  became  flesh  and  divelt  among  us;  and  tve 
beheld  His  Glory,  the  Glory  as  of  the  Only- 
Begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  Truth. 
Thenceforth  He  ever  is  in  the  midst  of  His 
own.  He  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  ^co?Me  unto  them  and  make  Their  abode 
with  them,  so  that  they  are  the  temple  of  God. 
He  ivill  save,  as  He  saith,  ^  3Iy  Father  is 
greater  than  all,  and  no  man  is  able  to  pluck 
them  out  of  My  Father's  hand.  I  and  My 
Father  are  One.  Of  the  same  time  of  the 
Christ,  Isaiah  saith  almost  in  the  same 
words;  ^Strengthen  ye  the  weak  hands  and  con- 
firm the  feeble  knees,  Say  to  them  that  are  of  a 
feeble  heart,  Be  strong,  fear  not,  behold  your  God 
u'ill  come.  He  will  come  and  save  you ;  and  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  ^^  He  will  save  us. 

He  will  rejoice  over  thee  uithjoy.  Love,  joy, 
peace  in  man  are  shadows  of  that  which  is 
in  God,  by  Wiiom  they  are  created  in  man. 
Only  in  God  they  exist  undivided,  uncreated. 
Plence  God  speaks  after  the  manner  of  men, 
of  that  which  truly  is  in  God.  God  joyeth 
"  with  an  uncreated  joy  "  over  the  works  of 
His  Hands  or  the  objects  of  His  Love,  as 
man  joyeth  over  the  object  of  his  love.  So 
Isaiah  saith  -^,  As  the  bridegroom  rejoiceth  over 
the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice  over  thee.  As 
with  uncreated  love  the  Father  resteth  in 
good  pleasure  in  His  Well-beloved  Son,  so 


1  S.  John  iv.  18. 
8  See  Heb.  xii.  12. 
*  Rom.  viii.  31. 
1  lb.  xiv.  23. 
» Is.  XXXV.  3,  4. 

19 


8  8.  Luke  xii.  32. 
<Gal.  vi.  9. 
•S.  Johni.  14. 
« lb.  X.  29,  30. 
10  lb.  xxxiii.  22. 


'in   the   midst   of  thee  is    chr^ist 
mighty;  he  will  save,  fhe__£ifli?2i_ 


will  rejoice  over  thee  with  "Yf-  is. 

''  fDeut.  .30.  9. 

loy ;  the  will  rest  in  his  i^ai.(i2. 5. 

&  Go.  19. 

love,  he  will  joy  over  thee  Jer.  .32. '41. 

...       .         ''    -'  tHeb. /letciM  be 

With  sinffina:.  sUent. 


'^  God  is  well-pleased  vnth  the  sacrifices  of  loving 
deeds,  and,  ^'  the  Lord  delighteth  in  thee ;  and^ 
^*  I  will  rejoice  in  Jerusalem  and  joy  in  My  peo- 
ple ;  and,  '•'  the  Lord  will  again  rejoice  over  thee 
for  good.  And  so  in  a  two-fold  way  God 
meeteth  the  longing  of  the  heart  of  man. 
The  soul,  until  it  hath  found  God,  is  ever- 
more seeking  some  love  to  till  it,  and  can 
find  none,  since  the  love  of  God  Alone  can 
content  it.  Then  too  it  longeth  to  be  loved, 
even  as  it  loveth.  God  tells  it,  that  every 
feeling  and  expression  of  human  love  may 
be  found  in  Him,  Whom  if  any  love,  he  only 
'"  loveth  Him,  because  He  first  loved  us.  Every 
inward  and  outward  expression  or  token  of 
love  are  heaped  together,  to  express  the  love 
of  Him  Who  broodeth  and  as  it  were 
yearneth  over  (it  is  twice  repeated)  His  own 
whom  He  loveth.  Then  too  He  loveth  thee 
as  He  biddeth  thee  to  love  Him  ;  and  since 
the  love  of  man  cannot  be  like  the  love  of 
the  Infinite  God,  He  here  pictures  His  own 
love  in  the  words  of  man's  love,  to  convey  to 
his  soul  the  oneness  wherewith  love  unites 
her  unto  God.  He  here  echoes  in  a  manner 
the  joy  of  the  Church,  to  which  He  had 
called  her^^,  in  words  the  self-same  or  mean- 
ing the  same.  We  have  joy  here  for  joy 
there ;  singing  or  the  unnttered  unutterable 
jubilee  of  the  heart,  which  cannot  utter  in 
words  its  joy  and  love,  and  joys  and  loves  the 
more  in  its  inmost  depths  because  it  cannot 
utter  it.  A  shadow  of  the  unutterable,  be- 
cause Infinite  Love  of  God,  and  this  repeated 
thrice ;  as  being  the  eternal  love  of  the  Ever- 
blessed  Trinity.  This  love  and  joy  the  Pro- 
phet speaks  of,  as  an  exuberant  joy,  one 
which  boundeth  within  the  inmost  self,  and 
again  is  wholly  silent  in  His  love,  as  the 
deepest,  tenderest,  most  yearning  love  broods 
over  the  object  of  its  love,  yet  is  held  still  in 
silence  by  the  very  depth  of  its  love;  and 
then,  again,  breaks  forth  in  outward  motion, 
and  leaps  for  joy,  and  uttereth  what  it  can- 
not form  in  words;  for  truly  the  love  of  God 
in  its  unspeakable  love  and  joy  is  past  be- 
lief, past  utterance,  past-thought.  "  ^^  Truly 
that  joy  wherewith  He  tvill  be  silent  in  His 
love,  that  exultation  wherewith  He  will  joy 
over  thee  with  singing,  '*  Eye  hath  not  seen  nor 


11  lb.  Ixii.  5. 
>3l9.  Ixii.  4. 
16  Deut.  XXX. 
"  Verse  14. 
18  Rup. 


w  Heb.  xiii.  16. 

i«  lb.  Ixv.  19. 

"  1  8.  John  iv.  19. 

i»l  Cor.  ii.  9. 


290 


ZEPHANIAH. 


18  I   will  gather  them 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  r,:}().       fji^ii  g  ^re  sorrowful  for  the 


tLam.  2. 6.        Solemn  assembly,  who  are 
t  Heb.  the  bur-   of  thee,  to  xohom  t  the  re- 

den  upon  it  i        /•  • ,  i         i 

was  reproach,  proach  01  it  wos  a  Durclen. 

19  Behold,  at  that  time 

I  will  undo  all  that  afflict 


far  heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man."  The  Hebrew  word  ^  also  contains  the 
meaning,  "  He  in  His  love  shall  make  no 
mention  of  past  sins  ^,  He  shall  not  bring 
them  up  against  tliee,  shall  not  upbraid  thee, 
yea,  shall  nut  remember  them."  It  also  may 
express  the  still,  unvarying  love  of  the  Un- 
changeable God.  And  again  how  the  very 
silence  of  God,  when  He  seemeth  not  to  hear, 
as  He  did  not  seem  to  hear  S.  Paul,  is  a  very 
fruit  of  His  love.  Yet  that  entire  forgiveness 
of  sins,  and  that  seeming  absence  are  but 
ways  of  shewing  His  love.  Hence  God 
speaks  of  His  very  love  itself,  He  iviU  be  silent 
ill  Hif  love,  as,  before  and  after,  He  will  rejoice, 
He  will  joy  over  thee. 

18-21.  In  these  verses  still  continuing  the 
number  "  three,"  the  prophecy  closes  with 
the  final  reversal  of  all  which,  in  tiiis  imper- 
fect state  of  things,  seems  turned  upside 
down,  when  those  who  now  mourn  shall  be 
comforted,  they  who  now  bear  reproach  and 
shame  shall  have  glory,  and  those  who  now 
afflict  the  people  of  God  shall  be  undone. 

18.  /  will  gather  them  that  are  sorroufal'^ 
for*  the  solemn  assembly,  in  which  they  were 
to  rejoice^  before  God  and  which  in  their 
captivity  God  made  to  cease  ®.  IViey  were  of 
thee,  the  true  Israel  who  were  '  grieved  for  tlie 
affliction  of  Joseph  ;  to  whom  the  reproach  of  it 
was  a  burden  [rather  *,  on  whom  reproach  was 
laid'\  :  for  this  reproach  of  Christ  «  greater 
riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt,  and  such 
shall  inherit  the  blessing,  ^Blessed  are  ye, 
wlien  men  shall  hate  you,  and  wfien  they  shcdl 

»  Jer.  xxxi.  34,  xxxiii.  8,  Mic.  vii.  18. 

"This  is  the  common  meaning  of  tiie  root  nj', 
though  not  so  frequent  in  the  vert)  us  in  nouns,  and 
'}  out  of  the  8  cases  are  in  Lam.  i.  4  (wliere  the  same 
form  nUIJ.  Nif-  occurs),  12.  iii.  :i2,  3.3,  the  remain- 
ing being,  this  place.  Job  xix.  2,  Is.  li.  2.3.  The 
other  sense  "  removed  "  (even  if  H  jh  2  .Sam.  xx.  13, 

implies  a  'p  in  this  sense)  comes  to  the  same  gen- 
i-ral  meaning,  though  with  less  force.  The  Arab 
'J|1,  iv.  is  wrongly  applied  (e.  g.  Ges.  Thes.  p.  ,564)  as 
"  procul  a  se  removit."  It  is  simply  "aVjstained 
from  it,"  "  refused  one's  self." 

*  JO  is  used  of   the   ultimate  cause.    (See  Ges. 

Thes.  s.  V.  2)  b.  p.  802. 
'Lev.  xxiii.  40.  Deut.  xii.  12, 18.  xvi.  11,  xxvii.  7. 

•  Lam.  i.  4.  ii.  fi.  '  .\mos  vi.  0. 

•As  in  Ps.  XV.  .3.  i^^p  Si»  K'C?:  kS  naim.  the 

construftlmi  l)Hinn  like  IJOO  D'J3  "^HDO.  Is. 
liii.  .3.  "S.  F,iike  vi.  2J,  •.'3. 


thee :  and  I  will  save  her    ^  h  rTs  t 
that  "  halteth,  and  gather      ^'r-  63o. 


her  that  was  driven  out  ;bEzek.  34.  le. 
and  1 1  will  get  them  praise  t  Heb.  iwiii  set 

1     ,.  .  ,  ,     them  for  a 

and  tame  in  every  land  praise. 

t  where  they  have  b  e  e  n  +  Heb.  0/ </.€■> 

put  to  shame.  '''""*• 


separate  you  from  their  company,  and  shall  re- 
proach yon  and  cast  out  your  Jiame  as  evil,  for 
the  Son  of  3Ian' s  sake;  rejoice  ye  in  that  day, 
and  leap  for  joy;  for,  behold  your  reward  is 
great  in  heaven. 

19.  Behold,  at  that  time  I  will  undo  [lit.  / 
deaiwith^'^].  While  God  punisheth  not,  He 
seemeth  to  sit  still",  be  silent",  asleep'^. 
Then  He  shall  act.  He  shall  dc(d  according 
to  their  deserts  with  «//,  evil  men  or  devils, 
that  afflict  thee,  His  Church.  The  prophecy 
looked  for  a  larger  fulfillment  than  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem,  since  the  Komans 
who,  in  God's  Hands,  avenged  the  blood  of 
His  Saints,  themselves  were  among  those 
who  afflicted  her.  And  trill  save  her,  the  flock 
or  sheep  that  halteth  ",  "  '^  imperfect  in  virtue 
and  with  trembling  faith,"  and  gather,  like  a 
good  and  tender  shepherd  '®,  her  that  was  driven 
oat;  scattered  and  dispersed  through  perse- 
cutions. All  infirmities  within  shall  be 
healed  ;  all  troubles  without,  removed. 

And  I  will  get  them  praise  and  fame  [lit.  / 
will  make  them  a  praise  and  a  name']  in  every 
land  where  they  have  been  put  to  shame ". 
Throughout  the  whole  world  have  they  been 
^'^the  offscourings  of  all  things;  throughout  the 
whole  world  should  their  praise  be,  as  it  is 
said,  '®  Thou  shall  make  them  princes  in  all  lands. 
One  of  themselves  saith  ^,  Ye  see  your  calling, 
brethren,  how  that  not  many  wise  men  after  the 
jlesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  inany  noble,  are  called. 
But  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  worhl 
to  confound  the  wise;  and  God  hathchosen  the  weak 
things  of  the  world  to  confound  tlie  things  which  are 

>0a9  Ru.  ii.  19.  in  a  good  sense  ;  Ez.  vii.  27.  xvii.  17, 
xxiii.  25,  in  a  bad;  iniN  DPIK,  imX,  being  prob- 
ably for  DPX  Ac.  "  Is.  xviii.  4. 

i2Hab.  i.1.3.  i»  Ps.  xliv.  it. 

"  See  Micah  iv.  r,,  7.  "  Dion. 

"See  Is.  xl.  11. 

"  The  article  is  inserted  in  a  way  very  unusual 
and  probably  emphatic.  Witliout  it  the  words 
woulcf  mean,  as  in  the  E.  V.  "  in  every  land  of  their 
shame."     But  it  makes  the  meaning  of  the  first 

words,  ]nt<n  Sj33>  complete  in  itself;  and  they 
mean,  in  the  whole  earth.  DnC3  then  is  probably 
in  apposition,  in  the  whole  earth,  their  shame,  i.  e.  the 
scene  of  their  shame :  comp.  the  construction 
]T">3n  rnXn  Jos.  m.  U.  n  and  those  Deut.  viii. 
1.";.  1  Kgs  iv.  1,3;  and  "Daniel  the  Prophet"  p.  47ti. 
In  the  next  verse,  inXH  i»  undoubtedly  "  th« 
earth."  '  '"  '  f'^r.  iv.  13, 

'»  Ps.  xlv.  in.  ■■="  1  <'or-  I  26-28. 


CHAKfER   III. 


291 


20  At  that  time  '  will  I 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  630.      bring  you  again,  even  in 
the  time  that  I  gather  you  : 


Isai.  11.  12. 
&  27.  12. 

Ezek.  28.  25.    lor  i  Will  make  you  a  name 

&  34.  13.  &  .37.  21.  Amos  9.  14. 


mighty  ;  and  base  things  of  this  world,  andthings 
which  are  despised,  hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and 
things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things 
that  are.  " '  These  He  maketh  a  praise  and  a 
name  there,where  they  were  without  name  and 
dispraised,  conlbunding  by  them  and  l^ringing 
to  nought  those  wise  and  strong  and  mighty, 
in  whose  sight  they  were  contemptible." 

20.  At  thut  time  will  I  bring  you  in  i.  e.  into 
the  one  fold,  the  one  Church,  the  one  House- 
hold of  God,  even  in  the  time  that  I  gather  you. 
"  That  time "  is  the  whole  time  of  the  Gos- 
pel; the  one  dug  of  salvation,  in  which  all 
who  shall  ever  be  gathered,  shall  be  brought 
into  the  new  Jerusalem.  These  words  were 
fulfilled,  when,  at  our  Lord's  first  Coming, 
the  remnant,  the  true  Israel,  those  ordained 
to  eternal  life  were  brought  in.  It  shall  be 
fulfilled  again,  when  "  the  fullness  of  the 
Gentiles  shall  be  come  in,  and  so  all  Israel 
shall  be  saved  ^."  It  shall  most  perfectly  be 
fulfilled  at  the  end,  when  there  shall  be  no 
going  out  of  those  once  brought  in,  and  those 
who  have  gathered  others  into  the  Church, 
shall  be  o  name  and  a  praise  among  all  people 
of  the  earth,  those  whom  God  haih  ^  redeemed 
out  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  and  people  and 
nation,  shining  like  stars  for  ever  and  ever. 


iRup. 


«  Rom.  xi.  25,  26. 


and  a  praise  among  all  peo- 
ple of  the  earth,  when  I  turn . 
back  your  captivity  before 
your  eyes,  saith  the  Lord. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  630. 


When  I  turn  back  your  captivity:  "Hhat 
conversion,  then  begun,  now  perfected,  when 
the  dead  shall  rise  and  they  shall  be  placed 
on  the  right  hand,  soon  to  receive  the  king- 
dom prepared  for  them  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  O  mighty  spectacle  of  the 
reversed  captivity  of  those  once  captives ; 
mighty  wonder  at  their  present  blessedness, 
as  they  review  the  misery  of  their  past 
captivity ! "  Before  your  eyes,  so  that  we 
shall  see  what  we  now  believe  and  hope  for, 
the  end  of  all  our  sufferings,  chastisements, 
losses,  achings  of  the  heart,  the  fullness  of  our 
Eedemption.  That  which  our  eyes  have 
looked  for,  our  eyes  shall  behold  and  not 
another,  the  everliving  God  as  HE  IS,  face  to 
Face;  saith  the  Lord,  AVho  is  the  Truth 
Itself,  all  Whose  words  will  be  fulfilled. 
*  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  My 
Words  shall  not  pass  away,  saith  He  Who  is 
God  blessed  for  ever.  And  so  the  Prophet 
closes  in  the  thought  of  Him,  Whose  Name  is 
I  AM,  the  Unchangeable,  the  everlasting- 
Rest  and  Centre  of  those  who,  having  been 
once  captives  and  halting  and  scattered 
among  the  vanities  of  the  world,  turn  to 
Him,  to  AVhom  be  glory  and  thanksgiving 
for  ever  and  ever.    Amen. 


s  Rev.  V.  9. 


4  S.  Mark  xiii.  31. 


THE  MOABITE  STONE.    See  pp.  2a3,  284. 


I  MESHA.son  of  Chemosh-gad,  kingof  Moab 
the  Dibonite.  My  father  reigned  over  Moab 
thirty  years,  and  I  reigned  after  my  father ; 
and  I  made  this  slirine  to  Chemosh  in  Koi-- 
choh,  a  shr[ine  of  delilverance,  because  he 
saved  me  from  all  [  'J  and  because  lie  let 
me  look  upon  all  who  hate  me,  Om[r]i  king  of 
Israel ;  and  he  afflicted  Moab  many  days,  for 
Chemosh  was  wroth  with  his  la[n]d  ;  and  his 
.son  succeeded  him,  and  lie  too  said,  I  will  af- 
flict Moab.  In  my  days  said  [Chemosh  -],  and 
I  will  look  upon  him  and  upon  his  house,  and 
Israel  perisheth  with  an  everlasting  destruc- 
tion. And  Oniri  took  possession  of  the  land 
of  Mi>h-dcha  and  there  dwelt  in  it  [^  Israel  in 
his  chn/.s  and,  in]  the  days  of  his  son,  forty 
years ;  [a)i(l  lookr-d]  on  it  Cliemosh  in  m.v  days, 
and  I  built  Baal-Meon-and  I  made  in  it  the 
ditch  [?]  and  I  [huilt]  Kiriathan.  And  the 
men  of  Gad  dwelt  in  the  land  of  [Atarjoth 
from  time  immemorial,  and  the  kin[gof  I]srael 

J  The  stone  has  p7tyn,  whose  meaning  is  con- 
jectural. Noldeke  ponjpr-tiires  •^S'on  "  tlip  kines." 


built  for  him  Aptajroth  and  I  warred  against 
the  city;  and  1  took  it  and  I  slew  all  the 
mi[ghty  men]  of  the  city,  for  the  well-pleas- 
ing of  Chemosh  and  Moab  •  and  I  took  captive 
thence  the  [  ]  and  [drjagged  it  [or  them] 

before  Chemosh  in  Kiriath  and  I  made  to 
dwell  in  it  the  men  of  Siran,  and  the  men  of 
Macharath.  And  Chemosh  said  to  me.  Go 
take  Nebo  against  Israel  [and  I]  went  by 
night  and  I  fought  against  it  from  the 
break  of  the  morning  to  midday  and  I  took 
it,  and  I  slew  the  whole  of  it,  seven  thou.s- 
and;   [  1  the  honorabl'j 

women  [and  maijdens,  for  to  Ashtar  Chemosh 
[I]  dedicated  [them]  and  I  took  thence  rves]sels 
of  Yhvh  and  I  dragged  them  before  Chemosh. 
And  the  king  of  Israel  buiUt]  Yahats,  and 
dwelt  in  it  when  he  warred  with  me ;  and 
Chemosh  drove  him  from  [my]  f[ace  and]  I 
took  of  Moab  200  men,  all  its  chiefs  and  I  took 
them  against  Yahats  and  took  it  to  add  to 

*  Schlottman's  conjecture.    Likely  conjectures  I 
have  put  in  [  ];  nicrp  ^ncsp-vvr-irk    I  havp  nmiHoH. 


292 


ZEPIIANIAH. 


Dibon  I  built  Korchoh  the  wall  of  the  forest, 
and  iho  wall  of  OpheP  and  I  built  the  gates 
thereof,  and  I  built  the  towers  thereof,  and  I 
built  the  king's  house,  and!  made  prisons  lor 
Iho  euirilly  in  the  mi[dst]  of  the  city;  and 
there  was  no  cistern  within  the  city,  in 
Korchoh,  and  1  said  to  all  the  people,  make 
yourselves  every  man  a  cistern  in  his  house, 
and  I  cut  the  cutting  for  Korchoh  by  mfen 
1  of  Israel.  I  built  [A]roer  and  I 
made  the  high  road 2  at  the  Arnon.    I  built 

*  biJJ^n  r\Oin  occurs  of  Jerusalem,  Neh.  iii.  27. 


Beth-Bamoth,  fw  It  was  destroyed.     I  built 
Bezer,  for  fit  was]   forsa[ken] 
me[n]  of  Dibon  fifty ;  for  all  Dibon 

was  obedience,  and  1  reig[iu'dl  from  Bikran 

which  I  added  to  the  land  and  I  buil[t] and 

Beth  Diblathan    and    Bclh-Baal-McDn  and  1 
took  there  the  — of  the    land  and    lloronan 

dwelt  in  it [and]  Che- 

mosh  said  to  me,  Go  lifilit  against  Horunan 
and  I  it— Chemosh  in  my  days  and 

on  [I]  made 

'  nSoon  lit.  "  the  way  cast  up  "  cannot  possibly 
be  a  way  over  the  river. 


INTEODUOTIOK 


TO 


THE    PROPHET 


HAGGAI 


Haggai  *  is  the  eldest  of  the  three-fold 
band,  to  whom,  after  the  Captivity,  the  word 
of  God  came,  and  by  whom  He  consecrated 
the  beginnings  of  this  new  condition  of  the 
chosen  people.  He  gave  them  these  pro- 
phets, connecting  their  spiritual  state  after 
their  return  with  that  before  the  Captivity, 
not  leaving  them  wholly  desolate,  nor  Him- 
self without  witness.  He  withdrew  them 
about  100  years  after,  but  some  420  years 
before  Christ  came,  leaving  His  people  to 
long  the  more  for  Him,  of  Whom  all  the 
prophets  spake.  Haggai  himself  seems  to 
have  almost  finished  his  earthly  course, 
before  he  was  called  to  be  a  prophet ;  and  in 
four  months  his  office  was  closed.  He  speaks 
as  one  who  had  seen  the  first  house  in  its 
glory '',  and  so  was  probably  among  the  very 
aged  men,  who  were  the  links  between  the 
first  and  the  last,  and  who  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  hou.se  in  tears".  After  the  first 
two  months'*  of  his  office,  Zechariah,  in  early 
youth,  was  raised  up  to  carry  on  his  message  ; 
yet  after  one  brief  prophecy  was  again  silent, 
until  the  aged  prophet  had  ended  the  words 
which  God  gave   him.     Yet  in   this   brief 

» His  name  is  explained  by  S.  Jerome  "festive." 
But  although  there  are  Prop.  Names  with  ai  which 

are  Adjectives,  as  'Sn3,  'E/t^  (Ezr.  ix.  40.  'dSjT 

and  -p\^  are  foreign  names)  ^^f'P\  the  termina- 

ti^on  ai  is  more  frequently  an  abbreviation  of  the 
Name  of  God,  which  enters  so  largely  into  Hebrew 
names,  as  indeed  we  have  n'jn  1  Chr.  vi.  15.    And 

this  occurs  not  only,  when  the  first  part  of  the  word 
is  a  verb,  '^DHK,  '^H',  "On',  'J;?\  'iif)J\  MPX 
'"^pt!/;,  ^yy,  '"^riX";,  (as  Kohler  observes  p.  2.) 
but  when  it  is  a  noun,  as  'JflO,  ''IH,  'J^OX,  'D^K?, 
"Obv.  (coll.  n;^J?D,  and  in;^ini?j  '\i;0\?' Ezr.' iy. 


space  he  first  stirred  up  the  people  in  one 
month  to  rebuild  the  temple  ^,  prophesied  of 
its  glory  through  the  presence  of  Christ ',  yet 
taught  that  the  presence  of  what  was  holy 
sanctified  not  the  unholy^,  and  closes  in  Him 
Who,  when  Heaven  and  earth  shall  be 
shaken,  shall  abide,  and  they  whom  God 
hath  chosen  in  Him  ''. 

It  has  been  the  wont  of  critics,  in  whose 
eyes  the  Prophets  were  but  poets ',  to  speak 
of  the  style  of  Haggai  as  "  tame,  destitute  of 
life  and  power,"  shewing  "Ja  marked  decline 
in  "  what  they  call  "  prophetic  inspiration." 
The  style  of  the  sacred  writers  is,  of  course, 
conformed  to  their  mission.  Prophetic 
descriptions  of  the  future  are  but  incidental 
to  the  mission  of  Haggai.  Preachers  do  not 
speak  in  poetry,  but  set  before  the  people 
their  faults  or  their  duties  in  vivid  earnest 
'language.  Haggai  sets  before  the  people 
vividly  their  negligence  and  its  conse- 
quences ;  he  arrests  their  attention  by  his 
concise  questions ;  at  one  time  retorting  their 
excuses  ^ ;  at  another  asking  them  abruptly, 
in  God's  name,  to  say  why  their  troubles 
came '.     Or  he  puts  a  matter  of  the  law  to 

"Phl^Q  (1  Chr.  xxvi.  5.)  perhaps  ^n2p,  ^"^tDp  or 
again  '-flX.  >>  ii.  3.  °  Ezr.  iii.  12. 

dThe  prophecies  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah  are 
thus  intertwined.  Haggai  prophesies  in  the  0th 
and  7th  months  of  the  2il  year  of  Darius  Hystaspis, 
B.  C.  520.1  Hagg.  i.  1.  ii.  1)  Zechariah  first  prophesies 
in  the  8th  month  (Zech.i.  1.).  Haggai  resumes  at 
the  close  of  the  9th  and  there  ends  (ii.  10,  20).  On 
the  same  day  in  the  11th  month,  the  series  of 
visions  were  given  to  Zechariah.  (Zeeh.  i.  7.) 

•c.  i.  hi.  1-9.  e  lb.  12.  ^  lb.  20-23. 

1  Eichhorn,  De  Wette,  Bertholdt,  Gesenius  (Gesh. 
d.  Hebr.  Spr.  p.  2fi.),  Herzfeldt,  (Gesch.  d.  Volkes 
Israel  ii.  21)  Stiihelin. 

J  Dr.  Davidsou  iii.  314.  i"  i.  4.  '  i.  9. 

293 


294 


INTKODL'CTION  TO 


the  priests,  that  they  may  draw  the  inference, 
before  he  does  it  himself".  Or  he  asks 
them,  what  human  hope  had  they",  before 
he  tells  them  of  the  Divine.  Or  he  asks 
tliem  (what  was  in  their  heart),  "Is  not  this 
liouse  poor"?"  before  he  tells  them  of  the 
glory  in  store  for  it.  At  one  time  he  uses 
heaped  and  condensed  antitheses  p,  to  set 
before  them  one  thought ;  at  another  he 
enumerates,  one  by  one,  how  the  visitation 
of  God  fell  upon  all  they  had"*,  so  that  there 
seemed  to  be  no  end  to  it.  At  another,  he 
uses  a  conciseness,  like  S.  John  Baptist's  cry. 
Repent  ye,  for  the  kingdom  of  fieaven  is  at  liand, 
in  his  repeated  'Set  your  heart  to  your  ways; 
and  then,  with  the  same  idiom,  set  your  heart^ 
viz.  to  God's  ways,  what  He  had  done  on  dis- 
obedience, what  Jtle  would  do  on  obedience. 
He  bids  them  work  for  God,  and  then  he 
expresses  the  acceptableness  of  that  work  to 
God,  in  the  three  words,  ^  Aiid-I-w'dl-take- 
pleasure  in-it  und-will-be-glorined.  When 
tliey  set  themselves  to  obey,  he  encouraged 
them  in  the  four  words,  "  I  with-you  saith  the- 
Lord.  This  conciseness  must  have  been  still 
more  impressive  in  his  words,  as  delivered  *'. 
We  use  many  words,  because  our  words  are 
weak.  Many  of  us  can  remember  how  the 
House  of  Lords  was  hushed,  so  hear  the  few 
low,  but  sententious  words  of  the  aged  general 
and  statesman.  But  conceive  the  suggestive 
eloquence  of  those  words,  as  a  whole  sermon. 
Set  your-heart  on-your-ways. 

Of  distant  prophecies  there  are  but  two  ", 
.so  thai  the  portion  to  be  compared  with  the 
former  prophets  consists  but  of  at  most  7 
verses.  In  these  the  language  used  is 
of  the  utmost  simplicity,  llaggai  had  but 
one  message  as  to  the  future  to  convey,  and 
he  enforced  it  by  the  repeated  use  of  the 
same  word  *,  that  temporal  tilings  should  be 
shaken,  the  eternal  should  remain,  as  S. 
Paul  sums  it  up  ^.  He,  the  long-longed  for, 
the  chosen  of  God,  the  signet  on  His  Hand, 
should  come  ;  God  would  fill  that  house,  so 
l)Oor  in  their  eyes,  with  glory,  and  there 
would  He  give  peace.  Haggai  had  an  all-con- 
taining but  very  simple  message  to  give  from 
(jod.  Any  ornament  of  diction  would  but 
have  impaired  and  obscured  its  meaning. 
The  two  or  three  slight  idioms,  noticed  by 
one  after  another,  are,  though  slight,  forcible ". 

The  ofhce  of  Haggai  was  mainly  to  bring 
about  one  definite  end,  which  God,  Who 
raised    him  up  and  inspired    him,  accom- 

« ii.  12. 13.  » ii.  19.  0  lb.  3.  P  i.  6.  « i.  11. 
» 1.  5-7.  •  ii.  15-18.  M.S.  "  i.  13. 

»See  on  ii.  5,  9.  "  ii.  6-9,  21-23. 

« w^]}'\o,  ii-  6, 22,  'my^nm  li.  7. 

J  Heb.  xii.  2G. 

•See  on  ii.  3,  5, 17.  The  juuction  of  £3^0  r\nN 
ii.  6,  is  a  mistake  of  the  critic*. 

•  I)an.  ix.  20.  »>  1  Chr.  xxiv.  .V19. 

•  Ezr.  ii.  36-39.  >>  lb.  40.  •  lb.  58. 
'  lb.  vil.  13-14.  t  lb.  viii.  15.  »>  lb.  18, 19. 
1  lb.  2f).            J  See  on  Hd^.  \\.  17.  vol.  i.  p.  97,  98. 


plished  by  him.  It  is  in  the  light  of  thin 
great  accomplishment  of  the  work  entrusted 
to  him  at  the  verge  of  man's  earthly  course, 
that  his  power  and  energy  are  to  be  esti- 
mated. The  words  whicli  are  preserved  in 
his  book  are  doubtless  (as  indeed  was  the 
case  as  to  most  of  the  prophets)  the  represent- 
atives and  embodiment  of  many  like  words, 
by  which,  during  his  short  office,  he  roused 
the  people  from  their  dejection  indifTerence 
and  irreligious  apathy,  to  the  restoration  of 
the  public  worship  of  God  in  the  essentials 
of  the  preparatory  dispensation. 

Great  lukewarmness  had  been  shewn  in 
the  return.  The  few  looked  mournfully  to 
the  religious  centre  of  Israel,  the  ruined 
temple,  the  cessation  of  the  daily  sacrifice, 
and,  liice  Daniel,  ^confessed  their  sin  and  the 
sin  of  their  people  Israel,  and  presented  their 
supplication  before  the  Lord  their  God  for  the 
holy  mountain  of  their  God.  The  most  part 
appear,  as  now,  to  have  been  taken  up  with 
their  material  prosperity,  and,  at  best,  to 
have  become  inured  to  the  cessation  of  their 
symbolical  worship,  connected,  as  it  was, 
with  the  declaration  of  the  forgiveness  of 
their  sins.  Then  too,  God  connected  His 
declaration  of  pardon  with  certain  outward 
acts:  they  became  indifferent  to  the  cessation 
of  those  acts.  For  few  returned.  The  indif- 
ference was  even  remarkable  among  those, 
most  connected  with  the  altar.  Of  the  24 
*>  orders  of  priests,  ^  only,  4  orders  "=  returned  ; 
of  the  Levites  only  74  individuals  * ;  while 
of  those  assigned  to  help  them,  the  Nethinim 
and  the  children  of  Solomon's  servants,  there 
were  392*.  This  coldness  continued  at  the 
return  of  Ezra.  The  edict  of  Artaxerxes ', 
as  suggested  by  Ezra,  was  more  pious  than 
those  appointed  to  the  service  of  God.  In 
the  first  instance  no  Levite  answered  to  the 
invitation  «  ;  on  the  special  urgency  and  mes- 
sage of  Ezra,  ^  by  the  good  hand  of  God  upon 
us  they  brought  us  a  man  of  uiulerstanding,  of 
the  sons  of  Levi ;  some  3  or  4  chief  Levites; 
their  sons  and  brethren ;  in  all,  38  ;  but  of 
the  Nethinim,  nearly  six  times  as  many, 
220 '.  Those  who  thought  more  of  temporal 
prosperity  than  of  their  high  spiritual  nobil- 
ity and  destination,  had  flourished  doubtless 
in  that  exile  as  they  have  in  their  present 
homelessness,  as  ■>  wanderers  among  the  nations. 
Hainan  ciilculated  apparently  on  being  able 
to  pay  out  of  their  spoils  ten  thousand  talents 
of  silver  \  some  £300,000,000,  two-thirds  of 

k  Esther  iii.  9.  Ahasuerus  apparently,  in  acced- 
ing to  Haman's  proposal,  made  over  to  him  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  Jews.  The  silver  is  given 
unto  ttiee,  the  people  also,  to  do  with  them  ns  it  seeni- 
eth  qood  to  thee.  (lb.  11.)  The  Jews'  property,  was 
confiscated  with  their  lives.  On  the  contrarv,  it 
was  noticed,  that  the  Jews,  when  permitted  to 
defend  their  lives,  did  not  lay  their  hands  on  the  prey, 
which,  by  the  king's  decree,  wa"*  granted  to  inetn, 
with  authority  to  fake  the  lives  of  those  who  shmitd 
asKoult  them.  '  Esth.  viii.  11.  ix.  10,  i:.,  IC. 


HAGGAI. 


295 


the  annual  revenue  of  the  Persian  Empire  ' 
into  the  Icing's  treasuries. 

The  numbers  who  had  returned  with  Zer- 
ubbabel  had  been  (as  had  been  foretold 
of  all  restoi'ations)  u  renvuint  only.  There 
were  42,360  free  men,  with  7337  male  or 
female  slaves "'.  The  whole  population 
which  I'eturned  was  not  above  212,000,  free- 
men and  women  and  children.  The  propor- 
tion of  slaves  is  about  ^j,  since  in  their  case 
adults  of  both  sexes  were  counted.  The 
enumeration  is  minute,  giving  the  number 
of  their  horses,  mules,  camels,  asses  ".  The 
chief  of  the  fathers  however  were  not  poor, 
since  (though  unspeakably  short  of  the 
wealth,  won  by  David  and  consecrated  to  the 
future  temple)  they  "  offered  freely  for  the  house 
of  God,  to  set  it  up  in  its  place,  a  sum  about 
£117,100  P  of  our  money.  They  had,  beside, 
a  grant  from  Cyrus,  which  he  intended  to 
cover  the  expenses  of  the  building,  the 
height  and  breadth  whereof  were  determined 
by  royal  edict ''. 

The  monarch,  however,  of  an  Eastern 
empire  had,  in  proportion  to  its  size,  little 
power  over  his  subordinates  or  the  governors 
of  the  provinces,  except  by  their  recall  or 
execution,  when  their  oppressions  or  pecula- 
tions notably  exceeded  bounds.  The  re- 
turned colony,  from  the  first,  were  in  fear  of 
the  nations,  the  peoples  of  those  countries',  their 
old  enemies  probably  ;  and  the  first  service,  the 
altar  to  offer  burnt-offerings  thereon,  was  probably 
a  service  of  fear  rather  than  of  love,  as  it  is 
said,  '  they  set  up  the  altar  upon  its  bases  ;  for  it 
tvas  in  fear  upon  them  from  the  peoples  of  the 
lands,  and  they  offered  burnt-offerings  thereon 
unto  the  Lord.  They  hoped  apparently  to 
win  the  favor  of  God,  that  He  might,  as  of 
old,  protect  them  against  their  enemies. 
However,  the  work  was  carried  on  "  according 
to  the  grant  that  they  had  of  Cyrus  king  of 
Persia;  and  the  foundations  of  the  temple 
were  laid  amidst  mixed  joy  at  the  carrying 
on  of  the  work  thus  far,  and  sorrow  at  its 
poverty,  compared  to  the  first  temple '.  The 
hostility  of  the  Samaritans  discouraged  them. 
Mixed  as  the  religion  of  the  Samaritans  was, 
— its  better  element  being  the  corrupt  re- 
ligion of  the  ten  tribes,  its  worse  the  idola- 
tries of  the  various  nations,  brought  thither 
in  the  reign  of  Esarhaddon, — the  returned 
Jews  could  not  accept  their  ofl'er  to  join  in 
their  worship,  without  the  certainty  of  ad- 
mitting, with  them,  the  idolatries,  for  which 
they  had  been  punished  so  severely.    For 

1 14,560  silver  talents.    Herod,  ill.  95. 

>"  Ezra  ii.  64,  65,  Neh.  vii.  66,  67.  In  the  time  of 
Augustus,  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  person 
to  have  200  slaves  (Hor.  Sat.  i.  9.  ll)"it  is  said  that 
very  many  Romans  possessed  lOOOO  or  20000  sla\i^s. 
Athenseus  vi.  p.  272. 

"730  horses,  245  mules,  435  camels,  6720  asses. 
Ezra  ii.  66,  67,  Neh.  vii.  68,  69. 

»  Ezr.  ii.  68,  69. 

f  The  golden  daric  being  estimated  at  £1  2s.,  the 


the  Samaritans  pleaded  the  identity  of  the 
two   religions.     ^Let  us  build  with  you,  for 
we  serve  your  God,  as  ye  do  ;   and  we  do  sacri- 
I  fice  unto  Him  since  the  days  of  Esarhaddon 
i  rrhich  brought  us  up  hither.      But  in  fact   this 
j  mixed  worsliij),  in  whicii  "■'  they  feared  the  Lord 
j  and  served  their  own  godii,  came  to  this,  that 
I  '"  they  feared  not  the  Lord,  neither  did  they  after 
the  law  and  commandment  ivhich  the  Lord  com- 
manded the  ch  ildren  of  Jacob.     For  God  claims 
the  undivided   allegiance  of  His  creatures; 
these  ^feared  the  Lord  and  serred  their  graven 
images,  both  their  children  and  their  children's 
children:  as  did  their  fathers,  so  do  they  to  this 
day.     But  this  worship  included  some  of  the 
most  cruel  abominations  of  heathendom,  the 
sacrifice  of  their  children  to  their  gods  ^. 

The  Samaritans,  thus  rejected,  fii-st  them- 
selves harassed  the  Jews  in  building,  ap- 
parently by  petty  violence,  as  they  did  after- 
ward in  the  rebuilding  of  the  walls  by  Nehe- 
miah.  ^  The  people  of  the  land  iveakened  the 
hamls  of  the  people  of  Judah,  and  wore  them  out* 
in  building.  This  failing,  they  •>  hired  counsel- 
lors (doubtless  at  the  Persian  court),  to  frus- 
trate their  purpose,  all  the  days  of  Cyrus  king  of 
Persia,  until  the  reign  of  Darius  king  of  Persia. 
The  object  of  the  intrigues  was  probably  to 
intercept  the  supplies,  which  Cyrus  had  en- 
gaged to  bestow,  which  could  readily  be 
eflected  in  an  Eastern  Court  without  any 
change  of  purpose  or  any  cognizance  of  Cyrus. 
In  the  next  reign  of  Ahashverosh  (i.  e. 
Khshwershe,  a  title  of  honor  of  CambysesJ 
°  they  wrote  accusations  against  the  Jews, 
seemingly  without  any  further  effect,  since 
none  is  mentioned.  Perhaps  Cambyses,  in 
his  expedition  to  Egypt,  knew  more  of  the 
Jews,  than  the  Samaritans  thought,  or  he 
may  have  shrunk  from  changing  his  father's 
decree,  contrary  to  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  Persism,  not  to  alter  any  decree, 
which  the  sovereign  (acting,  as  he  was  as- 
sumed to  do,  under  the  influence  of  Ormuzd) 
had  written  *.  Pseudo-Smerdis  (who  doubt- 
less took  the  title  of  honor,  Artachshatr) 
may,  as  an  impostor,  have  well  been  ignorant 
of  Cyrus'  decree,  to  which  no  allusion  is 
made  •".  From  him  the  Samaritans,  through 
Kehum  the  chancellor,  obtained  a  decree 
prohibiting,  until  further  notice,  the  rebuild- 
ing of  the  city.  The  accusers  had  overreached 
themselves  ;  for  the  ground  of  their  accusa- 
tion was,  the  former  rebellions  of  the  city  °  ; 
the  prohibition  accordingly  extended  only  to 
the  city  %  not  to  the  temple.    However,  hav- 

61,000  darics  would  be  £67,100;  the  "maneh"  being 
100  shekels,  and  the  shekel  about  2s.,  the  5000 
maneh  of  silver  would  be  about  £50,000. 

1  Ezr.  iv.  3.     '  lb.  iii.  3.    •  Ezr.  iii.  7.     « lb.  11-13. 

«  lb.  iv.  2.  '  2  Kgs  xvii.  33.  "  lb.  34. 

»  lb.  41.  J  lb.  31.  •  nbn  Cheth. 

•  Ezr.  iv.  4.  »>  lb.  9.  '      •  lb.  9. 

•  See  Daniel  the  prcphet  pp.  445-447. 

»>  Ezr.  iv.  7,  sqq.      •  lb.  12,  13, 15, 16.      <>  lb.  19.  21. 


29G 


INTKODlCTloX  TO 


ing  obtained  the  decree,  they  were  not  scru- 
pulous about  its  application,  and  made  the 
Jews  to  cease  '  by  arm  and  power,  the  governor 
of  the  Jews  being  apparently  unable,  the 
governor  of  the  cLs-Euphratensian  provinces 
being  unwilling,  to  help.  As  this,  however, 
was,  in  fact,  a  perversion  of  the  decree,  the 
Jews  were  left  free  to  build,  and  in  the  second 
year  of  Darius  Ilystaspis,  ' llagyai,  and  then 
Zechariah,  prophesied  in  ike  name  oj'  the  God  of 
Israel  to  Zerubbabel,  the  native  Governor, 
and  Joshua  the  liigh-priest,  and  the  Jews  in 
Judah  and  Jei-usalem;  and  they  began  to  build 
the  house  of  God  in  Jerusalem.  Force  was  no 
longer  used.  Those  engaged  in  building  ap- 
pealed to  the  edict  of  Cyrus ;  the  edict  was 
found  at  Ecbatana  «,  and  the  supplies  which 
Cyrus  had  promised,  were  again  ordered. 
The  difficulty  was  at  the  comraenceinent. 
The  people  had  been  cowed  perhaps  at  first 
by  the  violence  of  Rehuiu  and  his  compan- 
ions ;  but  they  had  acquiesced  readily  in  the 
illegal  prohibition,  and  had  ^  run  each  to  his 
own  ItousCy  some  of  them  to  their  ^ceiled  houses. 
All,  employers  or  employed,  were  busy  on 
their  husliandry.  But  nothing  flourished. 
The  laborers'  wages  disappeared,  as  soon  as 
gained  J.  East  and  West  wind  alike  brought 
disease  to  their  corn ;  both,  as  threatened 
upon  disobedience  in  the  law''.  The  East 
wml  scorched  and  dried  it  up';  the  warm 
West  wind  turned  the  ears  yellow  "  and  bar- 
ren ;  the  hail  smote  the  vines,  so  that  when 
the  unfilled  and  mutilated  clusters  were- 
pressed  out,  two-fifths  only  of  the  hoped- 
for  produce  was  yielded ;  of  the  corn,  only 
one  half". 

In  the  midst  of  this,  God  raised  up  an 
earnest  preacher  of  repentance.  Haggai  was 
taught,  not  to  promise  anything  at  the  first, 
but  to  set  before  them,  what  they  had  been 
doing,  what  was  its  result.  °He  sets  it  be- 
fore them  in  detail ;  tells  them  that  God  had 
so  ordered  it  for  their  neglect  of  His  service, 
and  bids  them  amend.  He  bids  them  quit 
their  wonted  ways  ;  go  tip  into  the  mountain; 
bring  wood ;  build  the  house.  Conceive  in 
Christian  England,  after  some  potato-disease, 
or  foot-and-mouth-disease  (in  Scripture  lan- 
guage "a  murrain  among  the  cattle"),  a 
preacher  arising  and  bidding  them,  consider 
your  ways,  and  as  the  remedy,  not  to  look  to 
any  human  means,  but  to  do  sfimething, 
which  should  please  Almighty  God;  and  not 
preaching    only     but     eflecting     what    he 


•  Ezra  iv.  23. 
c  lb.  vi.  2. 
J  lb.  6. 


'lb.  V.  1,2. 
.  i.  9.  >  lb.  4. 

kDeut.  xxviii.  22. 


'  jia^E^  comp.  D'np  r\'l3nt^  Gen.  xli.  6, 2,3,  27. 

» ?'l  p1'_  Forskal  (in  Niebuhr,  Beschreibung  v. 

Arabien,  Pref.  p.  x\v)  took  down  from  the  month 
of  "  Muri,  a  Jew  of  Mecca,  that,  in  the  month 
Marchesvan,  a  warm  wind  sometimes  blew,  wliich 
turned  the  ears  yellow  and  they  yielded  no  grain  ; 


preached.  Yet  such  was  Haggai.  He  stood 
among  his  people,  his  existence  a  witness  of 
the  truth  of  what  he  said  ;  himself  one,  who 
had  lived  among  the  outward  splendoi"s  of 
the  former  temple  ;  a  contemporary  of  those, 
who  said  ^  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of 
the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord  are  these  ;  who 
had  held  it  to  be  impossible  that  Judah 
should  be  carried  captive  ;  who  had  prophe- 
sied the  restoration  of  the  vessels  of  God'', 
which  had  been  carried  away,  not,  as  God 
foretold,  after  the  captivity,  but  as  an  earnest 
that  the  fuller  captivity  should  not  be"^;  yet 
who  had  himself,  according  to  the  prophecies 
of  the  prophets  of  those  days,  been  carried 
into  captivity,  and  was  now  a  part  of  that 
restoration  which  God  had  promised.  He 
stood  among  them  "  in  gray-haired  might," 
bade  them  do,  what  he  bade  them,  in  the 
name  of  God,  to  do  ;  and  they  did  it.  When 
they  had  set  about  the  work,  he  assured 
them  of  the  presence  of  God  with  them^.  A 
month  later,  when  they  were  seemingly  dis- 
couraged at  its  poorness,  he  promised  them 
in  God's  name,  that  its  glory  should  be 
greater  than  that  of  Solomon's '.  Three 
days  after,  in  contrast  with  the  visitations 
up  to  that  time,  while  there  was  as  yet 
no  token  of  any  change,  he  promised  them 
in  the  name  of  God,  "  From  this  day  will  I 
bless  you. 

He  himself  apparently  saw  only  the  com- 
mencement 01  the  work ;  for  his  prophecies 
lay  within  the  second  year  of  Darius  and  the 
temple  was  not  completed  till  the  sixth  \ 
Even  the  favorable  rescript  of  Darius  must 
have  arrived  after  his  last  prophecy,  since 
it  was  elicited  by  the  enquiry  of  the  gov- 
ernor, consequent  upon  the  commenced  re- 
building ",  three  months  only  before  his 
office  closed  ". 

Wliile  this  restoration  of  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God  in  its  intregrity  was  his  main 
office,  yet  he  also  taught  by  parable  ^  that 
the  presence  of  what  was  outwardly  holy  did 
not,  in  itself,  hallow  those,  among  whom  it 
was;  but  was  itself  unhallowed  by  inward 
un  holiness. 

Standing  too  amid  the  small  handful  of 
returned  e.xiles,  not,  altogether,  more  than 
the  inhabitants  of  Sheffield,  he  foretold,  in 
simple  all-comprehending  words,  that  central 
gift  of  the  Gospel,  '  //;  this  place  wili  I  give 
peace,  sailh  the  Lord.  So  had  David,  the  sons 
of  Korah,    Micah,  Isaiah,   Ezekiel  prophe- 

it  was  an  unsteady  wind,  hut  spoils  all  it  touches." 
"  M.  Forskiil  remarks  that  the  fields,  near  the  canal 
of  Alexandria,  are  sown  in  October  and  reaped  in 
Feb."  Id.    In  Arabic  the  disease  is  called  iKp'^'. 


Ges.  Thes. 
olb.  5-n. 

q  Ih.  xxvii.  16,  xxviii.  3. 
•  HaRR.  i.  13.  tlb.  ii.  3-9. 

'  Kzr.  vi.  15. 
«  Hagg.  i.  16. 11. 10, 20.  J 11. 10-16. 


»  HagK-  ii.  16. 
p  Jer.  vii.  4. 
'  lb.  xxviii.  2. 
"  ii.  19. 
»  lb.  V.  3.  sqq. 


HAGGAT. 


297 


sied  ■ ;  but  the  peace  was  to  come,  not  then, 
but  in  the  days  of  the  Messiah.  Other  times 
had  come,  in  which  the  false  prophets  hud 
said*",  Peace,  peace,  when  there  ims  no  peace; 
when  God  liad  taken  away  His  peace  from 
''this  people.  And  now,  when  the  chastise- 
ments were  fulfilled,  when  the  land  lay 
desolate,  when  every  house  of  J  L-riisalem  lay 
burned  with  tire  "*,  and  the  "  blackness  of 
ashes"  alone  "marked  where  they  stood  ;" 
when  the  walls  were  broken  down  so  that, 
even  when  leave  was  given  to  rebuild  them, 
it  seemed  to  their  enemies  a  vain  labor  to 
^revive  the  stones  out  of  the  heaps  of  rubbish 
which  were  burned ;  when  ^  the  place  of  their 
fathers'  sepulchres  lay  waste,  and  the  gates  there- 
of ivere  co)isumed  with  fire ;  wiien,  for  their 
sakes,  Zion  was  ^ploughed  as  a  firld  and  Jeru- 
salem was  become  heaps — let  any  one  picture  to 
himself  the  silver-haired  propiiet  standing, 
at  first,  alone,  rebuking  the  people,  first 
through  their  governor  and  the  high-priest, 
then  the  collected  multitude,  in  wt)rds,  force- 
ful from  their  simplicity,  and  obeyed  !  And 
then  let  them  think  whether  anything  of 
human  or  even  Divine  eloquence  was  lack- 
ing, when  tlie  words  Hew  straight  like  arrows 
to  the  heart,  and  roused  the  people  to  do  at 
once,  amid  every  obstacle,  amid  every  down- 
hearteilness  or  outward  poverty,  that  for 
which  God  sent  them.  The  outward  orna- 
ment of  words  would  have  been  misplaced, 
when  the  object  was  to  bid  a  downhearted 
people,  in  the  Name  of  God,  to  do  a  definite 
work.  Haggai  sets  before  his  people  cause 
and  effect ;  that  they  denied  to  God  what  was 

»Ps.  Ixxii.  3-7,  Ixxxv.  8, 10.  Mic.  v.  5.  Is.  ix.  6,  7. 
xxvi.  12.  xxxii.  17.  lii.  7.  liii.  5.  liv.  10, 13.  Ivii.  19. 
Ix.  17.  Ixvi.  12.  Ezek.  xxxiv.  25.  xxxvii.  2G. 


His,  and  that  God  denied  to  them  what  w;w 
His  to  give  or  to  withhold.  His  sermon  wa."i, 
in  His  words  Whom  he  foretold  ;  Seek  yefirsi 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness, 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you. 
He  spake  in  the  name  of  God,  and  was 
obeyed. 

'"'The  Holy  Ghost,  Who  .spake  by  the 
mouth  of  the  prophets,  willed  that  he  by  a 
foreboding  name  should  be  called  Haggai, 
i.  e.  '  festive,'  according  to  the  subject  where- 
of He  should  speak  by  his  mouth.  Yet  was 
there  not  another  festivcncss  in  the  prophet's 
heart,  than  tlie  joy  which  he  had  or  could 
have  with  tlie  people,  from  the  rebuilding  of 
that  temple  made  with  hands,  again  to  be 
defiled  and  burned  with  fire  irrecoverably? 
Be  it  that  the  rebuilding  of  that  temple, 
which  he  saw  before  him,  was  a  matter  of 
great  festive  joy  ;  yet  not  in  or  for  itself,  but 
lor  Him,  the  festive  joy  of  saints  and  angels 
and  men,  Christ ;  because  when  the  temple 
should  be  rebuilt,  the  walls  also  of  the  city 
should  be  rebuilt  and  the  city  again  inhab- 
ited and  the  people  be  united  in  one,  of  whom 
Christ  should  be  born,  fulfilling  the  truth  of 
the  promise  made  to  Abraham  and  David 
and  confirmed  by  an  oath.  So  then  we,  by 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  enter  upon  what 
Haggai  liere  speaketh,  as  not  doubting  that 
he  altogether  aimeth  at  Christ.  And  so 
may  we  in  some  sort  be  called  or  be  Hag- 
gais,  i.  e.  '  festive,'  by  contemplating  that 
same,  which  because  he  should  contem- 
plate, he  was,  by  a  Divine  foreboding,  called 
Haggai.". 

I"  Jer.  vi.  14.  viii.  11.  xiv.  13. 

"  lb.  xvi.  5.  d  2  Chr.  xxxvi.  19. 

•  Neh.  iv.  2.      'lb.  ii.  3.     «Mic.  iii.  12.      ^Rup. 


HAGGAI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


>  Ezra  4.  24. 
&5. 1. 
Zech.  1. 1. 


CHAPTER  I. 

1  Haggai  reproveth  the  people  for 
neglecting  the  building  of  the 
house.  7  He  inciteth  them  to 
the  building.  12  He  promiseth 
God's  assistance  to  thetn  being 
forward. 

TN  *the  second   year  of 
Darius  the  king,  in  the 


Chap.  I.  1.  In  the  secondyear  of  Darius,  i.  e. 
Hystaspis.  The  very  first  word  of  prophecy 
after  the  Captivity  betokens  that  they  were 
restored,  not  yet  as  before,  yet  so,  as  to  be 
hereafter,  more  than  before.  The  earthly 
type,  by  God's  appointment,  was  fading  away, 
that  the  Heavenly  truth  might  dawn.  The 
earthly  king  was  withdrawn,  to  make  way 
for  the  Heavenly.  God  had  said  of  Jeconiah, 
^No  man  of  his  seed  sh<:dl  prosper,  sitting  upon 
the  throne  of  David,  and  ruling  any  more  in 
Israel:  and  so  now  prophecy  begins  to  be 
dated  by  the  years  of  a  foreign  earthly  ruler, 
as  in  the  Baptism  of  the  Lord  Himself'^. 
Yet  God  gives  back  in  mercy  more  than  He 
withdraws  in  chastisement.  The  earthly 
rule  is  suspended,  that  men  might  look  out 
more  longingly  for  the  Heavenly. 

In  the  suth  month.  They  counted  by  their 
own  months,  beginning  with  Nisan,  the  first 
of  the  ecclesiastical  year,  (which  was  still 
used  for  holy  purposes  and  in  sacred  history) 
although,  having  no  more  any  kings,  they 
dated  their  years  by  those  of  the  empire,  to 
which  they  were  subject^.  In  the  sixth 
month,  part  of  our  July  and  August,  their 
harvest  was  past,  and  the  dearth,  which  they 
doubtless  ascribed  (as  we  do)  to  the  seasons, 
and  which  Haggai  pointed  out  to  be  a  judg- 
ment from  God,  had  set  in  for  this  year  also. 
The  months  being  lunar,  the  first  day  of  the 
month  was  the  festival  of  the  new  moon,  a 
popular  feast*  which  their  forefathers  had 
kept*,  while  they  neglected  the  weightier 
matters  of  the  law,  and  which  the  religious 
in  Israel  had  kept,  even  while  separated 
from  the  worship  at  Jerusalem  ^  In  its  very 
first  day,  when  the  grief  for  the  barren  year 
was  yet  fresh,  Haggai  was  stirred  to  exhort 
them  to  consider  their  ways;  a  pattern  for 
Christian  preachers,  to  bring  home  to  peo- 

'  Jer.  xxii.  30.  «S.  Luke  iii.  1. 

»See  Zech.  i.  7,  vii.  1.  tPr.  vii.  20. 

'  Is.  i.  13, 14. 

•2  Kgs  iv.  23.  add  Am.  viii.  5.  Hos.  ii.  11. 

"  Castro.  e  S.  Luke  xii.  42. 

»12  times  in  the  Pent.;  6  times  in  Joshua;  in 
Judges  onoe;  in  1  Kgs  viii. ;  2  Chron.  twice;  Neh. 
ix.  14.  Ps.  Ixsvii.  20.  102  Sara.xii.  25. 

"  1  Kgs  iii.  15,  xiv.  18.  2  Chr.  x.  15. 


sixth   month,  in   the  first    ^hrTst 
day   of  the   month,   came      "ir.  .520. 
the  word  of  the  Lord  f  by  t  Heb.  by  the 

TT  •    ii  1     .  fiand  of  Haggai. 

Maggai  the   prophet  unto*iciiron.  3. 17, 
"Zerubbabel  the  son  of  Ezras. 2. 
Shealtiel,  ||governor  of  Lukes'. 27. 
Judah,  and  to  "  J  o  s  h  u  a !  Ezra"?.'""'" 
the  son  of  *Josedech,  the  dfciu!  6.15. 
high  priest,  saying, 


pie'*  souls  the  meaning  of  God's  judgments. 
God  directs  the  very  day  to  be  noted,  in 
which  He  called  the  people  anew  to  build 
His  temple,  both  to  shew  the  readiness  of 
their  obedience,  and  a  precedent  to  us  to- 
keep  in  memory  days  and  seasons,  in  which 
He  stirs  our  souls  to  build  more  diligently 
His  spii'itual  temple  in  our  souls'. 

iBy  the  hand  of  Haggai.  God  doth  well- 
nigh  all  things  which  He  doeth  for  a  man 
through  the  hands  of  men.  He  committeth 
His  words  and  works  for  men  into  the  hands 
of  men  as  His  stewards,  to  dispense  faith- 
fully to  His  household  ®.  Hence  He  speaks 
so  often  of  the  law,  which  He  commanded 
^by  the  hand  of  Moses;  but  also  as  to  other 
prophets,  Nathan^",  Ahijah",  Jehu^^,  Jo- 
nah 1*,  Isaiah^*,  Jeremiah^*,  and  the  pro- 
phets generally  ^^  The  very  Prophets  of 
God,  although  gifted  with  a  Divine  Spirit, 
still  were  willing  and  conscious  instruments 
in  speaking  His  words. 

Unto  Zerubbabel  (so  called  from  being  bom 
in  Babylon)  the  soil  of  Shealtiel.  By  this 
genealogy  Zerubbabel  is  known  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  return  from  the  captivity  in  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  ^'.  God  does  not  say  by 
Jeremiah,  that  Jeconiah  should  have  no 
children,  but  that  he  should  in  his  life-time 
be  childless,  as  it  is  said  of  those  married  to 
the  uncle's  or  brother's  widow,  ^*  they  shall 
die  childless.  Jeremiah  rather  implies  that 
he  should  have  children,  but  that  they  should 
die  untimely  before  him.  For  he  calls 
Jeconiah,  ^®  a  man  who  shall  not  prosper  in  his 
days ;  for  there  shall  not  prosper  a  man  of  his 
seed,  sitting  on  the  throne  of  David,  and  nding 
any  more  in  Israel.  He  should  die  (as  the 
word  means)  bared  ^°  of  all,  alone  and  deso- 
late. The  own  father  of  Shealtiel  appears  to 
have  been  Neri  -',  of  the  line  of  Nathan  son 

12  lb.  xvi.  T.  **  2  Kgs  xiv.  25. 

i*  Is.  XX.  2.  1'  Jer.  xxxvii.  2. 

16  Hos.  vii.  20.  2  Chr.  xxix.  25. 

"  Ezr.  iii.  2,  8.  v.  2.  Neh.  xii.  1. 

18  Lev.  XX.  20,  21.  i«  Jer.  xxii.  30. 

20  nn;?  from  T^j;,  as  the  Samar.  Vers,  renders 
it  In  Lev.  XX.  20,  21,  "naked."  Abraham  uses  it  of 
his  desolation  in  having  no  son.    Gen.  xv.  2.  [all]. 

21  S.  Luke  iii.  27. 

29y 


300 


HAGGAI. 


c  rrVs  t        "^  ^^^^  s  p  e  a  k  e  t  h  the 
c""-  520-      Lord  of  hosts,  saying, 


This  people  say,  The  time 


of  David  :  not,  of  the  line  of  the  kings  of 
Jiidah.  Neri  married,  one  must  suppose,  a 
daughter  of  Assir,  son  of  ^Jeconiah  whose 
grandson  Shealtiel  was ;  and  Zerubbabel  was 
the  own  son  of  Pedaiah,  the  brother  of 
Shealtiel,  as  whose  son  he  was  in  the  legal 
genealogy  inscribed,  according  to  the  law  as 
to  those  who  die  childless^;  or  as  having 
been  adopted  by  Shealtiel  being  himself 
childless,  as  Moses  was  called  the  son  of  the 
daughter  of  Pliaraoh^  So  broken  was  the 
line  of  the  unhappy  Jehoiachin,  two  thirds 
of  whose  own  life  was  passed  in  the  prison  *, 
into  which  Nebuchadnezzar  cast  him. 

Governor  of  Judah.  The  foreign  name  * 
betokens  that  the  civil  rule  was  now  held 
from  a  foreign  power,  although  Cyrus  shewed 
tlie  Jews  the  kindness  of  placing  one  of 
themselves,  of  royal  extraction  also,  avS  his 
deputy  over  them.  The  lineage  of  David  is 
still  in  authority,  connecting  the  present 
with  the  past,  but  the  earthly  kingdom  had 
faded  away.  Under  the  name  Sheshbazzar 
Zerubbabel  is  spoken  of  both  as  the  prince  ® 
and  the  governor''  of  Judah.  With  him  is 
joined  Joshuah  the  son  of  Josedech,  the  high 
priest,  whose  father  went  into  captivity®, 
when  liis  grandfatlier  Seraiaii  was  slain  by 
Nebuchadnezzar  ^  The  priestly  line  also  is 
preserved.  Haggai  addresses  these  two,  the 
one  of  the  royal,  the  other  of  the  priestly, 
line,  as  jointly  responsible  for  the  negligence 
of  the  people ;  he  addresses  the  jieople  only 
through  them.  Together,  they  are  types  of 
Him,  the  true  King  and  true  Priest,  Christ 
Jesus,  Who  by  the  Kesurrection  raised  again 
the  true  temple,  His  Body,  after  it  had  been 
destroyed'". 

2.  T/ius  speakcth  the  Lord  of  hosts,  saying, 
This  people  say.  Not  Zerubbabel  or  Joshua, 
but  this  people.  He  says  not,  My  people,  but 
reproachfully  this  people,  as,  in  acts,  disown- 
ing Him,  and  so  deserving  to  be  disowned 

»  1  Chr.  iii.  17-19.  2  Deut.  xxiii.  5-10. 

«Ex.  ii.  10.  «Jer.  Hi.  31. 

'See  in  Daniel  the  prophet  pp.  570-572.  Keil  ad- 
duces a  conjecture  of  Spiegel,  "  that  pechah  is  from 
pdvan,  'protector'  (from  pd)  which  in  Sau.skrit  and 
old  Persian  occurs  in  compounds  as  Khshatrnpdvan, 
Satrap,  hut  in  the  Avesta  occurs  in  the  abridged 
form  pdvan.  Thence  mifiht  be  developed  nngran, 
as  dregvat  from  (treval,  hufiqva  from  hw'ivn.^  Jlax 
Miiller  kindly  informs  me;  "Phonetically  pavAo 
could  hardly  become  paKvAo,  and  even  this  would 
still  be  considerably  different  from  Pechah.  The 
insertion  of  a  g  before  a  u  in  Zend  is  totally  anom- 
alous. It  rests  entirely  on  the  uncertain  identifica- 
tioa  of  (iregvant,  "bad,"  with  drvant,  for  in  the 
second  instance,  huova  is  much  more  likely  a  cor- 
ruption of  huogva,  than  vice  versd.  Pavdo  in  Zend 
would  moan,  protector,  but  like  the  Sanskrit  pdvdn, 
it  occurs  only  at  the  end  of  compounds.  The  one 
passage,  quoted  in  support  of   its  occurring  as  a 


is  iiot  come  the  time  that 
the  Lord's  house  should, 
be  built. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


by  Him.  The  time  is  not  come,  lit.  Jt  is  not 
time  to  come,  time  for  the  house  of  the  Lord  to  be 
built ".  They  might  yet  sit  still ;  the  time  for 
them  to  come  was  not  yet ;  for  not  yet  was  the 
time  for  the  house  cf  the  Lord  to  be  built.  Why 
it  was  not  time,  they  did  not  say.  The  gov- 
ernment did  not  help  them ;  the  original 
grant  by  Cyrus '^  was  exhausted  ;  the  Samari- 
tans hindered  them,  because  they  would  not 
own  them,  (amid  their  mishmash  of  worship, 
worshiping,  our  Lord  tells  them,  they  ^'^ know 
not  what,)  as  worshipers  of  the  same  God.  It 
was  a  bold  excuse,  if  they  said,  that  the  70 
years  during  which  the  temple  was  to  lie 
waste,  were  not  yet  ended.  The  time  had 
long  since  come,  when,  16  years  before, 
Cyrus  had  given  command  that  the  house  of 
(iod  should  be  built.  The  prohibition  to 
build,  under  Artaxerxes  or  Pseudo-Smerdis, 
applied  directly  to  the  city  and  its  walls,  not 
to  the  temple,  except  so  far  as  the  temple  itself, 
from  its  position,  might  be  capable  of  being 
used  as  a  fort,  as  it  was  in  the  last  siege  of, 
Jerusalem.  Yet  in  itself  a  building  of  the 
size  of  the  temple,  apart  from  outer  build- 
ings, could  scarcely  so  be  used.  The  prohi- 
bition did  not  hinder  the  building  of  stately 
private  houses,  as  appears  from  Haggai's  re- 
buke. The  hindrances  also,  whatever  they 
were,  had  not  begun  with  that  decree.  Any 
how  the  death  of  Pseudo-Sinerdis  had  now, 
for  a  year,  set  them  free,  had  they  had  any 
zeal  for  the  glory  and  service  of  God.  Else 
Haggai  had  not  blamed  them.  God,  know- 
ing that  He  should  bend  the  heart  of  Darius, 
as  He  had  that  of  Cyrus,  requires  the  house 
to  be  built  witiiout  the  king's  decree.  It 
was  built  in  faith,  that  God  would  bring 
through  what  He  had  enjoined,  althougli 
outward  things  were  as  adverse  now  as 
before.  And  what  He  commanded  He 
prospered  ". 
There  was  indeed  a  second  fulfillment  of 

separate  noun,  seems  to  me  to  contain  an  etymolog- 
ical play,  where  pavdo  is  used  as  an  independent 
noun  in  order  to  explain  the  two  compounds. 
pacca-pavdo  and  pard-paido,  i.  e.,  protecting  behina 
and  protectiuR  in  front,  as  if  we  were  to  say,  '  he  is 
a  lector,  both  as  a  pro-tcctor  and  suh-tector.'  " 

«  Ezr.  i.  8.  In  relation  to  Cyrus,  he  is  called  by 
his  Persian  name  Sheshbazzar,  by  which  name  he 
is  mentioned  in  Tatnai's  letter  to  Darius,  as  having 
been  commissioned  by  f'vrus  to  rebuild  the  temple 
and  as  having  done  so  (Ezr.  vi.  14-ir,)  while,  in  the 
history  of  the  restoration,  he  is  related  to  have  done 
it  under  his  domestic  name  Zerubbabel.  On  these 
changes  of  names  by  their  masters,  see  Daniel  the 
Prophet  p.  16. 

'  Ezr.  V.  14.  8 1  Chr.  vi.  15. 

»2  Kgs  XXV.  18-21.  »»S.  Jer. 

n  The  first  sentence  being  left  incomplete,  for, 
"  It  is  not  time  to  come  to  build  the  Lord  s  house."' 

i»  Ezr.  iii.  7.         »^S.  John  iv.  22.         i*Ezr.  r.  vi. 


CHAPTER  I. 


301 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 

•  Ezra  0. 1. 

f2Sam.  7.2. 
Ps.  132.  3,  &c. 


3  Then  came  the  word 
of  the  Lord  ^by  Haggai 
the  prophet  saying, 

4  'Is  it  time  for  you,  O 
ye,  to  dwell  in  your  ceiled 


seventy  years,  from  the  destruction  of  the 
temple  by  Nebuchadnezzar  B.  C.  586,  to  its 
consecration  in  the  6th  year  of  Darius  B.  C. 
516.  But  tliis  was  through  the  wiliulness 
of  man,  prolonging  the  desolation  decreed  by 
God,  and  Jeremiah's  prophecy  relates  to  the 
people  not  to  the  temple. 

"  ^  The  prophet  addresses  his  discourse  to 
the  chiefs  [in  Church  and  state]  and  yet 
accuses  directly,  not  their  listlessness  but  that 
of  the  people,  in  order  both  to  honor  them 
before  the  people  and  to  teach  that  their 
sins  are  to  be  blamed  privately  not  publicly, 
lest  their  authority  should  be  injured,  and 
the  people  incited  to  rebel  against  them; 
and  also  to  shew  that  this  fault  was  directly 
that  of  the  people,  whom  he  reproves  before 
their  princes,  that,  being  openly  convicted 
before  them,  it  might  be  ashamed,  repent, 
and  obey  God  ;  but  that  indirectly  this  fault 
touched  the  chiefs  themselves,  whose  office  it 
was  to  urge  the  people  to  this  work  of  God." 
"  ^  For  seldom  is  the  Prince  free  from  the 
guilt  of  his  subjects,  as  either  assenting  to, 
or  winking  at  them,  or  not  coercing  them, 
though  able." 

Since  also  Christians  are  the  temple  of 
God,  all  this  prophecy  of  Haggai  is  appli- 
cable to  them.  "  ^  When  thou  seest  one  who 
has  lapsed  thinking  and  preparing  to  build 
through  chastity  the  temple  which  he  had 
before  destroyed  through  passion,  and  yet 
delaying  day  by  day,  say  to  him,  'Truly 
thou  also  art  of  the  people  of  the  captivity, 
and  sayest.  The  time  is  not  yet  come  for  building 
the  house  of  the  Lord.'  Whoso  has  once  set- 
tled to  restore  the  temple  of  God,  to  him 
every  time  is  suited  for  building,  and  the 
prince,  Satan,  cannot  hinder,  nor  the  ene- 
mies around.  As  soon  as  being  thyself  con- 
verted, thou  callest  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  He  will  say.  Behold  Me^  "*  To  him 
who  willeth  to  do  right,  the  time  is  always 
present ;  the  good  and  right-minded  have 
power  to  fulfill  what  is  to  the  glory  of  God, 
in  every  time  and  place." 

3.  And  the  word  of  the  Lord  came.  " '  Be- 
fore, he  prophesied  nothing,  but  only  recited 
the  saying  of  the  people ;  now  he  refutes  it 
in  his  prophecy,  and  repeats,  again  and 
again,  that  he  says  this  not  of  himself,  but 
from  the  mind  and  mouth  of  God."      It  is 

1  Lap.  '&  Castro  from  Alb. 

3S.  Jer.     .  ♦S.  Cyr. 

'  DPK  D37,  tlie  pers.  pron.  repeated  emphatically. 
♦  The  force  of  D'J13D  'n  appos.  to  DJD'n3. 


houses,  and  this  house  lie    ^  ,f  l,^"""?,  ^ 

waste  ?  cir-  520. 


5  Now  therefore  t  h  u  s  t  Heb.  set  your 

heart  on  your 

saith  the  Lord  of  hosts :  ^ays. 

,     ^        .  ,  eLam.  3.40. 

t  ^  Consider  your  ways.         ver.  7. 


characteristic  of  Haggai  to  inculcate  thus 
frequently,  that  his  words  are  not  his  own, 
but  the  words  of  God.  Yet  "  *  the  prophets, 
both  in  their  threats  and  prophecies,  repeat 
again  and  again.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  teaching 
us,  how  we  should  prize  the  word  of  God,  hang 
upon  it,  have  it  ever  in  our  mouth,  rever- 
ence, ruminate  on,  utter,  praise  it,  make  it 
our  continual  delight." 

4.  Is  it  time  for  you,  [you  ^,]  being  what  you 
are,  the  creatures  of  God,  to  dwell  in  your 
ceiled  houses^,  more  emphatically,  in  your 
houses,  and  those  ceiled,  probably  with  costly 
woods,  such  as  cedar  ^  But  where  then  was 
the  excuse  of  want  of  means  ?  They  imitated, 
in  their  alleged  poverty,  what  is  spoken  of 
as  magnificent  in  their  old  kings,  Solomon 
and  Shallum,  but  not  having,  as  Solomon 
first  did,  ^  covered  the  house  of  God  with  beams 
and  roK's  of  cedar.  "  ^  Will  ye  dwell  in  houses 
artificially  adorned,  not  so  much  ibr  use  as 
for  delight,  and  shall  My  dwelling-place, 
wherein  was  the  Holy  of  holies,  and  the 
Cherubim,  and  the  table  of  shew-bread,  be 
bestreanied  with  rains,  desolated  in  solitude, 
scorched  by  the  sun  ?  " 

"  "  With  these  words  carnal  Christians  are 
reproved,  who  have  no  glow  of  zeal  for  God, 
but  are  full  of  self-love,  and  so  make  no 
effort  to  repair,  build,  or  strengthen  the 
material  temples  of  Christ,  and  houses  as- 
signed to  His  worship,  when  aged,  ruinous, 
decaying  or  destroyed,  but  build  for  them- 
selves curious,  voluptuous,  superfluous  dwell- 
ings. In  these  the  love  of  Christ  gloweth 
not ;  these  Isaiah  threateneth,  ^°  Woe  to  you 
u'ho  join  house  to  house  and  field  to  field,  and  re- 
gard not  the  work  of  the  Lord  !  " 

To  David  and  Solomon  the  building  of 
God's  temple  was  their  heart's  desire ;  to 
early  Christian  Emperors,  to  the  ages  of 
faith,  the  building  of  Churches  ;  now  mostly, 
owners  of  lands  build  houses  for  this  world's 
profit,  and  leave  it  to  the  few  to  build  in 
view  of  eternity,  and  for  the  glory  of  God. 

5.  And  now,  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts ; 
Consider,  [lit.  set  your  heart  tipon^  your  ways, 
what  they  had  been  doing,  what  they  were 
doing,  and  what  those  doings  had  led  to,  and 
would  lead  to.  This  is  ever  present  to  the 
mind  of  the  prophets,  as  speaking  God's 
words,   that  our  acts  are  not  only  ways  in 

'  nX3  |1t3D  1  Kgs  vii.  6,  7.  Jer.  xxii.  14. 
nKgs  vi.  9.  |30M.  •Dion. 

w  Is.  V.  8, 12. 


302 


HAGGAL 


6  Ye  have  ''  sown  much, 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  620.      and  bring  in  little ;  ye  eat, 


K  Deut.  28. 38.     but  ye  have  not  enough  ; 

Hos.  4.  10.  J    •    ^       \.    2.  J. 

Mic.  6  14,15.   ye  drink,  but  ye  are  not 
filled  with  drink ;  ye  clothe 


'  Jer.  .\xi.  8. 
*  lb.  X.  17. 
'  lb.  V.  6,  fi. 
•lb.  iv.  18. 
"Job  1.8. 
'•  Dion, 


»F9.  \vi.  11. 
'  lb.  XV.  24. 

10  lb.  11.  Vi. 
".lor.  xxiv. 0. 
>»1  Tim.  V.  21. 


«  Pr.  vi.  23. 
•lb.  vii.  27. 
xiv.  12.  xvi.  25. 
»  Is.  lix.  8. 
'*  Ih.  xxi.  10. 
'•  I'r.  iv.  2fi. 


which  we  go,  each  day  of  life  being  a  con>- 
tinuance  of  the  day  before ;  but  that  they 
are  ways  which  lead  somewhither  in  God's 
Providence  and  His  justice  ;  to  some  end  of 
the  tvay,  good  or  bad.  So  God  says  by  Jere- 
miah, '  /  set  before  you  the  way  of  life  and  the 
way  of  death  ;  and  David, '  Tho\i  w'dt  shew  me 
the  path  of  life,  where  it  follows.  In  Thy  Pres- 
ence is  the  fullness  of  joy  and  mt  Thy  Right  Hand 
there  are  pleasures  for  evermore ;  and  Solomon, 
'  Reproofs  of  imtruction  are  the  imy  of  life  ;  and, 
he  is  in  *  the  icay  of  life  who  keepeth  instruction  ; 
and  he  wlio  forsnketh  rebuke,  erreth  ;  and,  *  The 
way  of  life  is  above  to  the  wise,  that  he  may  depart 
from  hell  beneath ;  and  of  the  adulterous 
woman,  *  Her  house  are  the  tvays  of  hell,  (joing 
down  to  the  chambers  of  death  ;  and  '  her  feet 
go  down  unto  death;  her  steps  take  hold  on  hell ; 
lest  thou  shouldest  ponder  the  path  of  life.  Again, 
*  Thej'e  is  a  way  that  seemeth  right  unto  a  man, 
and  the  end  thereof  are  the  ivays  of  death ;  and 
contrariwise,  ®  The  path  of  the  righteous  is  a 
■<hining  light,  shining  more  and  more  luitil  the 
midday.  ^^  TIte  ivays  of  darkness  are  the  ways 
wliicli  end  in  darkness ;  and  when  Isaiah 
say.s,  "  The  way  of  peace  hast  thou  not  known, 
lie  adds,  whosoever  goeth  therein  shall  not  know 
peace.  They  who  choose  not  peace  for  their 
way,  shall  not  find  peace  in  and  for  their 
end. 

On  these  your  ways,  Haggai  says,  .tet  your 
hearts,  not  thinking  of  them  lightly,  nor  giv- 
ing a  passing  thought  to  them,  but  fixing 
your  minds  upon  them  ;  as  God  says  to  Satan, 
''Hast  thou  set  thy  heart  on  My  servant  Job? 
and  God  is  said  to  set  His  eye  or  His  face 
upon  man  for  good  '•'  or  for  evil  ".  He  speaks 
also,  not  of  setting  the  mind,  applying  the 
tmderstanding,  giving  the  thoughts,  but  of 
.netting  the  heart,  as  the  seat  of  the  affections. 
It  is  not  a  dry  weighing  of  the  temporal  re- 
sults of  their  ways,  but  a  loving  dwelling 
upon  tliem  ;  for  repentance  without  love  is 
but  the  gnawing  of  remorse. 

"''>S'e<  your  heart  on  your  ways  ;  i.  e.,  your 
affections,  thoughts,  works,  so  as  to  be  cir- 
cumspect in  all  things;  as  the  Apostle  says, 
'*  Do  nothing  ivithout  forethought,  i.  e.,  witliout 
previous  judgment  of  reason  ;  and  Solomon, 
^' Let  thine  eyi-s   look   right   on,  and   lei    thine 


you,  but   there   is   none    chr7st 
warm  ;  and  '  he  that  earn-      c'r-  52o. 


eth   wages  earneth  wagesizech.  8.  in. 

to  put  it  into  a  bag   f  with+Heb.  jnereed 

holes. 


through. 


eyelids  look  straight  before  thee;  and  the 
son  of  Sirach,  ^'^ Son,  do  nothing  u-ithont  counsel 
and  when  thou  hast  done  it  thou  wilt  not  repent. 
For  since,  according  to  a  probable  proposi- 
tion, nothing  in  human  acts  is  indifferent, 
i.  e.,  involving-  neither  good  nor  ill  deserts, 
they  who  do  not  thus  set  their  hearts  upon 
their  way.?,  do  they  not  daily  incur  well-nigh 
countless  sins,  in  thought,  word,  desire,  deed, 
yea  and  by  omission  of  duties  ?  Such  are  all 
fearless  persons  who  heed  not  to  fullill  what 
is  written,  ^'  Keep  your  heart  with  all  watch- 
fulness." 

*'  ^°  Yiesows  much  to  his  own  heart,  but  brings 
in  little,  who  by  reading  and  hearing  knows 
much  of  the  heavenly  connuands,  but  by  neg- 
ligence in  deeds  bears  little  fruit.  He  eats 
and  is  not  satisjied,  who,  hearing  the  wonls  of 
God,  coveteth  the  gains  or  glory  of  the  world. 
Well  is  he  said  not  to  be  .mti.^jied,  who  eateth 
one  thing,  hungereth  after  another.  He 
drinks  and  is  not  inebriated,  who  inclinetii 
his  ear  to  the  voice  of  preaching,  but  chang- 
eth  not  his  mind.  For  through  inebriation 
the  mind  of  those  who  drink  is  changed.  He 
then  who  is  devoted  to  the  knowledge  of 
God's  word,  yet  still  desireth  to  gain  the 
things  of  the  world,  drinks  and  is  not  inebri- 
ated. For  were  he  inebriated,  no  doubt  he 
would  have  changed  his  mind  and  no  longer 
seek  earthly  things,  or  love  the  vain  and 
passing  things  which  he  had  loved.  For  the 
Psalmist  .says  of  the  elect,  ^^they  shall  be  ineb- 
riated with  the  richness  of  Tfiy  house,  because 
they  shall  be  filled  with  such  love  of  Al- 
mighty God,  that,  their  mind  being  changed, 
they  seem  to  be  strangers  to  themselves,  ful- 
filling what  is  written,  '^'^  If  any  will  come  after 
Me,  let  him  deny  himself." 

6.  Ye  have  .<iown  much.  The  prophet  ex- 
presses the  habitualness  of  tliese  visitations 
by  a  vivid  present.  He  marks  no  time  and 
so  expres.ses  the  more  vividly  that  it  wa";  at 
all  times.  It  is  one  continually  present  evil. 
Ye  have  sown  much  and  there  is  a  bringing  in 
little  ;  there  is  eating  and  not  to  satisfy ;  there 
is  drinkinr/  and  not  to  exhilarate  ;  there  is  cloth- 
ing awl  not  tobewarm^'^.  It  is  not  for  the 
one  or  tlie  other  yeai-s,  as,  since  the  first  year 
of   Darius   Hystaspis  ;    it   is   one   continued 

'«  Efcius.  xxxii.  1'.).  Vulg.  i»Fr.  iv.  2a. 

«S.  GfPg.  in  Ezek.  Horn.  i.  10.  n.  7.  0pp.  i.  126i;. 
«  P.s.  xxxvi.  8.  «8.  Matt.  xvi.  24. 

"iS  UVh.    TIm;   iS  is  not  pleonastic,  but   lium 

the  inipor^onal  '7  Ur\  1  Kg"  '•  ',-•  f"'''"'-  '^'  H-  (''''■^ 


CHAPTER  I. 


303 


c  H  rTs  t       "  ^  "^^"^  ^^^^^^  ^^®  Lord 
cir.  520.      of  hosts ;  C 0 iis ider  vour 


ways. 


visitation,  coordinate  with  one  continued 
negligence.  As  long  as  the  sin  lasted,  so  long 
the  punishment.  The  visitation  itself  was 
twofold  ;  impoverished  harvests,  so  as  to  sup- 
ply less  sustenance  ;  and  various  indisposition 
of  the  frame,  so  that  what  would,  by  God's 
appointment  in  nature,  satisfy,  gladden, 
warm,  failed  of  its  effect.  And  he  that  labor- 
eth  for  hire,  gaineth  himself  hire  into  a  bag  full 
of  holes  [lit.  perforaiedl.  The  labor  pictured 
is  not  only  fmitless,  but  wearisome  and  vex- 
ing. There  is  a  seeming  result  of  all  the 
labor,  something  to  allure  hopes  ;  but  forth- 
with it  is  gone.  The  heathen  assigned  a  like 
baffling  of  hope  as  one  of  the  punishments 
of  hell.  " '  Better  and  wiser  to  seek  to  Ije 
blessed  by  God,  Who  bestoweth  on  us  all 
things.  And  this  will  readily  come  to  those 
who  choose  to  be  of  the  same  mind  with  Him 
and  prefer  what  is  for  His  glory  to  their  own. 
For  so  saith  the  Saviour  Himself  to  us, 
^Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  Ood  and  His  right- 
eousness, and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you" 

"^He  loses  good  deeds  by  evil  acts,  Avho 
takes  account  of  his  good  work?;,  which  he 
has  before  his  eyes,  and  forgets  the  faults 
which  creep  in  between  ;  or  who,  after  what 
is  good,  returns  to  what  is  vain  and  evil." 
"  *  Money  is  seen  in  the  pierced  bag,  when 
it  is  cast  in,  but  when  it  is  lost,  it  is  not  seen. 
They  then  who  look  how  much  they  give, 
but  do  not  weigh  how  much  they  gain 
wrongly,  cast  their  rewards  into  a  pierced 
bag.  Looking  to  the  Hope  of  their  confi- 
dence they  bring  them  together  ;  not  looking, 
they  lose  them." 

"^  I'hcy  lose  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  by  not 
pei-severing  to  the  end,  or  by  seeking  human 
praise,  or  by  vain  glory  within,  not  keeping 
spiritual  riches  under  the  guardianship  of 
humility.  .Such  are  vain  and  unprofitable 
men,  of  whom  the  Saviour  saith,  "  Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  they  have  their  reward" 

8.  Go  up  into  the  mountain.  Not  Mount 
Lebanon,  whence  the  cedars  had  been  brought 

1  S.  Cyr.  «8.  Matt.  vi.  33.  ^  Lap. 

♦S.  Greg.  Reg.  Past.  iii.  21.  fin.  0pp.  ii.  08. 

5  Dion.  «  8.  Matt.  vi.  2. 

'  Ezr.  iii.  7.  *  Neh.  viii.  LI. 

9  8.  Matt.  xxiv.  1.  lOMic.  vi.  7.  »  Ps.  cxlvii.  11. 
'2  Pr.  xi.  20.  13  lb.  xii.  22.  "  lb.  xv.  S. 

15  There  is  no  ground  for  the  Kri  m33X1,  and  so 

should  I  be  qloriHed  or  honored.  It  is  a  positive  pro- 
mise that  God  would  shew  forth  His  glory,  as  in 
nVIKI  immediately  before.    God  says,  "do  this, 

and  I  will  do  that."  Com  p.  Zech.  i.  3.  Of  0.5  in- 
stances which  Bottcher  (Lehrb.  n.  965.  e.)  gives  of 
n  T  after  the  imperative,  61  relate  to  some  wish  of 
the  hnman  agent;  4  only  relate  to  <^od.     Di'Ut.  v. 


Before 


8  Go  up  to  the  moun-    ^  jj  ^  j  g  j 
tain,  and  bring  wood,  and      '^'i'-  °^"- 
build  the  house  :  and  I  will 


for  the  first  temple  ;  whence  also  Zerubbabel 
and  Joshua  had  procured  some  out  of  Cyrus' 
grant ',  at  the  first  return  from  the  captivity. 
They  were  not  required  to  buy,  expend,  but 
simply  to  give  their  own  labor.  They  were 
themselves  to  go  up  to  the  mountain,  i.  e.  the 
mountainous  country  where  the  trees  grew, 
and  bring  them.  So,  in  order  to  keep  tlie 
feast  of  tabernacles,  Ezra  made  a  proclama- 
tion *  in  all  their  cities  and  in  Jerusalem,  go  ye 
up  to  the  mountain  and  bring  leafy  branches  of 
vines,  olives,  myrtles,  palms.  The  palms,  any- 
how, were  timber.  God  required  not  goodly 
stones,  such  as  had  been  already  used,  and 
such  as  hereafter,  in  the  temple  which  was 
built,  were  the  admiration  even  of  disciples 
of  Jesus  ',  but  which  were,  for  the  wickedness 
of  those  who  rejected  their  Saviour,  not  to  be 
left,  one  stone  upon  another.  He  required  not 
costly  gifts,  but  the  heart.  The  neglect  to 
build  the  temple  was  neglect  of  Himself,  Who 
ought  to  be  worshiped  there.  His  worship 
sanctified  the  oflering ;  offerings  were  accept- 
able, only  if  made  with  a  free  heart. 

And  I  will  have  pleasure  in  it.  God,  Who 
has  declared  that  He  has  no  ^"pleasure  in 
thousayids  of  rams,  or  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of 
oil,  had  delight  in  '^  them  that  feared  Him,  that 
are  upright  in  their  way  ^'^,  that  deal  truly ''',  in 
the  prayer  of  the  upright^*;  and  so  in  the 
temple  too,  when  it  should  be  built  to  His 
glory. 

And  will  be  glorified  '*.  God  is  glorified  in 
man,  when  man  serves  Him ;  in  Himself, 
when  He  manifests  aught  of  His  greatness  ; 
in  His  great  doings  to  His  people  '®,  as  also 
in  the  chastisement  of  those  who  disobey 
Him  ".  God  allows  that  glory,  which  shines 
ineffably  throughout  His  creation,  to  be  ob- 
scured here  through  man's  disobedience,  to 
shine  forth  anew  on  his  renewed  obedience. 
The  glory  of  God,  as  it  is  the  end  of  the  crea- 
tion, so  is  it  His  creature's  supreme  bliss. 
When  God  is  really  glorified,  then  can  He 
shew  forth  His  glory,  by  His  grace  and  ac- 
ceptance.    "  '^  The  glory  of  God  is  our  glory. 


31,  "stand  here  by  Me,  ^■^3^K1,  that  I  may  speak 
unto  thee;"  Is.  xli.  22,  23.  irony,  including  men, 
"that  we  may  consider  and  know;  that  we  may 
know;"  Ps.  1.  7.  "hear  Me  and  I  ivmdd  speak,  and 
testify ;"  Mai.  iii.  7.  "Return  to  Me  and  I  would  re- 
turn unto  you  ;  "  the  return  of  the  creature  being  a 
condition  that  God  oould  return  to  it.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Ch.  Lam.  v.  21,  "Turn  Thou  us  unto 
Thee,  ^ll^JI,  and  we  will  return  "  expresses  tho 
absolute  will  to  return:  Ruth  iv.  4,  "tell  me,_^nj<1, 
and  I  shall  know,"  the  certainty  of  the  knowledge, 
upon  which  Boaz  would  act. 

i«  Is  xxvi.  15,  xliv.  23,  Ix.  21,  Ixi.  3. 

1"  Ex.  xiv.  4.  Ezek.  xxviii.  22. 

'8  .S.  Aug.  Serm.  380,  n.  6. 


304 


HAGGAI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

eir.  620. 


k  ch.  2.  16. 


take  pleasure  in  it,  and  I 
.  will  be  glorified,  saith  the 
Lord. 

9  "  Ye  looked  for  much, 
and,  lo,  it  came  to  little ; 
and   when   ye   brought  it 


The  more  sweetly  God  is  glorified,  the  more  it 
profits  us  :  "  yet  not  our  profit,  but  the  glory 
of  God  is  itself  our  end ;  so  the  prophet 
closes  in  that  which  is  our  end,  God  wUl  be 
glorified. 

"  '  Good  then  and  well-pleasing  to  God  is 
zeal  in  fulfilling  wliatever  may  api)ear  neces- 
sary for  the  good  condition  of  the  Church 
and  its  building-up,  collecting  the  most  use- 
ful materials,  the  spiritual  principles  in  in- 
spired Scripture,  wliereby  he  may  secure 
and  ground  the  conception  of  God,  an  1  may 
shew  that  the  way  of  tlie  Incarnation  w;is 
well-ordered,  and  may  collect  what  apper- 
tains to  accurate  knowledge  of  spiritual  eru- 
dition and  moral  goodness.  Nay,  each  of  us 
may  be  thought  of,  as  the  temple  and  house 
of  God.  For  Christ  dwelleth  in  its  by  the 
Spirit,  and  we  are  temples  of  tlis  living  God, 
according  to  the  Scripture  *.  Let  each  then 
build  up  his  own  heart  by  right  faith,  having 
the  Saviour  as  the  precious  foundation.  And 
let  him  add  thereto  other  materials,  obedi- 
ence, readiness  for  anything,  courage,  en- 
durance, continence.  So  being  framed  to- 
gether by  that  which  every  joint  supplielh,  shall 
we  become  a  holy  temple,  a  habitation  of  God 
through  the  Spint  *.  But  those  who  are  slow 
to  faith,  or  who  believe  but  are  sluggish  in 
shaking  off  passions  and  sins  and  worldly 
pleasure,  thereby  cry  out  in  a  manner,  T/ie 
lime  is  not  come  to  build  the  house  of  the  Lord." 

9.  Ye  looked,  lit.  a  looking ;  as  though  he 
said,  it  has  all  been  one  looking, /or  much,  for 
increase,  the  result  of  all  sowing,  in  the  way 
of  nature  :  and  behold  it  came  to  little,  i.  e.  less 
than  was  sown  ;  iis  Isaiah  denounced  to  them 
of  old  by  God's  word,  *  the  seed  of  a  homer 
ihall  yield  an  epliah,  i.  e.  one  tenth  of  what 
was  sown.  And  ye  brought  it  home,  and  I  blew 
upon  it,  so  as  to  disperse  it,  as,  not  the  wheat, 
but  the  chaff  is  blown  before  the  wind.  Tliis, 
in  whatever  way  it  came  to  pass,  was  a  furtlier 
chastisement  of  God.  The  little  seed  which 
they  brought  in  lessened  through  decay  or 
waste.  Wliy  f  saith  the  Lord  of  host.'^.  <  Jod 
asks  by  his  prophet,  what  He  asks  in  the 
awakened     conscience.      ^  God    with    rebukes 

>  S.  Cyr.     «  2  Cor.  vi.  16.     s  Eph.  iv.  16,  ii.  21,  22. 

«Ifl.  V.  10.  '•Vs.  xxxix.  11. 

« Herod,  i.  103.  Theophr.  HiHt.  Plant,  viii.  7. 
Berosus  Fv.  1.  Strabo  xvi.  1.  14.  Pliny  Nat.  Hist. 
XTiii.  17.  Amm.  Marc.  xxlv.  9. 

7  Nu.  xxi.  5.  » lb.  xi.  a. 


home,  'I  did  ||blow  upon 
it.  Why  ?  saith  the  Lord  . 
of  hosts.  Because  of  mine 
house  that  is  waste,  and  ye 
run  every  man  unto  his 
own  house. 


Before 

CHRIST 

eir.  520. 

>  ch.  2. 17. 
9  Or,  blow  it 
away. 


chastensman  for  sin.  Conscience,  when  alive, 
confesses  for  vital  sin  ;  or  it  asks  itself,  if 
memory  does  not  supply  the  special  sin.  Un- 
awakened,  it  murmurs  about  the  excess  of 
rain,  the  drought,  the  bliglit,  the  mildew, 
and  asks,  not  itself,  why,  in  God's  Providence, 
the.se  inflictions  came  in  these  years?  They 
felt  doubtless  the  sterility  in  contrast  with 
the  exceeding  prolificalness  of  Babylonia®, 
as  they  contrasted  the  light  bread ',  the 
manna,  with  •*  the  plenteousness  of  Egypt. 
They  ascribed  probably  their  meagre  crops 
(as  we  mostly  do)  to  mere  natural  causes, 
perhaps  to  the  long  neglect  of  the  land  dur- 
ing the  captivity.  God  forces  the  question 
upon  their  consciences,  in  that  Ilaggaiasks  it 
in  His  Name,  in  Whose  hands  all  powers 
stand,  saith  the  Lord  of  hot<ts.  They  have  not 
to  talk  it  over  among  themselves,  but  to 
answer  Almighty  God,  why?  That  why* 
strikes  into  the  inmost  depths  of  conscience  ! 

Becau.se  of  My  hou.'se  which  is  tvaste,  and  ye 
run  lit.  are  running,  all  the  while,  each  to  his 
own  home^.  They  were  absorbed  in  their 
material  interests,  and  had  no  time  for  those 
of  God.  When  the  question  was  of  God'.s 
house,  they  stir  not  from  the  spot ;  when  it  is 
of  their  own  concerns,  they  run.  Our  Lord 
says, '"  Seek  ye  fir.<st  the  kingdom  of  God  and  Hi.^ 
righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you.  Man  reverses  this,  seeks  his  own 
things  first,  and  God  withholds  His  bles.sing. 

" ''  This  comes  true  of  those  who  prefer 
their  own  conveniences  to  God's  honor,  who 
do  not  thoroughly  uproot  self-love,  whose 
penitence  and  devotion  are  shewn  to  be  un- 
stable; for  on  a  sliglit  temptation  they  are 
overcome.  Such  are  they  who  are  bold,  self- 
pleasing,  wise  and  great  in  their  own  eyes, 
who  do  not  ground  their  conversation  on  true 
antl  solid  humility." 

"  '^  To  those  who  are  slow  to  fulfill  what  is 
for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  things  whereby 
His  hou'ie,  the  Church,  is  firmly  stayed, 
neither  the  heavenly  dew  cometh,  which  en- 
richeth  hearts  and  minds,  nor  the  fruitful- 
ness  of  the  earth  ;  i.  e.  right  action  ;  not  food 
nor  wine  nor  use  of  oil.     But  they  will  1)6 

"vn  with  7  is  used  of  the  direction  whither  a 

man  goes;  if  used  of  an  action,  hasting  to  do  it; 

as  runneth  to  evil  (Is.  lix.  7,  Pr.  1.  16.)    Here  in'3'7 
cannot  be  "  on  account  of  his  house,"  but  to  it,  viz. 
for  his  business  there. 
'«!=>.  Matt.  vi.  3r?  »  Mou,  "S.  Cyr. 


CHAPTEK  I. 


30.-) 


CHRIST        1^  Therefore  "the 

'^'''-  ^^Q-      heaven  over  you  is  stayed 

»  Lev.  26. 19.      from  dew,  and  the  earth  is 

Deut.  28.  23.       ■  ■,   j.  ,  ^      . 

1  Kiu.  8. 35.     Stayed  Jrom  her  rruit. 

2 Kin! 8.1.'  11  And  I  "called  for  a 
drought  upon  the  land, 
and  upon  the  mountains, 
and  upon  the  corn,  and 
upon  the  new  wine,  and 
upon  the  oil,  and  upon  that 
which  the  ground  bringeth 
forth,  and  upon  men,  and 


ever  strengthless  and  joyless,  unenriched  by 
spiritual  oil,  and  remain  without  taste  or  par- 
ticipation of  the  blessing  through  Christ." 

10.  Therefore,  for  you,  on  youi-  account  ^ ;  for 
your  sins  ^,  He  points  out  the  moral  cause  of 
the  drought,  whereas  men  think  of  this  or 
that  cause  of  the  variations  of  the  seasons, 
and  we,  e.  g.  take  into  our  mouths  Scripture- 
words,  as  murrain  of  cattle,  and  the  like,  and 
think  of  nothing  less  than  why  it  was  sent, 
or  Who  sent  it.  Haggai  directs  the  mind  to 
the  higher  Cause,  that  as  they  withheld  their 
service  from  God,  so,  on  their  account  and  by 
His  will,  His  creatures  withheld  ^  their  ser- 
vice from  them. 

11.  And  I  called  for  a  drought  upon  the  land. 
God  called  to  the  people  and  they  would  not 
hear.  It  is  His  ever-repeated  complaint  to 
them.  /  called  unto  you,  and  ye  woidd  not 
hear.  He  called  to  His  inanimate  creatures 
to  punish  them,  and  they  obeyed.  So  Elisha 
tells  the  woman,  whose  son  he  had  restored 
to  life,  *  The  Lord  hath  called  to  the  famine,  and 
it  shall  also  come  to  the  land  seven  years. 

And  npon  men,  in  tliat  tlie  drought  was 
oppressive  to  man.  The  Prophet  may  also 
allude  to  the  other  meaning  of  the  word, 
"waste,"  "desolation."  They  had  left  the 
house  of  the  Lord  ^  waste,  therefore  God 
called  for  waste,  desolation,  upon  them. 

12.  Then  Zerubbabel,  and  all  the  remnant  of 
the  people,  not,  "  the  rest  of  people  "  but  "  the 

1  As  in  Ps.  xliv.  43.  2  jon. 

^K^Dbeins  everywhere  transitive,  and  in  this 
V.  also,  is  probably  transitive  here. 

•2  Kgs  vui.  1. 

s  2^r\.  Hagg.  i.  4,  9 ;  3';in,  i.  11. 

6  This  is  the  almost  uniform  usage  of  JT'^t^K/, 
"remnant  which  remains  over,"  mostly  after  the 
rest  have  been  destroyed  or  carried  captive.  See 
vol.  i.  on  Am.  i.  8  ;  add,  the  remnant  of  .Tudah,  Jer. 
xl.  11,  xlii.  19,  xliii.  ,■>,  xliv.  12,14,  of  Israel,  Zeph.  iii. 
1.3.  Ez.  xi.  13;  whole  remnant  of  the  people,  Jer.  xli. 
10. 16;  of  Ashdod,  .ler.  xxv.  20:  of  the  coast  of  Caphtor, 
lb.  xlvii.  4 ;  of  their  valleu,  lb.  5 ;  of  the  coast  of  the 
8ea,  Ez.  xxv.  16;  of  the  nations,  lb.  xxxvi.  3,  4,  5;  of 
the  land,  nOHX,  Is.  xv.  9;  of  My  people,  Zeph.  ii.  9"; 

UO 


upon  cattle,  and  "  upon  all 
the  labor  of  the  hands. 

12  ^P  Then  Zerubbabel 
the  son  of  Shealtiel,  and 
Joshua  the  son  of  Jose- 
dech,  the  high  priest,  with 
all  the  remnant  of  the  peo- 
ple, obeyed  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  their  God,  and  the 
words  of  Haggai  the  pro- 
phet, as  the  Lord  their 
God  had  sent  him,  and  the 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  'rZO. 

»ch.  2.  17. 
P  Ezra  5.  2. 


remnant  *,"  those  who  remained  over  from 
the  captivity,  the  fragment  of  the  two  tribes, 
which  returned  to  their  own  land,  hearkened 
unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord.  This  was  the  be- 
ginning of  a  conversion.  In  this  one  thing 
they  began  to  do,  \\hat,  all  along,  in  their 
history,  and  most  in  tlieir  decay  before  the 
captivity  they  refused  to  do — obey  God's 
word.  So  God  sums  up  their  history,  by 
Jeremiah,  '  /  spake  unto  thee  in  thy  prosperity, 
thou  saidst,  L will  not  hear.  This  is  thy  uay 
from  thy  youth,  that  thou  hearkenedst  not  unto 
My  voice.  Zephaniah  still  more  briefly,  "«/(« 
hearkened  not  unto  [any]  voice.  Now  in  ref- 
erence, it  seems,  to  that  account  of  their  dis- 
obedience, Haggai  says,  using  the  self-same 
fornmla,  "  they  hearkened  unto  the  voice  of  the 
Lord,  ^'^  according  to  the  words  of  Haggai. 
They  obeyed,  not  vaguely,  or  partly,  but  ex- 
actly, according  to  the  words  which  the  messen- 
ger of  God  spake. 

And  they  feared  the  Lord.  "  "  Certainly  the 
presence  of  the  Divine  Majesty  is  to  be 
feared  with  great  reverence."  "  ^^  The  fear  of 
punishment  at  times  transports  the  mind  to 
what  is  better,  and  the  infliction  of  sorrows 
harmonizes  the  mind  to  the  fear  of  God  ; 
and  that  of  the  Proverbs  comes  true,  ^^  He 
thatfeareth  the  Lord  shcdl  be  recompensed,  and 
^*the  fear  of  the  Lord  tendeth  to  life;  and 
Wisdom,  '^  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  honor  and 
glory,  and  '*  the  fear  of  the  Lord  shall  rejoice 

of  His  heritage.  Mi.  vii.  18;  thy  remnant.  Is.  xiv.  30, 
Ez.  V.  10;  its  remnant,  Is.  xliv.  17;  their  remnant, 
Jer.  XV.  9  ;  and  of  those  who  had  actually  returned, 
Zech.  viii.  6, 11, 12.  In  two  places  in  wliich  it  sig- 
nifies "the  rest"  (Jer.  xxxix.  3, 1  Chr.  xii.  38.)  it  is 
at  least  the  rest  of  a  whole,  already  mentioned.  A 
third  only,  Neh.  vii.  72.  is  uneertam.  The  word  is 
used  almost  exclusively  by  the  prophets. 
7  Jer.  xxii.  21. 

^Slpa  XyiJ'Ot!}  vh.  see  Introd.  to  Zeph.  p.  225. 

10  This  is  the  only  place  in  which  n2T  h}}  J^Dl? 
is  used. 
"  Dion.  1'  S.  Cvr.  is  Pr  xiji.  13. 

"lb.  xlx.  23.  »»  Ecclus.  L  11.  i«Ib.  12. 


306 


HAGGAT. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


1  Matt.  28.  20. 
Rom.  8.  31. 

»  2  Chr.  36.  22. 
Ezra  1. 1. 


people  did  fear  before  the 
Lord, 

13  Then  spake  Haggai 
the  Lord's  messenger  in  the 
Lord's  message  unto  the 
people,  saying,  "^  I  am  with 
you,  saith  the  Lord. 

14  And   'the    Lord 


the  heart,  and  giveth  joy  and  gladness  and  along 
life.  See  how  gently  and  beseemingly  God 
smites  us." 

"'See  how  the  lovingkindness  of  God 
forthwith  goes  along  with  all  changes  for  the 
better.  For  Almighty  God  changes  along 
with  those  who  will  to  repent,  and  promises 
that  He  will  be  with  them  ;  which  what  can 
equal  ?  For  when  God  is  with  us,  all  harm 
will  depart  from  us,  all  good  come  in  to  us." 

13.  And  Haggai,  the  Lord's  messenger. 
Malachi,  whose  own  name  was  framed  to  ex- 
press that  he  was  the  Lord's  messenger,  and 
Haggai  alone  use  the  title,  as  the  title  of  a 
prophet ;  perhaps  as  forerunners  of  the  great 
prophet  whom  Malachi  announced.  Mala- 
chi also  speaks  of  the  priest,  as  '■'  the  messen- 
ger of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  prophesies  of 
John  Baptist  as  ^  the  messenger  of  the  Lord, 
who  should  go  before  His  face.  Haggai,  as  he 
throughout  repeats  that  his  words  were  God's 
words,  frames  a  new  word*,  to  express,  in 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament";  that 
he  had  an  embassy  from  God ;  in  the  Lord's 
message. 

lam  with  you.  All  the  needs  and  longings 
of  the  creature  are  summed  up  in  those  two 
words,  I  wilh-you.  "  Who  art  Thou  and  who 
am  I  ?  Thou,  He  Who  Is  ;  I,  he  who  am 
not ;  "  nothing,  yea  worse  than  nothing.  Yet 
//  *  God  he  for  us,  S.  Paul  asks,  ivho  can  be 
against  us  ?  Our  Blessed  Lord's  parting 
jiromise  to  the  Apostles,  and  in  them  to  the 
Church,  was,  '  Lo  I  am  with  you  ahray,  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world.  The  all-containing  assur- 
ance goes  beyond  any  particular  promise  of 
aid,  as,  ""I  will  help  you,  and  will  protect 
you,  so  that  your  building  shall  have  its  com- 
pletion." This  is  one  fruit  of  it;  ""since 
I  am  in  the  midst  of  you,  no  one  shall  be 
able  to  hinder  your  building."  But,  more 
widely,  the  words  bespeak  His  presence  in 
love,  Wiio  knows  all  our  needs,  and  is  Al- 
mighty to  support  and  save  us  in  all.  So 
David  says,  ^^  when  I  uxdk  through  the  valley  of 
the   shadow   of  death,  I  ivUl  fear   no    evil ;  for 


1  S.  Oyr. 
«  nOK'70. 

aMal.  il.  7.                  »Ib.  iii.  1. 
»2  Cor.  V.  2f). 

•Rom.  vill.31. 
»  Dion. 

IS.  Matt,  xxviii.  20. 
»H.  Jcr.                iPP.f.  xxiii.  4. 

stirred  up  the  spirit  of  Ze-   ^  h  r*?!  t 

rubbabel  the  son  of  Sheal-      cir.  520. 

tiel,  'governor  of  Judah,      •ch.2.2L 

and  the  spirit  of  Joshua 

the  son  of  Josedech,  the 

high  priest,  and  the  spirit 

of  all  the  remnant  of  the 

people;  'and   they   came      » Ezra 5, 2,8. 


Thou  art  with  ms:  and  God  says  by  another, 
"  /  will  be  u'ith  him  in  (rouble,  and  by  Isaiah, 
'^  When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be 
with  thee. 

14.  And  the  Lord  stirred  up  the  spirit.  The 
words  are  used  of  any  strong  impulse  from 
God  to  fulfill  His  will,  whether  in  those  who 
execute  His  will  unknowingly  as  Pul '*,  to 
carry  off"  the  trans-Jordanic  tribes,  or  the 
Philistines  and  Arabians  again.st  Jehoram  ", 
or  the  Medes  against  Babylon  '^ ;  or  know- 
ingly, as  of  Cyrus  to  restore  God's  people  and 
rebuild  the  temple  '*,  or  of  the  people  them- 
selves to  return".  "*The  spirit  of  Zerub- 
babel  and  the  spirit  of  Joshua  were  stirred, 
that  the  government  and  priesthood  may 
build  the  temple  of  God :  the  spirit  of  the 
people  too,  which  before  was  asleep  in  them  ; 
not  the  body,  not  the  soul,  but  the  spirit, 
which  knoweth  best  how  to  build  the  temple 
of  God."  "'*The  Holy  Spirit  is  stirred 
up  in  us,  that  we  should  enter  the  house 
of  the  Lord,  and  do  the  works  of  the 
Loi-d." 

" '"  Again,  observe  that  they  did  not  set 
themselves  to  choose  to  do  what  should  please 
God,  Ijefore  He  was  with  them  and  stirred 
uj)  their  spirit.  We  shall  know  hence  also, 
that  although  one  choose  zealously  to  do 
good  and  be  in  earnest  therein,  yet  he  will 
accomplish  nothing,  unless  Crod  be  with  him, 
raising  him  up  to  dare,  and  sharpening  him 
to  endure,  and  removing  all  torpor.  For  so 
the  wondrous  Paul  says  of  those  entrusted 
with  the  divine  preaching,  '■"*/  labored  more 
abundantly  than  they  all,  yet  added  very  wisely, 
yet  not  T,  but  the  grace  of  God  ichich  was  uilh 
me,  and  the  Saviour  Himself  saith  to  the 
holy  Apostles,  ^'  Without  Me  ye  can  do  nothing. 
For  He  is  our  desire,  He,  our  courage  to  any 
good  work  ;  He  our  strengtli,  and,  if  He  is 
witli  us,  we  siiall  do  well,  '''^building  ourselves 
to  a  holy  trniplf,  a  habitation  of  God  in  th<- 
Spirit;  if  He  depart  and  withdraws,  how 
shouhl  any  douljt,  that  we  slioidd  fail,  over- 
come by  sluggishness  and  want  of  courage'  " 


u  lb.  xci.  15.  >«  Is.  xliii.  2.         » 1  Chr.  v.  20. 
J<2Chr.  xxi.  10.  i^Jer.  li.  11. 

I'Ezr.  i.  1.  "lb.  5.  >8ap.  Lap. 

>»S.  Cyr.  »>lCor.  XV.  11. 

M  S.  John  XV.  \  a  Ejih.  li.  21,  ■-■■4. 


CHAPTER  ir. 


307 


o  H  R°i  8  T    ^^^  ^^^  work  in  the  house 
<'''•■  -'^^0-      of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  their 
God. 

15  In  the  four  and 
twentieth  day  of  the  sixth 
month,  in  the  second  year 
of  Darius  the  king. 

CHAPTER  II. 

1  He  encoiirageth  the  people  to 
the  work,  by  promise  of  greater 
glory  to  the  second  temple  than 
was  in  the  first.  10  In  the 
type  of  holy  things  and  unclean 
he  sheweth  their  sins  hindered 
tlie  work.  20  Ood's  promise 
to  Zerubbabel. 

TN  the  seventh  month,  in 

the  one  and  twentieth 


15.  In  the  four  and  twentieth  day  of  the 
month.  The  interval  of  twenty-three  days 
must  have  been  spent  in  preparation,  since 
the  message  came  on  the  first  of  the  mouth, 
and  the  obedience  was  immediate. 

II.  1.  In  the  seventh  month,  in  the  one  and 
twentieth  day  of  the  month.  This  was  the  sev- 
enth day  of  the  feast  of  tabernacles',  and 
its  close.  The  eighth  day  was  to  be  a  sab- 
bath, with  its  '^holy  convocation,  but  the  com- 
memorative feast,  the  dwelling  in  booths,  in 
memory  of  God's  bringing  them  out  of  Egypt, 
was  to  last  seven  days.  The  close  then  of  this 
feast  could  not  but  revive  their  sadness  at  the 
glories  of  their  first  deliverance  by  God's 
mighly  hand  and  outstretched  arm,  and  their 
present  fewness  and  poverty.  This  depres- 
sion could  not  but  bring  with  it  heavy 
thoughts  about  the  work,  in  which  they  were, 
in  obedience  to  God,  engaged  ;  and  that,  all 
the  more,  since  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  had  pro- 
phesied of  the  glories  of  the  Christian 
Church  under  the  symbol  of  the  temple. 
This  despondency  Haggai  is  sent  to  relieve, 
owning  plainly  the  reality  of  its  present 
grounds,  but  renewing,  on  God's  part,  the 
pledge  of  the  glories  of  this  second  temple, 
which  should  be  thereafter. 

3.  Wlw  is  left  among  you?  The  question 
implies  that  there  were  those  among  them, 
who  had  seen  the. first  house  in  its  glory,  yet 
but  few.  WJien  the  foundations  of  the  first 
temple  were  laid,  there  were  many.  ^  Many 
of  the  priests  and  Levites  and  chief  of  the  fa- 


'  Le\ .  xxiii.  a4,  36,  40-42. 

2  lb.  30,  39.  »  Ezr.  iii.  12. 

♦  Such  is  probably  the  force  of  IHIDD.     Comp. 
nj^'>33  TIOD  [Gen.  xliv.  18]  "one  such  as  thou  is 

like  Pliaraoli,"  aiiil  pcihiips  irj'iD,  Kx.  Lx.  18,  and 


day  of  the   month,   came    ^  h  r7s  t 
the  word  of  the  Lord  f  by      ^ir.  520. 


the  prophet  Haggai,  saying,     t  Heb.  6«  tii» 

2  Speak  now  to  Zerub- 
babel the  son  of  Shealtiel, 
governor  of  Judah,  and  to 
Joshua  the  son  of  Josedech, 
the  high  priest,  and  to  the 
residue  of  the  people,  say- 
ing, 

3  *Who  is  left   among     » Ezra  3. 12. 
you  that  saAV  this  house  in 

her  first  glory?  and  how 
do   ye  see  it  now?  ^is  it     »>Zech.4.io. 
not  in  your  eyes  in  compa- 
rison of  it  as  nothing  ? 


thers,  ancient  men,  that  had  seen  the  first  house, 
when  the  foundations  of  this  house  were  laid  be- 
fore their  eyes,  wept  with  a  loud  voice.  Fifty- 
nine  years  had  elapsed  from  the  destruction 
of  the  temple  in  the  eleventh  year  of  Zede- 
kiah  to  the  first  of  Cyrus ;  so  that  old  men 
of  seventy  years  had  seen  the  first  temple, 
when  themselves  eleven  years  old.  In  this 
second  of  Darius  seventy  years  had  passed^ 
so  that  those  of  78  or  80  years  might 
still  well  remember  it.  Ezra's  father,  Ser- 
aiah,  was  slain  in  the  eleventh  year  of  Zede- 
kiah ;  so  he  must  liave  been  born  at  latest  a 
few  months  later ;  yet  he  lived  to  the  second 
of  Artaxerxes. 

Is  not  such  as  it  is*,  as  nothing?  Beside 
the  richness  of  the  sculptures  in  the  former 
temple,  everything,  which  admitted  of  it, 
was  overlaid  with  gold  ;  ^  Solomon  overlaid  the 
tchole  house  with  gold,  until  he  had  finished  all 
the  house,  the  whole  altar  by  the  oracle,  the  two 
cherubim,  the  floor  of  the  house,  the  doors  of  the 
holy  of  holies  and  the  ornaments  of  it,  the 
cherubims  theveon  and  the  palm  trees  he  covered 
with  gold  fitted,  upon  the  carved  ivork  ;  ^  the  altar 
of  gold  and  the  table  of  gold,  whereupon  the 
sheiobread  was,  the  ten  candlesticks  of  pure  gold, 
ivith  the  flowers  and  the  lamps  and  the  tongs  of 
gold,  the  bowls,  the  snuffers  and  the  basons  and 
the  spoons  and  the  censers  of  pure  gold,  and 
hinges  of  pure  gold  for  all  the  doors  of  the  temple. 
'  The  porch  that  was  in  the  front  of  the  house, 
twenty  cubits  broad  and  120  cubits  high,  ttus 
overlaid   within   loith  pure    gold;    the    house 


-i^03  IB'N,  2Stun.  ix.  8.  pw  XID  (which  Evvald 

says  older  writers  would  have  used)  would  have 
been  weaker. 

<- 1  Kgs  vi.  22.  28,  30,  32,  35.  *  lb.  vii.  48-o0. 

'  2  Chr.  iii.  i-'J. 


308 


HAGGAI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 

•  Zech.  8. 9. 


4  Yet  now  "be  strong, 
O  Zerubbabel,  saith  the 
Lord;  and  be  strong,  0 
Joshua,  son  of  Josedech, 
the  high  priest ;  and  be 
strong,  all  ye  people  of  the 


glistened  with  precious  stones  ;  and  the  gold 
(it  is  added)  was  gold  of  Parvaim,  a  land  dis- 
tant of  course  and  unknown  to  us.  Six 
hundred  talents  of  gold  (about  £4,320,000  ^,) 
were  employed  in  overlaying  the  Holy  of 
holies.  The  upper  chambers  ivere  ako  of  gold  ; 
the  weight  of  the  nails  was  fifty  shekels  of  gold. 

4.  Yet  now  be  strong — and  work.  They  are 
the  words  with  which  David  exhorted  Solo- 
mon his  son  to  be  earnest  and  to  persevere  in 
the  building  of  the  first  temple.  ^  Take  heed 
iww,for  the  Lord  hath  chosen  thee  to  build  an 
house  for  the  sanctuary :  be  strong  and  do.  *  Be 
strong  and  of  good  courage,  and  do.  This  com- 
bination of  words  occurs  once  only  elsewhere*, 
in  Jehoshaphat's  exhortation  to  the  '  Levites 
and  priests  and  chiefs  of  the  fathers  of  Israel, 
whom  he  had  set  as  judges  in  Jerusalem. 
Haggai  seems  then  to  have  adopted  the 
words,  with  the  purpose  of  suggesting  to  the 
down-hearted  people,  that  there  was  need  of 
the  like  exhortation,  in  view  of  the  building 
of  the  former  temple,  whose  relative  glory 
80  depressed  them.  The  word  be  strong 
(elsewhere  rendered,  be  of  good  courage)  oc- 
curs commonly  in  exhortations  to  persevere 
and  hold  fast,  amid  whatever  obstacles  ". 

5.  I'he  ivords  vjhich  I  covenanted.  The  words 
stand  more  forcibly,  because  abruptly  '.  It 
is  an  exclamation  which  cannot  be  forced 


1  Reckoning  the  silver  shekel  at  2s.,  the  talent  of 
silver,  =3(MW  shekels,  would  be  £:i(X);  reckoning  the 
gold  talent,  as,  in  weight,  double  the  silver  talent, 
and  the  relation  of  gofd  to  silver  as  12  to  1,  (H.  W. 
Poole  in  Smith  Bibl.  Diet.  p.  17:U,  1735.)  the  gold 
talent  would  be  £3<XJ  x  24,=  £7,200;  and  fidO  gold 
talents  £4,320,UiX).  This  would  not  be  so  muoh  as 
Solomon  imported  yearly,  660  talents  =■  £4,7;tr),2iK). 

«1  Chr.  xxviii.  10.  »Ib.  20. 

<2Chr.  xix.  11.  6  lb.  8. 

•Gesenius  (v.  ptn)  refers  to  the  following;   2 

S;im.  X.  12,  fJoab  to  Abishai  in  the  war  with  the 
Syrians);  2  Chr.  xxv.  8.  (the  prophet  to  .\maziah); 
2'Sain.  xiii.  28  (Absalom  to  his  servants  about  tlie 
murder  of  Amnon) ;  Ps.  xxvii.  14,  x.K.xi.  25,  (with 
the  corresponding  promise  that  (rod  would  estahlish 
their  hearts) ;  Is.  xli.  fi,  (in  mockery  of  the  laborious 
process  of  making  an  idol).  It  occurs  also,  sup- 
ported by  VOXI  Jos.  i.  0,  7,  9,  18  (God's  words  to 

.loshua);  Deut.  xxxi.  7,  (Moses  to  .Joshua);  lb.  6, 
(to  Israel);  .Josh.  x.  25  (Joshua  to  the  people);  2 
<  lir.  xxxii.  7  (Ilezekiah  to  the  people);  pin  itsflf 

is  repeated  Dan.  x.  19.  pini  pfn. 

'  Less  probable  seems  to  me,  1)  To  make  nx 
IDnn  depend  on  Wy  in  v.  4,  as  Kim.  A.  E.  a)  on 
account  of  the  idiom  in  1  Chr.,  In  which,  as  here, 
nt^"  stands  absolutely,  "do  work;"  b)  Haggai  is 


land,  saith  the  Lord,  and    ^  h  ^71  t 
work :  for  I  am  with  you,       c'r-  ^'^^- 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts : 

5  '^According  to  the  a  ex.  29. 45, 46. 
word  that   I   covenanted 
with   you   when   ye  came 


into  any  grammatical  relation  with  the  pre- 
ceding. The  more  exact  idiom  would  have 
been  "  Remember,"  "  take  to  heart."  But 
the  Propliet  points  to  it  the  more  energetic- 
ally, because  he  casts  it,  as  it  were,  into  the 
midst,  not  bound  up  with  any  one  verb. 
This  would  be  the  rather  done  in  speaking 
to  the  people,  as  David  to  his  followers*, 
Thai  which  the  Lord  hath  given  us  and  hath 
preserved  us  and  given  the  company  against  us 
into  our  hands  !  i.  e.  "  Would  you  deal  thus 
with  it  ?  "  The  abrupt  form  rejects  it  as 
shocking.  So  here,  The  word  which  I  cove- 
nanted icith  you,  i.  e.  this,  /  will  be  with  you, 
was  the  central  all-containing  promise,  to 
which  God  pledged  Himself  when  He 
brought  them  out  of  Egypt.  He  speaks  to 
them  as  being  one  with  those  who  came  up 
out  of  Egypt,  as  if  they  were  the  very  per- 
sons. The  Church,  ever  varying  in  the  indi- 
viduals of  whom  it  is  composed,  is,  through- 
out all  ages,  in  God's  sight,  one ;  His  prom- 
ises to  the  fathers  are  made  to  the  children 
in  them.  So  the  Psalmist  says,  There  (at  the 
dividing  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Jordan)  do  we 
rejoice  in  Him,  as  if  present  there ;  and  our 
Lord  promises  to  the  Apostles,  *i  am  tiith 
you  always  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,  by  an 
ever-present  Presence  with  them  and  His 
Church  founded  by  them  in  Him. 

exhorting  th^m  to  this  one  work  of  rebuilding  the 
temple,  not  to  obedience  to  the  law  generally;  c) 
he  speaks  of  what  God  had  promised  them,  not  of 
their  duties  to  God.  2)  To  supply  113?  "remem- 
ber," or  anj'  like  word,  is  arbitrary,  unless  it  means 
that  we  should  fill  up  the  meaning  V)y  some  such 
word.  3)  To  construe,  "  Remember  the  word  whicli 
I  covenanted  with  you.  fear  not"  (Ew.);  a)  gives 
undue  prominence  to  the  absence  of  fear,  which 
was  one  consequence  of  God's  covenant  that  He 
would  be  their  God,  they  Ilis  people,  not  the  cove- 
nant itself;  b)  Fear  not,  is  elsewliere  the  counter- 
part and  supplement  of  the  exhortation,  "  be 
strong,"  2  Chr.  xxv.  S,  Is.  xxxv.  41.  c)  In  Ex.  xx.  20, 
(referred  to  by  Ew.)  "fear  not"  is  only  Moses' 
exhortation  on  occasion  of  the  terrors  of  the  mani- 
festation of  God  on  Mt.  Sinai.  4)  It  is  doubly 
improbable,  that  it,  as  well  as  'nil,  should  lie  the 
subject  of  the  sing.  moi*.  The  "l^nn  jlX  and 
the  "ni'^  seem  to  be  difTerent  constructions,  in 
order  to  prevent  this.  BSttcher  terms  it,  "an  nc>'. 
abs.  of  tlie  object,"  and  cites  Deut.  xi.  2,  Rzi-k. 
xliii.  7,  xlvii.  17-19,  ("unless  one  correct  iSxr  for 
JlNl  ")  Zech.  viii.  17.  (Lehrb.  n.  516.  e.) 

'1  Sam.  XXX.  23,  which  Ewald  compares,  Lehrb. 
n.  329.  a.  p.  811,  ed.  8.  and  in  his  Die  Proph.  iii.  183. 
Only  he,  not  very  intelligibly,  makes  it  a  sort  of 
oath.  Bit  the  word,  By  thai  which  the  Lord  hath  given 
«,v.  But  he  suggests  the  like  broken  smteuca 
Zecli.  vii.  7.  "3.  MmU.  xxviii.  2u. 


CHAPTER  Tt. 


309 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  520. 

>  Meh.  9.  20. 
Isai.  63. 11. 


out  of  Egypt,  SO  '  my  spirit 
remaineth  among  you : 
fear  ye  not. 


My  Spirit  abideth  among  you,  as  the  Psalm- 
ist says,  ^  they  [the  heavens]  perish  and  Thou 
abidest ;  ^  The  counsel  of  the  Lord  standeth  for- 
ever; ^  His  righteousness  endureth  forever.  The 
Spirit  of  God  is  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  with 
His  manifold  gifts.  "Where  He  is,  is  all 
good.  As  the  soul  is  in  the  body,  so  God  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  in  the  Church,  Himself  its 
life,  and  bestowing  on  all  and  each  every 
good  gift,  as  each  and  all  have  need.  As  S. 
Paul  says  of  the  Church  of  Christ ;  *  There 
are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit ;  and 
there  are  diversities  of  operations,  but  it  is  the 
same  God,  Who  xmrketh  all  in  all.  All  these 
worketh  one  and  the  self-same  Spirit,  dividing  to 
every  man  severally  as  He  uill.  But  above  and 
beyond  all  gifts  He  is  present  as  the  Spirit  of 
holiness  and  love,  making  the  Church  and 
those  in  whom  He  individually  dwells,  accept- 
able to  God.  Sjsecial  applications,  such  as 
the  Spirit  ofivisdom  and  might ;  a  spirit  such  as 
He  gave  to  Moses  to  judge  His  people  ^ ;  the 
spirit  of  projjhecy  * ;  or  the  spirit  given 
to  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab  for  the  work  of  the 
sanctuary^ — these  recognize  in  detail  the 
one  great  truth,  that  all  good,  all  wisdom, 
from  least  to  greatest,  comes  from  God 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  though  one  by  one  they 
would  exclude  more  truth  than  they  each 
contain. 

6.  Yet  once,  it  is  a  little  while.  This,  the 
rendering  of  S.  Paul  to  the  Hebrews,  is  alone 
grammatical  ^  Yet  once.  By  the  word  yet  he 
looks  back  to  the  first  great  shaking  of  the 
moral  world,  when  God's  revelation  by 
Moses  and  to  His  people  broke  upon  the 
darkness  of  the  pagan  world,  to  be  a  monu- 
ment against  heathen  error  till  Christ  should 
come ;  once  looks  on,  and  conveys  that  God 
would  again  shake  the  world,  but  once  only, 
*  under  the  one  dispensation  of  the  Gospel, 
which  should  endure  to  the  end. 

It  u  a  little  while.  "®The  517  years,  which 
were  to  elapse  to  the  birth  of  Christ,  are 
called  a  little  time,  because  to  the  prophets, 
ascending  in  heart  to  God  and  the  eternity 
of  God,  all  times,  like  all  things  of  this  world, 
seem,  as  they  are,  only  a  little  thing,  yea  a 
mere  point ; "  which  has  neither  length  nor 
breadth.    So  S.  John  calls  the  time  of  the 


1  Ps.  cii.  27.  2  lb.  xxxiii.  11. 

3  lb.  cxi.  3.  « 1  Cor.  xii.  4,  6, 11. 

5  Alb.  quoting  Num.  xi.  25. 

•Jon.  "  My  prophets  simll  teach  you,  fear  not." 

'  Includert  by  Lap. 

snnS  2  Kgs  vi.  10,  Ps.  Ixii.  12,  Job.  xl.  5:  nnX, 
as  an  adj.,  follows  the  noun.  In  the  only  exception 
alleged  by  Ges.,  Dan.  viii.  13,  it  is  nsod  of  one  cer- 
tain angel,  as  contrasted  with  another.    £3^0  i^ 


6  For  thus  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts ;  ^  Yet  once, 
it  is  a  little  while,  and  *  I 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 

'ver.  21. 

Heb.  12.  28. 
t  Joel  3. 16. 


new  law,  the  last  hour;  '^'^  Little  children,  it  is 
the  last  hour.  It  was  little  also  in  respect  to 
the  time,  which  had  elapsed  from  the  fall  of 
Adam,  upon  which  God  promised  the  Sa- 
viour Christ " ;  little  also  in  respect  to 
the  Christian  law,  which  has  now  lasted 
above  1800  years,  and  the  time  of  the  end 
does  not  seem  yet  nigh. 

I  ivill  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the- 
sea  and  tJie  dry  kind.  It  is  one  universal 
shaking  of  all  this  our  world  and  the 
heavens  over  it,  of  which  the  Prophet 
speaks.  He  does  not  speak  only  of  ^^  signs 
in  the  sun  and  in  the  moon  and  in  the  stars, 
which  might  be,  and  yet  the  frame  of  the 
world  itself  might  remain.  It  is  a  shaking, 
such  as  Avould  involve  the  dissolution  of  this 
our  system,  as  St.  Paul  draws  out  its  mean- 
ing ;  '^  This  word,  once  moi-e,  signifieth  the  re- 
moving of  the  things  that  are  shaken,  that  those 
things  tvhich  cannot  be  shaken  may  remain. 
Prophecy,  in  its  long  perspective,  uses  a 
continual  foreshortening,  speaking  of  things 
in  relation  to  their  eternal  meaning  and  sig- 
nificance, as  to  that  which  shall  survive, 
when  heaven  and  earth  and  even  time  shall 
have  passed  away.  It  blends  together  the 
beginning  and  the  earthly  end  ;  the  prepara- 
tion and  the  result ;  the  commencement  of 
redemption  and  its  completion  ;  our  Lord's 
coming  in  humility  and  in  His  Majesty. 
Scarce  any  prophet  but  exhibits  things  in 
their  intrinsic  relation,  of  which  time  is  but 
an  accident.  It  is  the  rule,  not  the  excep- 
tion. The  Seed  of  the  woman,  Who  should 
bruise  the  serpent's  head,  was  promised  on 
the  fall ;  to  Abraham,  the  blessing  through 
his  seed ;  by  Moses,  the  prophet  like  unto 
him ;  to  David,  an  everlasting  covenant ". 
Joel  unites  the  out  -pouring  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  and  the  hatred 
of  the  world  till  the  Day  of  Judgment  '^ ; 
Isaiah,  God's  judgments  on  the  land  and  the 
Day  of  final  judgment^";  the  deliverance 
from  Babylon,  and  the  first  coming  of 
Christ  "  ;  the  glories  of  the  Church,  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth  which  shall  re- 
main forever,  and  the  unquenched  fire  and 
undying  worm  of  the  lost  ^^  ;  Daniel,  the  per- 
secutions of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  of  Anti- 
used  of  time.  Job  x.  20,  xxiv.  24.  1  JIPIX  HIJ?  is  the 
like  construction  as  1  D^D  "]))?  Ex.  xvii.  4,  Ps. 
xxxvii.  10,  Hos.  i.  4.  »  Lap. 

10 1  S.  John  ii.  18.  "  Gen.  iii.  15. 

'2S.  Luke  xxi.  25.  "Heb.  xii.  27. 

i<2  Sam.  xxiii.  5.  >'  Joel  ii.  28-32,  iii. 

^''Is.  xxiv. 

"  lb.  xl.-lxvi.  w  lb.  Ixvi.  22-24. 


310 


HAOOAT. 


Before 

CHRIST 

oir.  520. 


will  shake  the  honvens,  and 
.the  earth,  and  the  sea,  and 
the  dry  land ; 


7  And  I  will  shake  all  chrTst 
nations,  "and  the  desire  of  <=''"■  ^-'^-  ■. 
all  nations  shall  come :  and  jviaLs.  i. 


Christ,  and  the  Resurrection ' ;  Obadiah, 
the  punishment  of  Edom  and  tlie  everhL-^tinsj 
kingdom  of  God^;  2^phaniah,  the  punish- 
ment of  Judah  and  the  final  judgment  of  the 
earth  ^ ;  Malachi,  our  Lord's  lirst  and  seoouil 
Coming  *. 

Nay,  our  Lord  Himself  so  blends  together 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  days  of 
Anti-Christ  and  the  end  of  the  world,  that  it 
is  difficult  to  separate  them,  so  as  to  say  what 
belongs  exclusively  to  either^.  The  pro- 
phecy is  an  answer  to  two  distinct  questions 
of  the  Ai)0stles,  1)  When  sluM  these  ihinc/s 
(viz.  the  destruction  of  the  temple)  bef  2) 
and  what  shall  be  the  sign  of  Thy  coming  and  of 
the  end  of  the.  icorld  f  Our  Lord  answers  the 
two  questions  in  one.  Some  things  seem  to 
beloug  to  the  first  Coming,  as  ®  the  abomination 
of  desol  dion  spoken  of  by  Daniel,  and  the  flight 
from  ^  Judcea  into  the  mountains.  But  the 
e.xceeding  deccivableness  is  authoritatively 
interpreted  by  St.  Paul  *of  a  distant  time; 
and  our  Lord  Himself,  having  said  that  (dl 
these  things,  of  which  the  Apostles  had  en- 
quired, should  take  place  in  that  genera- 
tion', speaks  of  His  absence  as  of  a  man 
taking  a  far  journey  "*,  and  says  that  not  the 
angels  in  heaven  knew  that  hour,  neither  the 
Son  '^ ;  which  precludes  the  idea,  that  He 
liad  just  before  declared  that  the  whole  would 
take  place  in  that  generation.  For  tiiis 
would  be  to  make  out,  that  He  declared  that 
the  Son  knew  not  the  hour  of  His  Coming, 
which  He  had  just  (on  this  supposition)  de- 
clared to  be  in  that  generation. 

So  then,  here.  There  was  a  general  shak- 
ing upon  earth  before  our  i^ord  came. 
Empires  rose  and  fell.  The  Persian  fell 
before  Alexander's  ;  Alexander's  world-em- 
pire was  ended  by  his  sudden  death  in 
youth ;  of  his  four  succes.sors,  two  only  con- 
tinued, and  they  too  fell  before  the  Romans; 
then  were  the  Koman  civil  wars,  until, 
under  Augustus,  the  temple  of  Janus  was 
shut.  "  '^  For  it  greatly  beseemed  a  work 
ordered  by  God,  that  many  kingdoms  should 
Ve  confederated  in  one  empire,  and  that  the 
universal  preaching  might  find  the  peoples 
easily  accessible  who  were  held  under  tlie 
rule  of  one  state."     In  the  Heavens  was  the 

I  Dan.  xi.  xii.  «  Ob.  18-21. 

a  See  on  Zeph.  i.  2,  :i.  p.  2ar,,  230. 

<  Mai.  iii.  l-.i.  17, 1«.  Iv. 

s  The  second  ciuestion  about  the  end  of  the 
•vi.rld  occur."  orly  in  S.  Matthew  (xxiv.  .3);  the 
/iiMt,  When  sliixll  these  things  bef  occurs  in  S.  Mark 
nl!-o  (xiii.  3)  and  S.  Luke  (xxi.  r>).  The  words  in  S. 
Mark,  TVii*  generation  shall  not  pass  till  all  these 
thinrjs  be  done  (xiii.  :i»)  seem  to  me  to  be  cast  in  the 
form  of  their  question,  When  shall  these  things  bet 
viz.  the  tilings  about  which  tliey  had  asked. 


star,  which  led  the  wise  men,  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Angels  to  the  shepherds  ;  the  preter- 
natural darkness  at  the  Passion;  the  Ascen- 
sior>  into  the  highest  lleavi^-n,  and  the  des- 
cent of  the  Holy  Ghost  with  ^^  a  sound  from 
heaven  as  [o/']  o  rushing  mighty  ^vind.  ""God 
had  moved  them  [heaven  and  earth]  before, 
when  He  delivered  the  people  from  Egypt, 
when  there  was  in  heaven  a  column  of  tire, 
dry  ground  amid  the  waves,  a  wall  in  the 
sea,  a  path  in  the  waters,  in  the  wilderness 
there  was  multiplied  a  daily  harvest  of  heav- 
enly food  [the  manna],  the  rock  gushed  into 
fountains  of  waters.  But  He  moved  it  after- 
ward also  in  the  Passion  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
when  the  .heaven  was  darkened,  the  sun 
shrank  back,  the  rocks  were  rent,  the  graves 
opened,  the  dead  were  raised,  the  dragon, 
conquered  in  liis  waters,  saw  the  tisliers  of 
men,  not  only  sailing  in  the  sea,  but  also 
walking  without  peril.  Tbe  dry  ground  also 
was  moved,  when  the  unfruitful  people  of 
the  nations  began  to  ripen  to  a  harvest  of 
devotion  and  faith, — so  that  more  were  the 
chUdren  of  the  forsaken,  than  of  heru'hich  had  a 
husband,  and  ^^  the  desert  flourished  like  a  liiy." 
"  '®  He  moved  earth  in  that  great  miracle  of 
the  birth  from  the  Virgin :  He  moved  the 
sea  and  dry  land,  when  in  the  Lslands  and  in 
the  wliole  world  Christ  is  preached.  So  we 
see  all  nations  moved  to  the  faith." 

And  yet,  whatever  preludes  of  fulfillment 
there  were  at  our  Lord's  first  Coming,  they 
were  as  nothing  to  the  fulfillment  which  we 
look  for  in  the  Second,  when  "  the  earth  shall  he 
utterly  broken  down  ;  the  earth,  clean  dissolved; 
the  earth,  moved  exceedingly ;  the  earth  shall 
reel  to  and  fro  like  a  drunkard,  and  shall  be 
removed  like  a  hanging-cot  in  a  vineyard^^,  and 
the  transgression  thereof  is  heavy  upon  it;  and 
it  shall  fall  and  not  rise  again  ;  whereon  fol- 
lows an  ;innouncement  of  the  final  judgment  of 
men  and  angels,  and  the  everlasting  king- 
dom of  the  blessed  in  the  presence  of  God. 

Of  that  day  of  the  Lord,  St.  Peter  uses  our 
Lord's  image,  •'•that  it  shall  '^°  come  as  a  thief  m 
the  night,  in  ivhich  the  heavens  shall  7nelt  with 
fervent  heat,  the  earth  also  and  the  tvorks  therein 
shall  be  burned  up. 

7.  And  the  desire  of  all  naiions  shall  come. 

«  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  15, 16.  '  lb.  24. 

8  2  Tliess.  V.  2-10.  »S.  Mark  xiii.  30. 

10  ih.  34.  "  lb.  32. 

'«  S.  Leo  Horn.  82  in  Nat.  Ap.  Petri  et  Pauli.  c.  2. 
col.  .322.  Bali.  13  Acts  ii.  2. 

US.  Ainbr.  Ep.  30  ad  Iren.  n.  11,  12.  0pp.  ii. 
913  Ben.  "Is.  xxxv.  1. 

i«  S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei.  xvili.  26.     "  Is.  xxiv.  19,  20. 

'^njiSo-    Sec  a  picture  of  one  in  Niebuhr. 

i»  3.  Matt.  xxiv.  43.  *>  2  8.  Pet.  iii.  10. 


CHAPTER  TT. 


311 


The  words  can  only  mean  this,  ihe  central 
longing  of  all  nations';  He  whom  tiiey 
longed  for,  either  through  the  knowledge  of 
Him  spread  by  the  Jews  in  their  dispersion, 
or  mutely  by  the  aching  craving  of  the 
human  heart,  longing  for  the  restoration  from 
its  decaj'.  Theearna^t  expectation  of  the  creature 
did  not  begin  with  the  Coming  of  Christ,  nor 
was  it  limited  to  those,  who  actually  came  to 
Him.  '^  The  whole  crention,  Saint  Paul  saith, 
(froaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until 
now.  It  was  enslaved,  and  the  better  self 
longed  to  be  free  ;  every  motion  of  grace  in 
the  multitudinous  heart  of  man  was  a  long- 
ing for  its  Deliverer ;  every  weariness  of 
what  it  was,  every  fleeting  vision  of  what 
was  better,  every  sigh  irom  out  of  its  mani- 
fold ills,  were  notes  of  the  one  varied  cry, 
"  Come  and  help  us."  Man's  heart,  formed 
in  the  image  of  God,  could  not  but  ache  to 
be  re-formed  by  and  for  Him,  though  an 
unknown  God,  Who  should  reform  it. 

This  longing  increased  as  the  time  drew 
nigh,  when  Christ  should  come.  The  Roman 
biographer  attests  the  existence  of  this  expec- 


^  lOn  is  "  coveted."  It  is  the  passion  forbidden 
in  the  tenth  commandment,  Ex.  xx.  14,  (bis)  Deut. 
V.  18,  vii.  2.5,  Ex.  xxxiv.  24,  Jos.  vii.  2],  Pr.  vi.  25.  Mi. 
ii.  2.  In  Pr.  xii.  12,  it  is  a  passionate  desire  which 
ends  in  choice.  It  is  united  with  "loved"  and 
"  hated,"  lb.  i.  22;  of  the  passionate  idolatry,  Is.  i. 
29.  It  is  used  of  God's  passionless  good-pleasure 
in  that  which  He  chooses,  yet  speaking  after  the 
manner  of  men,  Ps.  Ixviii.  17,  and  of  man's  not 
longing  for  Jesus,  Is.  liii.  2.  The  Piel  is  used  once 
of  intense  longing.  Cant.  ii.  3.  Men  covet  things 
for  some  real  or  seeming  good;  and  so  the  passive 
form  of  the  verb,  llon  or  HOn  J,  are  things  which 
■  .ire  the  object  of  coveting,  and  so  things  desirable ; 
niOn  Job  XX.  20,  Ps.  xxxix.  12,  s.  xliv.  9;  lonj 
Gen.  ii.  9,  iii.  6,  Ps.  xix.  11.  Pr.  xxi.  20.  IDPID  with 

the  gen.  is  "the  desire  of  the  eye,"  what  it 
covets  or  desires,  1  Kgs  xx.  6,  Ex.  xxiv.  Ki,  21,  2.5, 
Lam.  ii.  4 ;  or  desirable  things,  belonging  to  one, 
Jo.  iv.  5,  Is.  Ixiv.  10,  Lam.  i.  10,  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  19, 
or  from  it,  DJD3  HOnrD  Hos.  ix.  IG.  "the  desires  of 
the  womb,"  "the  desired  children  that  their  womb 

had  borne,"  or  with  7,  "  the  desired  things  consist- 
ing in  their  silver,"  D3DD  7  nOHO,  lb.  ix.  6.  or  abs. 
Cant.  V.  Ifi.  nonO  occurs  in  the  same  sense,  Lam. 
i.  7, 11 ;  nnpn  or  .n  tyX  of  Daniel,  as  the  object 

of  the  love  of  God,  Dan.  ix.  23,  x.  11,  19;  and  of  de- 
sirable things.  Gen.  xxvii.  15,  2  Chr.  xx.  25,  Dan.  x. 
3,  xi.  38,  43,  Ezr.  viii.  27. 

As  to  rriOn   Itself,  two  idioms  have  been  con- 
fused; 1)  that  in  which  it  is  accessory  to  another 

word,  as  mon  '73  "vessels  of  desire,"  Hos.  xiii. 
15,  Jer.  XXV.  34,  2  Chr.  xxxii.  27,  Dan.  xi.  8,  ;Nah.  ii. 
10;  mon  1*^X,  " land  of  de.sire,"  Ps.  cvi.  24,  Jer. 
iii.  19,  Zech.  vii.  14;  "irnon  Tl^  "houses  of  thy 
de.sire,"  or  "thy  houses  of  desire,"  Ez.  xxvi.  12; 
'mon   np/H  "my  portion  of  desire,"  Jer.  xii. 

10.  These  we  might  paraphrase  "  plea.sant  vessels," 
"pleasant  land,"  as  we  might  say  "desirables." 
Not  that  the  word  mon  means,  in  itself,  "  pleas- 
ant things,"  anymore  than  the  word  "coveted" 
signifies  pleasant,  though  those  things  only  are 
"  coveted,"  which  are  thought  to  be  pleasant. '  The 
original  sense  of  the  root,  to  "  desire,"  is  obviously 


tation,  not  among  the  Jevr$  only,  but  in  the 
East  ^ ;  this  was  quickened  doubtless  among 
the  heathen  by  the  Jewish  Sibylline  book, 
in  that,  amid  the  exi)ectations  of  one  sent 
from  heaven,  who  should  found  a  kingdom  of 
righteousness,  which  the  writer  drew  from 
the  Hebrew  prophets,  he  inserted  denuncia- 
tions of  temporal  vengeance  upon  the  Romans, 
which  Easterns  would  share.  Still,  although 
written  170  years  before  our  Lord  came  *,  it 
had  not  apparently  nmch  effect  until  the 
time,  when,  from  the  prophecies  of  Daniel  it 
was  clear,  that  He  must  shortly  come'. 
Yet  the  attempt  of  the  Jewish  ••  and  heathen 
'historian  to  wrest  it  to  Vespasian,  shews 
how  great  must  have  been  the  influence  of 
the  expectation,  which  they  attempted  to 
turn  aside.  The  Jews,  who  rejected  our 
Lord  Whom  Haggai  predicted,  still  were 
convinced  that  the  prediction  must  be  ful- 
filled before  the  destruction  of  the  second 
temple.  The  impulse  did  not  cease  even 
after  its  destruction.  R.  Akiba,  whom  they 
accounted  "  ^  the  first  oracle  of  his  time,  the 
first  and  greatest  guardian  of  the  tradition 

brought  out  the  more,  when  the  idea  is  not  sub- 
sidiary, but  the  chief.  There  are  four  cases,  in 
which   Chemdah    is  so  used.    (1)   "Jehoram  died 

mon  Vhl,  unregretted,"  we  should  say;  "no 
one  longing  for  him,"  2  Chr.  xxi.  20  ;  (2)  "  To  whom 

is  Sxiiy'  mon  So,  the  whole  longing  of  Israel?" 
1  Sam.  ix.  20;  (3)  The  well-known  words  jTIOn, 
U^'Wl  Cheindath  JSfashim,  "the  desire  of  women," 
Dan.  xi.  37.  If  (as  this  is  now  generally  under- 
stood) this  means  "the  object  ot  the  longing  of 

women,"  so  much  the  more  must  D'Un  Sd  mon 
mean,  "  the  object  of  the  longing  of  all  nations." 
They  cannot  mean,  "the  most  desirable  of  all 
nations,"  "die  liebstenallerVolker,"  Ew.  formerly ; 
"die  edelsten  aller  Volker,"  Hitzig;  "die  auser- 
lesensten  derselben;"  Umbreit.  This  must  have 
been  expressed  by  aid  of  the  passive  participle  in 
any  of  the  forms,  by  which  a  superlative  is  e.x- 
pressed.  Nor  can  it  mean  "  the  costly  things  of 
all  people;"  ("die  hohen  Schiitzen"  aller  der 
volker,"  Ewald,  "die  Kostbarkeiten  aller  Na- 
tionen,"  Scholz).    This,  if  expressed  by  the  word 

at  all,  would  have  been,  D'Un  Sd  'lono.  Rashi, 
A.  E.,  Kimchi,  explain  as  if  2  were  omitted.  R. 
Lsa.ac  (Chizzuk  Emunah,  in  Wagens.  Tela  ignea 
p.  288)  quotes  2  Kgs  xii.  II,  where  ''''  H'^  stancfs  as 
the  ace.  of  place;  R.  Tanchum  omits  the  verse, 
Abulwalid  the  instance.  It  is  not  noticed  by  R. 
Parchon,  Kimchi,  Menahem  ben  Saruk,  David  b. 
Abraham,  in  their  dictionaries.  Abarbanel  retains 
the  meaning,  "the  desire  of  all  nations,"  inter- 
preting   it   of    the    holy   land.     He    paraphrases 

.jn  S3  .n  1K13'1  "that  thev  shall  come  to  the 
holy  land  and  there  shall  He  be  avenged  of  them, 
and  then  at  that  time  '  I  will  fill  this  house  with 
glory.'  v.  p.  n;^"l,  4.    The  Anon.  Arab.  (Hunt.  206) 

renders  "the  most  precious  things  of  all  nations 
shall  come."  2  Rom.  viii.  19-22. 

8  Suet.  Vesp.  e.  4. 

<See  Pusey's  "Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  364-368. 

6  lb.  pp.  230-233.  6  Jos.  B.  J.  vi.  5.  4. 

'  Tac.  Hist.  V.  13. 

8  "  He  was  President  of  the  academies  of  Lidda 
and  Jafna,  disciple  and  successor  of  Rabban  Gama- 
liel, and  a  man  of  such  learning  and  repute,  that  he 
was  accounted  among  the  Hebrews  the  first  oracle 
Ac."  De  Rossi  Diz.  stor.  d.  Autorl  Ebr.  sub  v. 


312 


HAGGAI. 


and  old  law,"  of  whom  they  said,  that  "'  God 
revealed  to  him  things  unknown  to  Moses," 
was  induced  by  this  prophecy  to  aclcnowledge 
the  im[)Ostor  fiar-cochab,  to  the  destruction 
of  himself  and  of  the  most  eminent  of  his 
time ;  fuUilling  our  Lord's  words,  ^  /  am 
come  in  My  Falhti^s  name,  and  ye  receive  Me 
not;  if  anotfier  shall  come  in  his  oum  name,  him 
ye  will  receive.  Akiba,  following  the  tradi- 
tional meaning  ol  the  great  prophecy  which 
rivetted  hisown  eyes,  paraphrased  the  words, 
" '  Yet  a  little,  a  little  of  tlie  kingdom,  will 
I  give  to  Israel  upon  the  destruction  of  the 
first  liouse,  and  after  the  kingdom,  lo !  I  will 
shake  heaven,  and  after  that  will  come  the 
Messiah." 

Since  the  words  can  only  mean  "  the 
Desire  of  all  nations,"  he  or  that  which  all 
nations  long  for,  tlie  construction  of  the  words 
does  not  affect  the  meaning.  Herod  doulrt- 
less  thought  to  advance  his  own  claims  on 
the  Jewish  people  by  his  material  adorning 
of  the  temple ;  yet,  altliough  mankind  do 
covet  gold  and  silver,  few  could  seriously 
think  that,  while  a  heathen  immoral  but 
observant  poet  couM  speak  of  "  gold  undis- 
covered and  so  better  placed  *,"  or  our  own 
of  the  "  pale  and  common  drudge  '  Tween 
man  and  man,"  a  Hebrew  prophet  could 
recognize  gold  and  silver  as  the  desire  of  all 
nations.  R.  Akiba  and  S.  Jerome's  Jewish 
teachers,  after  our  Lord  came,  felt  no  difficulty 
in  understanding  it  of  a  person.  We  cannot 
in  English  express  tlie  delicacy  of  tlie  phrase, 
whereby  manifoldness  is  combined  in  unity, 
the  Object  of  desire  containing  in  itself 
many  olyects  of  desire.  To  render  "  the 
desire  of  all  nations  "  or  "  tlie  desires  of  all 
nations"  alike  fail  to  do  this.  A  great 
heathen  master  of  language  said  to  his 
wife,  "fare  you  well,  my  longings*,"  i.e., 
I  suj)pose,  if  he  had  analyzed  his  feelings, 
he  meant  that  she  manifoldly  met  the 
longings  of  his  heart ;  she  had  in  her- 
self manifold  gifts  to  content  them.  So 
St.  Paul  sums  up  all  the  truths  and  gifts  of 
the  Gospel,  all  which  GcmI  shadowed  out  in 
the  law  and  had  given  us  in  Christ,  under 
the  name  of  "  "  the  good  things  to  come."  A 
pious  modern  writer '  speaks  of  "  the  unseen 
desirables  of  the  spiritual  world."  A  p.salmist 
expresses  at  once  the  collective,  "  God's 
Word  "  and  the  "  words  "  contained  in  it,  by 

•  R.  Bechal.  See  ab.  p.  48.  note  12. 

2S.  John  V.  43. 

aSaulK-drin.  A\^t.  cheJek  in  Mnrt.  Pug.  fid.  p.  305. 
R.  Cietlaliah  B.  Yechaiah  quotes  R.  Akiba,  rejecting 
his  intiTprctation.  "  And  not  as  Habbi  Akiliah,  who 
was  interni'c'tinu  this  section ;  '  Yet  once,  it  is  (t  little 
and  I  shaki:  tlie  heaven  and  the  earth.'  He  interprets, 
thatwlien  Israol  went  to  tlie  captivity  of  Hahylon, 
Hageai  the  prophet  spake  this  section,  and  its 
m<'aning  is,  that  in  this  house  there  will  be  little 
glory,  and  after  this  I  will  V)rinK  the  desire  of  the 
heathen  to  Jerusalem."  ShHlsheleth  Hakkabbala 
extracted  in  the  Carm.  R.  Lipmanni  confut.  p.  019. 
in  Wageuseil  Tela  ignca  satante. 


an  idiom  like  Haggai's,  joining  the  femjnine 
singular  as  a  collective  with  the  plural  verb ; 
''How  sweet  are  Thy  word  unto  my  taste  lit. 
palate.  It  is  Clod's  word,  at  once  collectively 
and  individually,  which  was  to  the  Psalmist 
so  sweet.  What  was  true  of  the  whole,  was 
true,  one  by  one,  of  each  part ;  what  wa.s  true 
of  each  part,  was  true  of  the  whole.  So  here, 
the  object  of  this  longing  was  manifold,  but 
met  in  one,  was  concentrated  in  One,  "  in 
Christ  Jesus,  Who  of  God  is  made  unto  us  tvisdom 
and  righteousness  and  sanctification  and  redemp- 
tion. That  which  the  whole  world  sighed 
and  mourned  for,  knowingly  or  unknowingly, 
light  to  disperse  its  darkness,  liberty  from  its 
spiritual  slavery,  restoration  from  its  degra- 
dation, could  not  come  to  us  without  some 
one,  who  should  impart  it  to  us. 

But  if  Jesus  was  the  longed-for  of  the  nations 
before  He  came,  l)y  that  mute  longing  of 
need  for  that  which  it  wants  (as  the  parched 
ground  thirsteth  for  the  rain  ^"j  how  much 
more  afterward !  So  Micah  and  Isaiah 
describe  many  peoples  inviting  one  another, 
''  Come  ye,  and  let  us  r/o  np  to  the  mountain  of 
the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob  ;  and 
He  iiill  teach  us  of  His  tvays,  and  we.  icill  ualk 
in  His  paths.  And  in  truth  He  became  the 
desire  of  tlie  nations,  much  more  than  of  the 
Jews  ;  as,  St.  Paul  says  '■',  God  foretold  of  old ; 
3Ioses  saith,  I  will  provoke  you  to  jealousy  by 
them  that  are  not  a  people :  by  a  foolish  nation 
I  will  anger  you.  But  Esaias  is  very  bold  and 
saith,  I  was  found  of  them  that  sought  Me-  not. 

So  till  now  and  in  eternity,  "  '^  Christ  is 
the  longing  of  all  holy  souls,  who  long  for 
nothing  else,  than  to  please  Him,  daily  to 
love  Him  more,  to  worship  Him  better.  So 
S.  John  longed  for  Him  ;  Come,  Lord  Jesus^*. 
So  Isaiah  ;  '^  The  desire  of  our  soul  is  to  Thy 
Name  and  to  the  remembrance  of  Thee :  %vith  my 
soul  have  I  desired  Thee  m  the  night;  yea,  ivith 
my  spirit  within  me,  iviil  I  seek  Thee  early.  So 
S.  Ignatius,  "  ""Let  fire,  cross,  troops  of  wild 
beasts,  dissections,  rcndings,  scattering  of 
bones,  mincing  of  limbs,  grindings  of  the 
whole  body,  ill  tortures  of  the  devil  come 
upon  me,  only  may  I  gain  Jesus  Christ. — I 
seek  Him  Who  for  us  died ;  I  long  for  Him 
Who  for  us  rose." 

"  '^  Hungerest  thou  anddesirest  food  ?  Long 
for  Jesus!  He  is  the  bread  and  refreshment 
of  Angels.     He  is  manna,  containing  in  Him 

*"Auruni  irrepertum  et  sic  melius  situm."  Hor. 
Od.  iii.  .3.  49. 

S"\'alete,  mea  desideria,  valete."  Cic.  Ep.  ad 
Famil.  xiv.  2.  fin. 

*  Heb.  X.  1.  Tu)>'  fifAAoi'TiDi'  ayaOuiv. 

"Dr.  Watts  Vol.  i.  .'^erm.4.     ,         . 

8  ps.  cxix.  103.  inioK  'Dn7  iv^nj  no. 

01  Cor.  i.  .30.        ' 

'"  Kui-ipides  so  uses  epoi-,  of  the  ground  longing 
for  the  rain. 
>'  .Mi.  iv.  2.  Is.  il.  3. 

'■•i  Rom.  X.  19,  20 ;  quoting  Deut.  xxxii.  21.  Is.  Ixv.  2, 
"  Lap.  >«  Rev.  xxii.  20.  »»  Is.  xxvl.  8,  9. 

»o  Ep.  ad  Rom.  in  Ruinart  Acta  Mart.  p.  703. 


CHAPTER   11. 


313 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


I  will  fill  this  house  with 
glory,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts. 


all  sweetness  and  pleasurable  delight.  Thirstest 
thou  ?  Long  for  Jesus !  He  is  the  well  of 
living  water,  refreshing,  so  that  thou  shouldest 
thirst  no  more.  Art  thou  sick  ?  Go  to  Jesus. 
He  is  the  Saviour,  the  physician,  nay,  salva- 
tion itself.  Art  thou  dying  ?  Sigh  for  Jesus ! 
He  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life.  Art  thou 
perplexed  ?  Come  to  Jesus  !  He  is  the  Angel 
of  great  counsel.  Art  thou  ignorant  and  err- 
ing? Ask  Jesus;  He  is  the  way,  the  truth  and 
the  life.  Art  thou  a  sinner  ?  Call  on  Jesus  ! 
For  He  shall  save  His  people  from  their  sins. 
To  this  end  He  came  into  the  world :  This  is 
all  His  fruit,  to  take  away  sin.  Art  thou 
tempted  by  pride,  gluttony,  lust,  sloth  ?  Call 
on  Jesus!  He  is  humility,  soberness,  chastity, 
love,  fervor:  He  bare  our  infirmities,  and 
carried,  yea  still  beareth  and  carrietli,  our 
griefs.  Seekest  thou  beauty?  He  is  fairer 
than  the  children  of  men.  Seekest  thou 
wealth  ?  In  Him  are  all  treasures,  yea  in  Him 
the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  dwelleth.  Art  thou 
ambitious  of  honors?  Glory  and  riches  are  in 
His  house.  He  is  the  King  of  glory.  Seekest 
thou  a  friend  ?  He  hath  the  greatest  love  for 
thee.  Who  for  love  of  thee  came  down  from 
heaven,  toiled,  endured  the  Sweat  of  Blood, 
the  Cross  and  Death  ;  He  prayed  for  thee  by 
name  in  the  garden,  and  poured  forth  tears 
of  Blood !  Seekest  thou  wisdom ?  He  is  the 
Eternal  and  Uncreated  Wisdom  of  the 
Father !  Wishest  thou  for  consolation  and 
joy?  He  is  the  sweetness  of  souls,  the  joy 
and  jubilee  of  Angels.  Wishest  thou  for 
righteousness  and  holiness  ?  He  is  the  Holy 
of  holies ;  He  is  everlasting  Righteousness, 
justifying  and  sanctifying  all  who  believe  and 
hope  in  Him.  Wishest  thou  for  a  blissful 
life  ?  He  is  life  etermd,  the  bliss  of  the  saints. 
Long  then  for  Him,  love  Him,  sigh  for  Him  ! 
In  Him  thou  wilt  find  all  good  ;  out  of  Him, 
all  evil,  all  misery.  Say  then  with  S.  Francis, 
'  My  Jesus,  my  love  and  my  all ! '  O  Good  Jesus, 
burst  the  cataract  of  Thy  love,  that  its 
streams,  yea  seas,  may  flow  down  upon  us, 
yea,  inebriate  and  overwhelm  us." 

And  I  will  fill  this  house  with  glory.  The 
glory  then  was  not  to  be  anything,  which 
came  from  man,  but  directly  from  God.  It 
was  the  received  expression  of  God's  mani- 
festation of  Himself  in  the  tabernacle  \  in 
Solomon's  temple  '^,  and  of  the  ideal  tem- 
ple ^  which  Ezekiel  saw,  after  the  likeness  of 
that   of  Solomon,  that  the  glory  of  the  Lord 

lEx.  xl.  34,  35. 

- 1  Kgs  viii.  11.  2  Chr.  v.  14.  vii.  1-12. 

*  Ezek.  xliii.  5.  xliv.  4. 

<]s.  Ix.  6.  »P9.  Ixxii.  10. 

6Nu.  vii.  19,25,31.  &c.    The  "charger"  (H^p) 


8  The  silver  is  mine  and   ^  h  rTs  t 
the  gold  is  mine,  saith  the      ^'''-  s'^"- 
Lord  of  hosts. 


filled  the  house.  When  then  of  this  second 
temple  God  uses  the  self-same  words,  that 
He  will  fill  it  with  glory,  with  what  other 
glory  should  He  fill  it  than  His  own?  In  the 
history  it  is  said,  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the 
temple  ;  for  there  man  relates  what  God  did. 
Here  it  is  God  Himself  Who  speaks ;  so  He 
says  not,  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  but,  I  will  fill 
the  house  with  glory,  glory  which  was  His  to 
give,  which  came  from  Himself.  To  inter- 
pret that  glory  of  anything  material,  is  to  do 
violence  to  language,  to  force  on  words  of 
Scripture  an  unworthy  sense,  which  they 
refuse  to  bear. 

The  gold  upon  the  walls,  even  had  this 
second  temple  been  adorned  like  the  first, 
did  not  fill  the  temple  of  Solomon.  How- 
ever riclily  any  building  might  be  overlaid 
with  gold,  no  one  could  say  that  it  is  filled 
with  it.  A  building  is  filled  with  what  it 
contains ;  a  mint  or  treasure-house  may  be 
filled  with  gold :  the  temple  of  God  was 
filled,  we  are  told,  tvith  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 
His  creatures  bring  Him  such  things  as  they 
can  ofler ;  they  bring  *  gold  and  incense  ; 
they  ^ bring  presents  and  offer  gifts;  they  do 
it,  moved  by  His  Spirit,  as  acceptable  to 
Him.  God  is  nowhere  said,  Himself  to  give 
these  offerings  to  Himself. 

8.  The  silver  is  Mine,  and  the  gold  is  Mine. 
These  words,  which  have  occasioned  some  to 
think,  that  God,  in  speaking  of  the  glory 
with  which  He  should  fill  the  house,  meant 
our  material  riches,  suggest  the  contrary. 
For  silver  was  no  ornament  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon.  Everything  was  overlaid  with 
gold.  In  the  tabernacle  there  were  bowls 
of  silver  *,  in  Solomon's  temple  they  and  all 
were  of  gold'.  Silver,  we  are  expressly 
told,  was  nothing  accounted  of  ^  in  the  days  of 
Solomon  :  he  ^  made  silver  to  be  in  Jerusalem  as 
stones— for  abundance.  Rathei",  as  God  says 
by  the  Psalmist,  '"  Every  beast  of  the  forest  is 
Mine,  so  are  the  cattle  upon  a  thousaTul  hilb:  I 
know  all  the  fowls  of  the  mountains,  and  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  field  are  Mine.  If  I  tvere  hungry, 
I  would  not  tell  thee:  for  the  ivorld  is  3Iine  and 
the  fullness  thereof:  so  here  He  tells  them, 
that  for  the  glory  of  His  house  He  needed 
not  gold  or  silver :  for  all  the  wealth  of  the 
world  is  His.  They  had  no  ground  "  ^'  to 
grieve  then,  that  they  could  not  equal  the 
magnificence  of  Solomon  who  had  abundance 
of  gold  and  silver."      All  was  God's.     He 

which  in  the  tabernacle  was  of  silver  (Nu.  vii.  13. 
&c.)  does  not  appear  in  the  temple  of  Solomon. 

7  1  Kgs  vii.  50.  2  Chr.  iv.  8. 

8 1  Kgs  X.  21. 

»  lb.  27.  '0  Ps.  1.  10-12.  11  Lap. 


314 


HAGGAT. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  020. 

John  1.  14. 


9  '  The  glory  of  this  lat- 
ter house  shall  be  greater 


than  of  the  former,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts :  and  in 


Before 

CHRIS! 

cir.  520. 


would  fill  it  ■with  divine  glory.  The  De.<ire 
of  all  nations,  Christ,  should  come,  and  be  a 
Klory,  to  which  all  created  glory  is  nothing. 

"'God  says  really  and  truly,  that  tiie  sil- 
ver and  gold  is  Ilis,  which  in  utmost  boiuity 
He  created,  and  in  His  most  just  government 
administers,  so  that,  without  His  will  and 
dominion,  neither  can  the  bad  have  gold  and 
silver  for  the  punishment  of  avarice,  nor  the 
good  for  the  use  of  mercy.  Its  abundance 
does  not  inflate  the  good,  nor  its  want  crush 
them :  but  the  bad,  when  bestowed,  it  blinds: 
when  taken  away,  it  tortures." 

"■''It  is  as  if  He  would  say.  Think  not  the 
temple  inglorious,  because,  may  be,  it  will 
have  no  portion  of  gold  or  silver,  and  their 
splendor.  I  need  not  such  things.  How 
should  I  ?  For  Mine  is  the  silver  ond  Mine 
the  gold,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty.  I  seek 
rather  true  worshipers :  with  their  bright- 
ness will  I  guild  this  temple.  Let  him  come 
who  hath  right  faith,  is  adorned  by  graces, 
gleams  with  love  for  Me,  is  pure  in  heart, 
poor  in  spirit,  compa.ssionate  and  good." 
"  These  make  the  temple,  i.e.  the  Church, 
glorious  and  renowned,  being  glorified  by 
Christ.  For  they  have  learned  to  pray  ',  The 
glory  of  the  Lord  our  God  be  upon  ^is." 

9.  The  glory  of  this  latter  hotise  shall  be  greater 
than  of  the  former,  or,  perhaps,  more  probably, 
the  later  (/lory  of  this  house  shall  be  greater  than 
the  former  ;  for  he  had  already  spoken  of  the 
present  temple,  as  identical  with  that  before 
the  captivity ;  "  *  Who  is  left  among  you 
that  saw  this  house  in  her  first  glory,  and  how- 
do  you  see  it  now?"  He  had  spoken  of  its 
first  glory.  Now  he  says,  in  contrast,  its  later 
glory  should  be  greater  than  that  of  its  most 
glorious  times'.  In  this  case  the  question, 
whether  the  temple  of  Herod  was  a  difl'erent 
material  building  from  that  of  Zerubbabel, 
falls  away.  In  either  ca.se,  the  contrast  is 
between  two  things,  either   the  temple  in 

>  S.  Aug.  Serm.  50.  (de  Ag.  2.)  n.  4,  5.        «  S.  Cyr. 

»  Ps.  xc.  17. 

*ii.  3.  So  the  LXX.  "Wherefore  great  will  bo 
the  last  glory  of  this  house  al)ove  the  first  [glory]." 
In  the  other  case,  the  order  would  have  prol>ablv 
been,  nn   pinXH   D^'2T^  1133  as  in  E.x.  iii.  3, 

De.  ii.  7,  iv.  G,  1  Bum.  xii.  10, 1  Kgs  iii.  9,  xx.  13,  28, 
Jon.  i.  12;  but,  as  Kbhlor  observes,  this  is  not  quite 
uniform,  as  in  2  Chr.  i.  10. 

"This  interpretation  involves  a  change  in  the 
wording  of  the  argutnont  from  this  prophecy,  as  to 
the  time  of  our  Lord's  first  coming.  For  thus  inter- 
preted, it  does  not  speak  of  a  second  house,  and  so 
does  not,  in  terms,  sneak  of  the  material  building 
which  was  destroyed.  R.  Isaac  made  use  of  this: 
"a  difficulty  need  not  be  raised,  that  he  said,  'this 
house' ol  the  house  which  Is  to  be  built,  since  of 
the  first  house,  which  in  their  time  was  of  old 
waste,  he  said  '  this  house '  in  the  words, '  who  is 


that  its  former  estate,  and  this  its  latter 
estate  after  the  caj)tivity,  or  the  two 
temples  of  Solomon  and  Zerui)babel.  There 
is  no  room  for  a  third  temple.  God  holds 
out  no  vain  hopes.  To  comfort  those  dis- 
tressed by  the  poverty  of  the  house  of  God 
which  they  were  building,  God  promises  a 
glory  to  this  house  greater  than  before.  A 
temple,  erected,  after  this  had  lain  waste 
above  1800  years,  even  if  Anti-Christ  were 
to  come  now  and  to  erect  a  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem, could  be  no  fulfillment  of  this 
proi)liecy. 

In  material  magnificence  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  built  and  adorned  with  all  the 
treasures  accumulated  by  David  and  enlarged 
by  Solomon,  far  surpassed  all  which  Herod, 
amid  his  attempts  to  give  a  material  mean- 
ing to  the  prophecy,  could  do.  His  attempt 
shews  how  the  eyes  of  the  Jews  were  fixed 
on  this  prophec}',  then  when  it  was  about  to 
be  fulfilled.  "\Vhile  taking  pains,  through 
the  gradualness  of  his  rebuilding,  to  preserve 
the  identity  of  the  fabric,  he  lavished  his 
wealth,  to  draw  ofi"  their  thoughts  from  the 
king,  whom  the  Jews  looked  for,  to  himself. 
The  friendship  of  the  Eomans  who  were 
lords  of  all,  was  to  replace  the  all  nations,  of 
whom  Haggai  spoke ;  he  pointed  also  to  the 
lenttth  of  peace,  the  possession  of  wealth,  the 
greatness  of  revenues,  the  surpassing  ex- 
penditure beyond  those  before".  A  small 
section  of  Erastians  admitted  these  claims  of 
the  murderer  of  his  sons.  The  Jews  gen- 
erally were  not  diverted  from  looking  on  to 
Him  Who  should  come.  Those  five  things, 
the  absence  whereof  they  felt,  were  connected 
with  their  atoning  worship  or  God's  Pres- 
ence among  them ;  " '  the  ark  with  the 
mercy-seat  and  the  Cherubim,  the  Urim  and 
Tummim,  the  fire  from  heaven,  the  Shec- 
hinah,  the  Holy  Ghost."  Material  magnifi- 
cence could  not  replace  spiritual  glory.     The 

left  among  you,  who  hath  seen  this  house  in  its 
first  glory?'  and  as  'this  house'  is  spoken  of  the 
house  of  the  sanctuary  which  was  then  desolate, 
which  was  passed  away,  so  ho  saith, '  this  house,' 
of  the  house  which  shall  be."  Chizzuch  Emunah, 
c.  .34.  Wagens.  p.  292. 

•In  his  oration  to  the  Jews,  "Our  forefathers 
built  this  temple  to  the  supreme  God  after  the 
return  from  Babylon,  yet  in  size  it  lacks  ou  cubits 
in  height;  for  somnen  did  the  first,  which  Solomon 
built,  exceed.— But  since,  by  the  counsel  of  God,  1 
now  rule,  and  we  have  a  long  peace,  and  ample 
funds  and  large  revenues;  and  chief  of  all,  the 
Romans,  who,  so  to  speak,  are  lords  of  all,  are  our 
friends  and  kindly  disposed,"  (Joseph.  Ant.  xv.  11. 
1.)  and  a  little  later  (n.  3)  "exceeding  the  expendi- 
ture of  those  aforetime  in  a  way  in  which  no  other 
appears  to  have  adorned  the  temple."  See  Hengst. 
Christ,  ill  257,  258.  ed.  2. 

'  Yoma  21.  b. 


CHAPTER  IT. 


315 


c  H  R^i  s  T    ^^^^    P^^^"^    will!  give 
cir.  520.      "peace,  saith  the  Lord  of 

k  P9.  85.  8,  9. 
Luke  2. 14. 
Eph.  2. 14. 


hosts. 


explanations  of  the  great  Jewish  authori- 
ties ^,  that  the  second  temple  was  superior  to 
the  first  in  structure  (which  was  untrue)  or 
in  duration,  were  laid  aside  by  Jews  who 
had  any  other  solution  wherewith  to  satisfy 
themselves.  "  The  Shechinah  and  the  five 
precious  things,"  says  one  ^,  "  which,  accord- 
ing to  our  wise  of  blessed  memory,  were  in 
it,  and  not  in  the  second  house,  raised  and 
exalted  it  beyond  compare."  Another-*  says, 
"  When  Haggai  saith,  '  greater  siiall  be  the 
glory  of  this  later  house  than  the  first,'  how 
is  it,  that  the  house  which  Zerubbabel  built 
through  the  income  which  the  king  of  Persia 
gave  them  was  more  glorious  than  the  house 
which  Solomon  built?  And  though  it  is 
said  that  the  building  which  Herod  made, 
was  exceeding  beautiful  and  rich,  we  should 
not  think  that  it  was  in  its  beauty  like  to  the 
house  which  Solomon  built.  P"'or  what  the 
wise  of  blessed  memory  have  said  of  the 
beauty  of  the  house  of  Herod  is  in  relation  to 
the  house  which  Zerubbabel  built.  How 
much  more,  since  Scripture  saith  not, '  Gi'eat 
shall  be  the  beauty  or  the  wealth  of  this  latter 
house  above  the  first,'  but  the  glory :  and  the 
glory  is  not  the  wealth  or  the  beauty,  or  the 
largeness  of  the  dimensions  of  the  building, 
as  they  said  in  their  interpretations ;  for  the 
'glory'  is  in  truth  spoken  of  the  glory  of 
God,  which  filled  the  tabernacle,  after  it  was 
set  up,  and  of  the  glory  of  God  which  filled 

1 "  Rab  and  Samuel  disputed  hereon,  or,  as  others, 
R.  Joehanan  and  R.  Eliezer.  The  former  said, '  it 
shall  be  more  glorious  in  structure;'  the  latter,  'in 
years.' "  Baba  bathra  c.  1.  f.  30.  R.  Asariah  quotes 
also  from  the  Shir  hashshirim  Rabba  on  Cant.  ii.  12 
and  viii.  1,  and  adds,  "  We  have  found  that  the  best 
interpreters  explained  this  prophecy  literally  as  to 
the  second  house."  This  is  followed  by  Kimchi, 
Rashi,  A.  E.,  Lipmann  (Nizz.  n.  260),  Manasseh  ben 
Israel  (de  term,  vitre)  iii.  4.  (Hilpert  de  gloria 
Templi  post.,  Thes.  Theol.-Phil.  p.  XOSi;  sqq.)  Tan- 
chum.  Of  the  magnificence  of  the  buildmg  they 
allege  only  that  the  building  was  in  size  equal  to 
that  of  Solomon,  while  even  in  material  magnifi- 
cence it  was  bej^ond  measure  inferior.  The  relative 
duration  they  underrate;  "the  first,  410  years  ;  the 
second  420;"  for  from  the  xi"'  of  Solomon's  reign, 
B.C.  1005,  to  the  burning  of  the  temple  in  the  xi"" 
of  Zedekiah,  were  417  years;  but  from  the  vi">  of 
Darius  when  the  2d  temple  was  finished,  B.  C.  515, 
to  the  burning  of  the  temple  under  Titus  A.D.  70, 
were  585  years.  But  mere  duration  is  not  glory. 
R.  Isaac  says  as  Abarbanel;  "  But  it  is  a  difficulty 
in  what  they  say,  that  Scripture  says  not,  'great 
shall  be  the  building  of  the  house,'  or,  'the  time 
of  the  house,'  only  '  great  shall  be  the  glory  of  the 
house ; '  for  what  that  the  2d  house  stood  ten 
years  more  than  the  1st,  this  was  not  such  great 
glory,  that  for  this  the  prophet  should  say  what  he 
said :  and  again  though  the  days  during  which  the 
2d  house  stood  were  100  years  more  than  the  dura- 
tion of  the  first  house,  and  though  in  its  building 
it  were  twofold  greater  than  the  first  house,  how 
eaLth  Scripture  of  it  on  this  account,  that  its  glory 


10  ^  In  the  four  and 
twentieth  day  of  the  ninth 
month,  in  the  second  year 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


the  house  of  God,  which  Solomon  built, 
when  he  brought  the  ark  into  the  holy  of 
holies,  which  is  the  Divine  cloud  and  the 
Light  supreme,  which  came  down  thither  in 
the  eyes  of  all  the  people,  and  it  is  said,  '  And 
it  wa.s  when  the  priests  came  out  of  the  holy 
place,  the  cloud  filled  the  house  of  God,  and 
the  priests  could  not  stand  to  minister  be- 
cause of  the  cloud,  for  the  glory  of  God  filled 
the  house  of  God.'  And  this  glory  was  not 
in  the  second  house.  And  how  shall  it  be 
said,  if  so,  '  great  shall  be  the  glory  of  this 
later  house  above  the  fii-st '  ?  "  The  poor 
unconverted  Jew  did  not  know  the  answer  to 
his  question :  "  Through  the  Presence  of 
God,  in  the  substance  of  our  flesh  ;  through 
the  Son  oiven  to  us,  Whose  name  should  be 
Mighty  God."  The  glory  of  this  temple  was 
in  Him  Who  *uxis  made  Flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as 
of  the  Only  Begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace 
and  truth.  "  *  There  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
was,  a.s  a  Child,  offered  to  God  :  there  He 
sat  in  the  midst  of  the  Doctors ;  there  He 
taught  and  revealed  things,  hidden  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  The  glory  of  the 
temple  of  Solomon  was,  that  in  it  the  majesty 
of  God  appeared,  veiling  itself  in  a  cloud :  in 
this,  that  same  Majesty  shewed  itself,  in  very 
deed  united  with  the  Flesh,  visible  to  sight : 
60  that  Jesus  Himself  said,  *  He  that  hath  seen 
Me  hath  seen  the  Father.     This  it  was  wh  ich 

was  greater  than  the  first,  since  the  glory  which 
dwelt  in  the  first  house  did  not  dwell  in  it?"  Chizz. 
Em.  1.  e.  pp.  287,  288.  "Wherefore  it  is  rather  the 
true  glory  which  is  the  abiding  of  the  glorj'  of  the 
Shechinah  in  this  house  for  ever;  which  did  not 
abide  continually  in  the  first  house ;  but  in  the 
second  house  the  glory  did  not  dwell  at  all ;  for 
they  had  not  the  ark  and  the  mercy  seat  and  the 
cherubim,  or  the  Urim  and  Tummim,  nor  the 
Holy  Spirit,  nor  the  heavenly  fire,  nor  the  anoint- 
ing oil,  as  it  was  in  the  1st  house."  lb.  p.  293.  Others 
made  the  glory  to  consist  in  the  absence  of  idola- 
try, quoted  lb.  p.  28(i.  R.  Lipmann  Nizz.  p.  42,  makes 
in  it  to  consist  in  the  uninterruptedness  of  the 
worship  of  God  there,  whereas  the  temple  was  shut 
by  Ahaz  and  Manasseh  [as  was  the  second  at  least 
desecrated  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes  for  3  years.  I 
Mace.  i.  54,  iv.  59.1 

2  R.  Asariah  de  Rossi  Inire  Binah,  c.  .51,  in  Hilpert 
1.  c.  n.  8.  His  own  solution  is  that  the  glory  was  not 
in  the  temple  itself,  but  in  that  kings  brought  pres- 
ents to  it.  lb.  10. 

8  Abarbanel  Queest.  iv.  in  Hagg.  f.  TJ,n.  He  says 
that  "the  interpreters,  all  of  them  explained  it  of 
the  second  house."  p.  nj?1  2.  Abarb  subjoins  a  cri- 
ticism, which  R.  Asaria,  Imre-Binah  c.  54,  saw  to  be 
mistaken,  that  ptyKI  and  jnnK  could  not  be  said 

of  two  things  (of  which  niiK  and  'Jt^  are,  he  says, 
used)  against  which  R.  Asariah  quotes  Jer.  1.  17. 
Gen.  xxxiii.  2.  Add  Ex.  iv.  8.  Deut.  xxiv.  3,  4.  Ru. 
Iii.  10,  Is.  vlil.  23.  [ix.  1.  Eng.] 
«  S.  John  L  14.  6  Lap.  «  S.  John  xiv.  9. 


;316 


HAGGAI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


»Lev.  10.10,11. 
Deut.  33. 10. 
Mai.  2.  7. 


of  Darius,  came  the  word 
of  the  Lord  by  Haggai 
the  prophet  saying, 

11  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts;  'Ask  now  the 


Malachi  sang  with  joy :  '  The  Lord  Whom  ye 
seek  shall  suMcnly  come  to  His  temple,  even  the 
Messenger  of  the  covenant,  whom  ye  delight  in." 

And  in  this  place  I  tvill  give  peace.  Tem- 
poral peace  they  had  now,  nor  was  there  any 
prospect  of  its  being  disturbed.  They  were 
(luiet  subjects  of  the  Persiam  empire,  whicli 
included  also  all  their  former  enemies, 
greater  or  less.  Alexander  subdued  all  the 
bordering  countries  which  did  not  yield,  but 
spared  themselves.  Temporal  peace  then 
was  nothing  to  be  then  given  them;  for  they 
had  it.  In'later  times  they  had  it  nut.  The 
temple  itself  was  profaned  by  Antiochus 
Epiphanes.  "  ^  Her  sanctuary  was  laid  waste 
like  a  wildernes.s.  As  had  been  her  glory,  so 
was  her  dishonor  increased."  Again  by 
Pompey*,  by  Crassns*,  the  Parthians*,  be- 
fore it  was  destroyed  Ijy  Titus  and  the  Ro- 
mans. Jews  saw  this  and,  knowing  nothing 
of  the  peace  in  Jesus,  argued  from  tlie  ab- 
sence of  outward  peace,  that  the  prophecy 
was  not  fulfilled  under  the  second  temple. 
"  "  What  Scripture  says,  '  and  in  this  place  I 
will  give  peace,'  is  opposed  to  their  interpreta- 
tion. For  all  the  days  of  the  duration  of  the 
2d  house  were  in  strait  of  times  and  not  in 
peace,  as  was  written  in  Daniel,  and  three- 
score and  two  weeks:  the  street  shall  be  built 
again  and  the  fosse,  and  in  strait  of  time,  and, 
as  I  said,  in  the  time  of  Herod  there  was  no 
peace  whatever,  for  the  sword  did  not  depart 
from  his  house  to  the  day  of  his  death  ;  and 
after  his  death  tiie  hatred  among  the  Jews 
increased,  and  the  Gentiles  straitened  them, 
until  they  were  destroyed  from  the  face  of 
the  earth." 

But  spiritual  peace  is,  throughout  pro- 
phecy, part  of  the  promise  of  the  (iospel. 
Christ  Himself  was  to  be  ''the  Prince  of 
peace  :  of  the  increase  of  His  government  and  of 
His  peace  there  was  to  be  no  end;  in  His 
days  ^the  mountains  were  to  bring  peace  to  the 
people;  there  should  be  abundance  of  peace,  so 
long  as  the  moon  endureth ;  the  work  of  righteous- 
ness was  to  be  pea/:e^;  the  rh<isti.<iemcnt  of  our 
peace    [that    which   obtained   it]    ivas  upon 

>  .Mai.  iii.  1  ^  1  Mace.  i.  39,  40. 

'.)os.  Ant.  xiv.  4.  4.  B.  .T.  i.  7. 

<.Vnt.  xiv.  7.  I.  B.  J.  i.  n.  8. 

"Ant.  xiv.  13.  .3.  4. 

""Abraham  B.  Dior  in  hi^  book  of  the  Cabbala, 
p.  43"  in  U.  Isaac  Chizz.  Em.  I.  c.  p.  287.  R.  I.taac 
makes  as  if  he  had  answered  the  explanation  as  to 
Jesus  by  quoting  8.  Matt.  x.  34.  1.  c.  p.  292,  293. 

'Is.  ix.  6,  7.  «P9.  Ixxii.  3.  7. 


priests  ooncemmg  the  law 
saying, 

12  If  one  bear  holy 
flesh  in  the  skirt  of  his 
garment,   and  with  his 


Befor* 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


» Is!  xxxil.  17. 


Ju  lb.  liil.  5. 


Him '" ;  great  should  be  the  peace  of  her  chil- 
dren '^ ;  in  the  Uospel  God  would  give  peace, 
true  peace,  to  the  far  off  and  the  near^^;  He 
would  extend  ^'^ jxace  to  her  like  a  river:  the 
good  things  of  the  Gospel  was  the  publishing 
of  peace  ^*.  The  Gosjjel  is  described  as  ^^a 
covenant  of  peace :  the  promised  king  ^^  shall 
speak  peace  to  the  Heathen ;  He  Himself 
should  be  our  peaee^\  And  when  He  was 
born,  tlie  angels  proclaimed  '"  on  earth  peace, 
goodwill  toward  men:  '"  IVie  Dayspring  from  on 
high  visited  us,  to  guide  our  feet  into  the  way  of 
peace.  He  Himself  says,  ^°  My  peace  I  leave 
with  you.  He  spake,  that  '^^  in  Me  ye  might 
have  peace.  S.  Peter  sums  up  the  word  ichich 
God  sent  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  as  ^'^preach- 
ing peace  by  Jesus  Chri.^t :  ^^  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  joy  and  peace ;  "  Christ  w  our  peace;  made 
peace  ;  preaches  peace.  God  caUeth  us  to  peace  '^, 
in  the  Gospel :  ^®  being  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord;  ^'  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love  joy  peace. 
Spiritual  peace  being  thus  prominent  in  the 
Gospel  and  in  prophecy,  as  the  gift  of  God,  it 
were  unnatural  to  explain  the  peace  which 
God  promised  here  to  give,  as  other  than  He 
promised  elsewhere ;  peace  in  Him  Who  is 
our  peace,  Jesus  Christ. 

"  ^^  Peace  and  tranquillity  of  mind  is  above 
all  glory  of  the  house ;  because  peace  passeth 
all  understanding.  This  is  peace  above 
peace,  which  shall  be  given  after  the  third 
shaking  of  heaven  sea  earth,  dry  land,  when 
He  shall  destroy  all  powers  and  principalities 
[in  theday  of  judgment]. — And  so  shall  there 
be  peace  throughout,  that,  no  bodily  passions 
or  hindrances  of  unbelieving  mind  resisting, 
Christ  shall  be  all  in  all,  exhibiting  the 
hearts  of  all  subdued  to  the  Father." 

11-14.  Ask  now  the  priests  concerning  the 
lan<.  The  jiriests  answer  rightly,  that,  by  the 
law,  insulated  unholiness  spread  further  than 
insulated  holiness.  The  flesh  of  the  sacri- 
fice hallowed  whatever  it  sliould  touch  ^^,  but 
not  further ;  but  the  human  being,  who 
was  defiled  by  touching  a  dead  body,  de- 
filed all  he  might  touch  *>.     Haggai  does  not 

>i  lb.  liv.  1.3.  "  lb.  Ivii.  19. 

i3Ib.  Ixvi.  12.  i<Ib.  Hi.  7. 

>s  Rz.  xxxiv.  25.  >'  Zech.  ix.  10. 

1'  Mi.  V.  5.            18  S.  Luke  ii.  14.  >»  lb.  i.  79. 

»iS.  John  xiv  27.  2ilb.  xvi.33. 

22  Arts  X.  30.  ^  Rom.  xiv.  17. 

M  Eph.  ii.  14, 16, 17.  ^^l  Cor.  vii.  1,5. 

MRom.  v.  1.  "Gal.  V.  22. 
M  S.  Ambr.  1.  c.  n.  14.  0pp.  il.  913. 

»  Lev.  vl.  19  (27  Eng.)  »  Nu.  xix.  22. 


CHAPTER  II. 


317 


chr'ist    ^^^^^   ^^   touch   bread,  or 
<'''•■  ^^0-      pottage,  or  wine,  or  oil,  or 


any  meat,  shall  it  be  holy? 
And  the  priest  answered 
and  said.  No. 

13  Then  said  Haggai, 
"Num.  19. 11.    If  07ie  that  is  " unclean  by 

a  dead  body  touch  any  of 
these,  shall  it  be  unclean  ? 
And  the  priests  answered 
and  said,  It  shall  be  un- 
clean. 

14  Then  answered  Hag- 
»Tit.  1. 15.        gai,  and   said,  "So  is  this 

people,  and  so  is  this  na- 
tion before  me,  saith  the 
Lord  ;  a  n  d  s  o  is  every 
work  of  their  hands  ;  and 


apply  the  first  part ;  viz.  that  the  worship 
on  the  altar  which  they  reared,  while  they 
neglected  the  building  of  the  temple,  did  not 
hallow.  The  possession  of  a  holy  thing  does 
not  counterbalance  disobedience.  Contrari- 
wise, one  defilement  defiled  the  whole  man 
and  all  which  he  touched,  according  to  that, 
*  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law  and  yet 
offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all. 

In  the  application,  the  two  melt  into  one  ; 
for  the  holy  thing,  viz.  the  altar  Avhich  they 
raised  out  of  fear  on  their  return,  so  far  from 
hallowing  the  land  or  people  by  the  sacri- 
fices offered  thereon,  was  itself  defiled.  This 
people  and  this  nation  (not  "  My  people  " )  since 
they  in  act  disowned  Him.  Whatever  they 
offer  there,  i.  e.  on  that  altar,  instead  of  the 
temple  which  God  commanded,  is  unclean, 
oflfending  Him  Who  gave  all. 

15.  And  now,  J  pray  you.  Observe  his 
tenderness,  in  drawing  their  attention  to  it^. 
Consider  from  this  day  and  upward.  He  bids 
them  look  backward, /)-om  6f/bre  a  stone  was 
laid  upon  a  stone,  i.  e.  from  the  last  moment 
of  their  neglect  in  building  the  house  of  God  ; 
from  since  those  days  were,  or  from  the  time 
backward  wlien  those  things  ivere,  (resuming, 
in  the  word,  from-their-being  ^,  the  date  which 

1 S.  James  ii.  10. 

>  As  expressed  by  XJ,  here  and  18. 

*Ruth  iii.  7.  Neh.  xiii.  15.  2  Chr.  xxxi.  ti-y. 
*Vulg.  »LXX. 

'  n"11i3  only  occurs  beside.  Is.  lxiii.3;  where  it 
is  the  winefat  itself.    The  LXX  reuder  it  /ncTpijTai ; 

Jon.  r3"^J  (which  they  use  for  S^J  1  Sam.  x.  3, 

XXV.  18,  Jer.  xili.  12J  Vulg.  lagenaa. 
•  Peut.  xxviii.  27.  •  Am.  iv.  ii. 


that  which  they  oflfer  there    ^  ^^i'{%  x 
is  unclean.  ^'r-  520. 

15  And   now,  I  pray 
you,  "consider  from   this " ch.  1. 5. 
day  and  upward,  from  be- 
fore a  stone  was  laid  upon 

a  stone  in  the  temple  of 
the  Lord  : 

16  Since  those  days 

were,  ^when  one  came  to^ch.  1.  e,  y. 
'  Zech.  8. 10. 

an  heap  of  twenty  meas- 
ures, there  were  but  ten : 
when  one  came  to  the 
pressfat  for  to  draw  out 
fifty  vessels  out  of  the 
press,   there   were   but  ^ 

^         '  4  Deut.  28. 22. 

twenty.  1  Kin.  s.  37. 

■ir,      T  .  ,      eh.  1. 9. 

17  "'i    smote    you    with    Amos  4. 9. 


he  had  just  given,  viz.  the  beginning  of  their 
resuming  the  building  backward,  during  all 
those  years  of  neglect)  one  came  to  a  heap  of 
twenty  measures.  The  precise  measure  is  not 
mentioned*:  the  force  of  the  appeal  lay  in 
the  proportion :  the  heap  of  corn  which, 
usually,  would  yield  twenty,  (whether  bush- 
els '  or  seahs  ^  or  any  other  measure,  for  the 
heap  itself  being  of  no  defined  size,  neither 
could  the  quantity  exi)ected  from  it  be  de- 
fined) there  were  ten  only  ;  one  came  to  the  press- 
vat  to  draw  out  fifty  vessels  out  of  the  press,  or 
Y)evhaY>s  fifty  poorah,  i.  e.  the  ordinary  quan- 
tity drawn  out  at  one  time  from  the  press  ', 
there  were,  or  it  had  become,  twenty,  two-fifths 
only  of  Avliat  they  looked  for  and  ordinarily 
obtained.  The  dried  grapes  yielded  so  little. 
17.  /  smote  you  ivith  blasting  and  mildew, 
two  diseases  of  corn,  which  Moses  had  fore- 
told ^  as  chastisements  on  disobedience  and 
Gods  infliction,  of  which  Amos  had  spoken 
in  these  self-same  words'.  Haggai  adds  the 
hail,  as  destructive  of  the  vines  ^^.  Yet  [And^ 
ye  turned  you  not  to  Me  lit.  there  were  none — 
you,  (accusative  '^)  i.  e.  who  turned  you  unto 
Me.  The  words  are  elliptical,  but  express 
the  entire  absence  of  conversion,  of  any  who 
turned  to  God. 

10  Ps.  Ixxviii.  47. 

"  DDPa  marking  the  ace,  DDPK  TK  is  not  for 

DD3"K,  which  itself,  according  to  the  common 
Hebrew  eon-^truction,  would  require  a  participle,  lo 
express  action  on  their  part.  See  insiances  in 
Furst  Cone.  p.  45.  v.  'JJ'X,  Ex.  v.  19,  De.  i.  42,  Is.  i. 
15,  Jer.  xiv.  12  (bis),  xxxvii.  14;  IJ'X  OJen.  xx.  7, 

xliii.  5,  Ex.  viii.  17,  Jud.  xii.  3, 1  Sam.  xix.  11,  2  Sam. 
xix.  8,  1  Kgs  xxi.  5,  Neh.  ii.  2,  Ecd.  xi.  5,  0.  Jer.  vu 
n  :  obj'X,  De.  i.  32,  iv.  12,  2  Kgs  xii.  8,  Ez.  xx.  29, 


318 


HAGGAI. 


blasting   and  nlilde^v  and 


Belore 
CHRIST 

cir.  620.      ■^vith  hail '  in  all  the  labors 


'ch.  1. u.         of  your  hands;  'yet  ye 
aIiios  4.'  6, 8, 9,  turned  not  to  me,  saith  the 


10, 11. 


•Zech.  8.  9. 


Lord. 

18  Consider  now  from 
this  day  and  upward,  from 
the  four  and  twentieth  day 
of  the  ninth  month,  even 
from  Hhe  day  that  the 
foundation  of  the  Lord's 


18.  From  the  day  that  the  foundation  of  the 
LoixVs  house.  Zechariah,  in  a  passage  corre- 
jsponding  to  this,  uses  the  same  words  \  the 
day  that  the  foundation  of  the  house  of  tlie  Lord 
(f  hosts  was  laid,  that  the  temple  mir/ht  be  built, 
not  of  the  first  foundation,  but  of  the  work  as 
resumed  in  obedience  to  the  words  by  the 
mouth  of  the  prophets,  Haggai  and  himself, 
which,  Ezra  also  says,  was  ''  in  the  second  year 
of  Darius.  But  that  work  was  resumed,  not 
now  at  the  time  of  this  prophecy,  but  three 
months  before,  on  the  24th  of  tlie  sixth 
month.  Since  then  the  word  translated  here, 
from'^,  is  in  no  ca.se  used  of  the  present  time, 
Haggai  gives  two  dates,  the  resumption  of 
the  work,  as  marked  in  tliese  words,  and  the" 
actual  present.  He  would  then  say,  that 
even  in  these  last  months,  since  they  had  be- 
gun the  work,  there  were  as  yet  no  signs  for 
tlie  better.  Tliere  was  yet  no  seed  in  the  barn, 
the  harvest  having  been  blighted  and  the 
fruit-trees  stripped  by  the  hail  before  the 
close  of  the  sixtli  month,  when  they  resumed 
tlie  work.  Yet  though  there  were  as  yet  no 
signs  of  cliauge,  no  earnest  that  the  promise 
should  be  fulfilled,  God  pledges  His  word, 
from  this  day  I  will  bless  you. 

Thenceforth,  from  their  obedience,  God 
would  give  them  those  fruits  of  the  earth, 
which  in  His  Providence  had  been,  during 
their   negligence,    withheld.     God,  said   St. 

Mai.  ii.  2,  '.I ;  1 J  J'X,  De.  xxi.  18, 20,  Jud.  iii.  25,  1  Sam. 
xi.  7,  2  Clu-.  .will.  7,  Esth.  v.  13,  EcpI.  v.  11,  viii.  7, 
13, 10,  ix.  •>,  .ler.  xxxviii.  4,  xliv.  10-  QyH,  2  Ki<s 
xvii.  20),  :u  bis,  Eccl.  iv.  17,  ix.  5,  Neh.  xiii.  21,  Jer. 

xxxii.  .33,  Ezfk.  iii.  7.  'Sk  DDyKI  would  hiivfi 
signified,  "and  ye  were  not  [well  disposed]  toward 
Me,"  as  in  Hos.  iii.  3,  Jer.  xv.  1,  2  Kg.s  vi.  U 
(Ewald'.s  instances  Lehrb.  n.  217  f),  Gen.  xxxi.  .^; 
not  (as  required  here)  "ye  turned  you  not  unto 
Me,"  as  in  Am.  iv.  r,,  8, !),  10,  11.  Bottcher  (Lohr- 
liuch  n.  51i>.  d.)  compares  bene  te  (which  iinplien  a 
verb),  en  ilium  (where  en  is  as  a  verb.)  These  how- 
fver  are  exclamations,  not  parts  of  sentences.  He 
thinks  that 'K  is  joined,  1)  with  a  nom.,  and  then 
un  ace.  after  1,  1  Sam.  xxvi.  16;  that  ^y  has  an  ace. 

i-ien.  xxiiL  8.  2  Kgs  x,  15,  and  K  /H  Zech.  vii.  7. 
'  Zech.  viiL9. 
■'  Ezr.  Iv.  24,  V.  1., 
■■  .•?ucli  u.-c  uf  '07  Wuuld  be  iucousislent  with  any 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


temple  was  laid,  con- 
sider it. 

19  "Is  the  seed  yet  in    »zech. 8. 12. 
the  barn?  yea,  as  yet  the 

vine,  and  the  fig  tree,  and 
the  pomegranate,  and  the 
olive  tree,  hath  not  brought 
forth :  from  this  day  will  I 
bless  you. 

20  ^And  again  the 
word  of  the  Lord  came 


Paul  and  Barnabas,  *  left  not  Himself  without 
tvitness,  in  that  He  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain 
from  heaven  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  our 
hearts  tvithfood  and  gkidness. 

All  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  the  Law, 
the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms,  the  Apostles 
and  our  Lord  Himself,  bear  witness  to  tiie 
Providence  of  God  Who  makes  His  natural 
laws  serve  to  the  moral  discipline  of  His 
creature,  man.  The  physical  theory,  which 
presupposes  that  God  so  fixed  the  laws  of  His 
creation,  as  to  leave  no  room  for  Himself  to 
vary  them,  would,  if  ever  so  true,  only  come 
to  this,  that  Almighty  God  knowing  abso- 
lutely (as  He  must  know)  the  actions  of  His 
creatures  (in  what  way  soever  this  is  recon- 
cilable with  our  free-agency,  of  which  we 
are  conscious),  framed  the  laws  of  His  physi- 
cal creation,  so  that  plenty  or  famine,  health- 
iness of  our  cattle  or  of  tlie  fruits  of  the 
earth  or  their  sickness,  should  coincide  with 
the  good  or  evil  conduct  of  man,  with  his 
prayers  or  his  neglect  of  prayer.  The  re- 
ward or  chastisement  alike  come  to  man, 
whether  they  be  the  result  of  God's  Will, 
acting  apart  from  any  system  which  He  has 
created,  or  in  it  and  through  it.  It  is  alike 
His  Providential  agency,  whether  He  have 
established  any  such  system  with  all  its  min- 
ute variations,  or  whether  tliose  variations 
are  the  immediate  result  of  His  sovereign 

force  of  7.  It  is  used  of  a  terininaii  a  quo,  distant 
from  the  present,  and  is  equivalent  to  "  up  to  and 
from."  So  .Jud.  .xix.  .30,  "No  such  deed  was  seen 
or  done  from  the  day  that  the  children  of  Israel 
came  up,"  i.  e.  looking  back  to  that  time  and  from 
it.  So  2  Sam.  vii.  6,  "  Since  the  time  that  I  brought 
up  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,"  lit.  "up  to 
from  the  day."  Add  Ex.  ix.  18,  Deut.  iv.  32,  ix.  7,  2 
."^am.  vii.  11,'xix.  2.'>,  Is.  vii.  17,  .ler.  vii.  7,  2."),  xxv.  :<, 
xxxii.  31,  1  Chr.  xvii.  10,  Mai.  iii.  7.  Hut  there  is  no 
ground  for  thinking  that  Haggai  used  the  word  in 
any  sense,  in  which  it  had  not  been  used  before 
him.    The  only  construction  consistent  with  thi' 

use  of  JoS  elsewhere  is,  that  the  terminus  ad  qucm, 
elsewhere    expressed    by  l^'l,  having    been  ex- 
pressed by  the  presertt  DVD.  the  distant  terminus  a 
quo  is,  as  elsewhere,  expressed  bv  tO  ». 
*.Vcls  xlv.  17. 


CHAPTER  II. 


319 


chrTIt    ^^^^  Haggai   in  the  four 
cir.  520.      and  twentieth   day  of  the 


month,  saying, 

21  Speak  to  Zerubbabel, 
»ch.  1. 14.         "governor  of  Judah,  say- 

Heb.  12. 26.      ing,  ^ I  will  shalce  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  ; 

22  And  'I  will  over- 
throw the  throne  of  king- 


'  Dan.  2.  44. 
Matt.  24.  7. 


Will.  If  He  has  instituted  any  physical 
system,  so  that  the  rain,  hail,  and  its  pro- 
portions, size,  destructiveness,  should  come 
in  a  regulated  irregularity,  as  fixed  in  all 
eternity  as  the  revolutions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  or  the  courses  of  the  comets,  then  Ave 
come  only  to  a  more  intricate  perfection  of 
His  creation,  tliat  in  all  eternity  He  framed 
those  laws  in  an  exact  conformity  to  the  per- 
fectly foreseen  actions  of  men  good  and  evil, 
and  to  their  prayers  also :  that  He,  knowing 
certainly  whether  the  creature,  which  He 
has  framed  to  liave  its  bliss  in  depending  on 
Him,  would  or  would  not  cry  unto  Him, 
framed  those  physical  laws  in  conformity 
therewith  ;  so  that  the  supply  of  Avhat  is 
necessary  for  our  wants  or  its  Avithholding 
shall  be  in  all  time  inworked  into  the 
system  of  our  probation.  Only,  not  to  keep 
God  out  of  His  own  world,  we  must  remem- 
ber that  other  truth,  that,  whether  God  act 
in  any  such  system  or  no,  He  ^  vpholdcih  ail 
things  by  the  word  of  His  power  by  an  ever- 
present  working ;  so  that  it  is  He  Who  at 
each  moment  doth  what  is  done,  doth  and 
maintains  in  existence  all  which  He  has 
created,  in  the  exact  order  and  variations  of 
their  being.  ^  Fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapor, 
stormy  Kind  fulfilling  His  word,  are  as  imme- 
diate results  of  His  Divine  Agency,  in  what- 
ever way  it  pleaseth  Him  to  act,  and  are  the 
expression  of  His  Will. 

21.  i  will  shake.  Haggai  closes  by  resum- 
ing the  words  of  a  former  prophecy  to  Zerub- 
liabel  and  Joshua,  which  ended  in  the  com- 
ing of  Christ.  Even  thus  it  is  plain,  that  the 
prophecy  does  not  belong  personally  to  Ze- 
rubbabel, but  to  him  and  his  descendants, 
chiefly  to  Christ.  There  was  in  Zerubbabel's 
time  no  shaking  of  the  heaven  or  of  nations. 
Darius  had  indeed  to  put  down  an  unusual 
number  of  rebellions  in  the  first  few  years 
after  his  accession  ;  but,  although  he  magni- 
fied himself  on  occasion  of  their  suppression, 
they  were  only  so  many  di.stinct  and  uncon- 
certed  revolts,  each  under  its  own  head.  All 
were  far  away  in  the  distant  East,  in  Baby- 

»  Heb.  i.  3.  7  »Ps.  cxlvili.  8. 

■<  Rawlinson  v.  Empires  iv.  pp.  407-415.  chiefly 
l^•lIl^Belll^tua  lObcnption." 


Before 


doms,  and   I  will  destroy    christ 
the  strength  of  the  king-      c'r-  520. 


doms  of  the  heathen ;  *  I  •  Mic.  5. 10. 
will  overthrow  the  chari-  4^9!  10.' 
ots,  and  those  that  ride  in 
them ;  and  the  horses  and 
their  riders  shall  come 
down,  every  one  by  the 
sword  of  his  brother. 


Ionia,  Susiana,  Media,  Armenia,  Assyria, 
Hyrcania,  Parlhia,  Sagartia,  Margiana,  Ara- 
chosia  ^.  The  Persian  empire,  spread  "  *  prob- 
ably over  2,000,000  square  miles,  or  more 
than  half  of  modern  Europe,"  was  not  threat- 
ened ;  no  foreign  enemy  assailed  it ;  one  im- 
postor only  claimed  the  throne  of  Darius. 
This  would,  if  successful,  have  been,  like  his 
own  accession,  a  change  of  dynasty,  aflTecting 
nothing  externally.  But  neither  were  last- 
ing, some  were  very  trifling.  Two  decisive 
battles  subdued  Babylonia:  of  Media  the 
brief  summary  is  given  ;  " "  the  Medes  re- 
volted from  Darius,  and  having  revolted 
were  brought  back  into  subjection,  defeated 
in  battle."  The  Susianians  slew  their  own 
pretender,  on  the  approach  of  the  troops  of 
Darius.  We  have  indeed  mostly  the  account 
only  of  the  victor.  But  these  are  onl_y  self- 
glorying  records  of  victories,  accomplished 
in  succession,  within  a  few  years.  Sometimes 
the  satrap  of  the  province  put  the  revolt 
down  at  once.  At  most  two  battles  ended  in 
the  crucifixion  of  the  rebel.  The  Jews,  if 
they  heard  of  them,  knew  them  to  be  of  no 
account.  For  the  destroyer  of  the  Persian 
empire  was  to  come  from  the  West*;  the 
fourth  sovereign  was  to  stir  up  all  against  the 
realm  of  Grecia ',  and  Darius  was  but  the 
third.  In  the  same  second  year  of  Darius, 
in  which  Haggai  gave  this  prophecy,  the 
whole  earth  Avas  exhibited  to  Zechariah  as 
"  sitting  still  and  at  rest. 

The  overthrow  prophesied  is  also  univer- 
sal. It  is  not  one  throne  only,  as  of  Persia, 
but  the  throne,  i.  e.  the  sovereigns,  of  kingdoms; 
not  a  change  of  dj'uasty,  but  a  destruction  of 
their  strength  ;  not  of  a  few  poAvers  only,  but  the 
kingdoms  of  the  heathen  ;  and  that,  in  detail ; 
that,  in  Avliich  their  chief  strength  lay,  the 
chariots  and  horsemen  and  their  riders,  and 
this,  man  by  man,  every  one  by  the  sword  of  hU 
brother.  This  mutual  destruction  is  a  feature 
of  tlie  judgments  at  the  end  of  the  Avorld 
against  Gog  and  Magog  ^ ;  and  of  the  yet 
unfulfilled  prophecies  of  Zechariah^**.  Its 
stretching  out- so  far  does  not  hinder  its  par- 


Md.  lb.  p.  2. 
. «  Dan.  viii.  5. 
"  Euek.  Kxxv.iii. 


nb.xi.2. 


« Herod  i.  130. 
sZech.  i.  11. 
loZecU.  xiv.  17. 


320 


HAGGAI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  520. 


23  In   that  day,  saith 
.the  Lord  of  hosts,  will  I 


take  thee,  0  Zerubbabel, 


Before 
CHRIST 

my  servant,  the  son  of  She-      <='''•  ^'^- 


tial  fultiUment  in  earlier  times.  Zerubbabel 
stood,  at  the  return  from  the  captivity,  as 
the  representative  of  the  house  of  David  and 
lieir  of  the  promises  to  him,  though  in  an 
inferior  temporal  condition ;  thereby  the 
rather  shewing  that  the  main  import  of  the 
prophecy  was  not  temporal.  As  then  Ezekiel 
prophesied,  ^  /  will  set  up  One  Shepherd  over 
(hem,  and  He  shall  feed  them,  My  servant  David  ; 
^  Ami  David  My  servant  shall  be  king  over 
them;  and  My  servant  David  shall  be  their 
prince  forever ;  and  Jeremiah,  '^  They  shall 
serve  the  Lord  their  God  and  David  their  king, 
whom  I  will  raise  up  unto  them;  and  Hosea, 
that  *  after  many  days  shall  the  children  of 
Israel  return  and  seek  the  Lord  their  God,  and 
David  their  king,  meaning  by  David,  the  great 
<lescendant  of  David,  in  whom  the  promises 
centered,  so  in  his  degree,  the  promise  to 
Zerubbabel  reaches  on  through  liis  descend- 
ants to  Christ ;  that,  amid  all  the  overthrow  of 
empires,  God  would  protect  his  sons'  sdus 
until  Christ  should  come,  the  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords,  Whose  *  kingdom  shall  never 
be  destroyed,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces  and  con- 
sume all  those  kingdo\ns,  and  shall  stand  fast  for 
ever. 

23.  In-ill  make  thee  as  a  signet.  God  re- 
verses to  Zerubbabel  the  sentence  on  Jecon- 
iah  for  his  impiety.  To  Jeconiah  He  had 
said,  *  though  he  icere  the  signet  upon  My  right 
hand,  yet  would  I  pluck  thee  thence  ;  and  I  ivill 
give  thee  into  the  hand  of  them  that  seek  thy  life. 
The  signet  was  very  precious  to  its  owner, 
never  parted  with,  or  only  to  those  to  whom 
authority  was  delegated  (as  by  Pharaoh  to 
Joseph  \  or  by  Ahasuerus  to  Haman  *  and 
then  to  Mordecai  *) ;  through  it  his  will  was 
expressed.  Hence  the  spouse  in  the  Canti- 
cles says,  '"  Set  me,  as  a  seal  upon  thy  h^art,  as 
a  se(d  upon  thy  arm.  The  signet  also  was  an 
ornament  to  him  who  wore  it.  God  is  glori- 
fied in  His  sdinls^^ ;  by  Zeru])babel  in  the 
building  of  His  house.  He  gave  him  esti- 
mation with  Cyrus,  who  entrusted  him  with 
the  return  of  his  people,  and  made  him  (who 
would  have  been  the  successor  to  the  throne 
of  Judaii,  had  the  throne  been  re-established) 
his  governor  over  the  restored  people,  (iod 
promises  to  him  and  his  descendants  protection 
amid  all  shaking  of  empires.  "  '^He  was  a 
type  of  Christ  in  bringing  biwk  the  people 
fr(jm  Habvlon,  as  Christ  delivered  us  from 
sin  deatli  and  hell:  he  built  the  temple,  as 
CJirist  built  the  Church  ;  he  protected  his 
people   against  the   Samaritans  who  would 


I  Ezek.  xxxiv.  23. 
»Jer.  XXX.  9 
» Dan.  ii.  44. 
?  Ocu.  xli.  iz. 


>Ib.  xxxvii.  24,  26. 

*  Ho?,  iil.  5. 

*  Jer.  xxii.  24 

•  Eather  ui.  lU. 


I  hinder  the  building,  as  Christ  protects  His 
j  Church  :  he  was  dear  and  joined  to  God,  as 
ii  Christ  was  united  to  Him,  and  hypostatically 
united  and  joined  His  Ilumanitv  to  the 
Word.  The  true  Zerubbabel  then,  i.  e. 
Christ,  the  son  and  antitype  of  Zerubbabel,  is 
the  signet  in  the  hand  of  the  Father,  both 
passively  and  actively,  whereby  God  im- 
presses His  own  Majesty  thoughts  and  words 
and  His  own  Image  on  men  angels  and  all 
creatures."  " '^  The  Son  is  the  Image  of 
God  the  Father,  having  His  entire  and  exact 
likeness,  and  in  His  own  beauty  beaming 
forth  the  nature  of  the  Father.  In  Him  too 
God  seals  us  also  to  His  own  likeness,  since, 
being  conformed  to  Christ,  we  gain  the  image 
of  God."  "  ^'^  Christ,  as  the  Apostle  says,  is 
^^the  Itruige  of  the  invisible  God,  the  brightness 
of  His  Glory  and  the  express  Image  of  His  Per- 
son, Who,  as  the  Word  and  Seal  and  express 
Image,  seals  it  on  others.  Christ  is  here 
called  a  signet,  as  Man  not  as  God.  P'or  it 
was  His  Manhood  which  He  took  of  the  flesh 
and  race  of  Zerubbabel.  He  is  then,  in  His 
Manhood,  the  signet  of  God ;  1)  as  being 
hypostatically  united  with  the  Son  of  God ;  2) 
because  the  Word  impressed  on  His  Human- 
ity the  likeness  of  Himself,  His  knowledge, 
virtue,  holiness,  thoughts,  words,  acts  and 
conversation ;  3)  because  the  Man  C  hrist 
was  the  seal,  i.  e.  the  most  evident  sign 
and  witness  of  the  attributes  of  God,  His 
power,  justice,  wisdom,  and  especially  His 
exceeding  love  for  man.  For,  that  God 
might  shew  this.  He-  willed  that  His  Son 
should  be  Incarnate.  Christ  thus  Incarnate 
is  as  a  seal,  in  which  we  see  expressed  and 
depicted  the  love  power  justice  wisdom  &c.  of 
God ;  4)  because  Christ  as  a  seal,  attested 
and  certified  to  us  the  will  of  God,  His  doc- 
trine law  command.s,  i.e.  those  which  He 
promulgated  ami  taught  in  the  Gospel.  No 
OJic,  St.  John  saith,  ^^  hath  seen  God  at  any 
time :  the  Only-Begotten  Son  THiO  is  the  Image 
of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared  Him.  Hence 
God  gave  to  Christ  the  power  of  working 
miracles,  that  He  might  coniirm  His  woris 
as  by  a  seal,  and  demonstrate  that  they  were 
revealed  and  enjoined  to  Ilim  by  (iod,  as  it 
is  in  S.  John,  '"///w  hath  God  the  Fa  '  /• 
sealed."  " 'U'hrist  is  also  the  seal  if  tJol, 
because  by  His  impress,  i.e.  the  laith  grace 
virtue  and  conversation  from  Him  and  liy 
the  impress  in  Baptism  and  the  other  Sacra- 
mcnt><.  He  wilkd  to  conform  us  to  the  Image  of 
His  Son  ",  that,  '"  as  we  have  borne  tlw  image  of 

»Ib.  vlll.  2.  wCant.  v'ii.O. 

"  2  Thess.  1. 10.  "  Lap.               "  9.  Cyr. 

"  Heb.  1.  3.  >*  S.  John  i.  18. 

ws.  John  vl.27.  "Rom.vili.29.    "icorxv.  4V. 


CHAPTER  IT. 


321 


c  H  R*Ys  T    'iltiel'  sa^th  the  Lord,  "  and 
cir.  520.      -^[w  make  thee  as  a  signet  : 


»>  Cant.  8.  6.  Jer.  22.  24. 


<Ae  earthly  Adam,  we  may  abo  bear  the  image 
of  the  Heavenly.  Then,  Christ,  like  a  seal, 
seals  and  guards  His  faithfol  against  all 
temptations  and  enemies.  The  seal  of  Christ 
is  the  Cross,  according  to  that  of  Ezekiel, 
^  Seal  a  mark  upon  the  foreheads  of  the  men  who 
sigh,  and  in  the  Revelation,  *  /  saw  another 
Angel  having  the  seal  of  the  living  God.  For 
the  Cross  guardeth  us  against  the  temptations 
of  the  flesh,  the  world  and  the  devil,  and 
makes  us  followers,  soldiers,  and  martyrs  of 
Christ  crucified.  Whence  the  Apostle  says, 
'7  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus." 

"  This  is  said  without  doubt  of  the  Mes- 
siah, the  expected  ;  "  says  even  a  Jewish  con- 
troversialist *,  "  who  shall  be  of  the  seed  of 
Zerubbabel ;  and  therefore  this  promise  was 
not  fulfilled  at  all  in  himself:  for  at  the  time 
of  this  prophecy  he  had  aforetime  been  gov- 
ernor of  Judah,  and  afterward  he  did  not 
rise  to  any  higher  disnity  than  what  he  was 
up  to  that  day  :  and  in  like  way  we  find  that 
God  said  to  Abraham  our  father  in  the  cove- 
nant between  the  pieces,  *  /  am  the  Lord  who 
brought  thee  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  to  give 
thee  this  land  to  inherit  it,  and  beyond  doubt 
this  covenant  was  confirmed  of  God  to  the 
seed  of  Abraham,  as  He  Himself  explained 
it  there  afterward,  when  He  said,  In  that  day 
God  made  a  covenant  with  Abraham,  saying, 
To  thy  seed  have  I  given  this  land  i&c,  and 
many  like  these. 

Abarbanel  had  laid  down  the  right  prin- 
ciples, though  of  necessity  misapplied.  '""Zer- 
ubbabel (lid  not  reiun  in  Jerusalem  and  did 
not  rule  in  it,  neither  lie  nor  any  man  of  his 
seed  ;  but  forthwith  after  the  building  of  the 
house,  he  returned  to  Babylon  and  died  there 
in  his  captivity,  and  how  saith  he,  '  In  that 
day  I  will  take  thee  ? '  For  after  the  fall  of 
the  kingdom  of  Persia  Zerubbabel  is  not 
known  for  any  greatness,  and  his  name  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  world.  Where  then  will 
be  the  meaning  of  And  I  will  place  thee  as 
a  signet,  for  thee  have  I  chosen?'  For  the 
signet  is  as  the  seal-ring  which  a  manputteth 
on  his  hand,  it  departeth  not  from  it,  niuht 
or  day.  And  when  was  tliis  fulfilled  in 
Zerubbabel  ?  But  the  true  meaning,  in  my 
opinion,  is,  that  God  shewed  Zerubbabel  that 
this  very  second  house  would  not  abide ;  for 

MnEzek.  ix.  4.        «Rev.  vii.  2.        SGal.  vi.  17. 

*  R.  Isaac  Chiz.  Em.  1.  c.  pp.  289,  290. 

»  Gen.  XV.  7, 18.  ^p-Op"). 

21 


for  "I  have  chosen  thee, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  r,20. 

'Is.ii.  42.  1.  &  43.  10 


after  liim  should  come  another  captivity,  and 
of  this  he  says,  '  I  shake  the  heaven  &c.,'  and 
afterward,  alter  a  long  time,  will  God  take 
Plis  vengeance  of  these  nations  '  which  have 
devoured  Jacob  and  laid  waste  his  dwelling 
place ;'  and  so  he  says  '  I  will  overthrow  the 
thrones  &c.,'  and  He  sheweth  him  further 
that  the  king  \vho  shall  rr.le  over  Israel  at 
the  time  of  the  redemptii  n  is  the  Messiah  of 
the  seed  of  Zerubbabel  and  of  the  house  of 
David ;  and  God  saw  good  to  sliew  him  all 
tliis  to  comfort  him  and  to  speak  to  his  heart ; 
and  it  is  as  if  he  said  to  him,  '  It  is  true  that 
thou  shalt  not  reign  in  the  time  of  the  second 
temple,  nor  any  of  thy  seed,  but  in  that  day 
when  God  shall  overthrow  the  throne  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  nations,  when  He  gatJiereth 
His  people  Israel  and  redeemeth  them,  then 
shalt  thou  reign  over  My  people ;  for  of  thy 
seed  shall  he  be  who  ruleth  from  Israel  at 
that  time  forever,  and  therefore  he  saith,  '  I 
will  take  thee,  O  Zerubabbel  &u.,'  for  bee  aL:se 
the  Messiah  was  to  be  of  his  seed  he  saith, 
that  he  will  take  him  ;  and  this  is  as  he  says, 
'  'And  David  My  servant  shall  be  a  prim  e'to 
them  for  ever;'  for  the  very  Messiah,  he 
shall  be  David,  he  shall  be  Zerubbabel, 
because  he  shall  be  a  scion  going  fijrth  out  of 
their  iiewn  trunk*." 

For  I  have  chosen  thee.  God's  foreroming 
love  is  the  ground  of  all  the  acceptableness 
of  His  creatures.  "  We  lore  Him,  because  He 
first  loved  us.  Zerubbabel  was  a  devoted  ser- 
vant of  God.  God  acknowledges  his  faithiul- 
ness.  Only,  the  beginning  of  all  was  with 
God.  God  speaks  of  the  nearness  to  Him- 
self which  He  had  given  him.  But  in  two 
words  ^"  He  cuts  ofl'  all  possible  boastiulness 
of  His  creature.  Zerubbal  el  was  all  this, 
not  of  himself,  but  because  God  had  chosen 
him.  Even  the  Sacred  Manhood  of  our 
Lord  (it  is  acknowledged  as  a  theoh  gical 
Truth)  was  not  chosen  lor  any  foreseen  merits, 
but  for  tlie  great  love,  with  whiih  Cod  the 
Father  chose  It,  and  God  the  Son  willed  to 
be  in  suth  wise  incarnate,  and  God  the  Holy 
Ghost  willed  that  that  Holy  Thing  should  be 
conceived  of  Him.  So  God  says  of  Him, 
"  Behold  My  Servant  whom  I  uphold,  Mine  elect 
in  whom  My  soul  delighteth ;  and  God  bare 
witness  to  Him,  ^^  This  is  My  Beloved  Sun  ii, 
Whom  I  am  well  pleased. 


^  Ezek.  xxxvii.  24. 
«1  S.John  iv.  19. 

11  Is.  xlii.  1. 


8  Is.  xi.  1. 
"S.  Matt.  iii.l7.  xvu.  6. 


INTEODTTCTIOIT 


THE    PROPHET 
ZEOHARIAH. 


Zechariah     entered    on    his     prophetic  I 
office,  two  montlis   after  Haggai's  first  pro-  1 
phecy.     He   was   still    a  youth,   when   (Jod 
called  him  *  and  so,  since  in  the  second  year  | 
of  Darius   Hystaspis  IS    years  had    elapsed  j 
from  the  first  of  Cyrus,  he  must  have  been 
bi'ought  in  infancy  from    Babylon.     His  fa- 
ther Berechiah  probably   died  young,  since,  ' 
in  Ezra,  the  prophet  is  called  after  his  grand-  j 
father,  Zechariah  tlie  son  of  Iddo  ^.     He  sue-  i 
ceeded  his  grandfather  in    the  office  of  the 
priest'',  the  chief  of  the  fathers,  (of  which  there 
wei'e  twelve)  in  the  days  of  Joiakim  the  son 
of  Joshua,  the  High    priests      Since   then, 
while  he  prophesied   together  with   Haggai,   i 
Joshua  was  still  liiuh  priest,  and  it  is  Josliiia 
whom  he  sees  in  his  vision  in  that  same  year'', 
he  must  have  entered  on  his   prophetic  office  j 
before  he  succeeded  to  that    other   disnity. 
Yet  neither  is  there  any  reason  to  think  that 
he  ever  laid  it  aside,  since  we  hear  not  of  any 
prophet,  called  by  God,  who  did    abandon  it. 
feather,  like  Jeremiah,  he    exercised  both  ; 
called  to  the  priesthood  by   the  birth  given 
to  him  by  God,  called  to  the  prophetic  office 
by  Divine  inspiration. 

Like  Jeremiah,  Zechariah  wa«  called  in 
early  youth  to  the  prophetic  office.  The 
same  designation,  by  which  Jeremiah  at  first 
excused  himself  as  unfit  for  the  office,  is 
given  to  Zei-liariah,  ^/ow/A®.  The  term  does 
not  indeed  mark  any  definite  age ;  for  Joseph, 
when  he  was  so  designated  '  by  the  chief  but- 

•Zech.  ii.  4. 
»>  Ezr.  V.  1.  vi.  14. 

'  Neh.  xV\.  10, 1-2, 1(3.  d  Zeeh.  iii.  1. 

•">i'I  Jer.  i.  6,  Zech.  ii.  4. 
f  nen.  xli.  12. 

« Joseph  was  30,  when  he  stood  IjpIuic  Pliai-aoh 
(lb.  46),  but  the  hiti^rpretation  of  tlie  dreams  of 


ler,  wa-s  28  S;  Benjamin  and  Absalom  had 
sons  of  their  own  ^.  They  were  probably  s<j 
called  as  terms  of  afiection,  the  one  by  his 
brother  Judah ',  the  other  by  David  his  fa- 
ther ''.  But  his  grandfather  Iddo  was  still  in 
the  discharge  of  his  office.  The  length  of 
his  ministry  is  equally  unknown.  Two  years 
after  his  first  entrance  upon  it ',  when  Hag- 
gai's office  was  closed,  he  was  bidden  to  an- 
swer from  God  thdse  who  enquired  whether, 
now  that  they  were  freed  from  the  captivity, 
they  should  keep  the  national  fasts  which 
they  had  instituted  on  occasion  of  some  of 
the  mournful  events  which  had  ushered  it 
in.  His  remaining  prophecies  bear  no  date. 
The  belief,  that  he  lived  and  prophesied  to 
old  age,  may  have  a  true  foundation,  though 
to  us  unknown.  We  only  know  that  he  sur- 
vived the  high  priest,  Joshua,  since  his  own 
accession  to  his  office  of  head  of  the  priests, 
in  his  division,  was  in  the  days  of  Joiakim, 
the  son  of  Joshua. 

His  book  opens  with  a  very  simple  touch- 
ing call  to  those  returned  from  the  c-aptivity, 
linking  himself  on  to  the  former  prophets, 
but  contrasting  the  transitoriness  of  all  hu- 
man things,  those  who  prophesied  and  those 
to  whom  they  prophesied,  with  the  abiding- 
ness  of  the  word  of  God.  It  consists  of  four 
parts,  diflering  in  outward  character,  yet 
with  a  remarkable  unity  of  purpose  and  end. 
All  begin  with  a  foreground  subsequent  to 
the  captivity  ;  all  reach  on  to  a  further  end  ; 

Pharaoh's  servants  was  given  two  years  before, 
(lb.  1.) 

•>  Benjamin  had  10  sons  when  Jacob  went  down 
into  Egypt  (Gen.  xlvi.  21);  Absalom's  3  sons  (-2 
Sam.  .Tiv.  27.)  were  dead  (lb.  xviii.  18).  Absalom  was 
David's  third  .«on.  (2  Sam.  iii.  3.)  'Gon.  xliii.  «. 

xliv.  22,  30,  .33.    »  2  Sam.  xviii.  n,  12,  29,  32.    '  vii.  1. 

323 


324 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


the  two  first  to  the  coming  of  our  Lord  ;  the 
third  from  the  deliverance  of  the  house  then 
built,  during  the  invasion  of  Alexander,  and 
from  the  victories  of  the  Maccabees,  to  the 
rejection  of  the  true  Shepherd  and  the  curse 
upon  the  false ;  the  last,  which  is  connected 
with  the  third  by  its  title,  reaches  from  a 
future  repentance  for  the  death  of  Christ  to 
the  final  conversion  of  the  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles. 

The  outward  difference,  that  the  first  pro- 
phecy is  in  visions  ;  the  second,  a  response 
to  an  enquiry  made  of  him  ;  the  two  last  in 
free  delivery,  obviously  did  not  depend  upon 
the  prophet.  The  occasion  also  of  the  two 
first  bodies  of  prophecy  involved  that  they 
were  written  in  prose.  For  the  imagery  was 
borne  on  the  prophet's  mind  in  visions.  The 
office  of  the  prophet  was  only  to  record  them 
and  the  explanations  given  to  him  of  parts 
of  them,  which  could  only  be  done  in  prose. 
He  wa.s  so  far  like  the  Apostles,  who  enquired 
of  our  Loi-d,  when  in  the  flesh,  the  meaning 
of  His  parables.  There  is,  as  in  the  later 
chapters,  abundance  of  imagery  ;  and  it  may 
have  pleased  God  to  adapt  the  form  of  His 
revelation  to  the  imaginative  mind  of  the 
young  prophet  who  was  to  receive  it.  But 
the  vi.sions  are,  as  the  name  implies,  pictures 
wliich  the  prophet  .sees,  an  1  which  he  de- 
.scribes.  Even  a  rationalist  writer  saw  this. 
"  "  Every  vision  must  form  a  picture,  and  the 
description  of  a  vision  must  have  tlie  appear- 
ance of  being  read  from  a  picture.  It  fol- 
lows from  the  nature  of  the  description  of  a 
vision,  that  for  the  most  part  it  cannot  be 
composed  in  any  elevated  language.  The 
simplest  prose  is  the  best  vehicle  for  a  rela- 
tion (ami  such  is  the  description  of  a  vision), 
an<l  elaborate  ornament  (^f  language  were 
foreign  to  it.  The  beauty,  greatness,  eleva- 
tion of  a  vision,  as  described,  miist  lie  in  the 
conception,  or  in  the  symmetry,  or  wondrous 
boldness  in  the  grouping  of  the  images.  Is 
the  whole  group,  piece  by  piece,  in  all  its 
parts,  to  the  most  minute  shading,  faithful 
and  described  with  the  character  of  truth, 
the  exhibition  of  the  vision  in  words  is  per- 
fect." 

The  four  portions  were  probably  of  differ- 
ent dates,  as  they  stand  in  order  in  the  pro- 
phet's book,  as  indeed  the  second  is  dated  two 
years  later  than  the  first  ".  For  in  the  first 
part  God's  people  are  exhorted  to  come  from 

■  Eichhoni  Eiiil.  ii.  (i(«.  iv,  pp.  43.=>,  4:it;.  "The 
¥tyle  in  these  visions  borders  closely  on  prose:  for 
th'ey  relate  what  the  Seer  saw;  and  prose  is  the 
natural  vehicle  of  relation."  lb.  n.  liO').  p.  4-12.  Eich- 
horn  also  draws  attention  to  what  he  calls  "the 
liymns,  songs  of  victory  or  consolation,  with  which 
the  visions  are  sometimes  closed,  and  which  are  a 
more  elevated  finale."  lb. 

""  In  the  -id  year  of  Darius."  1.  1.  "  In  the  4th 
year  of  Darius."  vii.  1.  "ii.  7. 

pZech.  X.  10.  Comp.  Is.  xl.  11, 10,  Hos.  xl.  11. 

%\i.  li)-13.  'ix.  13. 


Babylon",  which  command,  many~in  the 
time  of  Ezra,  obeyed,  and  doubtless  individ- 
uals subsequently,  when  a  prosperous  polity 
was  restored ;  in  the  latter  part,  Babylon  is 
mentioned  no  more ;  only  in  one  place,  in 
the  imagery  of  earlier  prophets,  the  future 
gathering  of  God's  people  is  symbolized  un- 
der the  previous  deliverance  from  West  and 
East,  Egypt  and  Assyria  p. 

But  they  agree  in  this,  that  the  foreground 
is  no  longer,  as  in  the  former  prophets,  de- 
liverance from  Babylon.  In  the  first  part, 
the  reference  to  the  vision  of  the  four  em- 
pires in  Daniel  removes  the  promise  of  the 
Deliverer  to  the  fourth  Empire.  For  the 
series  of  visions  having  closed  with  the 
vision  of  the  four  chariots,  there  follows  at 
once  the  symbolic  act  of  placing  the  crown 
or  crowns  on  the  head  of  the  high  priest  and 
the  promise  of  the  Messiah,  Who  should  be 
king  and  priest  '*.  In  the  later  part  the  ene- 
mies spoken  of  are  in  one  place  the  Greeks  ■", 
subsequent  to  the  protection  of  the  temple 
under  Alexander ' ;  in  another  the  final 
gathering  of  all  nations  against  Jerusalem ', 
which  Joel  also  places  at  the  end  of  all 
things",  after  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit, 
as  it  was  outpoured  on  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

In  both  parts  alike,  there  is  no  mention  of 
any  king  or  of  any  earthly  ruler;  in  both, 
the  ruler  to  come  is  the  Messias.  In  both, 
the  division  of  the  two  kingdoms  is  gone. 
The  house  of  Israel  and  house  of  Judah  are 
united,  not  divided  ^ ;  they  had  been  distinct 
wholes,  now  they  are  in  interests  as  one. 
Zechariali  promises  a  future  to  both  collect- 
ively, as  did  Jeremiah  "  long  after  the  captiv- 
ity of  Israel,  and  Ezekiel  promised  that  they 
should  botii  again  be  one  in  the  hand  of  God^. 
The  brotherhood  between  Jndah  and  Israel  still 
existed,  after  they  had  weighed  the  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  for  the  Good  Shepherd.  The 
captivity,  in  God's  Providence,  ended  at 
once  the  kingdom  ot  Israel  and  the  religious 
schism,  the  object  of  which  was  to  maintain 
the  kingdom.  Even  before  the  captivity, 
^divers  of  Asher  and  Manasaeh  and  Zebulun 
humbled  themselveJi,  and  came  to  Jerusalem,  to 
the  pa&sover  of  Hezekiah ;  nay, '  a  greai  mul- 
titude of  the  people  from  Ephraim  and  Manas- 
seh,  Insachar  and  Zebidun,  who  had  neglected 
or  despiseii  the  fii-st  invitation  *,  came  sul>se- 
quently.  In  the  great  passover  of  Josiah, 
we   hear  ''of  nil  Judah  and  Israel  thai  were 


•  lb.  8.  See  Pusey's  "  Daniel  the  Prophet."  pp. 
279-282.  » xii.  2,  3,  9.  xiv.  2,  3,  14,  16. 

"Joeiili.  2. 

»"A3  ye  were  a  curse  among  the  heathen,  O 
house  of  Judah  and  house  of  Israel "  viil.  13 : 
"  these  are  the  horns  which  scattered  Judah,  Israel, 
Jerusalem,"  i.  19.  (ii.  2.  Heb.)  So  in  x.  r,.  "I  will 
strengthen  the  house  of  Judah,  and  I  will  save  the 
house  of  Joseph,  and  I  will  bring  tlu^m  again  to 
place  them."  "  Jer.  xxiii.  G.  1.  2iv 

«Ez.  xxxvil.  10-19.  r2Chr.  xx\  11. 

•lb.  18.  "lb.  10.  •'lb.  xx.xv.  Is. 


ZECHARIAH. 


325 


pi'esent.  The  edict  of  Cyrus  related  to  the 
'^people  of  the  Lord  God  of  heaven,  and  ivas 
published  throur/hout  all  his  kingdom,  which  in- 
cluded '^thc  cities  of  the  Medcs,  whither  Israel 
had  been  removed.  The  sacred  history  is 
confined  to  Jerusalem,  whence  the  Gospel 
was  to  go  forth  ;  yet  even  *  the  fons  of  Bethel, 
the  centre  of  the  rival,  idolatrous  worship, 
which  was  among  the  mountains  of  Ephraim, 
were  among  those  of  the  people  of  Israel 
who  returned  with  Zerubbabel.  It  is  incon- 
ceivable that,  as  the  material  prosperity  of 
Palestine  returned,  even  many  of  the  ten 
tribes  should  not  have  returned  to  their 
country.  But  place  was  no  condition  of  the 
unity  of  the  Church.  Those  who  returned 
recognized  the  religious  oneness  of  all  the 
twelve  tribes,  wherever  dispersed.  At  the 
dedication  of  the  house  of  God,  tiiey  ^offered 
a  sin-offering  for  all  Israel,  twelve  he-goats,  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  the  tribes  of  Israel.  At 
that  passover  were  present,  not  only  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  which  had  come  again  out  of  the 
captivity,  but,  ^  all  such  as  had  separated  them- 
selves unto  them  from  the  defilements  of  the  people 
of  the  land,  to  seek  the  Lord  Ood  of  Israel,  i.  e., 
Israelites,  who  had  been  defiled  by  the  heath- 
en idolatries.  The  house  of  David  ^  is  men- 
tioned ;  for  of  his  seed  according  to  the  flesh 
Messiah  was  to  be  born,  but  it  is  his  home, 
not  any  earthly  ruler  in  it. 

In  both  parts  alike,  Zechariah  connects  his 
prophecies  with  the  former  prophets,  the 
fulfillment  of  whose  warnings  he  impressed 
upon  his  people  in  his  opening  exhortation 
to  them',  and  in  his  answer  to  the  question 
about  keeping  the  fasts''  which  related  to  the 
destruction  of  the  city  and  temple.  In  the 
first  part,  the  title  " '  the  Branch  "  is  used  as 
a  proper  name,  recalling  tiie  title  of  the 
Messiah  in  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  the  Branch 
of  the  Lord  ",  a  righteous  Branch  °,  a  Branch 
of  righteousness",  whom  God  would  raise  up 
to  David.  The  prophecy  of  the  mutual  ex- 
hortation of  peoples  and  cities  to  worship  at 
Jerusalem  p  is  an  echo  of  those  of  Isaiah  and 
Micah,  prolonging  them.  The  prophecy  of 
the  four  chariots  %  the  symbol  of  those  world- 
empires,  would  be  unintelligible  without  the 
visions  in  Daniel  which  it  presupposes.  The 
union  of  the  offices  of  priest  and  king  in  the 
Messiah  is  a  renewal  of  the  promise  through 
David'.  In  the  last  chapters,  the  contin- 
uousness  of  the  prophet's  diction  admits  still 


•  Ezr.  i.  1,  2.  <*  2  Kgs  xvii.  6. 

•  Ezr.  ii.  2,  28.  'lb.  vi.  17.  «  lb.  21. 

•"  Zeeh.  xii.  7.  The  king's  wine-presses  (Zech.  xiv. 
10.)  is  but  the  name  of  a  locality  in  Jerusalem, 
which  retained  its  former  name.  Wine-presses 
were  often  hewn  out  in  the  rock.  Bleek,  who 
alleged  this,  afterward  (Einl.  p.  563.  note)  laid  no 
stress  on  it.  '  i.  4-6. 

kvii.  7-14.  'iii.  8.  vi.  12. 

"  Is.  iv.  2.  "Jer,  xxiii.  5. 

•  lb.  xxxiii.  15. 

p  Zech.  viii.  20-22.  comp.  Mic.  iv.  1, 2.  Is.  ii.  3. 


murt;  of  this  interweaving  of  the  former  pro^ 
phecies,  and  these  alike  from  the  earlier  and 
later  prophets.  The  censure  of  Tyre  for  its 
boast  of  its  wisdom  is  a  renewal  of  that  of 
Ezekiel  ^  ;  the  prophecy  against  the  Philis- 
tine cities,  of  that  of  Zephaniah  ' ;  the  re- 
markable prediction  that,  when  the  king 
should  come  to  Zion,  chariots  and  horses,  not 
of  the  enemy  but  of  Judah  should  be  cut  off, 
is  renewed  from  Micah  "  ;  tiie  extent  of  his 
peaceful  kingdom  is  from  a  psalm  of  Solo- 
mon "  ;  the  loosing  of  the  exile  from  the  pit, 
and  God's  rendering  double  unto  them,  are 
in  Isaiah".  The  description  of  the  sifting, 
in  which,  two  parts  having  been  cut  oft',  even 
the  remaining  third  should  be  anew  tried 
and  cleansed,  is  condensed  from  Ezekiel,  so 
that,  shall  be  cut  off,  shall  expire,  correspond  to 
the  natural  and  violent  deaths,  by  famine  and 
by  the  sword,  spoken  of  in  Ezekiel ''.  The 
words,  y  I  have  said,  it  is  My  people,  and  if 
will  say,  the  Lord  my  God,  are  almost  verbally 
from  Hosea,  /  say  to  not-my-people,  thou  art 
My  people,  and  it  ivill  say,  my  God  ;  only  omit- 
ting the  allusion  to  the  significant  name  of 
the  prophet's  son.  "  ^  The  first  part  of  xiv. 
10,  the  tvhole  land  shall  be  turned  as  a  plain  from 
Gebah  to  Rimmon,  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  ex- 
alted, reminds  of  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel ;  the 
latter  part,  it  shall  be  inhabited  in  her  place 
from  the  tower  of  Hananeel  to  the  king's  wine- 
presses, and  men  shall  dwell  in  it  and  there  shall 
be  no  more  utter  desolation,  but  Jerusalem  shall 
dwell  securely,  reminds  of  Jeremiah,  "  The  city 
shall  be  built  to  the  Lord  from  the  tower  of  Han- 
aneel unto  the  gate  of  the  corner  ;  it  shall  not  be 
plucked  up  nor  thrown  down,  any  moi-e.  The 
words,  ^  and  every  one  that  is  left  of  all  the  na- 
tions shall  go  up  to  worship  the  king,  the  Lwd 
of  hosts,  and  to  keep  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  re- 
minds of  Isaiah,  "  From  new-moon  to  his  new- 
moon,  and  from  sabbath  to  his  sabbath  shall  all 
flesh  come  to  icorship  before  Me,  saith  the  Lord. 
V.  17-19  are  an  expansion  of  Isaiah  Ix.  12 ; 
V.  20  expresses  the  thought  of  Ez.  xliii.  13 : 
the  prophecy,  ^  there  shall  be  no  more  the  Can- 
aanite  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  for  ever,  refers 
back  to  Ezekiel  ®."  The  symbolizing  of  the 
Gospel  by  the  life-giving  waters  which  should 
flow  forth  from  Jerusalem,  originally  in  Joel 
iii.  18,  is  a  miniature  of  the  full  picture  in 
EzekieF.  The  promise,  "  ^I  will  cut  oft" </ie 
names  of  the  idols  f7~om  the  land  and  they  shall 
be  no  more    remembered,"  in    part    verbally 


4  Zech.  vi.  coll.  Dan.  ii.  vii.  See  below  on  c.  vi.and 
"Daniel  the  Prophet"  pp.  359-361. 
'Zech.  vi.  I'?.  ci)ll.  Ps.  ex. 
•ix.  2.  and  Ezek.  x.xviii.  3. 
« ix.  5.  Zeph.  ii.  4.  "  ix.  10.  Mic.  v.  10. 

» lb.  Ps.  Ixxii.  8.  "  lb.  12.  Is.  Ii.  14.  Ixi.  7. 

»  xiii.  8,  9.  Ezek.  v.  12.  Hengst. 
THengst.  Zech.  xiii.  9,  Hos.  ii.  25. 
•  Hengst.       ".Jer.  xxxi.  38.  40.      ''Zech.  xiv.  16. 
•Is.  Ixvi.  23.       ■!  Zech.  xiv.  21.       'Ezek.  xliT.9. 
'Zech.  xiv.  8,  Ezek.  xlvii.  1-13. 
t  Zech.  xiii.  2.  Hos.  ii.  17. 


326 


INTltoDlfTloN   TO 


agrees  with  that  of  llosea,  "And  I  will  re- 
move the  names  of  /lie  Baalim /cohi  her  mouth, 
and  they  shall  be  no  more  remembered  by  their 
names ; "  only,  since  the  Baal-worship  was 
destroyed  by  the  captivity,  the  more  general 
name  of  idols  is  substituted. 

Equally,  in  descriptions  not  prophetic, 
the  symbolizing  of  the  wicked  by  the  title  of 
the  goats,  I  pani^lied  the  goats\  is  renewed 
from  Ezekiel ;  /  judge  between  flock  and  flock, 
between  the  rams  and  the  he-yoats.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  shepherds  who  destroyed  their 
flocks  retains  from  Jeremiah  the  character- 
istic expression,  ^and  hold  thonselves  not  guilty. 
The  minuteness  of  the  enumeration  of  their 
neglects  and  cruelties  is  the  same  (amid  dif- 
ferences of  the  words  whereby  it  is  expressed) : 
" "  the  perishing  shall  he  not  visit,  those 
astray  shall  he  not  seek,  and  the  broken  shall 
lie  not  heal ;  tlie  sound  shall  he  not  nurture, 
and  the  flesh  of  the  fat  shall  he  eat  and  their 
claws  he  shall  split.  In  Ezekiel,  "  '  Ye  eat 
the  fat  and  clothe  you  with  the  wool ;  the  fat 
ye  slay  ;  the  flock  ye  feed  iiot ;  the  diseased 
have  ye  not  healed ;  and  the  broken  have  ye 
not  bound,  and  the  wandering  have  ye  not 
sought."  The  imagery  of  Obadiah,  that 
Israel  should  be  a  flame  amidst  corn  to  con- 
sume it,  is  retained ;  the  name  of  Edom  is 
dropped,  for  the  prophecy  relates  to  a  larger 
gathering  of  enemies.  Zechariah  has,  "'  ■"  In 
that  day  I  will  make  the  governors  of  Judah 
like  a  hearth  of  fire  among  wood  and  like  a 
lamp  of  fire  in  a  sheaf  of  corn,  and  they  shall 
eat  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left  all  na- 
tions round  al>out :  "  Obadiah  ;  "  The  house 
of  Jacob  shall  be  fire  and  the  house  of  Jacob 
aflame,  and  the  house  of  Esau  stubble,  and  it 
shall  kindle  on  them  and  shall  eat  them." 
Even  so  slight  an  expression  as  the  pride  of 
Jordan  °,  as  designating  the  cane-brake  around 
it,  is  peculiar  to  Jeremiah  °. 

Zechariah  is  eminently  an  Evangelic  pro- 
jjhet,  as  much  as  Isaiah,  and  equally  in  both 
portions. 

•>  Zeeh.  X.  3.  Ezek.  xxxiv.  17. 

'nK'X'  kSi  Zeeh.  xi.  5.  DI^XJ  kV  Jer.  i.  7. 

k  Zeeh.  xi.  16.  '  Ezek.  xxxiv.  3,  4.  "  Zeeh.  xii. 
(;.  Obad.  18.    "  Zeeh.  .\i.  3.    «  Jer.  xii.  5.  xlix.  19. 1.  44. 

PProf.  Stanley  Leathes,  "The  witnes.s  of  the  Old 
Te.itament  to  Chri.st.  Note  on  the  Authorship  of 
Isaiah."  (pp.  282,  28.3.)  gives  the  following  summary 
as  to  tne  occurrence  of  words  in  pooms  of  Milton 
and  Tennyson;  "L'Allegro  is  a  poem  of  1.52  lines: 
it  contains  about  450  words;  II  Penseroso  is  a  poem 
of  170  linos,  and  contains  about  .578  words:  Lycidas 
is  a  poem  of  103  lines,  which  are  longer  than  those 
of  either  of  the  other  two,  most  of  them  being  he- 
roics: its  words  are  about  72.5.  It  is  plain,  there- 
fore, that  Milton  must  have  used  for  II  Penseroso 
128  words  not  in  L'Allegro,  and  for  Lycidas  275  not 
in  L'Allegro,  and  147  not  in  II  Penseroso. 

"But  what  is  much  more  remarkable,  is  the  fai-t 
that  there  are  only  about  125  words  common  to 
L'Allefjroand  II  Penseroso;  only  about  1  to  common 
to  Lycidaaand  II  Penseroso;  only  about  lU  common 
to  all  three.  That  is  ;  Milton  must  have  used  for  II 
Penseroso  450  words  not  in  L'Allegro,  and  for  Lyci. 
das  590  not  in  L'.\llogro.    He  must  have  used" for 


Tiie  use  of  different  words  in  unlike  sub- 
jects is  a  necessary  consequence  of  that  un- 
likeness.  In  contrast  with  tiiat  p.seudo-criti- 
cism,  which  counts  up  the  unlike  words  in 
dirierent  chapters  of  a  jjrophet,  the  diflerent 
words  used  by  the  same  modern  poet  have 
been  counted  ''.  A  finer  perception  will  see 
the  correspondence  of  a  style,  when  the 
rhythm,  subject,  words,  are  ditlerent.  No  one 
familiar  with  English  poetry  could  doubt 
that  "the  Bard,"  and  "the  Elegy  in  a 
country  Churchyard, '  however  ditlerent  in 
sul)ject  and  style  and  words,  were  by  the 
same  hand,  judging  alone  from  the  labored 
selection  of  the  epithets,  however  difierent. 
Yet  there  is  not  one  characteristic  word  or 
idiom  which  occurs  in  both.  But  the  recur- 
rence of  the  same  or  like  words  or  idioms,  if 
unusual  elsewhere,  is  a  subordinate  indication 
of  sameness  of  authorship. 

They  are  thus  enumerated  by  the  writers 
who  have  answered  the  attacks  on  the  author- 
ship of  Zechariah. 

"  Common  to  both  parts  are  the  idioms, 
from  him  who  goeth  and  from  him  who  returneth, 
which  do  not  occur  elsewhere  *•;  the  whole 
Jewish  people  are  throughout  designated  as 
"  *■  the  house  of  Israel  and  the  house  of  Ju- 
dah," or  "  °  the  house  of  Judah  and  the  house 
of  Joseph,"  or  "'Judah  Israel  and  Jerusa- 
lem," or  " "  Ephraim  and  Jerusalem,"  or 
"  *■  Judah  and  Ephraim,"  or  "  ™  Judah  and 
Israel."  There  is  in  both  parts  the  appeal 
to  future  knowledge  of  God's  doings  to  be  ob- 
tained by  experience " ;  in  both,  internal 
discord  is  directly  attributed  to  God,  Whose 
Providence  permits  it^  ;  in  both  the  prophet 
promises  God's  gifts  of  the  produce  of  the 
earth  * ;  in  both  he  bids  Jerusalem  burst  out 
for  joy ;  in  the  first,  "  "/o/-  to,  (iod  says,  / 
come  and  ivid  dwell  in  the  midjit  of  thee; 
in  the  second,  ^behold  thy  King  cometh  unto 
thee. 

The  purity  of  language  is  alike  in  both 
parts  of  the  book.    No  one  Syriasm  occurs  in 

Lycidas  some  .585  words  not  in  II  Penseroso,  and 
more  than  OfiO  not  occurring  in  both  together.  .\l90, 
there  must  be  in  L'.Mlegro  some  325  words  not  in  II 
Penseroso,  and  315  not  in  Lycidas ;  and  there  must 
be  in  II  Penserosonearly  440  words  not  in  Lycidas. 

"  Again,  Tennyson's  Lotos-Eaters  contains  about 
590  words;  OSnone  has  about  720.  Thus  the  latter 
must  contain  130  words  not  in  the  former:  but  a 
comparison  shows  that  there  are  only  about  2.30 
words  common  to  the  two  poems.  That  is,  there 
must  be  490  words  in  Gilnone  which  are  not  in  the 
Lotos-Eaters,  and  there  must  be  in  the  Lotos-Eaters 
about  3fiO  words  not  occurring  in  CEnone;  that  is, — 
the  shorter  poem  has  3(>o  words  which  the  longer 
one  does  not  contain." 

•t^iy^y  '^^;,'rD  vii.  14,  ix.  a.   in  Ez.  xxxii.27,  the 

expression  )2W^  HDi*,  "pass  through  and  re- 
tiu-n,"  is  not  proverbial ;  in  Ezek.  xxxv.  7,  it  is  "  I 
will  cutoff  from  it"  2d]  "13;': 

'viii.  13.       "x.  6.      '«'i.l9,  [ii.  a.  Heb.l      »ix.  10. 
»ix.  13.  -xi.  14.  »ii.  I.il6.  xi.  11. 

Tviii.  10.  xi.  n.  «v{il.  12.x.  l. 

•ii.  14.  [10.  Eng.J  ^'ix.y. 


ZECHARIAH. 


327 


the  earlier  chapters".  The  prophet,  who 
returned  as  a  child  to  Judsea,  formed  his 
language  upon  that  of  the  older  prophets. 

In  both  there  is  a  certain  fullness  of  lan- 
guage, produced  by  dwelling  on  the  same 
thought  or  word  ^:  in  both,  the  whole  and  its 
parts  are,  for  emphasis,  mentioned  together  *=. 
In  both  parts,  as  a  consequence  of  this  I'ull- 
ness,  there  occui-s  the  division  of  the  verse 
into  five  sections,  contrary  to  the  usual  rule 
of  Hebrew  parallelism. 

This  rhythm  will  appear  more  vividly  in 
instances ' ; 

"  8  And  he  shall  build  the  temple  of  the 

Lord  ; 
And  he  shall  bear  majesty  ; 
And  he  shall  sit  and  rule  on  his  throne  ; 
And  he  shall  be  a  priest  on  his  throne  ; 
And  a  counsel  of  peace  shall  be  between 

them  both. 

^  Ashkelon  shall  see,  and  shall  fear  ; 
Gaza,  and  shall  tremble  exceedingly  ; 
And  Ekron,  and  ashamed  is  her  expec- 
tation ; 
And  perished  hath  a  king  from  Gaza, 
And  Ashkelon  shall  not  be  inhabited. 

*  And  I  will  take  away  his  blood  from  his 

mouth, 
And  his  abominations  from  between  his 

teeth : 
And  he  too  shall  be  left  to  our  God, 
And  he  shall  be  as  a  governor  in  J  udah, 
And  Ekron  as  a  Jebusite. 

"  ^  In  that  day,  saith  the  Lord, 

I  will  smite  every  horse  with  astonish- 
ment. 

And  his  rider  with  madness ; 

And  upon  the  house  of  Judah  I  will  open 
my  eyes, 

And  every  horse  of  the  nations  I  will 
smite  with  blindness." 

With  one  considerable  exception',   those 

•  dJ^OKI  vii.  14  is  no  Syriasm  (as  so  often  al- 
leged) but  has  Hebrew  analogies  as  nU  Job  xxii. 
29.  xxiii.  7,  from  niXJ  for  HIXJ  (Ew.  Lehrb.  n.  62. 

b);  but  which  of  these  critics  would  argue  from  the 
points  except  in  favor  of  what  he  wished  to  main- 
tain? Botteher  (Lehrbuch  n.  437.  g.  498.  3.  p.  304.) 
regards  the  as  emphatic.  2)  "That  O'dShO  (iii- 
7.)  comes  from  a  'Hvno  is  self-evident."  Ew.  ad. 
loe.  3)  7  "1TJ?  (i.  16.)  is  not  "joined  with  ace.  of  ob- 
ject," but  is  simply  our,  "  helped  to  evil." 

*As  in  the  repetition  of  "IDinj  "PilJli/  ii.  14, 1.5; 
of  IMi2\  in  vi.  10;  nj3'  KIHI  "  StH  n«  nj31 

''  hyr\  nx  vi.  12, 13;  nnni::,  nnn-n,  n'nDnin, 

3  times  in  viil.  4.  6;  "p'Tnni-lp'm'  lb. 23;  n;,n«1 
JX^^n  r\X    at  the  beginning    and  end  of  xi.  7; 


who  would  sever  the  six  last  chapters  from 
Zechariah,  are  now  at  one  in  placing  them 
before  the  captivity.  Yet  Zechariali  here 
too  speaks  of  tlie  captivity  as  past.  Adopting 
the  imagery  of  Isaiah,  who  foretells  the  de- 
livery from  the  captivity  as  an  opening  of  a 
prison,  he  says,  in  the  name  of  God,  "  *"  By 
the  blood  of  thy  covenant  I  have  sent  forth  thy 
prisoners  out  of  the  pit  wherein  is  no  water." 
Again,  "  °  Tiie  Lord  of  hosts  hath  visited  His 
flock,  the  house  of  Judah.  I  will  have  mercy 
upon  them  [Jutlah  and  Joseph]  and  they 
shall  be  as  though  I  had  not  cast  them  off." 
The  mention  of  the  mourning  of  all  the  fami- 
lies that  remain  "  implies  a  previous  carrying 
away.  Yet  more ;  Zechariah  took  his 
imagery  of  the  future  restoration  of  Jerusa- 
lem, from  its  condition  in  his  own  time. 
"  P  It  shall  be  lifted  up  and  inhabited  in  its 
place  from  Benjamin's  gate  unto  the  place  of 
the  first  gate,  unto  the  corner-gate,  and  from 
the  tower  of  Hananeel  unto  the  king's  wine- 
presses." "  The  gate  of  Benjamin  "  is  doubt- 
less "  the  gate  of  Ephraim,"  since  the  road  to 
Ephraim  lay  through  Benjamin  ;  but  the  gate 
of  Ephraim  existed  in  Nehemiah'stimei,  yet 
was  not  then  repaired,  as  neither  was  the 
tower  of  Hananeel'',  having  been  left,  doubt- 
less, at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  being 
useless  for  defence,  when  the  wall  was 
broken  down.  So  *  at  the  second  invasion 
the  Romans  left  the  three  impregnable 
towers,  of  Hippicus,  Phasaelus,  and  Mari- 
amne,  as  monuments  of  the  greatness  of  the 
city  which  they  had  destroyed.  Benjamin's 
gate,  the  corner  gate,  the  tower  of  Hananeel, 
were  still  standing  ;  "  the  king's  winepresses" 
were  naturally  uninjured,  since  there  was  no 
use  in  injuring  them ;  but  the  first  gate  was 
destroyed,  since  not  itself,  but  the  pktce  of  it  is 
mentioned. 

The  prophecy  of  the  victory  over  the 
Greeks  fits  in  with  times  when  Assyria  or 
Chaldsea  were  no  longer  the  instruments  of 
God  in  the  chastisement  of  His  people.  The 
notion  that  the  prophet  incited  the  few  He- 
brew slaves,  sold  into  Greece,  to  rebel  against 

7Vr\X\T\  riDty'  and  nWaS  dWiT  n^ty  at  the 

end,  xiv.  10,  11.  nip   DV3  IDPSn  D10  DhSjI 

xiv.  3.  In  xiv.  4.  the  sentence  tyOI  &c.,  explains 
the  same  event  in  different  words  :  DDDJI'DnDJI 
DnOJ  IB'XD  XIV.  5. 

8  V.  4.  "  the  house,  and  its  stones,  and  its  timbers," 
X.  4.  "out  of  him  the  corner;  out  of  him  the  nail ; 
out  of  him  the  battle  bow ;  out  of  him  every  oppres- 
sor together."  x.  11.  "the  land  shall  mourn,  every 
family  apart,"  and  then  follows  the  enumeration  of 
the  families.  1-',  13. 

f  This  was  observed  by  Koster,  Meletemata  crit. 
et  exeg.  in  Zech.  part.  post.  c.  ix.-xiv.  pp.  54-56. 

evi.  13.  hjx.  .5.  ilb.  7. 

kxii.  4.  Koster  further  refers  to  i.4, 17.  iii.  5,9.  and 
on  the  other  hand  to  ix.  9, 10, 13, 15.  x.  11.  xi.  2, 7,  9, 
17.  xii.  10.  xiv.  4,  8. 

>  Botteher.  "  ix.  11.         »  x.  S-6.        •  xii.  14. 

p  xiv.  10.        1  Neh.  viii.  16.  xii.  39.         '  lb.  iii.  1. 

•  Jos.  B.  J.  vii.  1. 


328 


lisTKODLCTKJN   TO 


their  masters,  is  so  absurd,  that  one  won- 
ders that  any  one  could  have  ventured  to  forge 
it  and  put  it  upon  a  Hebrew  prophet '. 

Since,  moreover,  all  now,  who  sever  the 
six  last  chapters  from  the  preceding,  also 
divide  thesesix  into  two  halves,  the  evidence 
tliat  the  six  chapters  are  from  one  author  is 
a  separate  ground  against  their  theory.  Yet 
not  only  are  they  connected  by  the  imagery 
of  the  people  as  the  Uoclc  of  (jod  ",  whom  God 
committed  to  the  haml  of  the  Ciood  Shep- 
htrd^,  and  on  their  rejecting  Him,  gave 
them  over  to  an  evil  shepherd  "' ;  but  the 
(iood  Shepherd  is  One  with  God \  The  poor 
of  the  ll.xk,  who  would  hold  to  the  Shepherd, 
are  designated  by  a  corresponding  word  '. 

A  writer  has  been  at  pains  to  shew  that 
two  diiierent  conditions  of  things  are  foretold 
in  the  two  propheeies.  Granted.  The  first, 
we  believe,  has  its  foreground  in  the  deliver- 
ance during  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  and 
unJer  the  Mac^'al)ees,  and  leads  on  to  the 
rejection  of  the  true  Shepherd  and  God's 
visitation  on  the  false.  The  later  relates  to 
a  later  repentance  and  later  visitation  of  God, 
in  part  yet  futin-e.  By  what  law  is  a  prophet 
bound  down  to  speak  of  one  future  only  '/ 

For  those  who  criticize  the  prophets,  re- 
solve all  prophecy  into  mere  "  anticipation  " 
of  what  mirj'd,  or  might  not  be,  denying  to 
them  all  certain  knowledge  of  any  future,  it 
is  but  speaking  plainly,  when  they  imagine 
the  author  of  the  three  last  chapters  to  have 
"anticipated"  that  God  would  interpose 
miraculously  to  deliver  Jerusalem,  then, 
when  it  was  destroyed.  It  would  have  been 
in  direct  contradiction  to  Jeremiah,  who  for 
39  years  in  one  unbroken  dirge  predicte  1  the 
evil  which  should  come  upon  Jerusalem. 
The  prophecy,  hud  it  preceded  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  could  not  have  been  earlier 
than  the  reign  of  the  wretche  1  Jehoiakim, 
since  the  mourning  for  the  death  of  Josiali  is 
spoken  of  as  a  proverbial  sorrow  of  the  past. 
This  invented  prophet  then  would  have  been 
one  of  the  false  prophets,  who  contradicted 
Jeremiah,  prophesying  good,  while  Jeremiah 
prophesied  evil ;  who  encouraged  Zedekiah 
in  Ids  perjury,  the  punishment  whereof 
Ezekiel  solemnly  denounced*,  prophesying 
his  captivity  in  Babylon  as  its  penalty ;  he 
wouM  have  been  one  of  those,  of  whom  Jere- 
miah said,  that  they  spake  lies  "  in  tiie  name 
of  the  Lord.  It  was  not  "anticipation"  on 
either  side.  It  was  the  statement  of  those 
who  spoke  more  certainly  than  we  could  say, 
"  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow."     They  were 

•Ilitzig.  Kwald  avoids  this;  but  would  have  il, 
that  the  proplct  in  Joel's  time  was  stirrinz  up  the 
Jews  to  war  with  the  Greeks.  Other  eva'<ions  see 
in  Pusey's  "  Daniel  the  Prophet"  pp.  281,  282.  note. 

"ix.  10.  X.  3.  »xi.  4-14.  "16.15-17. 

»  xi.  7-12.  xiii.  7. 

'  JKi'D  "j;;,  xi.  7,  11.  D"i;^2fn,  xiil.  7,  the  same 
fts  the  ?Kyn  'T;^^  Jer.  xlix.  20, 1.  45. 


the  direct  contradictories  of  one  another. 
The  false  prophets  said,  ""the  Lord  hath 
said,  Ye  shall  have  peace ; "  the  true,  "niiey 
j  have  said.  Peace,  peace,  when  there  is  no 
peace:"  the  false  said,  '"'sword  and  famine 
shall  not  be  in  the  land ; "  the  true,  "  **  By 
sword  and  famine  shall  their  prophets  be 
consumed ;"  the  false  said,  "^ye  shall  not 
serve  the  king  of  Babylon;  thus  saith  the 
Lord,  even  so  will  I  break  the  yoke  of  xsebu- 
ehadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  from  the  neck 
of  all  nations  within  the  space  of  two  full 
years  ;  "  the  true,  '"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts.  Now  have  I  given  all  these  lands  into 
the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  of 
Babylon,  My  .'servant,  and  all  nations  shall 
serve  him,  and  his  son  and  his  son's  son." 
The  false  said,  "^'1  will  bring  again  to  this 
place  Jeconiah,  with  all  the  captives  of  Ju- 
dah,  that  went  into  Babylon,  for  I  will  break 
the  yoke  of  the  king  of  Babylon ;  "  the  true, 
'"'  1  will  cast  thee  out  and  the  mother  that 
bare  thee,  into  another  country,  where  ye 
were  not  boin,  and  there  ye  shall  die.  But 
to  the  land,  whercunto  they  desire  to  return, 
thither  they  shall  not  return."  The  false 
said  ;  "  '  The  ve.-sels  df  the  Lord's  house  shall 
now  shortly  be  brought  again  from  Baby- 
lon;" the  true,  ""  the  residue  of  the  vessels 
that  remain  in  this  city, — they  shall  be  car- 
ried to  Babylon." 

If  the  writer  of  the  three  last  chapters  had 
lived  just  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
in  those  last  reigns,  he  would  have  been  a 
political  fanatic,  one  of  those  who,  by  en- 
couraging rebellion  against  Nebuchadnezzar, 
brought  on  the  destruction  of  the  city,  and, 
in  the  name  of  God,  told  lies  against  God. 
"  That  which  is  most  peculiar  in  this  pro- 
phet," says  one ',  "  is  the  uncommon  high 
and  pious  hope  of  the  deliverance  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  Judah,  notwithstanding  all  visible 
greatest  dangers  and  threatenings.  At  a 
time  when  Jeremiah,  in  the  walls  of  the 
capital,  already  despairs  of  any  possibility  of 
a  successful  resistance  to  the  Chaldees  and 
exhorts  to  tranqiullity,  this  prophet  still  looks 
all  tliese  dangers  straight  in  the  face  with 
swelling  spirit  and  divine  confidence,  holds, 
with  unbowed  sjdrit,  firm  to  the  like  promises 
of  older  prophets,  as  Is.  c.  29,  and  anticipates 
tliat,  from  that  very  moment  when  the  blind 
fury  of  the  destroyers  would  discharge  itself 
on  the  sanctuary,  a  wondrous  nught  would 
crush  them  in  pieces,  and  that  this  must  be 
the  beginning  of  the  Messianic  weal  within 
and  without." 

•  Ezek.  xiii.  10-19. 

» Jer.  xiv.  14,  xxiii.  22,  xxvii.  15,  xxviii.  15,  xxix 
8,9. 
»  Jer.  viil.  11.  xxiii.  17.  « Ezek.  xiii.  2-10. 

•  Jer.  xiv.  15.  •  lb.  xxvii.  9-14,  xxviii.  11. 
'lb.  xxvii.  4,  C,  7.  fib.  xxviii.  4. 
i>  lb.  xxii.  26,  27.       •  lb.  xxvii.  16.        k  Jb.  19-22. 

•  Ewald  Proph.  ii.  52,  53.  ed.  1808. 


ZECHARLUr. 


329 


Chapter  14  in  to  this  writer  a  modification 
of  those  anticipations.  In  other  words  there 
was  a  greater  human  probability,  that  Jere- 
miah's prophe*^.'ies,  not  his,  would  be  fulfilled  : 
yet  he  cannot  give  u^)  his  sanguineness, 
though  his  hopes  had  now  become  lanatic. 
This  writer  says  on  chap.  1-4,  "  ■"  This  piece 
cannot  have  been  written  till  soinewiiat  later, 
when  facts  made  it  more  and  more  improba- 
ble, that  Jerusalem  would  not  any  how  be 
conquered,  and  treated  as  a  conquere.l  city 
by  coarse  foes.  Yet  then  too  this  projjhet 
could  not  yet  part  with  the  anticipations  of 
older  prophets  and  those  whi  h  he  had  him- 
self at  an  earlier  time  expressed  :  so  ooldly, 
amid  the  most  visible  danger,  he  holds  tirra 
to  the  old  anticipation,  aiter  that  the  great 
deliverance  of  Jerusalem  in  iSennacherib's 
time  (Is.  c.  37.)  ai)peared  to  justify  the  most 
fanatic  hopes  for  the  future,  (coinp.  Ps.  59). 
And  so  now  the  prospect  moulds  itself  to  iiim 
thus,  as  if  Jerusalem  must  indeed  actually 
endure  the  horrors  of  the  conquest,  but  that 
then,  when  tlie  work  of  the  conquerors  was 
half-completed,  the  great  deliverance,  already 
suggested  in  that  former  piece,  would  come, 
and  so  the  Sanctuary  would,  notwithstand- 
ing, be  wonderfully  preserved,  the  better 
Messianic  time  would  notwithstanding  still 
so  come." 

It  must  be  a  marvelous  fascination,  Avhicli 
the  old  prophets  exercise  over  the  human 
mind,  that  one  who  can  so  write  should 
trouble  himself  about  them.  It  is  such  an 
intense  paradox,  that  the  writing  of  one  con- 
victed by  the  event  of  uttering  falsehood  in 
the  name  of  God,  incorrigible  even  by  the 
thickening  tokens  of  God's  displeasure,  should 
have  been  inserted  among  the  Hebrew  pro- 
phets, in  times  not  far  removed  from  those 
whose  events  convicted  him,  that  one 
wonders  that  any  one  sliould  have  invented 
it,  still  more  that  any  should  have  believed 
in  it.  Great  indeed  is  "  the  credulity  of  the 
incredulous." 

And  yet  this  paradox  is  essential  to  the 
theories  of  the  modern  school  which  would 
place  these  chapters  before  the  captivity. 
English  writers,  who  thought  themselves 
compelled  to  ascribe  these  chaptere  to  Jere- 
miah, had  an  escape,  because  they  did  not 
bind  down  prophecy  to  immediate  events. 
Newcome's  criticism  was  the  conjectural 
criticism  of  his  day ;  i.  e.  bad,  cutting  knots 
instead  of  loosing  them.  But  his  faith,  that 
God's  word  is  true,  was  entire.  Since  the 
prophecy,  placed  at  the  time  where  he  placed 

■»>  Ewald  Proph.  p.  59. 

»  Hitzig.  iiber  d.  abfassungszeit  der  Orakel  Zaeh. 
i.x-xiv,  ill  the  Theol.  Studien  ii.  Kritiken  1830. 1.  p.  25. 

oDe  Wette  ed.  4  (after  maintaining  the  eontrarv 
ed.  1-3)  and  Stahelin,  Einl.  18(52.  "  De  Wette 
often  assured  me  orally,  that  since  he  felt  himself 
compelled  to  admit,  that  this  portion  evinces 
acquaintance  with  the  latest  prophetsi,  he  could  not 
deny  it  to  be  Zechariah's."    Stahelia  p.  323.    Da 


it,  had  no  immediate  fulfillment,  he  supposed 
it,  in  comiiKjn  with  those  who  believe  ii  to 
have  been  written  by  Zechariah,  to  relate  to 
a  later  period.  That  German  school,  with 
whom  it  is  an  axiuin,  "that  all  definite  pro- 
phecy relates  to  an  immediate  future,"  had 
no  choice  but  to  place  it  just  before  the  de- 
struction of  the  temple  by  the  Chaldees,  or 
its  profanation  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes  ;  and 
those  who  placed  it  before  the  Captivity,  had 
no  choice,  except  to  believe,  that  it  related 
to  events,  by  which  it  was  falsified. 

Nearly  half  a  centuiy  has  passed,  since 
a  leading  writer  of  this  school  said,  "  "  One 
must  own,  that  the  division  of  opinions  as  to 
the  real  author  of  this  section  and  his  time, 
as  also  the  attempts  to  appropriate  single 
oracles  of  this  portion  to  diflerent  periods, 
leave  the  result  of  criticism  simply  negative; 
whereas  on  the  other  hand,  the  view  itself, 
since  it  is  not  yet  carried  througli  exegeti- 
cally,  jacks  the  completion  of  its  proof.  It  is 
not  till  criticism  becomes  positive,  and  evi- 
dences its  truth  in  the  explanation  of  details, 
that  it  attains  its  completion  ;  which  is  not, 
in  truth,  always  possible."  Hitzig  did  what 
he  could,  "  to  help  to  promote  the  attainment 
of  this  end  according  to  his  ability."  But 
although  the  more  popular  theory  has  of  late 
been  that  these  chapters  are  to  be  placed 
before  the  captivity,  the  one  portion  some- 
where in  the  reigns  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz, 
or  Hezekiah  ;  the  other,  as  marked  in  the 
chapters  themselves,  after  the  death  of  J  osiah. 
there  have  not  been  wanting  critics  of  equal 
repute,  who  place  them  in  the  time  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes.  Yet  criticism  which 
reels  to  and  fro  in  a  period  of  near  500  years, 
from  the  earliest  of  the  prophets  to  a  period, 
a  century  after  Malachi,  and  this  on  histori- 
cal and  philological  grounds,  certainly  has 
come  to  no  definite  basis,  either  as  to  history 
or  philology.  Rather,  it  has  enslaved  both 
to  preconceived  opinions ;  and  at  last,  as  late 
a  result  as  any  has  been,  after  this  weary 
round,  to  go  back  to  Avhere  it  started  from, 
and  to  suppose  these  chapters  to  have  been 
written  by  the  prophet  whose  name  they 
bear  ". 

It  is  obvious  that  there  must  be  some  mis- 
take either  in  the  tests  applied,  or  in  their 
application,  which  admits  of  a  variation  of  at 
least  450  years  from  somewhere  in  the  reign 
of  Uzziah  (say  B.  C.  770)  to  "later  than  B.C. 
330."  _ 

Philological  and  historical  criticism,  bear- 
ing on  events  (as  it  is  assumed)  of  the  day, 

Wette,  Stiihelin,  Koster,  Burger,  were  of  a  diflFerent 
school  from  Hengstenberg,  Havernick,  Keil,  or 
again  from  Jahn  and  Herbst.  Stahelin  says,  "  in  the 
investigation  I  kept  myself  free  from  any  influence 
from  without,  and  first  found  the  facts,  which  attest 
the  post-exile  origin  of  this  section,  given  by  Hengs- 
tenberg and  de  Wette,  when  1  subsequently  com- 
pared "the  labors  of  others,  especially  those  two 
scholars."    Messiau.  Weissag.  p.  174.    1847. 


330 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


which  should,  in  its  variations,  oscillate  be- 
tween the  reign  of  John  or  of  Ciiarles  I,  or 
(to  bring  it  nearer  to  ourselves)  the  lir.st  half 
of  the  xiv"*  century  or  the  latter  part  of  the 
xviii"',  would  not  gain  much  attention.  In- 
deed, it  is  instructive,  tliat  after  the  philo- 
logical argument  hiis  tinurod  so  much  in  all 
cpiestions  about  the  date  of  books  of  Holy 
.Scripture,  it  is  virtually  admitted  to  be  abso- 
lutely worthless,  except  negatively.  For,  in 
regard  to  Zechariah,  the  argument  is  not 
used,  except  in  proof  that  the  same  writer 
cannot  have  written  prose  and  poetry,  which 
would  establish  that  Hosea  did  not  write 
either  his  three  first  chapters  or  his  nine 
last;  or  Ezekiel  his  inaugural  vision,  the 
visions  of  the  ninth  and  tentii  chapters,  and 
the  simple  exhortations  to  repentance  in  his 
eighteenth  and  thirty-third.  Only  I  know 
not  on  the  same  evidence,  how,  of  modern 
writers,  Scott  and  Southey  could  be  supposed 
to  have  written  their  prose  and  their  poetry. 
How  easy  it  would  be  to  prove  tliat  the 
author  of  Thalaba  did  not  write  the  life  of 
Wesley  or  tlie  history  of  the  peninsular  war, 
nor  Shakespeare  Macbeth  and  any  comedy 
which  criticism  may  yet  leave  to  him  ;  still 
more  that  he  cannot  have  written  the  deep 
tragic  scenes  of  Hamlet  and  that  of  the  grave- 
diggers. 

Yet  such  negations  have  been  practically 
considered  as  the  domain  of  the  philological 
neo-criticism.  Style  is  to  be  evidence  that 
the  same  prophet  did  not  write  certain  pro- 
phecies ;  but,  this  being  demonstrated,  it  is 
to  yield  no  evidence,  whether  he  wrote,  when 
Hebrew  was  a  dead  language  or  in  the  time 
of  its  richest  beauty.  Individuals  indeed 
have  their  opinions ;  but  philological  criti- 
cism, as  a  Avhole,  or  as  relates  to  any 
acknowledged  result,  is  altogether  at  fault. 
Having  done  its  office  of  establishing,  that, 
in  the  mind  of  the  critic  and  his  disciples, 
certain  chaptei*s  are  not  Zechariah's,  the 
witness  is  forthwith  dismissed,  as  incompetent 
even  to  assist  in  proving  anything  beside. 
The  rest  is  to  be  established  by  historical  al- 
lusions, which  are  by  some  adapted  to  events 
in  the  reign  of  Uzziah,  by  others  to  those  of 
the  Maccabees :  or  rather,  it  being  assumed 
that  there  is  no  prophecy,  this  latter  class 
assumes  that  the  book  is  to  belong  to  tlie 
times  of  the  Maccabees,  because  one  part  of 
it  predicts  their  victories.  Those  who  tell 
us  Pof  the  unity  of  the  results  of  this  modern 
criticism,  must  have  been  thinking  of  the 
agreement  of  its  negations.  As  to  the  posi- 
tive results,  a  table  will  best  shew  their  har- 

p  Eftsayg  and  Reviews,  p.  3Kt.  "Among  German 
commentators  there  Is,  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  an  approach  to  aeroement  and 
certainty.  For  example  the  diversity  anione  Gor- 
man writers  on  propheey  is  far  less  than  among 
Enelinh  ones." 

•1  Hf^vtholdt  p.  1715.  '  Knobel  ii.  170. 


mony.  Yet  the  faidt  is  not  in  the  want  of 
an  ill-exercised  acumen  of  the  critics  ;  their 
principle,  tiiat  nothing  in  the  prophets  can 
relate  to  any  distant  future,  even  though  tiiat 
future  exactly  re;di/,fd  tlie  wonls,  is  the 
mainspring  of  tlieir  t'oufusions.  Since  tiie 
words  of  Zechari.-ih  do  relate  to,  and  find 
their  fulfillment  in,  events  widely  separated 
from  each  other,  and  the  theory  of  the  critics 
requires  that  tiiey  should  belong  to  some 
proximate  event,  either  in  the  present  or 
some  near  future,  they  have  to  wrest  those 
words  from  the  events  to  which  they  relate, 
some  in  this  way,  some  in  that;  and  the 
most  natural  interpretations  are  those  wiiich 
are  least  ailmitted.  Certainly  since  the  de- 
scriptions in  c.  ix.  suit  with  the  wars  of 
Alexander  and  the  Maccabees,  no  one,  but 
for  some  strong  antecedent  exigency,  would 
a.ssume  that  they  related  to  some  exjiected 
expedition  of  an  Assyrian  monarch,  '"i  which 
may  be  conjectin-ed  as  very  probable,  biu 
which,  for  want  of  historical  data,  cannot  be 
indicated  more  circumstantially,"  or  to '"'a 
plan  of  the  Assyrians  which  was  not  then 
carried  out,"  or  ^  Uzziah's  war  with  the 
Philistines',  and  some  imagined  ""attitude 
of  Jeroboam  II  against  Damascus  and 
Hamath,"  or  ""a  concealed  denunciation 
against  Persia,"  against  which  Zechariah  did 
not  wish  to  prophesy  openly,  or  to  have  had 
no  special  meaning  at  all ". 

It  is  marvelous,  on  what  slight  data  this 
modern  school  has  satisfied  itself  that  these 
chapters  were  written  before  the  captivity. 
To  take  the  statement  of  an  epitomator"  of 
German  pseudo-criticism :  "  Damascus,  Tyre, 
and  Sidon,  Philistia,  Javan  {ix.  1,  6-P2)  As- 
si/ria  and  Ef/ypt  (x.  10.)  are  the  enemies  of 
judah."  "  The  historical  stand-point  is  differ- 
ent from  that  of  Zech.  ■i-viii."  Of  all  these, 
Javan,  the  Greeks,  alone  are  spoken  of  as 
enemies  of  Judah,  who  before  the  captivity 
were  known  only  as  purchasers  of  Hebrew 
captives ;  the  only  known  wars  are  those  of 
the  Maccabees. 

"  The  two  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel  still 
exist.  Surely  the  language,  '  that  I  might  break 
the  brotherhood  between  Judah  and  Israel,' 
implies  that  both  kingdoms  existed  as  part  of  th* 
covenant  nation." 

Zechariah  speaks  of  Judah  and  Israel,  but 
not  as  kingdoms.  Before  the  captivity,  ex- 
cept during  the  effects  of  the  inter-marriage 
with  Athaliah,  there  was  not  brotherhood  but 
enmity.  In  the  reigns  of  Amaziah  and  Aliaz 
there  was  war. 

"  The  house  of  David  is  spoken  of  xiii.  1." 

•  Hitzig  Vorbcmork.  z.  ii.  and  iii.  Zooh.  Kl.  Pr.  p. 
.■554. 

<  2  Chr.  .Txvi.  6.  "  Do  Wette  Einl.  p.  3.^7. 

""The  uncertain  hopes  of  the  future,  here  ex- 
pressed by  the  prophet,  are  not  to  be  referred  to 
certain  events."  Rosenmiiller  on  Zech.  ix.  \X  ed.  I. 

"  Dr.  8.  Davidson  iii.  321,  322. 


ZECIIARIAIt. 


The  house,  not  the  kingdom.  The  house 
existed  after  the  captivity.  Zeruhbabel, 
whom  the  Persians  made  governor,  was  its 
representative. 

''  Idols  and  false  prophets  {x.  2.  xiii.  2  &c.) 
haiinonize  only  with  a  time  prior  to  the  exile." 

Idolatry  certainly  was  not  the  prevailing 
national  sin,  after  God  had  taught  the  people 
through  the  captivity.  It  is  commonly  taken 
for  granted,  that  there  was  none.  But  where 
is  the  proof?  Malachi  would  hardly  have 
laid  the  stress  on  '^marrying  the  daughters  of  a 
strange  god,  had  there  been  no  danger  that 
the  marriage  would  lead  to  idolatry, 
y  Nehemiah  speaks  of  the  sin,  into  which 
Solomon  was  seduced  by  "  outlandish  women," 
as  likely  to  recur  through  the  heathen  mar- 
riages ;  but  idolatry  was  that  sin.  Half  of 
the  children  could  only  speak  the  language 
of  their  mothers  *.  It  were  strange,  if  they 
had  not  imbibed  their  mothere'  idolatry  too. 
In  a  battle  in  the  Maccabee  war,  it  is  related 
""under  the  coats  of  every  one  that  was 
slain  they  found  things  consecrated  to  the 
idols  of  the  Jamnites,  which  is  forbidden  the , 
Jews  by  their  law." 

The  Teraphim  were,  moreover,  an  unlawful 
and  forbidden  means  of  attempting  to  know 
the  future,  not  any  coarse  form  of  idolatry  **; 
much  as  people  now,  who  more  or  less 
earnestly  have  their  fortunes  told,  would  be 
surprised  at  being  called  idolaters.  But 
Zechariah  was  probably  speaking  of  sins 
which  had  brought  on  the  captivity,  not  of 
his  own  day.  The  prediction  repeated  from 
an  older  prophet,  that  in  the  true  Judah,  the 
Church,  God  would  cut  off  even  the  names  and 
the  memory  of  idols,  does  not  imply  that  they 
existed ". 

False  prophets  continued  after  the  cap- 
tivity. Shemaiah,  who  uttered  a  prophecy 
against  Nehemiah,  the  prophetess  Noadiah,  and 
the  rest  of  the  prophets,  are  known  to  us  from 
Nehemiah's  relation*.  Such  there  were 
before  our  Lord  came,  of  whom  He  said,  that 
they  ^were  thieves  and  robbers:  He  warned, 
against  them,  'as  coming  in  sheep's  clothing, 
but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves  ;  He  fore- 
told that  ^  many  false  prophets  shall  arise  and 
deceive  many  ;  the  Acts  tell  us  of  the  false  pro- 
phet^, a  Jew,  Bar-jesus ;  and  TJieudas,  and  Ju- 
das of  Galilee'.  S.  John  says,  ^many  false 
prophets  have  gone  out  into  the  world.    False 


»  Mai.  ii.  11.  y  Neh.  xiii.  26. 

» lb.  23.  24.  »2  Mace.  xii.  40. 

•>  See  below  on  x.  2. 

«See  ab.  p.  325,  and  bel.  on  xiii.  2. 

d  Neh.  vi.  12. 14.  •  S.  John  x.  8. 

fS.  Matt.  vii.  15. 

B  lb.  xxiv.  11,  24.  S.  Mark  xiii.  22.    <>  Acts  xiii.  6. 

*  Acts  V.  36,  37.  i  1  S.  John  iv.  1. 

•"The  cause  of  this  destruction  [of  those  who 
took  refuge  in  the  temple]  was  a  false  prophet,  who 
at  that  daiy  preached  to  those  in  the  city,  that  God 
bade  thern  go  up  to  the  temple,  to  receive  the  signs 
of  salvation.    But  there  were  many  at  that  time 


prophets  aggravatwd  the  resistance  to  the  Ro- 
mans and  the  final  destruction  of  Jerusalem '. 

"  The  mention  of  a  king  or  kingdom,  in  xi.  G, 
xiii.  7,  does  not  suit  the  age  of  Zechariah." 

Zechariah  had  already  implied  that  they 
had  no  king  then,  for  he  had  bidden  Zion  to 
rejoice  that  her  king  womWco/jic  to  her;  ac- 
cordingly she  had  none.  In  xi.  G,  God  says, 
"  I  will  no  more  pity  the  land ;  I  will  de- 
liver man,  every  one  into  the  hand  of  his 
king."  It  is  an  event,  not  of  the  prophet's 
time,  but  of  the  future ;  in  xiii.  7,  there  is  no 
mention  of  any  king  at  all. 

Such  being  the  entire  absence  of  proof 
that  these  chapters  were  written  before  the 
captivity  ■",  the  proof  that  c.  xi.  relates  to  the 
time  of  Menahem  is  even  absurd.  The  pro- 
cess with  those  who  maintained  this,  has 
been,  assuming  as  proved,  that  it  was  written 
before  the  captivity,  and  that  it  contained  no 
prophecy  of  the  future,  to  ask,  to  what  period 
before  the  captivity  does  it  relate?  One 
verse  °  relates  to  civil  confusion,  such  as  is 
foretold  also,  with  the  same  metaphor,  by 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.  The  choice  was  large, 
since  the  kingdom  of  Israel  had  the  curse  of 
discord  and  irreligion  entailed  upon  it,  and 
no  king  ventured  to  cut  off  the  entail  by 
cutting  off  the  central  sin,  the  worship  of 
the  calves,  which  were  to  consolidate  it  by  a 
worship,  the  rival  of  that  at  Jerusalem.  Of 
the  18  kings  between  Jeroboam  and  Hosea, 
9,  including  Tibni,  died  violent  deaths.  The 
choice  was  directed  to  Menahem,  because  of 
the  words  in  Zechariah,  three  shepherds  also  1 
cut  off  in  one  month,  and  Shallum  murdered 
Zachariah  the  son  of  Jeroboam  ;  and  he  him- 
self, after  he  had  reigned  a  full  month  in  Sa- 
maria, was  murdered  by  Menahem.  Here 
then  were  two  kings  cut  off.  But  the  third  ? 
Imagination  is  to  supply  it.  One  °  conjec- 
tures Menahem  ;  but  he  reigned  10  years,  and 
so,  he  invents  a  meaning  for  the  word,  that 
the  prophet  does  not  mean  cut  off,  but  denied 
them,  leaving  it  open  whether  he  meant 
"removed  "  or  merely  "did  not  acknowledge 
them,  as  Menahem  at  first  certainly  fovnid  no 
recognition  with  the  prophetic  order  (2  Kgs 
XV.  16,  19);"  another P  imagined  "some 
third  rival  of  Zachariah  and  Shallum,  of 
whom  there  is  no  mention  in  the  historical 
books ; "  but  there  is  no  room  for  a  third 
king,  since   Shallum  murdered  Zachariah ; 


suborned  by  the  tyrants  to  the  people,  bidding 
them  wait  the  help  from  God,  that  they  might  not 
desert,  and  that  hope  might  master  to  their  ill, 
those  who  were  beyond  fear  or  watching.— The  de- 
ceivers, telling  lie.s  against  God,  then  misdeceived 
the  wretched  people."    Jos.  B.  J.  vi.  5.  2  and  3. 

"The  questions  1)  whether  the  six  last  chapters 
were  Zechariah's,  and  2)  whether  they  were  writ- 
ten before  the  captivity,  are  entirety  apart. 

n  xi.  0.  Comp.  Is.  ix.  20.  xlix.  2(5.  Jer.  xix.  9.] 

•Hitzig  ad  Inc.  p.  373.  ed.  3. 

PMaurer,  followed  by  Bunsen  Bibelwerk  on 
Zech.,  Dr.  Davidson  Intr.  ii.  330. 


332 


INTRODUCTION   TO 


and  Menahem,  Shallum  ;  another  *>  found  in 
Hebrew  words''  which  had  crept  into  the 
LXX,  an  usurper  Kobal-ara,  of  whom  he 
says  truly,  "  wo  hear  nothing ; "  another 
"conceived  of  snme  usurper  alter  the  murder 
of  Zachariah  or  of  Shallum  (tliis  is  left  free), 
who  about  this  tiuie  mai/  have  set  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  kingloui,  but  scarcely  main- 
tained himself  some  weeks  ;  another  '  says, 
"This  refers  probably  to  the  Interregnum 
784r-773,  in  which  many  may  have  set  tliem- 
s'lves  as  kings,  but  none  have  maintained 
themselves."  Another  "  "  An  anti-king  may 
at  this  time  have  sr t  himself  up  in  other  parts 
of  the  kingdom,  whom  Menahem  overtlirew 
as  he  did  tliat  murderer.''  Others''  say  of 
the  whole,  "  The  symbolical  rejiresentation, 
verss.  3  sqq.,  admitsof  no  detailed  explanation, 
but  can  be  undei-stood  only  as  a  whole.  It  de- 
scribes the  evil  condition  of  Judah  untler 
Ahaz."  Another",  equally  certain  that  it 
relates  to  Ahaz,  says,  "  the  three  shepherds, 
who  perished  in  one  and  the  same  month, 
were  probably  men  who,  in  the  long  anarchy 
before  Hosea  ascended  the  throne,  contended 
for  the  sceptre." 

Yet  another  is  so  confident  in  this  inter- 
pretation as  to  the  three  kings,  Shallum,  Zech- 
ariah  and  Menahem,  that,  whereas  the  book 
of  Kings  says  expressly  that  Shallum  reigned 
"  "  a  full  month  "  lit.  "  a  month  of  days,"  the 
commentator  says,  "The  month  cannot  have 
been  full  ?  ;  Zechariah  xi.  8  evidently  refers 
to  tlie  three  Kings,  Sachariah,  Sallum  and 
Menahem,"  while  others"  will  have  it  that 
Zechariah  by  OHe  monlk  means  some  indefinite 
space  more  than  a  montli.  This  is  indeed 
recjuired  (although  not  stated)  by  all  these 
theories,  since  Shallum  abme  reigned  "  a  full 
month,"  and,  consequently,  the  other  two 
kings  (if  intended  at  all  by  the  term  "shep- 
herds") must  have  been  cut  off  at  some 
period,  outside  of  that  "  one  month." 

Truly,  theory  is  a  very  exacting  taskmaster, 

q  Ewald  (Gesch.  d.  'V.  Israel  iii.  G44.),  followed  as 
elisewhere  by  Dr  Stanley,  .Jewish  Church  ii.  :J64. 

'The  original  text  of  the  LXX  seems  to  have 
corresponded  with  the  Hebrew.    The  meaning  of 

the  two  Hebrew  words,  DJ?  ^2p,  is  very  simple, 

"before  people"  i.  e.  publicly;   DJ.^n    73p  would 

(as  Bottcher  observed,  Jen.  Lit.  Zeit.  1847.  p.  1144) 
nave  signified  "before  the  people  publicly  as- 
sembled together."  The  Syro-Hexaplar  version  by 
Paul  of  Tela  translates  the  words,  and  introduces 
"  Kebdaam"  with  Origen's  asterism,  and  so,  as  not 
belonging  to  the  LXX.  The  Alexandrian  and  two 
other  MSS.  (one  oi  Constantinople  cent,  x.)  also  re- 
tain the  rendering.  The  singular  "conspired," 
which  excludes  "  Keblaam"  from  the  place  which 
it  commonly  occupies,  occurs  in  .3  MSS.,  the  Syro- 
Hex.  Georg.  Slav-Ostrog.  Verss.  and  the  Complut. ; 
"and  smote  him"  is  also  sing.  in:i  MSS.  and  Comnl. 
The  word  "Keblaam"  was  doubtless  only  the 
Hebrew  words,  written  by  one,  who  di<t  not  know 
how  to  transliito  them,  and  is  variously  written  and 
placed  !i«  if  the  scribes  did  not  know  what  to  do 
with  it.  Four  MSS.  make  it  the  name  of  a  place, 
"inleblaam."    They  are  retained  in  the  place  of 


though  strangely  fascinating.  It  is  to  be  one 
of  the  triumphs  of  the  neo-criticism  to  dis- 
tinguish between  tlie  autliorship  of  Zecli. 
ix-xi  and  xii-xiv.  The  point  alleged  to  prove 
that  c.  xi.  belongs  to  the  time  of  Menahem 
is  one  at  variance  with  history.  It  is  not 
that  the  whole  is  like,  while  in  one  point  the 
likeness  is  imperfect.  It  is  (he  point,  alleged 
as  tlie  kej'stone  of  the  wliole,  which  fails.  The 
words  of  God  by  tlieprophet  are,  "  Three  shep- 
herda  have  I  cut  oil'  in  one  month."  It  lies  on 
the  surface  of  the  history,  that  Zachariah, 
son  of  Jeroboam,  was  murdered  by  Sliallum, 
after  reigning  6  months  ;  an  1  that  Shallum, 
after  reigning  one  full  month,  was  himself 
murdered  by  Menahem  *.  The  succession  of 
murders  was  not  so  rapid  as  when  Zimri  had 
nuirdered  Elah,  Baasha's  son,  and  alter 
reigning  7  days,  committed  suicide,  lest  lie 
should  fall  into  the  hands  of  Omri^  Elah 
and  Zimri  were  cut  oil  in  one  montii  ;  Znclia- 
riah  and  Shallum,  in  two.  But  in  neither 
case  was  there  any  visible  result,  except  a 
partial  retribution  of  God's  justice.  The 
last  executioner  of  <iod's  justice  slept  with  his 
fathers;  his  retribution  was  after  death.  He 
was  not  cut  oft'.  And  this  is  the  proof,  which 
is  to  supplant  the  testimony  to  Jesus.  The 
Ajiostle's  vvords  come  true,  as  so  often  beside : 
•^  They  shall  turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth 
and  shall  be  turned  unto  fables. 

^  Thou  art  wearied  in  the  greatness  of  thy  way, 
yet  saidst  thou  not,  there  is  no  hope.  One 
should  have  thought  that  some  must  have,  at 
times,  thought  of  the  old  days,  when  the 
liropliecy  was  interpreted  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd and  of  the  30  pieces  of  silver  which 
were  the  price  of  His  Blood,  and  which  were 
cast  into  the  house  of  the  Lord''.  But  this 
would  have  been  fatal  to  "  historical  criti- 
cism," whose  province  was  to  find  out  events 
of  tlie  prophet's  own  day  to  fill  up  the  words 
of  prophecy. 

The  human  authorship  of  any  books  of 

the  Hebrew  words  in  the  Vat.  MS.,  but  more  com- 
monly are  added  to  "Shallum  son  of  Jabis:"  in 
some"  MSS.  and  a  note  in  the  Syr.  Hex.,  thevare 
followed  by  "and  Selem  or  Selcm  his  father."  They 
are  written,  "  Kebdaam,  Kebdiam,  Kebdam,  Kau- 
daam,  Kaihdaam,  Keblaam,  Keddaam,  Kebdaan, 
leblaam,  lebaan,  lebdaam,  Bdaam,  Beldaam." 
See  LXX  ed.  Parsons. 

•  Bleek  Einl.  p.  .WO.         » Knobel,  Proph.  ii.  171. 
"Bunsen  Gott  in  d.  Gesch.  i.  450. 

»  Bertholdt  Einl.  iv.  171('>,  and  so  seemingly  Rosen- 
mi'iller.  "Single  tniits  are  not  to  be  pressed  here  ; 
that  of  v.  8,  that  .Ichovah  had  slain  3  bad  shepherdi 
in  one  month,  belongs  merely  to  poetic  individual- 
ising." Grnmberg  ii.  52.3. 

»  llerzfeld,  Gesch.  d.  'Volkes  Isr.  E.xcurs.  ii.  §3.  p. 
28.3.  »  2  Kgs.  XV.  1.3. 

J  Thenius  on  2  Kgs  1.  c.  p.  3.il. 

•  "Three  kings  were  dethroned  by  sedition  in 
nearly  one  month."  G.  L.  Bauer,  Addit.  Scluilzii. 
Scholia  viii.  "  Three  kings  followed  in  a  short 
time  on  each  other."  E.  Meier  Gesch.  d.  poet, 
nation,  lit.  d.  Ilebr.  p.  307. 

•2KgHXv.  8-U.  i>  1  Kgs  xvi.  15-18. 

«2Tim.  iv.  4.  <>  Is.  Ivli.  10. 

,i      •  S.  Matt.  xxvi.  14-10,  xxvil.  3-10. 


ZECHARIAH. 


333 


Holy  Scripture,  and  so  of  tliese  chapters  of 
Zechariah  is,  in  itself,  a  matter  which  does 
not  concern  the  soul.  It  is  an  untrue  impu- 
tation, that  the  date  of  books  of  the  Bible  is 
converted  into  matter  of  faith.  In  this  case 
Jesus  has  not  set  His  seal  upon  it;  God  the 
Holy  Ghost  has  not  declared  it.  But,  as  in 
other  cases,  what  lay  as  the  foundation  of  the 
theory  was  the  unbelief  that  God,  in  a  way 
above  nature,  when  it  seemed  good  to  Him, 
revealed  a  certain  future  to  His  creature 
man.  It  is  the  postulate,  (or  axiom,  as  ap- 
pears to  these  critics),  that  there  is  no  super- 
human prophecy,  which  gives  rise  to  their 
eagerness,  to  place  these  and  other  prophetic 
books  or  portions  of  books  where  they  can 
say  to  themselves  that  they  do  not  involve 
such  prophecy.  To  believers  it  has  obvi- 
ously no  religious  interest,  at  what  time  it 
pleased  Almighty  God  to  send  any  of  His 
servants  the  prophets.  Not  the  dates  as- 
signed by  any  of  these  self-devouring  theo- 
ries, but  the  grounds  alleged  in  support  of 
those  dates,  as  implying  unbelief  in  God's 
revelation  of  Himself,  make  the  question  one 
of  religious  interest,  viz.  to  shew  that  these 
theories  are  as  unsubstantial,  as  their  as- 
sumed base  is  baseless. 

It  is  an  infelicity  of  the  modem  German 
mind,  that  it  is  acute  in  observing  detailed 
differences,  rather  than  comprehensive  in 
grasping  deeper  reseraljlances.  It  has  been 
more  busied  in  discovering  what  is  new,  than 
in  observing  the  grounds  of  what  is  true.  It 
does  not,  somehow,  acquire  the  power  of 
balancing  evidence,  which  is  habitual  to  the 
practical  minds  of  our  own  countrymen.  To 
take  an  instance  of  criticism,  apart  from 
Theology,  the  genuineness  of  a  work  of 
Plato. 

"  The  genuineness  of  the  Laws,"  says  their 
recent  translator  \  "  is  sufficiently  proved  by 
more  than  20  citations  of  them  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Aristotle  [whom  Plato  designated 
"8  the  intellect  of  the  school,"  and  who  must 

'Prof.  Jowett,  Translation  of  Plato's  Dialogues. 
T.  iv.  p.  1. 

8  Philopon.  de  JEtern.  muudi  vi.  27.  in  Smith  Gr. 
&  Rom.  Biogr.  i.  317. 

b  From  B.  C.  3C4.  to  Plato's  death  B.  C.  347. 

I  Pall  Mall  Gaz.  March  28, 1808. 

k"The  style  of  the  Laws  differs  in  several  im- 
portant respects  from  the  other  dialogues  of  Plato  : 
1)  in  the  want  of  character,  power  and  lively  illus- 
tration ;  2)  in  the  frequency  of  mannerisms ;  3)  in 
the  form  and  rhythm  of  the  sentences;  4)  in  the 
use  of  words.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many- 
passages  5)  which  are  characterized  by  a  sort  of 
ethical  grandeur;  and  G)  in  wliich  perhaps,  a 
greater  insight  into  human  nature,  and  a  greater 
reach  of  practical  wisdom  is  shewn  than  in  any 
other  of  Plato's  writings. 

"The  Laws  fall  very  short  of  the  other  Platonic 
dialogues  in  the  refinements  of  courtesy.  Partly 
the  subject  did  not  properly  take  the  form  of  dia- 
losrue  and  partly  the  dramatic  vigor  of  Plato  had 
passed  away.— Plato  has  given  the  Laws  that  form 
which  was  most  suited  to  his  own  powers  of  writ- 
ing in  the  decline  of  life. 

"  The  fictions  of  the  Laws  have  no  longer  that 


have  been  intimate  w'ith  him  for  sfime  17 
years'*]  who  was  residing  at  Athens  during 
the  last  years  of  the  life  of  Pluto,  and  who 
returned  to  Athens  at  the  time  when  he  was 
himself  writing  his  Politics  and  Constitu- 
tions ;  2)  by  the  allusion  of  Isocrates,  writing 
B.  C.  346,  a  year  after  the  death  of  Plato,  and 
not  more  than  2  or  3  years  after  the  compo- 
sition of  the  Laws — 3)  by  the  rei'erence  of 
the  comic  poet  Alexis,  a  younger  contem- 
porary of  Plato  (B.C.  356.);  4)  by  the 
unanimous  voice  of  later  antiquity,  and  the 
absence  of  any  suspicion  among  ancient 
writers  worth  noticing." 

Yet  German  acuteness  has  found  out 
reasons,  why  the  treatise  should  not  be 
Plato's.  Those  reasons  are  plausible,  as 
most  untrue  things  are.  As  put  together 
carefully  by  one  who  yet  attaches  no  weight 
to  them,  they  look  like  a  parody  of  the  argu- 
ments, produced  by  Germans  to  take  to 
pieces  books  of  Holy  Scripture.  Mutatis 
mutandis,  they  have  such  an  absurdly  ludi^ 
crous  resemblance,  that  it  provokes  a  smile. 
Some  50  years  ago,  there  was  a  tradition  at 
Gottingen,  where  Heyne  had  lived,  that  he 
attributed  the  non-reception  of  the  theories 
as  to  Homer  in  England  to  the  English 
Bishops,  who  "  apprehended  that  the  same 
principle  would  be  applied  to  Holy  Si  rip- 
ture."  Now,  for  half  a  century  more,  both 
sets  of  critics  have  had  full  scope.  The  clas- 
sical sceptics  seem  to  me  to  have  the  advan- 
tage. Any  one,  who  knew  but  a  little  of  the 
uncritical  criticism,  applied  to  the  sacred 
books,  could  imagine,  what  a  jubilee  of  tri- 
umph it  would  have  occasioned,  could  such 
ditierences  as  those  pointed  out  l  etween  "  the 
Laws"  and  other  treatises  of  Plato,  have 
been  pointed  out  to  detach  any  1  look  of  Holy 
Scripture  from  its  traditional  writer.  Yet  it 
is  held  inadequate  by  one,  of  whom  an  ad- 
mirer said,  that  '"his  peculiar  mode  of  criti- 
cism cut  the  very  sinews  ot  belief."  I  in- 
sert the  criticisms'' ,  (omitting  the  details  of 

verisimilitude,  which  we  find  in  the  Phaedrus,  and 
the  Timccus  or  even  in  the  Politiens — Nor  is  there 
any  where  in  the  Laws  that  lively  (vapyaa,  that 
vivid  mise  en  sci'ne,  which  is  as  characteristic  of 
Plato,  as  of  some  modern  novelists. 

"We  no  longer  Vireathe  the  atmosphere  of  humor 
which  pervades  the  earlier  writings  of  Plato,  and 
which  makes  the  broadest  Aristophanic  joke  as 
well  as  the  subtlest  refinement  of  wit  possible;  and 
hence  the  impression  made  upon  us  is  bald  and 
feeble — The  irony  of  the  earlier  dialogues,  of 
which  some  traces  occur  in  the  10th  book,  is  re- 
placed by  a  sort  of  severity  which  hardly  conde- 
scends to  regard  human  things. 

"  The  figures  of  speech  and  illustrations  are  poor 
in  themselves  and  are  not  assisted  by  the  sur- 
rounding phraseology.  In  the  Republicand  in  the 
earlier  dialogues — notes  are  struck  which  are  re- 
peated from  time  to  time,  as  in  a  strain  of  music. 
There  is  none  of  this  subtle  art  in  the  Laws. — The 
citations  from  the  poets  have  lost  that  fanciful 
character,  which  gave  them  their  charm  in  the 
earlier  dialogues. 

2.  "The  clumsiness  of  the  dialogue" leads  lu  fre- 
quent mannerisms — This    finish  of  style  [in  the 


;j-4 


INTKODUCTIOX  TO 


illustration)  because  their  failure  may  upon 
the  eyes  of  some  to  the  utter  valuelessness 
of  this  sort  of  criticism.  The  accuracy  of  the 
criticisms  is  not  questioned  ;  the  statements 
are  not  said  to  be  exaggeratetl ;  yet  they  are 
held  invalid.  The  question  then  comes  with 
great  force  to  the  conscience ;  "  Why,  reject- 
ing arguments  so  forcible  as  to  a  treatise  of 
Plato,  do  I  accept  arguments  very  inferior, 

dialogue]  is  no  longer  discernible  in  the  Laws. 
Again  and  again  the  speaker  is  charged  or  charges 
himself  with  obscurity;  he  repeats  again  and 
again  that  he  will  explain  his  views  more  clearly. 
— A  tendency  to  a  paradoxical  form  of  statement  is 
also  observable.— .More  than  in  other  writings  of 
Plato  the  tone  is  hortatory ;  the  Laws  are  sermons 
as  well  as  laws;  they  are  supposed  to  have  a  relig- 
ious sanction,  and  to  rest  upon  a  religious  senti- 
ment in  the  mind  of  the  citizens— Resumptions  of 
subjects  which  have  been  half  disposed  of  in  a 
previous  passage,  constantly  occur:  the  arrange- 
ment has  neitlier  the  clearness  of  art,  nor  the  free- 
dom of  nature.  Irrelevant  remarks  are  made  here 
and  there,  or  illustrations  used  which  are  not  prop- 
erly filled  in.  The  dialogue  is  generally  weak  and 
labored;  and  is  in  the  later  Vjooks  fairly  given  up; 
apparently,  because  unsuited  to  the  subject  of  the 
work. 

3.  "  From  this  [perfection  of  style  in  the  Sympos- 
ium and  Ph;edrus]  there  are  many  fallings  ott'  in 
the  Laws,  first,  in  the  structure  of  the  sentences, 
which  are  rhythmical  and  monotonous :— second, 
they  are  often  of  enormous  length,  and  the  latter 
enci  frequently  appears  to  forget  the  beginning  of 
them :  they  seem  never  to  have  received  the 
second  thoughts  of  the  author:  either  the  empha- 
sis is  wrongly  placed,  or  there  is  a  want  of  point  in 
the  clause,  or  an  absolute  case  occurs,  whicn  is  not 
properly  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  sentence ; 
ir  words  are  aggregated  in  a  manner,  which  fails 
to  shew  their  relation  to  one  another ;  or  the  con- 
necting particles  are  omitted  at  the  beginning  of 
sentences ;  the  use  of  the  relative  and  tha  ante- 
cedent is  more  indistinct,  the  changes  of  number 
and  person  more  frequent;  examples  of  pleonasm, 
tautology  and  periphrasis,  unmeaning  antitheses 
of  positive  and  negative,  and  other  att'ectat ions,  are 
more  numerous  than  in  the  other  writings  of 
Plato;  there  is  also  a  more  common  and  sometimes 
unmeaning  use  of  qualifying  formulte— and  of 
double  expressions — ;  again  tliere  is  an  over-cur- 
ious adjustment  of  verb  and  participle,  noun  and 
epithet:  many  forms  of  affected  variety:  thirdly, 
the  absence  of  metaphorical  language  is  remark- 
able; the  style  is  not  devoid  of  ornament  but  tlie 
ornament  is  of  a  debased  rhetorical  kind,  patched 
on  it  instead  of  growing  out  of  the  subject;  there 


as  to  such  or  such  a  book  of  the  Old  or  New 
Testament, — certain  chapters  of  Isaiah,  or 
Ecclesiastes,  or  these  chapters  of  Zechariah, 
or  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  or  the  Reve- 
lation of  S.  John  the  Divine, — except  on 
grountls  of  theology,  not  ot  criticism,  and 
how  am  1  true  to  myself  in  rejecting  such 
arguments  as  to  human  books,  and  accepting 
them  as  to  Divine  books  ?  " 


is  a  great  cuminaud  of  words,  and  a  labored  use  of 
them ;  forced  attempts  at  metaphor  occur  in  sev- 
eral passages — (compare  also  the  unmeaning  ex- 
travagance of  language  in  other  passages) ;  poor 
and  insipid  illustrations  are  also  common  :  fourthly, 
we  may  observe  an  unmeaning  use  of  climax  and 
hyperbole — 

4.  "  The  pecularities  in  the  use  of  words,  which 
occur  in  the  Laws,  have  been  collected  by  Zeller 
and  Stallbaum ;  first,  in  the  use  of  nouns,  such  as" 
[8  are  given];  ".secondly,  in  the  use  of  adjectives, 
such  as"  [5  instances]  "and  of  adverbs,  such  as" 
[3  instances]  "thirdly  in  the  use  of  verbs  such  as" 
[5  instances] 

"Zeller  and  Stallbaum  have  also  collected  forms 
of  words  in  the  Laws  differing  from  the  forms  of 
the  same  words,  which  occur  in  other  places  [7  in- 
stances, "and  tlie  Ionic  word "'].     Zeller   has 

noticed  a  fondness  for  suVistantives  ending  in  fia 
and  cris,  such  as  [9  instances  "and  others"] ;  also  a 
use  of  substantives  in  the  plural,  which  are  com- 
monly found  only  in  the  singular  [five  instances.] 
.Mso  a  peculiar  use  of  prepositions  in  composition 
as  in  [hve  instances  "and  others"]  also  a  frequen; 
use  of  the  Ionic  datives  plural  in  ai<Ti  and  oicri. 

"  To  these  peculiarities  he  has  added  a  list  of 
peculiar  expressions  and  constructions  [9  are 
given].  He  remarks  also  on  the  frequent  use  of 
the  abstract  for  the  concrete  [11  instances].  He 
further  notes  some  curious  instances  of  the  geni- 
tive case — and  of  the  dative — :md  also  some  rather 
uncommon  periphrases;  also  the  pleonastic  use  of 
the  enclitics  tis  and  of  ye,  of  tolvvv,  of  <os,  and  the 
periphrastic  use  of  the  preposition  vepi.  Lastly  he 
observes  the  tendency  to  nyperbata  or  transposi- 
tion of  words;  and  to  rhythmical  uniformity  as 
well  as  grammatical  irregularity  in  the  structure 
of  the  sentences. 

"  F'or  nearly  all  the  expressions,  which  are  ad- 
duced by  Zeller  against  the  genuineness  of  the 
Laws,  Stallbaum  finds  some  sort  of  authority. 
There  is  no  reason  for  suspecting  their  genuine- 
ness, because  several  words  occur  in  them,  which 
are  not  found  in  the  other  writings  of  Plato.  An 
imitator  will  often  preserve  the  usual  phraseology 
of  a  writer,  better  than  he  would  himself."  From 
Prof.  Jowett's  Introduction  to  the  Laws  of  Plato, 
T.  iv.  pp.  11-16. 


ZECHAKIAH. 


335 


TABLE  OP  DATES,  WHICH  IN  THIS  CENTUEY  HAVE  BEEN  ASSIGNED  TO 

ZECHARIAH  IX— XIV'. 


AFTER  THE  DATE   OP  ZECHARIAH. 


c.  Sz>xiT. 


"At  the  earliest,  iu  the  first  half  and  middle  of 

the  fifth  century," 
"The  younger  poet,  whose  visions  were  added  to 

those  of  Zechariah." 
Last  years  of  Darius  Hystaspis,  or  first  of  Xerxes^. 
After  the  battle  of  Issus  B.  C.  333. 
After  330. 


Vatke'. 

Geiger  '. 

Gramberg  *. 
Eichhorn  \ 
Bottcher*. 


»  J.  D.  Michaelis,  1786,  was  uncertain.  The  opinions 
or  doulits  in  the  last  century  were  altogether  vague. 
"  I  have  as  yet  no  certainty,  but  am  seeliing :  am 
also  not  opposed,  if  any  deny  these  chapters  to  be 
Zechariah's."  Neue  Orient,  u.  Exeg.  Biblioth.  1. 128. 

August!  stated  attack  and  defence,  but  gave  no 
opinion,  Einl.  1806.  G.  L.  Bauer  (1793)  said  gener- 
ally, "c.  ix.-xiv.  seem  not  to  be  Zecliariah's,"  but 
professed  himself  in  utter  uncertainty  as  to  the 
dates.  Scholia  T.  viii.  On  ix.-xiv.  he  says,  "  which 
seems  not  to  be  Zechariah's,"  but  whether  Fliigge 
was  right  who  thought  c.  ix.  belonged  to  the  time 
of  Jeroboam  ii.,  or  Eichhorn,  \vho  doubted  whether 
it  was  not  later  than  Zechariah,  he  says,  "  I  decide 
nothing,  leaving  the  whole  question  uncertain."  p. 
74.  On  xi.  he  says,  "we  find  no  indication  when 
the  desolation  was  intiieted,"  though  he  would 
rather  understand  the  Assyrians,  than  Ant.  Epiph. 
or  the  Romans,  pp.  90,  97.  Of  xii.-xiv.  he  leaves 
subject  and  time  uncertain,  pp.  109. 119. 121.  Doder- 
lein  also  seems  uncertain,  Auserl.  theol.  Biblioth. 
iv.  2.  p.  81.  (1787.) 

iBiblische  Theologie  wissenschaftlich  darge- 
stellt.  i.  553.  "  It  seems  to  have  been  occasioned  by 
the  Persian-Egyptian  wars,  and  by  the  feuds  of  the 
Jews  with  the  neighboring  people.  Nehemiah 
found  Jerusalem  halt  destroyed  [rather  not  rebuilt]. 
The  want  of  historical  accounts  makes  it  impossible 
to  explain  to  what  details  refer." 

3(Rabbiner  d.  Synag.  Gem.  Breslau)  Urschrift  u. 
Uebersetz.  d.  Bibl.  p.  55,  57. 1857. 

*  "  When  the  fame  of  the  Greeks,  even  in  Pales- 
tine, must  have  been  great  enough  to  suggest  to 
the  poet  the  thought,  that  so  mighty  and  warlike  a 

Eeople  could  only  be  conquered  by  Jehovah  and 
is  Israelites;  then  would  mere  peace  and  pros- 
perity prevail. 

♦Religion-s-Ideen  d.  A.  T.  (with  preface  by  Gese- 
nius)  ii.  520. 

5  Einl.  ins.  A.  T.  n.  605.  iv.  445,  449.  450. 1824.  "  If 
it  is  true,  that  all  prophecies  start  from  the  present, 
and  prophets  threaten  with  no  people,  and  promise 
nothmg  of  any,  till  the  people  itself  is  come  on  the 
scene  and  into  relation  witli  their  people,  the  poet 
cannot  have  spoken  of  the  relation  of  Alexander  to 
the  Jews,  till  after  the  battle  of  Issus."  "Alto- 
gether, no  explanation  of  the  whole  section  (ix.  l.-x. 
17.)  is  possible,  if  it  be  not  gained  from  the  history 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  History  relates  expressly, 
how  after  the  battle  of  Issus  he  took  possession  of 
all  Syria  and  Zidon  without  great  difficulties;  how, 
with  an  employment  of  military  contrivance  un- 
heard of  elsew'here,  he  conquered  and  destroyed 
island-Tyre;  how,  of  the  maritime  cities  of  Philis- 
tia,  with  indomitable  perseverance  he  is  specified 
to  have  besieged  and  taken  Gaza,  punished  witli 
death  the  opposition  of  its  commander  and  its  in- 


habitants, can  any  require  mure  to  justify  this  ex- 
planation?" "The  portions  xi.  xii.-xiii.  6.  liave  no 
matter,  from  which  their  age  could  be  determined  ; 
yet  neither  do  they  contain  any  thing  to  remov<' 
them  to  an  early  time ;  rather  has  the  language 
much  which  is  late  ;  if  then  the  contents  of  xiii.  7- 
end,  set  it  late,  they  too  may  be  accounted  late. 
This  last  must  either  have  been  to  comfort  the 
people  on  the  first  tidings  of  the  death  of  Judas 
Maeeabi  in  the  battle  witn  Baechides,  or  have  no 
definite  subject. — In  that  ease  it  would  belong  to  B. 
C.  1(11,  yet  one  must  own  that  there  is  not  the  same 
evidence  for  this,  as  that  ix.  l.-x.  17,  belongs  to  the 
time  of  Alexander. — These  must  be  the  proofs,  that 
the  2d  half  of  Zechariah  cannot  have  the  same 
author  as  the  first,  or  one  must  allow  what  tradition 
gives  out,  and  since  there  are  great  doubts  against 
it,  one  must  regret  that  one  can  come  to  no  clear 
result  as  to  Zechariah.  For  the  oilier  proofs  lohich 
CMitd  be  brought  are  not  decisive.''  pp.  450,  451. 

Corrodi  had  on  the  same  grounds  assigned  c.  ix. 
to  the  time  of  Alexander ;  c.  xiv.  to  that  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes.  Versueh  e.  Beleuchtung  d.  Gesch.  d. 
Jud.  u.  Christl.  Bibel-Canons  i.  107. 

•^Ausf.  Lehrbueh  d.  Hebr.  Sprache.  n.  45.  p.  23. 
1868.  "  The  way  in  which  Greece  is  named  as  a 
chief  enemy  of  Zion  (quite  ditterent  from  that  of 
Joel  iv.  6.  Is.  Ixvi.  19.),  chiefly  sliews  that  the  sec- 
tions Zceh.  ix.  sqq.  ivhich  resist  every  assured  colloca- 
tion in  the proc-exileor  unte-'^la.cedonia.nperiod,  could 
only  have  been  written  after  Alexander's  march 
through  Palestine.  With  this  agree  the  later  color- 
ing, the  Levitical  spirit,  the  style  full  of  compilation 
and  of  imitation,  as  also  the  phantastic  messianic 
hopes.  These  last  must  have  been  revived  among 
the  Jews  after  the  overthrow  through  Alexander. 
In  comparison  with  the  lifeless  language  of  these 
chapters,  as  to  which  we  cannot  at  all  understand 
how  any  can  have  removed  them  into  so  early  prse- 
exile  times,  the  Psalms  attributed  to  the  times  of 
the  Maccabees  are  amazingly  fresh.  On  this,  as 
well  as  other  grounds,  we  can  admit  of  no  Psalms  of 
the  Maccabee  times."  Neue  Aehrenlese  ii.  215- 
127.  One  ground,  which  has  by  others  of  this  school 
been  alleged  for  not  ascribing  them  to  Zechariali, 
had  been  that  they  were  so  much  »iore  poetic  &c. 
"  In  regard  to  language  also,  the  style  in  the  second 
Part  is  wholly  different,  c.  9.  and  10,  are  energetic, 
vivid,  &c."  Hitzig,  Vorbemerkk.  z.  d.  ii.  u.  iii.  Zech. 
n.  2.  "Rosenmiiller  says  trulj':— How  much  the 
poetic,  weighty,  concise,  fervid  style  of  the  six  last 
chapters  differs  from  the  prosaic,  languid,  humble 
style  of  the  eight  first."  Maurer  on  Zech.  ix.-xir. 
p.  067.  "These  prophecies  [Zech.  ix.-xiv.]  cannot 
06  from  Zechariah,  not  on  account  of  the  un-sym- 
bolic  stvie  fcomp.  xi.  4-17.)  but  on  account  of  tlii^ 
nioro  fni-rcCnl  <ivl."  ,Vc,  He  Wettc  Kinl  ?  l'.-.ii  od.  2.    ' 


336 


ZECHARIAH. 


cue 


ix-xiv. 

ix-xL 
ix-xL 

ix-xi. 
ix-xL 


ix-xi.  and 
xiii.  7-9. 

ix-xi. 
xiii.  7-9. 

ix-xL 


XI. 

ix. 


TABLE  OF  DATES. 

Antiochus  Epiphanes. 

On  HjTcanus  i,  as  the  Messiah. 

ZECHARIAH   HIltfSELF. 

[Beckhaus*  1792]  Jahn*,  Koster*,  Hensten- 
berg ',  Burger ',  De  Wette  (edd.  4-6).  A. 
Theiner*,  Herbst®,  Umbreit*,  Havernick', 
Keil',  Stahelin*,  von  Hoffmann",  Ebrard, 
Schegg,  Bauragarten ",  Neumann®,  Kliefoth*, 
Kohler  ®,  Sandrock  ". 

DATES  BEFORE  THE  CAPTTVITy. 

UzziahB.C.  772. 

Under  Ahaz,  during  war  with  Pekah. 
Beginning  of  Ahaz. 

Later  time  of  Hezekiah. 

Between  B.  C.  771-740,  i.  e.  between  the  invasion 

of  Pul,  (2  Kgs  XV.  19.)  and  the  capture  of 

Damascus  by  Tiglath-Pileser  (2  Kgs  xvi.  9.) 

i.  e.  between  the  40th  of  Uzziah  and  the  3d  of 

Ahaz. 
In  the  first  10  years  of  Pekah  before  the  war 

with  Ahaz  [i.  e.  between  B.  C.  759-749]. 
"Very  probably  Uzziah's  favorite  prophet  in  his 

prosperous  days." 
Contemporary  with  Isaiah  under  Ahaz  toward 

B.C.  736. 
Perhaps  contemporary  with  Zephaniah  [in  the 

time  of  Josiah]. 
Might  be  put  in  the  time  of  Ahaz. 
Perhaps  out  of  the  time  of  Zephaniah. 


"many 

interpreters^.** 

Paulufi  *. 


Hitzig", 

Eosenmiiller". 

Bertholdt  '*. 

Credner  '^, 

Herzteld '«. 

Baur". 
Knobel '». 


Ewald". 

Stanley »». 

Bunsen  ^'. 

De  Wetle". 

Id. 

Gesenius  **. 


Hn  Bprtlioldt  Einl.  iv.  1715. 

«C<>mrn.  z.  N.T.  iii.  13a-i:i9.  Else  he  follows  Eich- 
horn  1832. 

« lib.  d.  Integritat  d.  Proph.  Schriften  d.  A.  B.  p. 
337.  sqn. 

*  Einl.  ii.  i'>1't.  sqq. 

'  Meletemata  cnt.  et  exeg.  in  Zach.  proph.  part, 
post.  1818. 

•  Beitnige  ziir  Einl.  ins.  A.  T.  i.  301.  sqq. 

'  Etudes  exi>nH.et  critiques  sur  le  proph.  Zacha- 
rie.  Strn^fmrp;  1^41. 

» In  thfiH-  fommfntaries  on  Zechariah. 

»  In  thoir  Introductions  to  the  O.  T. 

'■JSchriftbewoisi  li.  2.  p.  55(1. 

"  Prions  et  posterions  Zach.  partis  vaticin.  ah  uno 
poilemque  auct.  profecta.  1857. 

•«Theol.  Studlen  u.  Kritiken  1830.  1.  p.  25.  sqq.  fol- 
lowed by  V.  Lengtrke,  d.  Buch  Daniel,  Einl.  p.  Ixxvii. 

"Soholla  in  V.  T.  vil.  4.  p.  254.  gqq.  ed.  2.  In  ed  1. 
tie  had  followed  Jahn. 


"Einl.  ins  A.  T.lv.n. 431.  pp.  1712-1710.  In  p.  1728 
he  coiijeotures  the  prophet  to  have  been  Zechariah 
son  of^  Joberechiah  (Is.  viii.  2);  a  conjecture  re- 
commended by  OeseniuSs  .lesaia  i.  527  a-s  "an  acuta 
combination."  Ewald  calls  the  theory  of  one  or 
more  Zechariahs,  "an  over-injrenious  device  ferk- 
liiKelte)  idle  conjecture,  a  plea  of  those  who  will  not 
look  straight  at  the  truth."  Proph.  i.  249. 

IS  .10  1.  vol.  i.  p.  105. 

"Ge.sch.  d.  Volkes  Isr.,  E.xcurs.  ii.  n.  3.  pp.  280- 
282. 

"  d.  Proph.  Amos,  vol.  i. 

18  Prophetismus  d.  Hebrxcr  ii.  108-170. 

10  Kl.  Proph.  i.  2 is-r.i,  followed  mostly  by  E.  Meier 
Ge-ch.  d.  poet,  national,  lit.  d.  Hebmer  p.  308. 

sn .Jewish  Churcli  ii.  411,  aild  304,300. 

SI  Gott.  in  d.  Geschichte  i.  453.  in  p.  247,  he  placed 
ch.  ix.  at  "a  gen<^ration  after  Ahaz.' 

a  Einl.  ins.  A.  T.  n.  250.  p  338.  edd,  1-a. 

won  l9.  xxlii.  p.  713. 


ZECHAKIAH. 


33< 


TABLE  OP  DATES. 


IX. 

z. 

3d.  1-3. 

xii.  4-17. 

iz. 


XI. 

Ix. 

X. 

xi.  1-3. 

ri.  4-17.  xiii.  7-9. 

ix-x. 


zi. 

ix. 
xii-xiv. 


xii  1-xiii.  6. 


xiii.  7.-end. 
xii.  1-xiii.  6. 

xiii.-7.  end. 

xii.  1-xiii.  6. 

xiii.  7. -end. 

xii.  1-xiii.  6. 

xiv. 


Uzziah. 


Ahaz,  soon  after  war  with  Pekah  and  Kezin. 

Invasion  of  some  Assyrian  king. 

Menahem,  and  end  of  Uzziah. 

Between  the  carrying  away  of  2J  tribes  and  the 
fall  of  Damascus. 

Between  739-731,  the  7  years'  anarchy  between 
Hosea's  murder  of  Pekah  and  his  own  acces- 
sion. 

In  reign  of  Hosea. 

Under  Uzziah  and  Jeroboam. 

The  Anarchy  after  death  of  Jeroboam  ii.  [B.  C. 
784-772.] 

B.  C.  716. 

Shortly  after  the  war  of  Pekah  and  Rezin. 

Not  before  Jeroboam,  nor  before  Uzziah's  acces- 
sion, but  before  the  death  of  Zechariah  son  of 
Jeroboam. 

Beginning  of  reign  of  Menahem. 

Possibly  contemporary  with  Hosea. 

After  capture  of  Damascus  by  Tiglath-Pileser. 

Manasseh,  in  view  of  a  siege  by  Esarhaddon. 

Between  B.C.  607-604  (though  falsified.) 

Soon  after  Josiah's  death,  by  Uriah,  Jeremiah's 

contemporary,  B.  C.  607  or  606. 
Most  probably,  while  the  Chaldees  were  already 

before  Jerusalem,   shortly  before   Jerusalem 

was  first  conquered  (599). 
Under  Joiakim    or    Jeconiah   or   Zedekiah   in 

Nebuchadnezzar's  last  expedition  (no  objection 

that  it  was  falsified). 
Soon  after  Josiah's  death. 
The  last  years  of  Jehoiakim,  or  under  Jehoia- 

chin  or  Zedekiah. 
"  Exceeding  probably  under  Josiah  or  Jehoia- 
kim." 
Fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim. 
Fifth. 

The  latter  half  of  600  B.  C. 
Later  than  xii.  l.-xiii.  6. 


BleekS 

Forberg^. 

Bleek. 


Maurer*. 


V.  Ortenberg*. 


Hitzig*. 


Hitzig  \ 

Bauer  *. 
Movers  ^ 

Hitzig  8. 
Knobel  ^ 
Bunsen '". 

Schrader  ^^ 


Bertholdt  ^K 

Bertholdt". 
Bleek  ". 

Bleek  1^ 

Maurer  '*. 

V.  Ortenberg  *^ 


1  Einl.  ins.  A.  T.  p.  555-560. 

2Comm.  erit.  et  exeg.  in  part.  post.  Zach.  P.  i. 

3  Ma\irer  Comm.  p.  ora. 

<  Die  Hestandtheile  d.  BnchM  Sachana  pp.  68.  72. 
VS,  7't,  followed  by  Kahnis  Lutiierische  Dogm.  i. 
354-3o7. 

6  1).  Kl.  Proph.  ii.  und  iii.  Zaeharia,  Vorbemerk. 
n.  4.  p.  3ol.  ed.  2.,  followed  by  Schrader  in  liis  re- 
writing of  De  Wette's  Einl.  n.3ii8,  only  placing  c.  ix. 
definitely  in  the  time  of  Jeroboam  ii. 

^3 


8  "  What  I  think,  or  rather,  conjecture."  Schulzii 
Scholia  continuata  viii.  100. 

7  Phcenicien  ii.  1.  p.  38.3,  384. 

8  Kl.  Proph.  ii.  und  iii.  Sach.  n.  5.  6.  ed.  2,  3. 

9  Prophetismus  ii.  289. 

lOGott  in  d.  Geschiehte  i.  451,4.'52. 
1'  De  Wette'.s  Einleitung,  re-written  from  his  Ed. 
vi.  n.  .308.  a  new  §  p.  382.  1=  Einl.  iv.  1717. 

13  lb.  1719.  "  Einl.  p.  560.  i^  ib.  503. 

18  Proph,  Min.  p.  670.    "  Bestandtheiie  &c.  p.  87. 


338 


ZECHAEIAH. 


TABLE  OP  DATES. 


xii-xiii.  6. 


xiii.  7-9. 
xiv. 


xii-xiii.  6.  xiy. 
xii.  1-xiii.  6. 
xiii.  7.  end. 

xii.  1-xiii.  6.  xiv. 


12  years  after  Habakkuk  fabout  B.C.  607, 
Ewald]  shortly  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem. 

Same  date  as  ix.  xi.  (see  above). 

A  little  later  than  xii-xiii. 

or,  In  the  first  rebellion  against  Nebuchadnezzar 
"  *  by  Chananiali,  or  one  of  the  many  prophets 
who  contradicted  Jeremiah." 

Zedekiah,  "  Beginning  of  revolt." 

"  Prophecies  of  fanatic  contents,  which  deny  all 
historical  explanation,  but  xiii.  7.  must  rather 
be  conceived  as  future  than '  past,'  as  Bertholdt." 

After  death  of  Josiah,  yet  relating  to  the  repent- 
ance for  the  putting  the  Messias  to  death,  and 
so  independent  of  the  times  in  which  it  is 
placed. 


Ewald*. 


Ewald*. 


Stanley* 
De  Wette  ed.  2*. 


Kahnis  \ 


1  Kl.  Proph.  ii.  52. 

*Ib.  ii.  59.  "At  a  time  when  the  earnest  and 
more  threatening  condition  of  the  world  softened 
the  proud  certainty  of  victory,  and  occasioned  the 
anticipation  iif  the  fulfillment  of  a  judgment  on  the 
holy  city."  xiv.  1-2. 

3  Geschichte  d.  Volkes  Isr.  iii.  803.  Ewald  says 
that  he  often  balanced  between  them,  but  always 
ended  by  coming  back  to  the  first,  since  xiv.  2. 
probably  referred  to  the  capture  under  Jehoiachin. 


♦Jewish  Church.  Sect.  xi.  "special  authorities." 
p.  513.  Passing  him  over  in  the  liistory,  he  escapes 
the  consequence  which  Ewald  drew  out,  that  he 
would  have  been  a  false  prophet,  although  he  says, 
that  "  in  Hananiah,"  whose  death  .Jercmfah  prophe- 
sied for  "telling  lies  in  the  name  of  the  Lord," 
"  passed  away  the  last  echo  of  the  ancient  invinci- 
ble stram  of  the  age  of  Isaiah."  p.  645. 

6  Einl.  n.  250.  p.  338  ed.  1822. 

«  Lutherische  Dogm.  i.  359-361. 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before  CHAPTER  I. 

CHRIST  v^xi^jTi^i^  X. 

cir.  520. 

■  1  Zechariah  exhorteth  to  repent- 
ance. 7  The  vision  of  the 
hoi'ses,  12  At  the  pi'ayer  of 
the  angel  comfortable  prwnises 
are  made  to  Jerusalem.  18 
The  vision  of  the  horns,  and 
the  four  carpenters. 

TN  the  eighth  month,  *in 
the  second  year  of  Da- 
rius, came  the  word  of  the 

!>  Ezra  5.1.  -r  „  r,      1         .    ,        , 

Matt.  23. 35.     Lord  "  unto  Zechariah,  the 


»  Ezra  4.  24. 
Hag.  1. 1. 


Chap.  I.  1.  In  the  eighth  month  ^  The 
date  joins  on  Zechariah's  prophecy  to  those 
of  Haggai.  Two  months  before,  in  the  sixth 
month  '•',  had  Haggai,  conjointly  witli  Ze- 
chariah ^,  exhorted  Zerubbabel  and  the  peo- 
ple to  resume  the  intermitted  building  of  the 
temple.  These  had  used  such  diligence, 
notwithstanding  the  partial  discouragement 
of  the  Persian  Government  *,  that  God  gave 
them  in  the  seventh  month,  the  magnificent 
promise  of  the  later  glory  of  the  temple 
through  the  Coming  of  Christ^.  Still  as 
Haggai  too  warned  them,  the  conversion  was 
not  complete.  iSo  Zechariah  in  the  eighth, 
as  Haggai  in  the  ninth  ®  month,  urges  upon 
them  the  necessity  of  thorough  and  inward 
repentance,  as  the  condition  of  partaking  of 
those  promises. 

" '  Thrice  in  the  course  of  one  saying,  he 
mentions  the  most  holy  name  of  God  ;  partly 
to  instruct  in  the  knowledge  of  Three  Per- 
sons in  one  Nature,  partly  to  confirm  their 
minds  more  strongly  in  the  hope  of  the  sal- 
vation to  come." 

2.  lit.  Wroth  tvas  the  Lord  against  your 
fathers  ivith  wrath  ®,  i.  e.,  a  wrath  which  was 
indeed  such,  whose  greatness  he  does  not 
further  express,  but  leaves  to  their  memories 
to  supply.  '""Seest  thou  how  he  scares 
them,  and,  setting  before  the  young  what 
befell  those  before  them,  drives  them  to 
amend,  threatening  them  with  the  like  or 
more  grievous  ills,  unless  they  would  wisely 
reject  their  fathers'  ways,  esteeming  the 
pleasing  of  God  worthy  of  all  thought  and 
care.  He  speaks  of  gj^eat  ivrath.  For  it  indi- 
cates no  slight  displeasure  that  He  allowed 

1  Not  as  Kim.  iu  the  8th  new-moon ;  for  though 
tJ?in  is  U8ed  of  the  new-moon,  Num.  xxviii.  14, 1 
Sam.  XX.  5,  18,  24;  Am.  viii.  5.  (not  Ex.  xix.  1.  or 
Hos.  V.  7.)  it  is  not  .so  used  in  dates,  in  which  it 
would  be  ambiguous. 

2  Hagg.  i.  1.  8  Ezr.  v.  1,  2.  <  lb.  3-5. 
6  Hagg.  ii.  1-9.  «  lb.  10-14.  ?  Osor. 
*As  we  might  express  by  the  indefinite  article 


son  of  Berechiah,  the  son    ^  h  r7|  -j. 
of  Iddo  the  prophet,  saying,      cir.  520. 

2  The  Lord  hath  been 

t  sore  displeased  with  your  fHeb.  with 

fathers.  displeasure. 

3  Therefore  say  thou 
unto  them.  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts;  Turn  ''yeojer. 25. 5. 
unto  me,  saith  the  Lord  Mic.'?.  19. 
of  hosts,  and   I  will  turn  Luke  15!  20. 
unto  you,  saith  the  Lord    ^™^^ 

of  hosts. 


the  Babylonians  to  waste  all  Judah  and 
Samaria,  burn  the  holy  places  and  destroy 
Jerusalem,  remove  the  elect  Israel  to  a  pite- 
ous slavery  in  a  foreign  land,  severed  from 
sacrifices,  entering  no  more  the  holy  court 
nor  oft'ering  the  thank-offering,  or  tithes,  or 
first-fruits  of  the  law,  but  precluded  by 
necessity  and  fear  even  from  the  duty  of 
celebrating  his  prescribed  and  dearest  fes- 
tivals. The  like  we  might  address  to  the 
Jewish  people,  if  we  would  apply  it  to  the 
mystery  of  Christ.  For  after  they  had  killed 
the  prophets  and  had  crucified  the  Lord  of  glory 
Himself,  they  were  captured  and  destroyed  ; 
their  famed  temple  was  levelled,  and  Hosea's 
words  were  fulfilled  in  them ;  ^**  The  children 
of  Israel  shall  (d)ide  many  days  without  a  kiny 
and  without  a  prince,  tuithout  a  sacrifice  and 
without  an  image,  without  an  ephod  and  without 
tei-aphim." 

3.  Therefore  say  thou.  lit.  And  thou  sayest,  i.  e., 
this  having  been  so,  it  follows  that  thou 
sayest  or  must  say  ",  Turn  ye  unto  Me.  In 
some  degree  they  had  turned  to  God,  for 
Whose  sake  they  had  returned  to  their  land  ; 
and  again  when,  after  some  negligence  ^^, 
they  renewed  the  building  of  the  temple,  and 
God  had  said,  '^  /  am  with  you.  But  there 
needed  yet  a  more  inward  completer  turning, 
whereon  God  promises  a  yet  nearer  presence, 
as  Malachi  repeats  the  words  ^*,  and  S.  James 
exhorts  '^,  Draiv  nigh  to  God  and.  He  will  draio 
nigh  to  you.  Those  who  have  turned  to  God 
need  ever  to  turn  more  into  the  centre  of  the 
narrow  way.  As  the  soul  opens  itself  more 
to  God,  God,  Whose  communication  of  Him- 
self is  ever  hindered  only  by  our  closing  the 

"a  lilow"  for  "such  a  blow."  The  LXX  fill  up 
6pY'?>'  iJ-eyd\rjv.  Ewald  (Lehrb.  n.  281.  p.  702.)  quotes 
Xapa  xoipei,  S.  John  iii.  29. 

9  S.  Cyr.  10  Hos.  iii.  4.  See  vol.  i.  p.  44. 

"The  force  of  r^lDXI.  The  duty  is  implied  in 
V.  2.  12  HaggVi.  2-11.  13  lb.  13. 

M  Mttl.  iii.  7.  "  S.  James  iv.  8. 

339 


340 


ZKfllARTAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 
cir.  520. 
4  2  Chron.  36. 

15, 16. 
•  Isai.  31.  6. 

Jer.  3.  12. 

&  18.  11. 

Ezek.  18.  30. 

Ho9. 14. 1. 


4  Be  ye  not  as  your  fa- 

.  thers,  ^  unto   w  h  o  m  the 

former  prophets  have  cried, 

saying,  Thus  saith  the 

Lord  of  hosts ;  '  Turn  ye 


door  of  our  hearts  against  Him,  enters  more 
into  it.  '  If  a  man  love  Me,  he  u-ill  keep  My 
words,  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  We 
will  come  unto  him,  and  make  Our  itbode  tvith 
him. 

"  ^  Men  are  said  to  be  converted,  when 
leaving  behind  them  deceitful  goods,  they 
give  their  whole  mind  to  God,  bestowing  no 
less  pains  and  zeal  on  Divine  things  than 
before  on  the  nothings  of  life." 

"*When  it  is  said  in  Holy  Scripture, 
Turn  unto  Me  and  J  ivill  turn  unto  you,  we  are 
aflraonished  as  to  our  own  freedom  ;  when  we 
answer,  Tui^n  us,  Lord,  unto  Thee,  and  we 
nhall  be  turned,  we  confess  that  we  are  fore- 
come  by  the  grace  of  God." 

4.  Be  ye  not  like  your  fathers.  Strangely 
infectious  is  the  precedent  of  ill.  Tradition 
of  good,  of  truth,  of  faith,  is  decried ;  only 
tradition  of  ill  and  error  are  adhered  to.  The 
sin  of  Jeroboam  was  held  sacred  by  every 
king  of  Israel :  *  The  statutes  of  Ornri  were 
diliyenlly  kept,  and  all  the  works  of  the  house  of 
Ahab.  They  turned  back  and  were  treacherous 
like  their  forefathers  ;  they  turned  themselves  like 
a  deceitful  bow  *,  is  God's  summary  of  the 
history  of  Israel.  "  ®  Absurd  are  they  who 
follow  the  ignorances  of  their  fathers,  and 
ever  plead  inherited  custom  as  an  irrefrag- 
able defence,  though  blamed  for  extremest 
ills.  So  idolaters  especially,  being  called  to 
the  knowledge  of  tlie  truth,  ever  bear  in 
mind  the  error  of  their  fathers  and,  embrac- 
ing tlieir  ignorance  as  an  hereditary  lot, 
remain  blind." 

The  former  prophets.  The  prophets  spake 
God's  words,  as  well  in  their  pastoral  office 
as  in  predicting  things  to  come,  in  enforcing 
God's  law  and  in  exhorting  to  repentance,  as 
in  announcing  the  judgments  on  disobedience. 
The  predictive  as  well  as  tlie  pastoral  office 
were  united  in  Nathan',  Gad  *,  Shemaiah'*, 
Azariah'",  Hanani ",  Elijah  >^  Elisha'', 
^licaiah  tlie  son  of  Imla,  whose  habitual  pre- 
dictions against  Ahab  induced  Ahab  to  say  ", 
/  hate  him,  for  he  doth  not  prophesy  (jood  con- 
cerning me,  but  evil.     Tlie  specific  calls  to  con- 

>  8.  John  xiv.  23.  «  Osor. 

»  Cone.  Trid.  Sess.  vi.  c.  5.  ■•  Mic.  vi.  16. 

6  Ps.  Ixxviii.  57.  «8.  Cyr. 

'  2 Sam.  vii.  4-10,  xii.  1-14.    » 1  Saiti.  xxii.  5,  xxiv.  11. 

«  2  Chr.  xi.  2-4,  xii.  5-8.    »» lb.  xv.   "  lb.  xvi.  7-9. 

i«l  Kgs  xvii.  1, 14,  xviii.  1,  41,  xxi.  19,21,  23,29,2 
K^>^  i.  4, 16. 

«»2  Kgs  ill.  17, 18.  iv.  16,  V.  27,  vil.  1,  2,  viii.  10-13, 
xlii.  11-19. 

i«  1  Kgs  xxil.  8.    '"  Jor.  XXV.  3-8.    ">2  Kgs  xvii.  13. 


now  from  your  evil  ways, 
and  from  your  evil  doings : . 
but  they  did  not  hear,  nor 
hearken  unto  me,  saith  the 
Lord. 


Before 

CH  R  1ST 

cir.  520. 


version  here  named  and  their  fruit lessness, 
are  summed  up  by  Jeremiah  as  words  of  all 
the  prophets.  For  ten  years  he  says,  *^  The 
word  of  tlie  Lord  hath  come  unto  me,  and  I  have 
spoken  unto  you,  rising  early  and  i<peaking,  and 
ye  have  not  hearkened.  And  the  Lord  hath  sent 
unto  you  all  His  servants  the  prophets,  rising 
early  and  sending;  but  ye  have  not  hearkened 
nor  inclined  your  ear  to  hear.  They  said,  Turn 
ye  again  now  every  one  from  his  evil  ways  and 
from  the  evil  of  your  doings,  and  dwell  in  the 
land  that  the  Lord  hath  given  unto  you  and  to 
your  fathers  for  ever  and  ever  ;  and  go  not  after 
other  gods  to  serve  and  ivorship  them,  and  provoke 
Me  not  to  anger  with  the  works  of  your  hands, 
and  I  will  do  you  no  hurt.  But  ye  have  not 
hearkened  unto  Me,  saith  the  Lord ;  that  ye 
might  provoke  Me  to  anger  with  the  works  of  your 
hands  to  your  own  hurt.  Therefore,  thus  saiih 
the  Lord  of  hosts.  Because  ye  have  not  heard  My 
words  &c.  The  prophetic  author  of  tlie  book 
of  Kings  sums  up  in  like  way,  of  all  the  pro- 
phets and  all  the  seas.  '''  The  Lord  testified 
against  Israel  and  against  Judah  by  the  hand  of 
all  the  prophets  and  all  the  seers,  saying,  Tur^n 
ye  from  your  evil  ways  and  keep  My  command- 
ments. My  statutes,  according  to  all  the  lav: 
which  I  commanded  your  fathers,  and  which  I 
sent  to  you  by  My  servants  the  prophets,  and  they 
did  not  hear,  and  hardened  their  neck,  like  the 
neck  of  their  fathers. 

The  cliaracteristic  word  ",  turn  from  your 
.evil  ways  and  the  evil  of  your  doings  occurring 
in  Jeremiah,  it  is  probable,  that  this  sum- 
mary was  chiefly  in  the  mind  of  Zechariah, 
and  that  he  refers  not  to  Isaiah,  Joel,  Amos 
&c.,  (as  all  the  prophets  were  preachers  of 
repentance),  but  to  the  whole  body  of  teachers, 
whom  God  raised  up,  analogous  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  to  recall  men  to  Himself. 

The  title,  the  former  prophets,  contrasts  the 
office  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  not  with 
definite  prophets  before  the  captivity,  but 
with  the  whole  company  of  those,  whom 
God  sent  as  He  says,  so  unremittingly. 

And  they  hearkened  not  unto  Me.  "'*They 
heard  not  the  Lord  warning  through  the  pro- 

"  Zeeh.  DD'S'bj^m   D';nn  DD01T2  «J  OIK' 

D'^nn  Jor.  XXV.  5.  n;on  idi"»d  i^k  y:  nc' 

Dj'^Sl'O  ^'^DV  In  Jer.  xviii.  11.  the  second  clause- 
is,  DD'^^hyD^  DDO  "nO'D'HI ;  in  Jer.  xxxv.  15,  it 
i\  DD'SS^'O  O'CO'm.  In  Zech.,  the  Kri  DD'SSj^D 
suVoiitute.s  Jeremiah's  word  for  tlie  an.  \*y 
D'VS^'O.  >»S.Jer. 


CHAl'TEK  I. 


341 


^uI/^/It  5  Your  fathers,  where 
cir.  520.  gj-e  they?  and  the  pro- 
phets, do  they  live  for 
ever? 

'isai.55. 1.  6  But  'my  words   and 

my  statutes,  which  I  com- 
manded my  servants  the 
prophets,  did  they  not 

1  Or,  overtake.  [  |  take  hold  of  your  fa- 
thers? and  they  returned 

e Lam.  1.18.  and  said,  ^Like  as  the 
Lord  of  hosts  thought  to 
do  unto  us,  according  to 
our  ways,  and  according 


phets,  attended  not — not  to  the  Prophets  who 
spake  to  them  but — not  to  Me,  saith  the  Lord. 
For  I  was  in  them  who  spake  and  was 
despised.  Whence  also  the  Lord  in  the  Gos- 
pel saith,  ^  He  that  receiveth  you,  receiveth  Me." 

5.  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ^  ?  The 
abrupt  solemnity  of  the  question  seems  to 
imply  an  unexpected  close  of  life  which  cut 
siiort  tlieir  hopes,  plans,  promises  to  self. 
^  When  they  said,  Peace  and  safety,  then  sud- 
den destruction  cometh  upon  them.  Yet  not 
they  only  but  the  prophets  too,  who  minis- 
tered God's  word  to  them,  these  also  being 
men,  passed  away,  some  of  them  before  their 
time  as  men,  by  the  martyr's  death.  Many 
of  them  saw  not  their  own  words  fulfilled. 
But  God's  word  which  they  spake,  being 
from  God,  passed  not  away. 

6.  Only  My  icords  and  My  dea'ees\  which 
God  spake  by  them,  did  not  they  overtake 
them  f  Heathen  reminiscence  of  God's  justice 
acknowledged,  "^Rarely  hath  punishment 
with  limping  tread  parted  with  the  forerun- 
ning miscreant."  All  these  curses,  Moses 
foretells^,  shall  come  upon  thee  and  overtake 
thee ',  until  thou  art  destroyed. 

And  they  returned  to  God  and  said.  The 
history  of  the  Jews  in  Babylon  is  omitted  in 
Holy  Scripture,  except  as  to  His  special 
dealings  with  Daniel  and  his  three  com- 
panions. Yet  Jeremiah  confesses  in  words, 
what  Zcchariah  had  apparently  in  his  mind ; 
**  The  Lord  hath  done  thai  which  He  purposed  ; 
He  hath  fulfilled  His  word,  which  He  commanded 
in  the  days  of  old.    The  Lamentations  are  one 

1  s.  Matt.  X.  40. 

2  It  is  probably  for  emphasis,  that  (here  alone) 
the  full  on  iTX  stands  for  the  contracted  D'X; 

our,  "  where  are  they  f 
3 1  Thess.  V.  3.  *  As  Ps.  il.  7.  Zeph.  ii.  2. 

SHor.  Od.  iii.  9.  fin. 
•Deut.  xxviii."45. 
'The  same  word  Jl'tyn  (as  here)  occurs  also  '»- 


to  our  doings,  so  hath  he    c^p^fsx 
dealt  with  us.  c"-  52o- 


7  ^  Upon  the  four  and      cir.  519. 
twentieth   day   of  the 
eleventh  month,  which   is 

the  month  Sebat,  in  the 
second  year  of  Darius, 
came  the  word  of  the 
Lord  unto  Zechariah,  the 
son  of  Berechiah,  the  son 
of  Iddo  the  prophet,  say- 
ing, 

8  I  saw  by  night,  and    ,,  ^   ^  ^  ,„ 

•^     .    .  •>  Josh.  5. 13. 

behold  ^  a  man  riding  upon      Rev.  6. 4. 


long  confession  of  deserved  punishment,  such 
as  Daniel  too  made  in  the  name  of  his  peo- 
ple with  himself. 

It  was  one  long  waiting  for  God  and  for 
the  restoration  of  His  visible  worship.  Yet  re- 
pentance was  a  condition  of  their  restoration. 

7.  On  the  twenty-fourth  day,  exactly  five 
months  after  the  building  of  the  temple 
was  resumed  '",  and  two  months  after  Hag- 
gai's  last  prophecy  ".  The  series  of  visions, 
leading  onward,  from  the  first  deliverance 
from  the  enemies  who  oppressed  them,  to 
the  Coming  of  Christ,  is  given  as  a  reward  to 
their  first  whole-hearted  endeavor  to  restore 
their  worship  of  Him.  The  visions  are  called 
the  ivord  of  the  Lord,  because  they  were  pro- 
phecy, made  visible  to  the  eye,  conveying  the 
revelation  to  the  soul,  and  in  part  explained 
by  Him. 

8.  I  saw  in  the  night,  i.  e.  that  following  on 
the  twenty-fourth  day.  The  darkness  of  the 
night  perhaps  was  chosen,  as  agreeing  with 
the  dimness  of  the  restored  condition.  Night 
too  is,  "  '"^  through  the  silence  of  the  senses 
and  of  the  fancy,  more  suited  for  receiving 
Divine  revelations." 

A  man  riding  upon  a  red  horse.  The  man  is 
an  angel  of  God,  appearing  in  form  of  man,  as 
Daniel  says,  "  '^  The  man  Gabriel,  whom  I  had 
seen  in  the  vision  at  the  beginning,  touched 
me."  He  is  doubtless  the  same  who  appeared  to 
Joshua  in  form  of  man,  preparing  thereby  for 
the  revelation  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh — 
He,  before  whom  Joshua  fell  on  his  face  and 
in   him  worshiped  God,  through  whom  also 

15;  of  the  Divine  wrath,  Ps.  Ixix.  25;  of  iniquities, 
Ps.  .\I.  13. 

»  Lam.  ii.  17.  DOT  is  used  of  God,  in  connection 
with  riK'J?  in  both  places  and  in  Jer.  U.  12.  QOf  is 
used  of  God  beside  only  in  Jer.  Iv.  28.  The  verb 
is  used  only  13  times  in  all. 

9  Dan.  ix.  4-16.        1°  Hagg.  ii.  15.        "  lb.  ii.  20. 

12  Dion.  "  Dan.  ix.  21. 


342 


ZECHARTAH. 


B<>fore 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


•  ch.  6.  2,-7. 
I  Or,  bay. 


a  red  horse,  and  he  stood 
.among  the  myrtle  trees 
that  were  m  the  bottom ; 
and  behind  him  were  there 
'red  hoi'ses,  || speckled,  and 
white. 

9  Then  said  I,  O  my 
lord,  what  are  these  ?  And 
the  angel  that  talked  with 


God  required  the  same  tokens  of  reverence 
as  He  liad  from  Moses  ^.  Joshua  lifted  up  his 
eyes,  and  looked,  and  behold  there  stood  a  man 
over  against  him  with  a  sword  drawn  in  his  hand, 
who  said,  a,s  Ot plain  of  the  Lord^s  host  am  I 
come.  He  rides  1 1 ere,  iis  Leader  of  the  host 
who  follow  Him  ;  to  Him  the  others  rei^ort, 
and  lie  iustru''ts  the  Angel  who  instructs  the 
prophet.  Red,  heing  the  color  of  blood, 
symbolizes  doubtless  "'■'the  vengeance  of 
God  to  be  inflicted  on  the  enemies  of  tlie 
Jews  for  their  sins  committed  against  the 
Jews,"  exceeding  the  measure  of  chastise- 
ment allowed  by  God.  It  probably  was  S. 
Michael^,  who  is  entitled  in  Daniel,  your 
prince  *,  the  great  prince  which  standeth  up  for 
the  children  of  thy  people  *. 

And  he  vxis  standing,  almost  as  we  say,  sta- 
tionary, abiding  in  that  one  place.  The  de- 
scription is  repeated^,  apparently  as  identify- 
ing this  angel,  and  so  he  and  the  angel  of  the ' 
Lord  are  probably  one. 

The  myrtle  Irees^,  from  their  fragrance  and 
lowness,  probably  symbolize  the  Church,  as 
at  once  yielding  a  sweet  odor,  and  in  a  low 
estate,  or  lowly.  The  natural  habits  of  the 
myrtle  make  it  the  fitter  symbol  ". 

And  behind  him.      The    relation   of    the 

1  Josh.  V.  13-15.  8ee  on  "the  Angel  of  the  Lord" 
in  "  Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  519-525. 

2  Dion.  3  Dan.  x.  13.  «  lb.  21. 

6  lb.  xii.  1.  S.  .Jernrne  observes, "  The  Jews  .suppose 
the  man  on  the  red  horse  to  be  the  Angel  Michael, 
who  was  to  avenge  the  iniquities  and  sins  against 
Israel."  *  ver.  10.  fver.  11. 

8  The  name  of  the   plant,  DHn,  occurs  in  the 

Arabic  of  Yemen  (Kam.  p.  812  and  Abulvvalid)  and 
is  probably  the  basis  of  Esther's  original  name, 
TIDnn,  perhaps  i.  q.  'Aroao-a.  Ges. 

'  ri  7X0.  an.  in  form  is  doubtless  the  same  as  ^h'^ 
ri/^yo,  being  used  of  sinking  in  the  water,  E.v. 
XV.  10.  "In  profundo,"  .S.  Jor.  (Virg.  Georg.  ii.  112, 
litora  myrtetia  gratissima,  and  lb.  iv.  124,  aniantes 
litora  myrti.)     The  LXX  KaTauKiuv  would  rather 

have  been  n7l>*p,  and  the  myrtles  m.ike  shadu,  but 
do  not  grow  in  a  shady  place.  Hitz.  Ew.  Maur. 
correct  n^Vp,  "the  t«iit,"  (as  Arab.  PlSbO)  i.e. 
"of  God,"  they  say.  But  the  tabernacle,  while  it 
existed,  was  not  so  called ;  nor  did  myrtles  grow 

before  it.  Bottcher  n.  C41.  y.)  nSyO,  "schatten- 
dach."  10  Rev.  vi.  2. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  -iio. 


me  said    unto   me,  I  will 
shew  thee  what  these  be. 

10  And  the  man  that 
stood  among  the  myrtle 
trees  answered  and  said, 
''These  are  f/je;/ whom  the kHeb.i.  14 
Lord  hath  sent  to  walk 
to  and  fro  through  the 
earth. 


Angel  as  their  chief  is  represented  by  their 
following  him.  This  is  consistent  with  their 
appearing  subsequently  as  giving  report  to 
him.  The  red  and  white  horses  are  well- 
known  symljols  of  war  and  glory,  \<  hence  He 
Who  sits  on  the  white  horse  '"  in  the  Revela- 
tions, ivent  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer. 
The  remaining  color  is  somewhat  uncertain. 
If  it  be  ashen  gray,  it  would  correspond  to  the 
pale  horse^^  of  the  Revelations,  and  the  union 
of  the  two  colors,  black  and  white,  is  calcu- 
lated to  be  a  symbol  of  a  chequered  state  of 
things,  whereas  a  mingled  color  like  "  chest- 
nut "  is  not  suggestive  of  any  symbol. 

9.  What  are  these  ?  He  asks,  not  ivho,  but 
what "  they  import. 

Tlie,  angel  that  talked  with  me.  lit.  "spake  in 
me."  The  very  rare  expression  ^^  seems 
meant  to  convey  the  thought  of  an  inward 
speaking,  whereby  the  words  should  be  borne 
directly  into  the  soul,  without  the  interven- 
tion of  the  ordinary  outward  organs.  God 
says  to  Moses,  ^*  If  there  is  a  prophet  among  you, 
I,  the  Lord,  will  make  Myself  known  unto  him  in 
a  vision,  I  ivill  speak  [lit.]  in  him  in  a  dream. 
My  servant  Moses  is  not  so — Li  him  will  I 
speak  moidh  to  mouth  ;  and  Habakkuk  says  of 
the  like  inward  teaching,  ^^  I  will  watch  to  see, 

11  Rev.  vi.  8,  jiapoX,  6 ;  varu,  S.  Jer.,  ^avBoi  Aq.  The 
rnip  of  the  Targum  is  itself  uncertain.     It  is  a 

conjecture  only  of  Lew,  that  it  may  be  i.  q. 
(cvai/oxaiTiji,  "  dark-nianccl."  Rashi  and  Kim.  own 
that  tliey  do  not  know.  The  Peshito  X'bp'i)  cor- 
responds to  the  Heb.  Kl/D  in  Gen.  xxx.  32.  (bis) 
33,  .35  (bis)  30.  but  its  moaning,  in  itself,  is  equally 
unknown.  The  Hebrew  root  occurs  beside,  only 
of  a  choice  vine,  pi.  Is.  xvi.  8,  plti'  Is.  v.  2.  Jer.  ii. 

21,  np"lti/  Gen.  xlix.  11;  in  Arab.   p'10.  Abuhv. 

But  although  this  vine,  growing  only  in  Syria,  has 
fmall  blue- black  grapes  (Kim.),  it  is  mere  guess 
that  it  is  so  called  h'om   its  color,  or  that  pTjy 

signifies  red  or  dark.  It  is  equally  a  guess  that 
p'\lif  is  transposed  from  Arab.  'ipi^X  "chestnut," 

(as  distinct  from  "bay"  JTOD).  *^'^pt?'  '*  "^ed  of 
the  color  of  fire. 

"no,  not  '0.         "'3  "^3^.        i<Nu.  xii.  fi-9. 

•"  Hab.ii.i.  Tliesearetheonlyadditional instance* 
of  the  construction,  unless  Jer.  xxxi.  20,  be  used  of 
tender  speaking,  "  in  (elsewhere  in  the  heart  of) 
Ephruim." 


CHAPTER  I. 


343 


chrTst        ^^  '"^"^  ^^^y  answered 
cir.oia       the  angel  of  the  Lord 


»P9. 103. 20, 21.  that  stood  among  the  myr- 
tle trees,  and  said,  We 
have  walked  to  and  fro 
through  the  earth,  and,  be- 


what  He  loill  speak  in  nie.  It  is  the  character- 
istic title  of  one  attendant-angel,  who  was 
God's  expositor  of  the  visions  to  Zechariah '. 
"  ^  By  his  ministry  Ood  shewed  me  things 
to  come,  in  that  that  angel  formed  in  the 
spirit  and  imaginative  power  of  Zechariah 
phantasms  or  images  of  things  which  were 
foreshewn  him,  and  gave  him  to  understand 
what  those  images  signified." 

11.  And  the  man  answered  to  the  question 
addressed  to  the  attendant-angel.  He  him- 
self took  the  word. 

These  are  they  ivhom  the  Lord  sent  to  walk  up 
and  down.  Satan  says  of  himself  that  he 
came  ''from  yoing  to  and  fro  in  the  earth  and 
from  walking  up  and  dov/n  in  it.  As  he  for 
evil,  so  these  for  good.  Their  office  was  not 
a  specific  or  passing  duty,  as  when  God  sent 
His  angels  with  some  special  commission, 
such  as  those  recorded  in  Holy  Scripture.  It 
was  a  continuous  conversation  with  the  affairs 
of  men,  a  minute  course  of  visiting,  inspect- 
ing our  human  deeds  and  ways,  a  part  of  the 
"*  wonderful  order,"  in  which  God  has  "  or- 
tlained  and  constituted  the  services  of  Angels 
and  men."  Nor  is  it  said  that  the  Angels 
were  limited,  each  to  his  own  peculiar  prov- 
ince, as  we  learn  through  Daniel,  that  cer- 
tain great  Angels,  Princes  among  them,  had 
the  charge  of  empires  or  nations,  even  of  the 
heathen  ^.  These  Angels  had  apparently 
only  the  office  of  inspecting  and  reporting  to 
Angels  of  a  higher  order,  themselves  a  sub- 
ordinate order  in  the  heavenly  Hierarchy. 
Nor  are  they  spoken  of,  as  executing  any 
judgments  of  God,  or  as  pacifying  the  earth  ; 
they  may  have  been  so  employed  ;  but  they 
are  only  said  to  have  reported  the  state  in 
which  they  found  it. 

These  answered  the  unexpressed  inquiry  of 
the  angel  of  the  Lord,  as  he  had  answered  the 
unuttered  question  of  the  angel,  attendant  on 
Zechariah. 

Sitteth  still  and  is  at  rest,  at  rest,  as  the  word 

» i.  13,  14, 19  (ii.  2  Heb.)  ii.  3.  [7]  iv.  1,  4,  5.  v.  5. 10. 
vi.  4.  2  Dion. 

3  Job  ii.  2.  <  Collect  for  S.  Michael's  day. 

5  See  "  Daniel  the  Prophet "  pp.  525,  526. 
^OpK'  is  the  word  used  in  the  book  of  .Judges 

of  the  rest  given  to  the  land  under  judges  until  its 
fresh  departure  from  God.  Jud.  iii.  11,  30,  v.  31,  viii. 
28.;  of  the  undisturbed  life  of  the  people  of  Laish, 

Jud.  xviii.  7,  27;  "from  war,"'  HOri/'P'?)  is  added, 
Jos.  xi.  23,  xiv.  15.  of  the  rest  after  the  war  whereby 
Israel  was  put  in  possession  of  Canaan. 


hold,  all  the  earth  sitteth    (.^l[7|-i- 
still,  and  is  at  rest.  c'r.  5in. 

12  •[[Then  the  angel  of 
the  Lord  answered  and 
said,  ""0  Lord  of  hosts,  °'Ps.'io2.  13. 

.  ,  .1        ,  Rev.  6. 10. 

how   long  W'llt  thou   not 


seems  to  express  ®,  from  its  wonted  state  of 
tumult  and  war.  Wars,  although  soon  to 
break  out  again,  were  in  the  second  year  of 
Darius  for  the  time  suspended.  The  rest,  in 
which  the  world  was,  suggests  the  contrast 
of  the  yet  continuing  unrest  allotted  to  the 
people  of  God.  Such  rest  had  been  prom- 
ised to  Israel,  on  its  return  from  the  cap- 
tivity ',  but  had  not  yet  been  fulfilled. 
Through  the  hostility  of  the  Samaritans  the 
building  of  the  temple  had  been  hindered 
and  was  just  recommenced  ;  the  wall  of  Je- 
rusalem was  yet  broken  down*;  its  fire- 
burned  gates  not  restored  ;  itself  was  a  waste  * ; 
its  houses  unbuilt  ^°.  This  gives  occasion  to 
the  intercession  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord. 

12.  Awl  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  ansu'ered  the 
implied  longing,  by  intercession  with  God. 
As  the  angel-interpreter  in  Job  had  "  "  the 
office  of  no  mere  created  angel,  but  one,  an- 
ticipative  of  His,  Who  came  at  once  to  re- 
deem and  justify,"  so  the  Angel  of  the  Lord, 
in  whom  God  was,  exercised  at  once  a  me- 
diatorial office  with  (iod,  typical  of  our  Lord's 
High  Priest's  prayer  ^'\  and  acted  as  God. 

These  seventy  years.  The  seventy  years  of 
the  captivit)',  prophesied  by  Jeremiah  '^,  were 
on  the  eve  of  their  conclusion  at  the  time  of 
Daniel's  great  prayer  of  intercession  '*  ;  they 
ended  with  the  capture  of  Babylon,  and  the 
edict  of  Cyrus,  permitting  the  Jews  to  re- 
turn ^^.  Yet  there  seems  to  have  been  a  sec- 
ondary fulfillment,  from  the  destruction  of 
the  temple  and  city,  in  Zedekiah's  eleventh 
year  '®,  588  B.  C.  to  the  second  year  of  Da- 
rius, 519  B.  C.  Such  double  fulfillments  of 
prophecy  are  not  like  alternative  fulfillments. 
They  are  a  more  intricate  and  fuller,  not  an 
easier  fulfillment  of  it.  Yet  these  70  years  do 
not  necessitate  such  a  double  fulfillment.  It 
might  express  only  a  reverent  wonder,  that 
the  70  years  being  accomplished,  the  com- 
plete restoration  was  not  yet  brought  to  pass. 
"  ^^  God  having  fixed  the  time  of  the  cap- 
It  is  used  of  the  rest  in  Asa's  days,  2  Chr.  xiii.  23, 
Heb.  given  him  by  God,  xiv.  4,  5.  of  the  rest  of  the 
city  after  the  death  of  Athaliah.  2  Kgs  xi.  20,  2 
Chr.  xxiii.  21 ;  of  the  earth, after  the  destruction  of 
Babylon,  Is.  xiv.  7. 

'  with  the  same  word  £3pK'  Jer.  xxx.  10,  xlvi.  27. 

8  Neh.  i.  3.  « lb.  ii.  3.  i«  lb.  vii.  4. 

11  .See  "  Daniel  the  Prophet"  p.  523. 
12 S.  John  xvii. 

13  Jer.  XXV.  11, 12.  xxix.  10. 

14  Dan.  ix.  2.  i5  2  Chr.  xxxvi.  22,  23.  Ezr.  i.  1. 
1"  2  Kgs  XXV.  2,  8,  9.  "  S.  Cyr. 


344 


XF/JIAI^TAH. 


chrTst    ^^'^'^  mercy  on  Jerusalem 
__£i£ijill!i__  and  on  the  cities  of  Judah, 


against  -which  thou  hast 
"jer. 25. 11,12.  had  indignation  "these 

Dan.  9. 2.  ^,  °  ,       . 

ch.  7. 5.  three-score     and     ten 

years  ? 

13  And  the  Lord  an- 
swered  the   angel   that 
•Jer.  29. 10.       talked  with  me  with  °  good 


words  and  comfortable    ^ h  n'^f s t 
words.  cir.  519. 

14  So  the  angel  that 
communed  with  me  said 
unto  me,  Cry  thou,  saying, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts;  I  am  ^ jealous  for  p Joel 2. is. 
Jerusalem  and  for  Zion 
with  a  great  jealousy. 


tivity  to  the  70th  year,  it  was  nece.ssary  to  be 
silent,  so  long  as  the  time  was  not  yet  come 
to  an  end,  that  he  might  not  seem  to  oppose 
the  Lord's  will.  But,  when  the  time  was 
now  come  to  a  close  and  the  Tear  of  offending 
was  removed,  he,  knowing  that  the  Lord 
cannot  lie,  entreats  and  ventures  to  enquire 
whether  His  anger  has  come  to  an  end,  as 
had  those  who  sinned  ;  or  whether,  fresh 
sins  iiaving  accrued,  there  shall  be  a  further 
delay,  and  their  forlorn  estate  shall  be  yet 
further  extended.  They  then  wlio  worship 
God  have  a  good  and  not  uncertain  hope, 
that,  if  they  should  offend  from  infirmity, 
yet  have  they  those  who  should  entreat  for 
them,  not  men  only,  but  the  holy  angels 
themselves,  who  render  God  gracious  ami  pro- 
pitious, soothing  His  anger  by  their  purity, 
and  in  a  manner  winning  the  grieved  judge. 
Then  the  Angel  entreated  lor  tlie  synagogue 
to  the  Jews  ;  but  we,  who  believe  and  have 
been  sanctified  in  the  Spirit,  '  have  an  Advo- 
cate xvith  the  Father  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous, 
and  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  as  the 
Divine  Paul  writes,  ^  God  hath  set  Him  forth 
as  a  propitiation  through  faith,  freeing  from 
sin  those  who  come  to  Ilira." 

13.  And  tite  Lord  answered  the  angel  that 
talked  with  me.  Either  directly,  at  the  inter- 
cession of  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  or  mediately' 
through  an  answer  first  given  to  him,  and  by 
him  communicated  to  tiie  subordinate  angel. 
Neitlier  is  expressed. 

Good  words,  as  God  had  promised',  after 
seventy  years  shall  be  accomplished  at  Babylon,  I 
will  visit  you  and  perform  My  good  word  unto  you, 
causing  you  to  return  to  this  place ;  and  Joshua 
says,  *  There  failed  not  ought  of  any  good  word 
tvhich  the  Lord  spake  unto  the  house  of  Israel. 

Comfortahle  wordit,  lit.  consol'itiom  *.  Per- 
haps the  Angel  who  received  the  message 
lia  I,  from  their  tender  comp;ission  for  us, 
whereby   they  ^joy  over  one  simmer    that  re- 

J 1  S.  John  ii.  1,  2.  «  Rom.  iii.  25. 

"Jer.  xxix.  lo. 

*  Josh.  xxi.  43  (45  Eng.)  add  xxiii.  14, 15. 

'as  l9.  Ivil.  18.  'S.  Luke  XV.  10. 

'  Kip,  ab.  4.  Jon.  i.  2.  Is.  xl.  2,  0. 

8Ewald  compares    'H^T,  oWo,   novl;    'D^DT, 


penteth,  a  part  in  these  consolations  which  he 
conveyed. 

14.  Cry  thou.  The  vision  was  not  for  the 
prophet  alone.  What  he  saw  and  heard, 
that  he  was  to  prochiim  to  others.  The 
vision,  which  he  now  saw  alone,  was  to  be 
tlie  basis  and  substance  of  his  subsequent 
preaching^,  whereby  he  was  to  encourage 
his  people  to  persevere. 

lam  jealous  for  Jerusalem,  lit.  I  have  been, 
not  now  only  but  in  time  past  even  when  I 
did  not  shew  it,  and  am  jealous^,  with  the 
tender  love  which  allows  not  what  it  loves  to 
be  injured  '.  The  love  of  God,  until  finally 
shut  out,  is  unchangeable,  He  pursues  the 
sinner  witii  chastisements  and  scourges  in 
His  love,  that  he  may  yet  be  converted  and 
live'°.  But  for  God's  love  to  him  and  the 
solicitations  of  His  grace,  while  yet  impeni- 
tent and  displeasing  Him,  he  could  not  turn 
and  please  Him. 

And  for  Zion,  which  especially  He  had 
chosen  to  put  His  Name  there,  and  there  to 
receive  the  worship  of  His  people;  ^'  the  hill 
which  God  desired  to  dwell  in,  '■'  which  He  loved. 
"  '^  With  great  and  special  love  have  I  loved 
the  people  of  the  Jews  and  what  pertained 
to  them,  and  out  of  that  love  have  I  so  dili- 
gently and  sevei'ely  corrected  her  excesses, 
that  she  may  be  more  careful  for  the  time  to 
come,  as  a  husband  corrects  most  sharply  a 
wife  most  dear  to  liim,  if  she  be  unfaithful. 
Whence  in  the  book  of  Maccabees  it  is  writ- 
ten, "  "  It  is  a  token  of  His  great  goodness, 
when  wicked  doers  are  not  suffered  any  long 
time,  but  are  fortliwitli  punished.  For  not 
as  with  other  nations,  whom  the  Lord  pa- 
tiently forboareth  to  punish,  till  they  become 
to  the  fullness  of  their  .sins,  so  dealeth  He 
with  us;  lest,  being  come  to  the  height  of 
sin,  afterward  He  should  take  vengeance  of 
us.  And  therefore  He  never  withdraweth 
His  mercy  from  us,  and  though  He  punisheth 

momini,  Nu.  xi.  5, 'n'On,  Vniil.  Ps-  xxxriii.  IC 
Ac.  Lehrb.  "n.  135.  6.  p.  129.  ed.  8. 

»Spe  on  Nah.  i.  1,  p.  129.     los.  Aug.  Conf.  iii.  1. 

»  Ps.  Ixviii.  IG. 

"  lb.  Ixxviii.  68,  add  Ps.  cxxxii.  13, 14. 

18  Dion.  '«  2  Mace.  vi.  13-16. 


CHAPTER  I. 


345 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

<i  Isal.  47.  6. 


15  And  I  am  very  sore 
.  displeased  with  the  heathen 

that  are  at  ease :  for  •>  I  was 
but  a  little  displeased,  and 
they  helped  forward  the 
affliction. 

16  Therefore  thus  saith 


with  adversity,  yet  doth  He  never  forsake 
His  people." 

15.  /  am  sore  displeased,  lit.  tvith  great  anger 
am  I  angered  against  the  nations  which  are  at 
ease.  The  form  of  the  words  '  shews  that  the 
greatness  of  tlie  displeasure  of  God  against 
those  who  oppress  His  people,  is  proportion- 
ate to  the  great  and  tender  love  toward  them- 
selves. God  had  been  angered  indeed  ■^  with 
His  people ;  with  their  enemies  He  was 
angered  with  a  great  anger  ;  and  that  the  more, 
because  they  were  at  ease^,  in  unfeeling  self- 
enjoyment  amid  the  miseries  of  others. 

/  ttus  a  little  displectsed  * ;  little,  in  compar- 
ison with  our  deserts;  little  in  comparison 
with  the  anger  of  the  human  instruments  of 
His  displeasure ;  little  in  comparison  with 
their's  who,  in  their  anger,  sought  their  own 
ends. 

They  helped  forward  the  affliction  ^.  "  "  He 
is  wroth  with  the  nations  at  ease,  because  He 
delivered  His  people  to  be  corrected,  but 
they  used  cruelty  toward  those  delivered  ; 
He  wills  them  to  be  amended  as  a  son  by  a 
schoolmaster ;  they  set  themselves  to  slay 
and  punish  them,  as  an  enemy.  Like  that 
in  Isaiah,  '  I  gave  them  into  thy  hands;  thou 
didst  sheiv  them  no  mercy;  upon  the  ancients 
hast  thou  very  heavily  laid  thy  yoke." 

Or  it  may  be,  helped  for  evil,  in  order  to 
bring  about  evil,  as  in  Jeremiah  •*,  Behold  I 
set  My  face  against  you  for  evil^,  and  to  destroy 
all  Judah  i.  e.,  as  we  should  say,  they  were 
the  instruments  of  God,  "•'' cooperated  in  the 
execution  of  My  justice  toward  you,  but 
cruelly  and  with  perverse  intention.  For 
although    the    Assyrians     and     Chaldseans 

1  S;?  ^yp  'JK  Snj  nyp  ver.  15,  as  contrasted 
with  vh)-\}  nXJp  .h  "TlXip  ver.  14. 
2'nS2?p  e^Vpi.  2. 
^  pXK/,  as  applied  to  persons,  is  always  used  in  a 

bad  sense ;  the  noun,  2  Kes  xix.  28,  Is.  xxxvii.  29 ; 
the  adj.  Is.  xxxii.  9,  11,  Job  xii.  5,  Am.  vi.  1,  Ps. 
cxxiii.  4,  and  here. 
*£0^'O  'r\31fp  is  obviously  contrasted  with  f\)lp 

7nj:  others  "for  a  little  while."  But  heside  this 
contrast,  £3J70  is  seldom,  comparatively,  used  of 
time,  and  that,  as  indicated  by  the  context.  Gen. 
xlvii.  9,  "my  days  have  been' few;"  Lev.  xxv.  .52, 
"if  a  little  remains  of  the  years;"  Ru.  ii.  7,  "she 
sat  a  little  in  the  house;"  Job  x.  20,  "are  not  my 
days  few?"  xxiv.  24,  "they  are  exalted  a  little,  and 
are  not."    Add  Ps.  xxxvii.  10,  Jer.  li.  33,  Hos.  i.  4, 


the  Lord  ;  "■  I  am  returned 
to  Jerusalem  with  mercies : 
my  house  shall  be  built  in 
it,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
and  °a  line  shall  be 
stretched  forth  upon  Jeru- 
salem. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

'Isai.  12. 1. 

&  54.  8. 

eh.  2.  10. 

&8.  3. 
•  eh.  2. 1,  2. 


wasted  the  Jewish  people,  God  so  ordain- 
ing in  as  far  as  He  willed  through  them  to 
punish  in  the  present  the  sins  of  His  people, 
yet  they  did  it,  not  in  view  of  God  and  out 
of  zeal  for  righteousness,  but  out  of  pride 
covetousncss  and  with  the  worst  ends.  Hence 
God  says  Ijy  Isaiah  '',  Wo  to  Asshiir,  the  rod  of 
Mine  anger,  and  the  staff  in  his  hand  is  Mine 
indignation.  Howbeit  he  thinketh  not  so,  hut  his 
heart  is  to  destroy  and  cut  off  nations  not  a 
few. 

16.  Therefore.  This  being  so,  since  God 
was  so  jealous  for  His  people,  so  displeased 
with  their  j)ersecutors,  thus  saith  the  Lord, 
"10  J  wi^Q  I'i  1)1  wrath  remember  mercy,  am 
retniified^'^,  not  by  change  of  place.  Who  am 
uncircumscribed,  not  existing  in  place,  to 
the  people  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem  in 
mercies,  manifoldly  benefiting  them  by 
various  effects  of  My  love."  The  single 
benefits,  the  rebuilding  of  His  House,  and  so 
the  restoration  of  His  public  worship,  and  the 
rebuilding  of  Jerusalem,  are  but  instances  of 
that  all-containing  mercy.  His  restored  pres- 
ence in  tender  mercies  '*.  lam  returned,  God 
says,  although  the  effects  of  His  return  were 
yet  to  come. 

A  line  shall  be  stretched  forth  over  Jerusalem, 
before,  when  it  stood,  this  had  been  done 
to  destroy  1^;  now,  when  destroyed,  to 
rebuild  ^^.' 

"  ^'  The  temple  was  built  then,  when  the 
foundations  of  the  walls  were  not  yet  laid. 
In  man's  sight  it  would  have  seemed  more 
provident  that  the  walls  should  be  first 
builded,  that  then  the  temple  might  be 
builded  more  securely.    To  God,  in  Whom 

"yet  a  little,  and."  Hagg.  ii.  6;  "yet  once,  it  is  a 
little,  and;"  [all,  except  the  doubtful  Ps.  viii.  6.] 

6  As  2  Chr.  XX.  23,  riTltyoS  nr;?  "aided  the  de- 
struction." 

«  S.  Jer.  '  Is.  xlvii.  6.  s  jer.  xliv.  11. 

»  nn^nSl  T^il'fl.        1"  Dion.        "  Is.  X.  5,  7. 

IS  Hab.  iii.  2.      '  »3'j-)jjj;,  although  T\iT,  n£3J\ 

"D'Oni  occurs  27  times  of  the  tender  love  of 
God;  12  times  only,  of  the  compassion  of  man,  and 
in  6  of  these,  of  compassion  of  man  as  given  by 
God,  D'nm'?  .3  jnj;  2ce  with  the  word  HD^J. 

15  2  Kgs  xxi.  13,  Is.  xxxiv.  11. 

19  It  is  used  of  the  creation  of  the  earth.  Job 
xxxviii.  5.  The  Chethib,  probably  Hip,  occurs  1 
Kgs  vii.  23,  Jer.  xxxi.  19,  and  here.  i'  Osor. 


346 


ZECIIARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


tHeb.  good. 
« Isai.  51.  3. 


'Isai.  U.  1. 
ch.  2.  12. 
&3.  2. 


17  Cry  yet,  saying, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  of 
liosts;  My  cities  through 
t prosperity  shall  yet  be 
spread  abroad ;  '  and  the 
Lord  shall  yet  comfort 
Zion,  and  "  shall  yet  choose 
Jerusalem. 


Alone  is  the  most  firm  stay  of  our  life  and 
salvation,  it  seemed  otherwise.  For  it  can- 
not be  that  he,  to  whom  notliing  is  dearer 
than  zeal  for  the  most  1  oly  religion,  should 
be  forsaken  of  His  help." 

17.  Cnj  yet,  a  further  promise;  not  only 
should  Jerusalem  be  rebuilt,  but  should  as 
we  say,  overjiow  with  good  ' ;  and  (iod,  ^^'ll0 
had  seemed  to  cast  off  His  people,  should  yet 
comfort  her,  and  should  shew  in  act  that  He 
had  chosen  her^.  Zechariah  thrice^  repeats 
the  promise,  given  through  Isaiah  *  to  Jeru- 
salem, before  her  wasting  by  the  Chaldaeans, 
reminding  tlie  people  thereby,  tliat  the  res- 
toration, in  the  dawn  whereof  they  lived, 
liad  been  promised  two  centuries  before. 
Yet,  against  all  appearances.  My  cities  sliall 
overflow  with  good,  as  being  God's ;  yet  would 
the  Lord  comfort  Zion  ;  yet  would  He  choose 
Jerusalem. 

"*What  is  the  highest  of  all  goods?  what 
the  sweetest  solace  in  life  ?  what  the  subject 
of  joys?  what  the  oblivion  of  past  sorrow? 
That  which  the  Son  of  God  brought  upon 
earth,  when  He  iHumined  Jerusalem  with 
the  brightness  of  His  light  and  heavenly  dis- 
cipline. For  to  that  end  was  the  city  restored, 
that  in  it,  by  the  ordinance  of  Christ,  for 
calamity  should  abound  bliss  ;  for  desolation, 
fullness";  for  sorrow,  joy;  tin-  want,  atiluence 
of  heavenly  goods." 

This  fii-st  vision  having  predicted  the  entire 
restoration,  the  details  of  that  restoration  are 
given  in  subsequent  visions. 

18.  ^And  I  lifted  up  mine  eyea.  '"Not 
those  of  the  body  (for  such  visions  are  invisi- 
ble to  the  eyes  of  the  flesh),  but  rather  the 
inner  eyes  of  the  heart  and  mind."  It  seems 
as  though,  at  the  close  of  each  vision,  Zech- 
ariah sank  in  meditation  on  wliat  had  been 
shewn  him;  from  which  he  was  again  roused 
l)y  the  exhibition  of  another  vision. 

1" affluent  bonis,"  S.  Jer.;  '-effluent  bonis."  Viilg. 
more  exactly.  The  word  VIS  is  used  of  tlie  "  gush- 
ing forth  of  a  fotintain,"  Pr.  v.  Ifi;  also  of  the  dis- 
persion of  people  ;  not  of  the  spreading  abroad  of  a 
people  lor  good. 

''inD  's  always  "choose,"  not  ^as  Ges.  and 
others)  "love."  In  all  the  cases,  which  Ges.  eitcH 
a.s  meaning  "love,"  (Gen.  vi.  2,  1  Sam.  xx.  .30,  2 
Bam.  XV.  lo,  Pr.  i.29,  iii.3l,  Is.  i.  29)  the  sense  would 
be  injured  by  rendering,  "lovod." 


18  %  Then   lifted   I  up    chrTst 
mine   eyes,  and   saw,  aud  ^_£il_512^__ 
behold  four  horns. 

19  And  I  said  unto  the 
angel  that  talked  with  me, 
What   be  these?  And  he 
answered  me,  ''These  are»Ezra4. 1,4,7. 
the  horns  which  have  scat- 


/  saw  four  horns.  The  mention  of  the  horns 
naturally  suggests  the  thought  of  the  creatures 
which  wielded  them ;  as  in  the  first  vision 
that  of  tiie  horses  following  the  chiefs,  imjjlies 
the  presence  of  the  riders  upon  tliem.  And 
this  the  more,  since  the  word  "fray  them 
away "  implies  living  creatures,  liable  to 
fear.  "  **  The  horn,  in  inspired  Scripture,  is 
always  taken  as  an  image  of  strength,  and 
mostly  of  pride  also,  as  David  said  to  some, 
^  I  said  unto  the  fools,  Deal  not  so  foolishly,  and 
to  the  um/odly.  Lift  not  up  the  horns.  Lift  not 
up  your  horns  on  high  and  speak  not  with  a  stiff 
neck.  The  prophet  then  sees /oui- /jor;is,  i.  e. 
four  hard  and  warlike  nations,  who  could 
easily  uproot  cities  and  countries." 

These  are  the  horns  u'hich  have  scattered. 
"'"The  four  horns  which  scattered  Jmlai  , 
Israel  and  .Jerusalem,  are  four  nations,  Baby- 
lonians, Medes  and  Persians,  Macedonians 
and  llomans;  as  the  Lord,  on  the  prophet's 
enquiry,  explains  here,  and  Daniel  unfolds 
most  fully  '^ ;  who  in  the  vision  oi'  the  image 
with  golden  head,  silver  breast,  belly  and 
tliighs  of  brass,  feet  of  iron  and  clay,  ex- 
plained it  of  these  four  nations,  and  again  in 
another  vision  of  four  beasts  '^,  lion,  bear, 
leopard  and  another  unnamed  dreadful  beast, 
lie  pointed  out  the  same  nations  under  anotiier 
figure.  But  that  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
after  the  victory  of  Cyrus,  were  one  kingdom, 
no  one  will  doubt,  who  reads  secular  and 
sacred  literature. — When  this  vision  was 
beheld,  the  kingdom  of  the  Babyloniaiis  had 
now  passed  away,  that  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians  was  instant;  that  of  Greeks  and 
Macedonians  and  of  the  Romans  was  yet  to 
come.  What  tiie  Babylonians,  what  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  what  the  Greeks  i.  e.  tite 
Macedonians,  did  to  Judah,  Israel  and  Jeru- 
salem, a  learned  man  acknowledge h,  especi- 
ally under  Antiochus,  surnamed  Epiphanes, 

a  here,  ii.  12,  iii.  2. 

*Is.  xiv.  1.  '7X"lt5''3  lU'  ""^3.  Isni.ah  has  the 
same  cmience  as  Zechariah,  though  Zechnri.ih  only 
retains  the  characteristic  words  "IH'  "in3. 

!>  Osor. 

«The  Eng.  Vers,  follows  the  LXX  and  8.  Jer.  in 
adding  the  2d  vision  to  the  first  chapter. 

73.  Cyril  on  ii.  1.  88.  Cvr.  »Ps.  Ixxv.  4. 

'"S.  Jer.  Kimohi  and  AbarKanel  agree  with  him 
in  the  general  Hue.  "  Dan.  ii.  >*U;.  vii. 


CHAPTER  IL 


347 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


J  Ps.  75.  4,  5. 


tered   Judah,   Israel,   and 
.  Jerusalem. 

20  A  n  d  the  Lord 
shewed  me  four  carpenters. 

21  Then  said  I,  What 
come  these  to  do  ?  And  he 
spake,  saying,  These  are 
the  horns  which  have  scat- 
tered Judah,  so  that  no 
man  did  lift  up  his  head : 
but  these  are  come  to  fray 
them,  to  cast  out  the  horns 
of  the  Gentiles,  which 
''  lifted  up  their  horn  over 
the  land  of  Judah  to  scat- 
ter it. 


to  which  the  history  of  the  Maccabees 
belongs.  After  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  when  Jerusalem  was  encompassed, 
Josephus,  a  native  writer,  tells  most  fully, 
Avhat  the  Israelites  endured,  and  the  Gospel 
fore-announced.  These  horns  dispersed 
Judah  almost  individually,  so  that,  bowed 
down  by  the  heavy  weight  of  evils,  no  one  of 
them  raised  his  head."  Though  these  were 
successive  in  time,  they  are  exhibited  to 
Zechariah  as  one.  One  whole  are  the  efforts 
against  God's  Church ;  one  whole  are  the 
instruments  of  God,  whether  angelic  or 
human,  in  doing  or  suffering,  to  repel  them. 
Zechariah  then  exhibits  these  hostile  powers 
as  past  and  gone ',  as  each  would  be  at  the 
end,  having  put  forth  his  passing  might,  and 
perishing.  They  scattered,  each  in  its  day, 
and  disappeared ;    for  the  next  displaced  it. 

The  long  schism  being  ended,  Judah  and 
Israel  are  again  one ;  and  Jerusalem,  the 
place  of  God's  worship,  belongs  to  Israel  as 
well  as  to  Judah  ^. 

The  explanation  of  the  number  four,  as 
symbolizing  contemporaneous  attacks  from  the 
four  quarters  of  the  heavens,  fails  in  matter 
of  fact,  that,  in  these  later  times,  the  Jews 
suffered  always  from  one  power  at  a  time. 
There  was  no  such  fourfold  attack.  In 
Zechariah's  time  all  around  was  Persian. 

"  ^  Those  horns,  broken  by  the  angels'  minis- 
try, portended  that  noguilt  against  the  Church 
of  Christ  should  be  unpunished.  Never  will 
there  be  wanting  fierce  enemies  from  E.  \V. 
N.  or  S.,  whom  God  will  strengthen,  in  order 
by  them  to  teacli  His  own.     But  when  He 

*  '"i.f  ■ 

SThis  is  expressed  by  the  use  or  omission  of  tne 
nN.  Its  use  coordinates  Judah  and  Israel;  its 
omission  subordinates  Jerusalem. 


CHAPTER    II.  Before 

CHRIST 
cir.  519. 
1   God,  in  the  care  of  Jerusalem, 

sendeth  to  measure  it.     6  The 

redemption  of  Zion.     10  The 

promise  of  GocPs  presence. 

T  LIFTED  up  mine  eyes 
again,  and  looked,  and 
behold  *a  man  with  a  aEzek. 4o.8. 
measuring  line  in  his  hand. 
2  Then  said  I,  Whither 
goest  thou?  And  he  said 
unto  me,  •'To  measure  Je-  "Rev. ii. i. 
rusalem,  to  see  what  is  the  '    ' 

breadth  thereof,  and  what 
is  the  leno-th  thereof. 


shall  see  His  work  finished,  i.  e.  when  He 
shall  have  cleansed  the  stains  of  His  own 
and  brought  back  His  Church  to  her  former 
purity,  He  will  punish  those  who  so  fiercely 
afflicted  her." 

Spiritually,  "*  those  who  destroy  vices, 
build  up  virtues,  and  all  the  saints  who,  pos- 
sessing these  remedies,  ever  build  up  the 
Church,  may  be  called  '  builders.'  Whence 
the  Apostle  says,  ^ I,  as  a  ivise  builder,  laid  the 
foundation  ;  and  the  Lord,  when  wroth,  said 
that  He  would  ^take  away  from  Jerusalem 
artificer  and  ivise  man.  And  the  Lord  Himself, 
Son  of  the  Almighty  God  and  of  the  Creator 
of  all,  is  called  ^the  son  of  the  carpenter." 

II.  1.  A  man  with  a  measurinf/  line  in  his 
hand.  Probably  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  of 
whom  Ezekiel  has  a  like  vision.  "  ■*  He  who 
before,  when  he  lift  up  his  eyes,  had  seen  in 
the  four  horns  things  mournful,  now  again 
lifts  up  his  eyes  to  see  a  man,  of  whom  it  is 
written,  ^Behold  a  man  whose  name  is  the 
Branch  ;  of  whom  we  read  above,  "*  Behold  a, 
man  riding  upon  a  red,  horse,  and  he  stood  among 
the  myrtle  trees,  which  were  in  the  bottom.  Of 
whom  too  the  Father  saith  ;  He  builded  My 
city,^°  whose  builder  and  maker  is  God.  He  too 
is  seen  by  Ezekiel  in  a  description  like  this, 
^'  a  man  whose  appearance  ims  like  the  appear- 
ance of  brass,  i.  e.  burnished  "  and  shining  as 
fire,  with  a  line  of  flax,  in  his  hand  and  a  measur- 
ing reed."  The  office  also  seems  to  be  one  of 
authority,  not  to  measure  the  actual  length 
and  breadth  of  Jerusalem,  but  to  lay  down 
what  it  should  be,  "  ^^  to  mark  it  out  broad 
and  very  long." 


sQsor.       4S.  Jer. 
?  S.  Matt.  xiii.  55. 
JO  Heb.  xi.  10. 
w  lb.  i.  7.    • 


5 1  Cor.  iii.  10.       « Is.  iii.  3. 
sZech.  vi.  12.       »Ib.  1.  8. 

n  Ezek.  xl.  3. 

13S.  Cyr. 


348 


ZECHARTAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


3  And,  behold,  the  au- 
.gel   that  talked   with   me 

went  forth,  and  another 
angel  went  out  to  meet 
him, 

4  And  said  unto  him. 


3.  The  angel  that  talked  with  me  ivent  forth, 
probably  to  receive  the  explanation  which 
was  given  him  for  Zechariah ;  and  another 
angel,  a  higher  angel,  since  he  gives  him  a 
commission,  went  forth  to  meet  him.  being  (it 
seems  probable)  instructed  by  the  Angel  of 
the  Lord,  who  laid  down  the  future  dimen- 
sions of  tlie  city.  The  indetiniteness  of  the 
description,  another  angd,  implies  that  he  was 
neither  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  nor  (were 
they  different)  Michael,  or  the  man  ivith  the 
measuring  line,  but  an  angel  of  intermediate 
rank,  instructed  by  one  higher,  instructing 
the  lower,  who  immediately  instructed 
Zeciiariah. 

And  said  unto  him,  Run,  speak  unto  this 
young  man,  the  prophet  himself,  who  was  to 
report  to  his  people  what  he  heard.  Jeremiah 
says,  ^  I  am  a  youth;  and  ^  the  young  man,  the 
young  prophet,  carried  the  prophetic  message 
from  Elisha  to  Jehu.  "  Youth,"  common  as 
our  English  term  in  regard  to  man,  is  inap- 
plicable and  unapplied  to  angels,  who  have 
not  our  human  variations  of  age,  but  exist, 
as  they  were  created. 

Jerusalem  shall  be  inhabited  as  towns  ivithout 
walls,  or  as  villages^,  viz.  an  unconfined,  un- 
cramped  population,  spreading  itself  freely, 
without  restraint  of  walls,  and  (it  follows) 
without  need  of  them.  Clearly  then  it  i.s  no 
earthly  city.  To  be  inhabited  as  villages 
would  be  weakness,  not  strength ;  a  peril, 
not  a  blessing.  The  earthly  Jerusalem,  so 
long  as  she  remained  unwalled,  was  in  con- 
tinual fear  and  weakness.  God  put  it  into 
the  heart  of  His  servant  to  desire  to  restore 
her;  her  wall  was  built,  and  then  she  pros- 
pered. He  Himself  had  promised  to  Daniel, 
tliat  *  Jler  street  shall  be  rebuilt,  and  her  wall, 
even  in  strait  of  tim.es.  Nehemiah  mourned 
73  years  after  this,  B.  C.  443,  when  it  was 
told  him,  '  The  remnant  that  arc  hft  of  the  cap- 
tivity there  in  the  province  are  in  great  affliction 
and  reproach:  the  wall  of  Jerusalem  also  is 
broken  down,  and  the  gates  thereof  are  burned 
with  fire.  He  said  to  Artaxerxes,  ^  Why 
should  not  my  countenance  be  sad,  when  the  city, 
thi  place  of  my  fathers'  sepulchres,  lieth  waste, 
and  the  gates  thereof  are  con.mmed  with  fire  f 
When  permitted  by  Artaxerxes  to  return,  he 
addressed  the  rulers  of  the  Jews,  '  Ye  see  the 

»  nj,'!  Jer.  i.  fl. 

*K3jn  "i;'jn  n;'jn 2 Kgs ix. 4. 

»3ee  on  Hab.  HI.  14.  p.  218.  <Dan.  ix.  25. 


Run,  speak  to  thb  young    chr^i^st 
man,  saying,  "  Jerusalem       g'*"-  ^^^- 
shall  be  inhabited  as  towns  «Jer.  31. 27. 
without  walls  for  the  mul-         •    •    ,    • 
titude   of  men   and  cattle 
therein : 


distress  that  we  are  in,  how  Jerusalem  lieth  waste, 
and  the  gates  thereof  are  burned  with  fire  ;  come, 
and  let  ns  build  up  the  wall  of  Jer  us  dan,  that  we 
be  no  more  a  reproach;  and  they  said,  let  us  rise 
and  build.  So  they  strengthened  their  hands  for 
this  good  tvork.  When  '^Ihe  wcdl  was  finished  and 
our  enemies  heard,  and  the  fieathen  about  us  sav: 
it,  they  were  much  cast  down  in  their  own  eyes  ; 
for  they  perceived  that  this  work  ivas  wrought  of 
our  God. 

This  prophecy  then  looks  on  directly  to 
the  time  of  Christ.  Wonderfully  docs  it 
picture  the  gradual  expansion  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ,  without  bound  or  limit,  whose 
protection  and  glory  God  is,  and  the  character 
of  its  defences.  It  should  dwell  as  lillnges, 
peacefully  and  gently  expanding  itself  to  the 
right  and  the  lett,  through  its  own  inlierent 
power  of  multiplying  itself,  as  a  city,  to 
which  no  bounds  were  assigned,  but  which 
was  to  fill  the  earth.  "  *  For  us  God  hath 
raised  a  Church,  that  truly  holy  and  far- 
famed  city,  which  Christ  fortifieth,  consum- 
ing opponents  by  invisible  powers,  and  filling 
it  with  His  own  glory,  and  as  it  were,  stand- 
ing in  the  midst  of  those  who  dwell  in  it. 
For  He  promised ;  Lo,  I  am  ivith  you  alivays 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  This  holy  city 
Isaiah  mentioned  :  ^^  thine  eyes  shall  see  Jeru- 
salem, a  quiet  habitation;  a  tabernacle  that  shall 
not  be  taken  down  ;  not  one  of  the  stakes  thereof 
shall  ever  be  removed,  neither  shall  any  of  the 
cords  thereof  be  broken;  and  to  her  he  saith, 
1'  enlarge  the  place  of  thy  tent,  and  let  them 
stretch  forth  the  curtains  of  thine  habitation; 
spare  not ;  lengthen  thy  cords  and  strengthen  thy 
stakes.  For  thou  shall  break  forth  on  the  right 
hand  a^id  on  the  left.  For  the  Church  of 
Christ  is  widened  and  extended  boundlessly, 
ever  receiving  countless  souls  who  worship 
Him."  "  '^  What  king  or  emperor  could 
make  walls  so  ample  as  to  include  the  whole 
world?  Yet,  without  this,  it  could  not  en- 
circle that  Jerusalem,  the  Church  which  is 
diffused  through  the  whole  world.  This 
Jerusalem,  the  pilgrim  part  of  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem,  is,  in  this  present  world,  inhabited 
without  walls,  not  being  contained  in  one 
place  or  one  nation.  But  in  that  world, 
whither  it  is  daily  being  removed  hence, 
much  more  can  there  not,  nor  ought  to  be, 


6Neh.  i.  3. 
8  lb.  vi.  15, 10. 
u  lb.  liv.  2,  3. 


0  lb.  11.  3.  '  lb.  17, 18. 

»9.  Cyr.  »o  Is.  xxxiil.  20. 

URup. 


CHAPTER  II. 


349 


cHR°isT       ^  For  I,  saith  the  Lord, 
"'••  519.      will  be  unto  her  *  a  wall  of 


fire  round  about,  *  and  will 
be  the  glory  in  the  midst 


*  Isai.  26. 1. 
ch.  9.  8. 

•  Isai.  60. 19. 
Rev.  21.  23. 

'Isai.  48. 20.      of  her. 

&  52.  11. 

Jer.  1. 14.  6  ^  Ho,  ho,  come  forth, 

&  51. 6,45.       and  flee  ^from  the  land  of 


nor  is,  any  wall  around,  save  the  Lord,  Who 
is  also  the  glory  in  the  midst  of  it." 

5.  And  I,  Myself  in  My  own  Being,  will 
be  to  her  a  wall  of  fire,  not  protection  only,  an 
inner  circle  around  her,  however  near  an 
enemy  might  press  in  upon  her,  but  destruc- 
tive to  her  enemies.  Isaiah  says,  ^  No  weapon 
that  is  formed  against  thee  shall  prosper,  and 
every  tongue  that  shall  rise  in  judgment  against 
thee  thou  shall  condemn.  Its  defence,  Isaiah 
says,  shall  be  inmiaterial.  ^  We  have  a  strong 
city  ;  salvation  shall  God  appoint  for  walls  and 
bulwarks;  *thou  shall  call  thy  walls  scdvaiion 
and  thy  gates  praise.  By  a  different  figure  it 
is  said,  ^ I  will  ericamp  about  mine  house  because 
of  the  army. 

And  glory  will  I  be  in  the  midst  of  her,  as 
Isaiah  says,  ^  The  Lord  shall  be  unto  thee  an 
everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory  ;  and  of 
Christ,  ^/n  that  day  shall  the  Branch  of  the  Lord 
be  Beauty  and  Glory — to  the  escaped  of  Israel. 

6.  Ho  !  ho  !  and  flee.  Such  being  the  safety 
and  glory  in  store  lor  God's  people  in  Jeru- 
salem, He  Who  had  so  provided  it,  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  bids  His  people  every- 
where to  come  to  it,  saving  themselves  also 
from  the  peril  which  was  to  come  on  Baby- 
lon. So  Isaiah  bade  them,  ^  Go  ye  forth  of 
Babylon;  flee  ye  from  the  Chaldceans  ivith  a 
voice  of  singing  ;  declare  ye,  tell  this,  utter  it  to 
the  end  of  the  earth  ;  say  ye,  The  Lord  hath  re- 
deemed His  servant  Jacob.  '  Depart  ye,  depart 
ye,  go  ye  out  from  thence;  touch  no  unclean 
thing :  go  ye  out  of  the  midst  of  her  ;  be  ye  clean, 
that  bear  the  vessels  of  the  Lord  ;  and  Jeremiah, 
^"Flee  ye  out  of  the  midst  of  Babylon,  and  de- 
liver every  man  his  soul ;  be  not  cut  off  in  her 
iniquity,  for  this  is  the  time  of  the  Lord's  ven- 
geance; He  ivill  render  unto  her  a  recompense. 
■''  My  people,  go  ye  out  of  the  midst  of  her,  and 
deliver  ye,  every  man  his  soul  from  the  fierce 
anger  of  the  Lord. 

i''JKemph.  2Is.  hv.  17. 

sib.  XXVI.  1.  <Ib.  Ix.  18.  szech.ix.  8. 

« Is.  Ix.  19.  '  Ih.  iv.  2. 

8  1s.  xlviii.  20.    »lb.  Iii.ll.     i"  Jer.  li.  6.  ac'd.  1.  8. 

»Ib.  li.  45.         12  2  Cor.  vi.  17.        i3Rev.  xviii.  4. 

1*  Jer.  i.  13, 14,  iii.  18,  iv.  6,  vi.  1.  22.  xxiii.  8. 

>5  Esther  i.  1,  iii.  8, 12-14.  viii.  5,  9. 

18  2  Kgs  xvii.  6. 

""As  the  four  winds  of  heaven  are  distant  one 
from  the  other."  .Sal.  b.  Mel.  Kim.  AE.  The  LXX 
alone  paraphrase,  "For  from  the  winds  of  heaven  I 
will  gather  you."  Others  take  the  word  of  an  in- 
tended diffusion  of  them,  through  the  favor  of  God, 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


eDeut.  28.  64. 
Ezek.  17.  21. 


the  north,  saith  the  Lord  : 
for  I  have  ^spread  you 
abroad  as  the  four  winds  of 
the  heaven,  saith  the  Lord. 

7  ''Deliver  thyself,  O    ''Rev.18.4. 
Zion,  that  dwellest  ivith  the 
daughter  of  Babylon. 


The  words,  flee,  deliver  thyself,  imply  an  im- 
minent peril  on  Babylon,  such  as  came  upon 
her,  two  years  after  this  prophecy,  in  the 
fourth  year  of  Darius.  But  the  earnestness 
of  the  command,  its  repetition  by  three  pro- 
phets, the  context  in  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah, 
imply  something  more  than  temfjoral  peril, 
the  peril  of  the  infection  of  the  manners  of 
Babylon,  which  may  have  detained  there 
many  who  did  not  return.  Whence  in  the 
New  Testament,  the  words  are  cited,  as  to 
the  great  evil  city  of  the  world ;  ^'^  Wherefore 
come  out  from  among  them  and  be  ye  separate, 
and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing,  and  I  will  re- 
ceive you ;  and  under  the  name  of  Babylon ; 
^^  I  heard  another  voice  from  heaven,  saying, 
Come  out  of  her.  My  people,  that  ye  be  not  partak- 
ers of  her  sins,  and  that  ye  receivenot  of  her  plagues. 

For  I  have  spread  you  abroad  as  the  four 
winds  of  heaven.  The  north  country,  although 
its  capital  and  centre  was  Babylon,  was  the 
whole  Babylonian  empire,  called  "the 
North  ^^ "  because  its  invasions  always  came 
upon  Israel  from  the  North.  But  the  book 
of  Esther  shews  that,  sixty  years  after  this, 
the  Jews  were  dispersed  over  the  127  prov- 
inces of  the  Persian  empire,  from  India  (the 
Punjaub)  to  Elhiopia^^,  whether  they  were 
purposely  i^laced  by  the  policy  of  the  con- 
querors in  detatched  groups,  as  the  ten 
tribes  were  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes'^^,  or 
whether,  when  more  trusted,  they  migrated 
of  their  own  accord.  God,  in  calling  them 
to  return,  reminds  them  of  the  greatness  of 
their  dispersion.  He  had  dispersed  them 
abi'oad  as  the  four  winds  of  heaven  ^' :  He, 
the  Same,  recalled  them. 

7.  Dwellest  with  the  daughter  of  Babylon. 
The  unusual  idiom  ^*  is  perhaps  chosen  as 
expressive  of  God's  tenderness,  even  to  the 
people  who  were  to  be  destroyed,  from  which 
Israel  was  to  escape. 

the  future  being  spoken  of,  as  if  past.  But  although 
tyi3  is  used  of  dispersion,  beside,  in  Ps.  Ixviii.  15, 
Nif.  Ez.  xvii.  21,  it  is  no  where  used  of  diffusion,  only 
of  the  spreading  out  of  what  remained  coherent,  as 
hands,  wings,  a  garment,  tent,  veil,  cloud,  letter, 
light.    See  instances  Ges.  Thes.  p.  1132. 

"S^^  riD  riDtyr  diceUer  of  the  daughter  of  Baby- 
lon, as  Jer.  xlvi.  19.  D'^i'D  r\D  T^TdV,  lb.  xlviii.  18, 
\^y^  r\2  n^ty.  lu  Jeremiah  however,  it  is  the 
same  people,  Egypt  or  Dibon ;  here,  Israel  as  settle^ 
in  Babylon, 


350 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

eir.  519. 


1  Deut.  32. 10. 
Ps.  17.  8. 
2  Thess.  1.  6. 


8  For  thus  saith  ihc 
Lord  of  hosts ;  After  the 
glory  hath  he  sent  me  unto 
the  nations  which  spoiled 
you  :  for  he  that '  toucheth 
you  toucheth  the  apple  of 
his  eye. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


8.  After  the  glory^,  '"'which  it  is  promised 
to  bring  upon  Vou."  This  being  the  usual 
construction,  the  words  involve  a  great  course 
of  God's  dealing,  of  first  shewing  favor  to 
those  who  will  receive  favor,  then  abandoning 
or  punishing  the  rest;  as,  when  the  eight 
souls  had  been  received  into  the  ark,  the 
Hood  came ;  when  Lot  and  his  had  escaped 
out  of  Sodom,  the  fire  came  down  from 
heaven;  when  Israel  had  passed  the  Red 
Sea,  Pharaoh's  hosts  were  drowned  ;  the  elec- 
tion obtained  what  Israel  sought  for,  the  rest 
were  blinded  ^.  The  glory  then  would  be  the 
glory,  of  which  God  says,  I  will  be  the  glory  in 
the  midst  of  you. 

But  further  He  Who  speaketh  is  Almighty 
God,  Thus  i^aith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  He  hath 
sent*  me;  For  to  I  ivave  My  hand  against 
them — and  ye  shall  know  that  the  Lord  of  hosts 
hath  sent  me ;  Lo  I  come  and  dwell  in  the  midst 
of  thee,  saith  the  Lord,  and  many  nations  shall 
cleave  unto  the  Lord  in  that  day, .  and  they  sh(dl 
be  to  Me  a  people  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  midst 
of  thee,  and  thou  shall  know,  that  the  Lord  of 
hosts  fuith  sent  me  unto  you.  In  all  which 
series  of  promises,  the  /,  of  whom  Israel  were 
to  know  that  the  Lord  of  hosts  had  sent  Him, 
is  the  /,  Who  affirms  of  Himself  what  be- 
longs to  Almighty  God  only,  inflicting  pun- 
ishment on  the  enemies  of  J  udah,  indwelling 
the  Church  and  people,  receiving  the  Heathen 
as  His  own  ;  and  it  is  precisely  by  all  these 
acts  of  power  and  love,  that  Israel  shall  know 
that  the  Lord  of  hosts  had  sent  Him. 

'nSu?  is  used  with  ace.  peis.,  and  '"^nS  also  of 
persons,  2  Sam.  iii.  2(5,  2  Kgs  viii.  14,  or  with  npX 

of  pers.  alone,  2  Kgs  xiv.  9.  nnX  vh\y  is  not  else- 
where used  like  our  "  sent  after  a  thing."  So  gener- 
ally "inX  is  used  with  verbs  of  motion,  "inX  "j/H, 
Gen.  xxxvii.  17,  2  Kgs  xxiii.  3;  nflK  K3',  Nu-  xxv. 
8;  IHK  H'H,  lSam.xii.14;  inW  c]T*,  2  Kgs  xxv. 
5;  inX  Xi",  1  Sam.  xi.  7:  or,  spiritually,  O'D/Hn 

DHTioiyno  inx  is.  ixv.  2;  onn  -inx,  ez.  xiii. 
3;  oS  "i^n  'r;,'  ^nx,  Job  xxxi.  7;  but  -\nK  is 

not  used  in  our  sense  of  seeking,  "going  nlVr  a 
thing,"  except  in  the  one  phrase  pn'  73  "^nKI 

lym*  Job  xxxix.  8,  "searcheth  after  every  green 
thing."  It  is  the  less  probable  here,  beoiuise,  apart 
from  this  (beside  the  5  duplicate  pa^saues  in 
Isaiah  and  2  Kings,  2  Sam.  and  1  Chronicles)  the 
construction  of  Jlhut  with  ace.  of  the  person  sent 
and  Sk  ol  the  person  to  whom  he  is  sent,  occurs  in 


k  Lsai.  11. 1.5. 
&  19. 16. 


9  For,  behold,  I  will 
"shake  mine  hand  upon 
them,  and  they  shall  be  a 
spoil  to  their  servants :  and 
'ye  shall  know  that  the  'ch. 4. 9 
Lord  of  hosts  hath  sent 
me. 


"*  In  what  follows,  Thm  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts.  After  glory.  He  hath  sent  Me  &c.,  the 
Saviour  is  introduced  speaking,  Who,  being 
Almighty  God,  saith  that  He  was  sent  by  the 
Father  Almighty,  not  according  to  that 
whereby  He  was  Almighty,  but  according  to 
that,  tliat,  after  glory.  He  was  sent,  ®  Who 
being  in  the  Form  of  God,  thought  it  7wt  robbery 
to  be  equal  idth  God  ;  but  emptied  Himself,  tak- 
ing the  form  of  a  servant,  and  icas  made  obedient 
unto  the  Father  even  unto  death ;  and  that,  the 
death  of  the  Cross.  Nor  is  it  m;irvel  that 
Christ  is  called  Almighty,  in  Whose  Person 
we  read  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John,  '  These 
things  saith  the  faithful  Witness — /  am  Alpha 
and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  ending,  saith 
the  Lord,  which  was  and  which  is  and  ivhich  is 
to  come,  the  Almighty,  **  to  Whom  all  power  is 
given  in  heaven  and  in  earth  ;  and  Who  saith, 
^  All  things  of  the  Faihei-'s  are  Mine.  But  if 
all  things,  i.  e.  God  from  God,  Lord  from 
Lord,  Light  from  Light,  therefore  also  Al- 
mighty irom  Almighty  ;  for  it  cannot  be, 
that  diverse  should  be  the  glory  of  those 
whose  Nature  is  One." 

For  he  who  toucheth,  so  as  to  injure'",  you, 
toucheth  the  apple  of  His  eye,  i.  e.  of  Him  Who 
sent  Him,  Almighty  God  ",  as  in  the  song  of 
Moses,  ''■*  He  led  him  about.  He  instructed  him, 
He  kept  him  as  the  apple  of  His  eye  ;  and  David 
prays,  '^  Keep  me  as  the  apple  of  the  eye. 

9.  For  behold  I  will  shake  My  hand  against 
them,  as  God  promised  of  old  against  the 
enemies  of   His  people",   and   they    shall 

71  pas.sages,  (Ges.  cites  23  of  tliem)  and  in  no  one 
case  is  the  object  for  which  they  were  sent,  added 
by  any  preposition.  Four  are  in  Zechariah  him- 
self ii.  12, 15,  iv.  9,  vi.  15.    To  "send  for"  is  expressed 

bv  h  r\h\i/  Jer.  xiv.  3, 1  Kgs  xx.  7. 

"2  Jon.        sRom.  xi.  7.        <ver.  8-10.       ^.S.  Jer. 

«Phil.  ii.O.       'Rev.i.5,8.       SS.  Matt,  xxviii.18. 

9S.  John  xvi.  15. 

'"3  J.' J  J,  as  in  Gen.  xxvi.  11,  Jos.  ix.  19,  2  Sam. 
.Kiv.  10,  Jer.  xii.  14,  Ezek.  xvii.  10,  Ps.  cv.  15;  with 
ace.  Gen.  xxvi.  29,  Ku.  ii.  9 ;  of  God,  1  Sam.  vi.  9,  Job 
i.  11.  xix.  21. 

11  So  S.  Jer.  Theod.  Others,  as  S.  Cyr.,  of  his  own 
eye,  turning  to  evil  to  himself;  but  the  analogy  of 
tl'ie  other  passages  is  against  it.  Vy  r\33  [ot-J 
is  doubtless  the  .aame  as  Vj;  J^2  with  the  same  re- 
duplication as  in  .Arab.  Svr.  Ch.  The  reduplication 
is  plain  in  the  .Arab.  NOO  from  1<D«3  "  papavit," 
not  from  a  separate  root,  as  Ges.  Thes.  p.  841. 

i«  Deut.  xxxii.  10.  "  Ps.  xvli.  8. 

i«The  .same  idiom.  Is.  xi.  15.  xix.  \c>. 


CHAPTER  II. 


351 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

""Isai.  12.  0. 

&  54.  1. 

Zeph.  3.  14. 
>  Lev.  2G.  12. 

Ezek.  37.  27. 

fh.  8.  3. 

John  1.  14.  2  Cor.  6.  IG. 


10  ^""Sing  and  rejoice, 
0  daughter  of  Zion :  for, 
lo,  I  come,  and  I  "will 
dwell  in  the  midst  of  thee, 
saith  the  Lord. 


be  a  spoil  to  those  who  served  them  habit- 
ually ^. 

And  ye  aJudl  Iciww  that  the  Lord  of  hosts  hath 
sent  Me.  "  ^  He  was  sent,  not  as  God,  but  as 
Man.  For  as  God  He  is  equal  to  the  Father. 
For  He  saith,  *  /  am  in  the  Father  and  the 
Father  in  Mc,  and,  The  Father  Who  dmlleth  in 
Me  He  doeth  the  works,  and,  *  /  and  My  Father 
are  one,  and  "  He  xrlw  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen 
the  Father.  But  He  is  sent,  as  Man,  fullill- 
ing  the  dispensation  for  us,  not  lessening  the 
Divine  Nature.  The  Pi'ophet  then  intimated 
not  the  duaUty  only,  but  tlie  equality  of  the 
Persons." 

10.  Sing  and  rejoice,  0  daughter  of  Zion.  It 
is  a  great  jubilee  of  joy,  to  which  Zion  is 
invited.  Thrice  beside  is  she  invited  with 
this  same  word,  and  all  ior  the  restored  or 
renewed  Presence  of  God.  ^  Cry  aloud  for 
joy,  thou  barren,  which  bare  not,  as  here,  on  the 
coming  in  of  the  Gentiles,  '  Cry  aloud  for  joy, 
0  daughter  of  Zion  ;  jubilate,  0  Israel ;  rejoice 
and  exult  with  all  the  heart,  0  daughter  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  the  Lord,  the  King  of  Israel,  is  in  the 
midst  of  thee.  **  Shout  and  cry  aloud  Jor  joy,  0 
inhabitant  of  Zion  ;  for  great  in  the  midst  of  thee 
is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  The  source  of  joy 
is  a  fresh  coming  of  God,  a  coming,  whereby 
He  should  dwell  abidingly  among  them  :  truly 
what  is  this,  but  the  Incarnation  ?  As  S. 
John  saith,  "  The  Word  was  made  Flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us  ;  and,  ^"  Behold  the  tabernacle  of 
God  is  with  men,  and  He  will  dwell  with  them, 
and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and  God  Himself 
shall  be  xvith  them  and  shcdl  be  their  God. 
"  '*  Hence  too  you  may  learn  how  great  a  sub- 
ject of  contentment  above  is  the  Presence  of 
the  Saviour  upon  earth.  He  could  not  then 
but  bid  the  spiritual  Zion,  ^'^  which  is  the 
Church  of  the  Living  God,  the  most  sacred 
multitude  of  those  saved  by  faith,  to  cry 
aloud  for  joy  and  rejoice.  But  it  was  an- 
nounced that  He  should  come  and  be  in  the 
midst  of  her.  For  S.  John  saith  to  us.  The 
Word  '^  was  in  the  world,  and,  being  God,  was 
not  severed  from  His  creatures,  but  He  was 

1  The  force  of  the  part.  Dri'lD^',  instead  of 
Dn'lDi'.  So  nOlK  '\2y,  Zech.  xiii.  5.  Is.  xxx.  24 ; 
irfon«""13J?  Pr.  xii.  11;  D'dVx  ^^i'  Mai.  iii.  18: 

inK  n^jrn  ib.  n.  b^'jn  nni?  2  Kg?  x.  19, 21, 22, 

23,  bOi)  .J^  Ps.  xcvii.  7.  "yyn  n3j;  Ez.  xlvill.  18, 

i*j;n  n3>n,  ib.  19.   so  n_j;io  Snxi  in^'n  hj, 
isu.  iv.  37, 41.  D'i3;'  on  "ii5?><  ami;'  ib.  xviii. 


11  "And  many  nations 
shall  be  joined  to  the  Lord. 
p  in  that  day,  and  shall  be 
*•  my   people :   and   I   will 
dwell  in  the  midst  of  thee. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  .510. 

0  Isai.  2.  2,  3. 

&  49.  22. 

&  60.  3,  Ac. 

ch.  8.  22,  23. 
P  ch.  3.  10. 
<i  Ex.  12.  49. 


Himself  the  Source  of  life  to  all  living,  and 
holding  all  things  together  to  well-being  and 
life ;  but  '^  the  world  knew  Him  not :  fur  it 
worshiped  the  creature.  But  He  came  among 
us,  when,  taking  our  likeness,  He  was  con- 
ceived by  the  holy  Virgin,  and  ^*icas  seen 
upon  earth  and  conversed  xvith  men,  and  the 
divine  David  witnesseth  saying,  '^  Our  God 
shall  come  manifestly,  and  shcdl  not  keep  silence. 
Then  also  was  there  a  haven  for  the  Gen- 
tiles. For  now  no  longer  was  the  race  of 
Israel  alone  tauglit,  but  the  whole  earth  was 
engoldened  with  the  evangelical  preachings, 
and  in  every  nation  and  country  great  is  His 
Name." 

"  '•'  This  too  is  to  be  understood  of  the  Per- 
son of  the  Lord,  that  He  exhorts  His  peo- 
ple, being  restored  from  the  captivity  to  their 
tbrmer  abode,  to  be  glad  and  rejoice,  because 
the  Lord  Himself  cometh  and  dwelleth  in  the 
midst  of  her,  and  many  nations  shall  believe  in 
Him,  of  whom  it  is  said,  "  Ask  of  Me  and  I 
will  give  Tliee  nations  for  Thine  inheritance,  and 
the  ends  of  the  earth  for  Thy  possession,  and  He 
shall  dwell  in  the  xnidst  of  them,  as  He  saith  to 
His  disciples,  ^^Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  ivorkl." 

11.  And  many  nations  shall  join  themselves, 
cleaving  to  Him  by  a  close  union.  Isaiah 
had  so  spoken  of  single  proselytes " ;  Jere- 
miah had  used  the  word  of  Israel's  self-ex- 
hortation aiter  the  return  from  Babylon ; 
'^^  going  and  iveeping,  they  shall  go  and  seek  the 
Lord  their  God,  saying.  Come  and  let  us  join 
ourselves  unto  the  Lord,  in  a  perpetual  covenant 
that  shall  not  be  forgotten.  This  Zechariah 
now  predicts  of  many  nations.  The  Jews 
were  scarcely  half-restored  themselves,  a 
mere  handful.  They  had  wrought  no  conver- 
sions among  the  heathen,  yet  prophecy  con- 
tinues its  unbroken  voice,  many  nations  shall 
join  themselves  unto  the  Loi'd. 

And  shall  be  My  people,  lit.  be  to  Me  a  peo- 
ple. This  is  exactly  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  unity  amid  diversity ; 
many  nations  still  retaining  their  national 

21.  15^'n  the  laborer,  Eecl.  v.  11.    In  Gen.  iv.  2, 

xlix.  15,  Jos.  xvi.  10, 1  Kgs  v.  1,  2  Kgs  xvii.  33,  41,  it 
has  this  force  from  the  preceding  nTl. 

2  Theod.  •>  S.  John  xiv.  10.  *  Ib.  x.  30. 

5Ih.  xlv.  9.         9Is.  liv.  1  'Zeph.  iii.  14,15. 

8Is.  xii.  6.         9S.  Johni.  14.  'O  Rev.  xxi.  3. 

"  S.  Cyr.         12 1  Tim.  iii.  15.         '^  s.  John  j.  10. 
"  Barueh  iii.  37.  '»  Ps.  1.  3.  "  S.  Jer. 

"  Ps.  ii.  8.  '8  S.  Matt,  xxviii.  20. 

wis.  ivi.  3-fi.  ■'"Jer  1.4,5. 


352 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

f  Ezek.  33.  33. 
ver.  9. 


and  '  thou  shalt  know  that 
the  Lord  of  hosts  hath 
sent  me  unto  thee. 

12  And  the  Lord  shall 


existence,  yet  owned  by  God  as  one  people 
and  His  own.  The  words  are  those  in  which 
God  adopted  Israel  in  Egypt ;  *  /  will  take 
you  to  Me  for  a  people,  and  I  will  be  your  God. 
This  was  the  covenant  with  them,  ^  that  thou 
shouldest  entfr  into  covenant  with  the  Lord  thy 
God, — that  He  may  establish  thee  to-day  for  a 
people  unto  Himself,  and  that  He  may  be  unto 
thee  a  God.  The  contrary  was  the  title  of  the 
heathen,  ^  not  a  people  ;  with  whom  God  said, 
I  will  move  Israel  to  jealousy.  Tlie  closeness 
of  union  Jeremiah  expresses  ;  *As  the  girdle 
deavelh  to  the  loins  of  a  man,  so  have  I  caused  to 
cleave  to  Me  the  whole  house  of  Israel  and  the 
whole  house  of  Judah,  saith  the  Lord,  that  they 
mUjht  be  unto  Me  for  a  people  and  for  a  name 
and  for  a  praise  and  for  a  glory.  This  was  the 
object  of  the  existence  of  Israel ;  to  tliis  it 
was  to  be  restored  '"  by  conversion  ® ;  to  this 
special  privilege  of  Israel  many  natio)is  were 
to  be  admitted  ;  yet  not  so  as  to  be  separate 
from  Israel,  lor  He  adds,  and  I  will  dwell  in 
the  midM  of  thee,  Judah.  God  would  dwell  in 
His  Church,  formed  of  Israel  and  the 
Gentiles,  yet  so  that  the  Gentiles  should 
be  grafted  into  Israel,  becoming  one  with 
them. 

12.  And  the  Lord  shall  inherit  Judah  His 
portion.  The  inheritance  of  the  Lord  is  the 
title  which  God  commonly  gave  to  Israel'. 
God  is  said  to  be  tlie  portion,  of  Israel®;  of 
the  pious**;  once  only  beside,  is  Israel  said 
to  be  the  pi)rtion  of  God'";  once  only  is  God 
said  to  inherit  Israel,  "  Pardon  our  iniquity 


1  Exod.  vi.  7. 

«Deiu.  xxix.  12,  1.3,  add  Lev.  xxvi.  12,  Deut. 
xxvii.  9.  1  Sam.  xii.  22,  2  Sam.  vii.  23, 24,  2  Kgs  xi.  17, 
1  Chr.  xvii.  22,  2  Chr.  xxiii.  16,  Jer.  vii.  23,  xi.  4. 

8  Deut.  xxxii.  21. 

••Jer.  xiii.  11. 

6  lb.  xxiv.  7,  XXX.  22,  xxxi.  1,  xxxii.  .38. 

•  Ez.  xi.  20,  xiv.  11,  xxxvi.  28,xxxvii.  23,  27,  Zech. 
Tiii.  8. 

»  Deut.  iv.  20,  ix.  2r,,  29, 1  Sam.  xxvi.  19, 2  Sam.  xiv. 
10,  XX.  19,  xxi.  3,  1  Kgs  viii.  51,  Ps.  xxviii.  9,  xxxiii. 
12,  Ixviii.  10,  Ixxviii.  02,  71,  Ixxix.  1,  cvi.  40,  Joel  ii. 
17,  iii.  2,  [Heb]  Is.  xix.  25,  xlvii.  6,  Jer.  xii.  7-9, 1. 11. 

8  Jer.  X.  10.  n.  19. 


24. 


•Ps.  xvi.  5,  Ixxiii.  26,  cxix.  57,  cxlii.  6,  Lam.  iii. 
I 
w  Deut.  xxxii.  9.  "  Ex.  xxxiv.  9. 

"tyip  nOlK,  Ex.  iii.  5. 

"  ^^pri  DlpO,  Lev.  X.  17,  xiv.  13, 

^*  .pTy  ^'3,  1  Ciir.  xxix.  3. 

•*  .pn  jnK,  2  Chr.  XXXV.  3. 

"  .pn  Tjr,  Neh.  xl.  1, 18,  Is.  xlviii.  2,  HI.  1. 

"  .pn  -\T\,  Is.  xxvii.  13,  Jer.  xxxi.  23,  Zech.  viii.  3. 

'»  pn  uy,  Is.  ixii.  1^. 


'inherit    Judah    his    por-  chrTst 
tion    in    the    holy    land,      cir.  519. 

and  'shall  choose  Jerusa-  iDeut. :i2. 9. 
lem  again. 


>ch.  1.  17. 


and  our  sin,  and  take  us  for  thine  inheritance. 
Zechariah  unites  the  two  rare  idioms. 

In  the  holy  land.  The  land  is  again  made 
holy  by  God,  and  sunclitied  by  His  Tresence. 
So  He  calls  the  place  where  He  revealed 
Himself  to  Muses,  holy  ground  '■'.  So  it  is  said, 
'^  the  holy  place,  "  the  holy  house,  '*  the  holy  ark, 
^^  the  holy  city,  ^'' the  holy  mountain,  ^^the  holy 
people,  ^^ the  holy  chambers,  or,  with  relercnce 
to  their  relation  to  God  Who  consecrates 
them,  ^°  My  holy  mountain,  "•''  IViy  holy  hcU)ita- 
tion,  ■■^^  Thy  holy  dwelling-place,  '^  Thy  holy 
temple,  ^*  Thy  holy  mountain,  '^Thy  holy  oracle, 
^^Thy  holy  city,  '^''cities,  '^^  His  holy  place,  '^^His 
holy  border.  It  is  not  one  technical  expres- 
sion, as  people  now  by  a  sort  of  efibrt  sj)cak 
of  "  the  holy  land."  "Everything  which  has 
reference  to  God  is  holy.  The  land  is  holy, 
not  for  any  merits  of  theirs,  but  because  God 
was  worshiped  there,  was  specially  present 
there.  It  was  an  anticipation  and  type  of 
"Thy  holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world 
doth"  acknowledge  Thee."  This  land  thtir 
fathers  had  ^"polluted  ivith  blood;  God  says, 
^^they  defiled  My  land;  Ezekiel  called  her 
eminently,  ^'^ the  land  that  vinot  cleansed.  2sow 
God  said,  ^^  /  will  remove  the  iniquity  of  the  land, 
and  she  was  again  a  holy  land,  as  hallowed  by 
Him. 

It  is  not  a  mere  conversion  of  the  heathen, 
but,  as  Isaiah  ^*  and  Micah  -'^  foretold  ;  a  con- 
version, of  which  Jerusalem  should  be  the 
centre,  as  our  Lord  explained  to  tiie  .\p0stle3 
after  His  Kesurrection,  ^  that  repentance  and 

".pn  nniyS ez. xiii.  13. [aii.] 

^'tyip  in  Ps.  ii.  C.  Is.  xi.  9.  Ivi.  7,  Ivii.  13,  Ixv.  11, 
25,  Ixvi.  20,  Ez.  XX.  40.  Jo.  ii.  1,  iv.  17,  Ob.  16.  Zeph. 
iii.  11. 

2^  Jdlp  niJ  Ex.  XV.  13. 

^  .p  pj?0  Deut.  xxvi.  15.  His  holy  hab.  Ps.  Ixviii. 
6,  Jer.  XXV.  30,  Zech.  ii.  17. 

28  p  43'n  Ps.  V.  8,  Ixxix.  1,  cxxxviii.  J,  Jon.  ii.  5, 
8,  Ilis  holy  temple.  Mi.  i.  2.  Hab.  ii.  20. 

^  .p  "in  Ps.  XV.  1,  xliii.  3,  Dan.  ix.  16.  ITis  holy  hill, 
Ps.  iii.  5,  xlviii.  2,  xeix.  9. 

"^  .p  T3T  Ps.  xxviii.  2.       M.p  T;,' Dan.  ix.24. 

27  .p  ""^y  Is.  Ixiv.  9. 

s«.p  DIpD  Ps.  xxiv.  3. 

»Ps.  cvi.38. 


".p  SOJ  Ps.  Ixxviii.  54. 
81  Jer.  ii.  7,  iii.  9,  xvi.  18. 
83  Zech.  Hi.  9. 
«  Mlcah  It  ? 


82  Ezek.  xxii.  24. 

«Is.  ii.  3. 

••9  Luke  xxiv  47 


CHArXER   III. 


353 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  510. 

u  Hab.  2.  20. 
Zeph.  1.  7. 

»  Ps.  68.  6. 
Isai.  57. 15. 

fHeb.  the  habi- 
tation of  his 
holiness. 
Deut.  26. 15. 
Isai.  63. 15. 


13  "Be   silent,  O  all 
.flesh,  before   the   Lord: 
for  he  is  raised  up  *  out  of 
t  his  holy  habitation. 

CHAPTER  III. 

1  Under  the  type  of  Joshua,  the 
restoration  of  the  church,  8 
Christ  the  Branch  is  prcnnised. 


remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  His  name 
am^ng  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem. 

13.  £e  silent,  lit.  hush^,  all  flesh,  before  the 
Lord ;  man  in  his  weakness  ^,  flesh  and  blood 
in  the  language  of  the  New  Testament*, 
before  God  his  Maker.  All  flesh,  the  whole 
human  race*,  is  to  be  hushed  before  God, 
because  His  judgments,  as  His  mercies,  are 
over  all. 

For  God  ariseth.  God  seemeth  to  be  quies- 
cent, as  it  were,  when  He  beai-s  with  us ;  to 
arise,  when  He  puts  forth  His  power,  either 
for  us,  when  we  pray,  ^  Lord,  awake  to  help 
me  ;  or  in  displeasure.  His  holy  habitation  is 
alike  the  tabernacle  *,  temple '',  heaven  ®, 
since  His  presence  is  in  all. 

III.  1.  And  He,  God,  (for  the  office  of  the 
attendant  angel  was  to  explain,  not  to  shew 
the  visions)  sloeived  me  Joshua  the  High  Pi  iet-t, 
standing  before  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  ;  probably 
to  be  judged  by  him  *  ;  as  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, to  stand  before  the  Son  of  Man;  for 
although  standing  before,  whether  in  relation 
to  man  ^"  or  God  '\  expresses  attendance 
upon,  yet  here  it  appears  only  as  a  condition, 
contemporaneous''^  with  that  of  Satan's,  to 
accuse  him.  Although,  moreover,  the  Angel 
speaks  with  authority,  yet  God's  Presence  in 
him  is  not  spoken  of  so  distinctly,  that  the 
High  Priest  would  be  exhibited  as  standing 
before  him,  as  in  his  office  before  God. 

1  See  on  Hab.  ii.  20.  p.  207. 

SGen.  vi.  3,2  Chr.  xxxii.  8,  Job  x.  4,  Ps.  Ivi.  4, 
Ixxviii.  .39,  Is.  xxxi.  .3,  Jer.  xvii.  5. 

8S.  Matt.  xvi.  17, 1  Cor.  xv.  5U,  Gal.  i.  10. 

*Gen.  vi.  12,  Ps.  Ixv.  3,  cxlv.  21,  Is.  .xl.  5,  6,  xlix. 
26,  Ixvi.  23,  Jo.  iii.  1,  Ez.  xxi.  4,  9, 10. 

6  Ps.  lix.  4.  add  Ps.  vii.  7,  xliv.  24.  « i  gam.  ii. 

29,  32,  Ps.  xxvi.  9,  Ixviii.  C.  "2  Chr.  xxxvi.  15. 

8  Deut.  xxvi.  15,  Jer.  xxv.  30,  2  Chr.  xxx.  27. 

*  "Stand  before"  is  used  Judicially,  Nu.  xxxv.  12, 
Dent.  xix.  17.  Jos.  xx.  6,  and  of  plaintiffs,  Nu.  xxvii. 
2, 1  Ke:s  iii.  16;  stand  before  God,  Rev.  xx.  12;  before 
the  i'ldfiment-seat  of  Christ,  Rom.  xiv.  10;  and  be  ac- 
quitted, S.  Luke  xxi.  36. 

10  Joseph  before  Pharaoh,  Gen.  xli.  46;  Joshua 
before  3Ioses,  Deut.  i.  .38;  David  before  Saul,  1  Sam. 
xvi.  21 ;  the  young  virgin  before  David.  1  Kgs  i.  2; 
Solomon's  servants,  lb.  x.  8  ;  his  councillors,  2  Chr. 
X.  6;  Gedaliah,  of  serving  the  Chaldaeans,  Jer.  xl. 
10;  Nebuz.iradan,  Jer.  Iii.  12;  Daniel  and  his  com- 
panions, of  office  before  the  king  of  Babylon,  Dan.  i. 
fi.  But  it  is  also  used  of  presence  with  a  commis- 
sion to  the  person;  Moses  before  Pharaoh,  Ex.viii. 
20,  ix.  13;   of  an  office  toward  others,  to  niiniiiter 


A^D 


he  shewed  me    chrTst 
"Joshua    the  high      cir.  5i9. 


priest  standing  before  the » Hag.  1. 1. 

angel  of  the  Lord,  and 

'' II  Satan  standing  at  his''P'=.  109.6. 

Rev.  12.  10. 

right  hand  fto  resist  him.  i  That  isj  an.' ad- 

r»     i       1       1         T  •  1     versary. 

2  And  the  Lord  said  t  Heb.  to  be  Ms 
unto  Satan,  "The  Lord  re- <>3\ide  dP^' 
buke  thee,  O  Satan ;  even 


And  Satan,  etymologically,  the  enemy,  as,  in 
the  New  Testament,  ^^your  adversary  the  devil, 
etymologically,  the  accuser.  It  is  a  proper 
name  of  the  Evil  one,  y.et  its  original  mean- 
ing, the  enemy^*,  was  not  kst.  Here,  as  in 
Job,  his  malice  is  shewn  in  accusation  ;  ^^the 
accuser  of  our  brethren,  who  accused  them  before 
our  God,  day  and  night.  In  Job  '*,  the  accu- 
sations were  calumnious ;  here,  doubtless, 
true.  For  he  accused  Job  of  what  would 
have  been  plain  apostacy  '^ ;  Joshua  and 
Zerubbabel  had  shared,  or  given  way  to,  the 
remissness  of  the  people,  as  to  the  rebuilding 
of  the  temple  and  the  full  restoration  of  the 
worship  of  God 'I  For  tliis,  Hapgai  l.ad 
reproved  the  people,  througli  them  ^^.  Satan 
had  then  a  real  charge,  on  which  to  implead 
them.  Since  also  the  whole  series  of  visions 
relates  to  the  restoration  Irom  the  captivity, 
the  guilt,  for  which  Satan  impleads  him  with 
Jerusalem  and  Jerusalem  in  him,  includes 
the  whole  guilt,  which  had  rested  upon 
them,  so  that  for  a  time  God  had  seemed  to 
have  cast  away  His  people  ''".  Satan  stands  at 
his  right  hand,  the  place  of  a  protector^',  to 
shew  that  he  had  none  to  save  him,  and  that 
himself  was  victorious. 

2.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan,  The  Lord 
rebuke  thee.  '"  ^^  This  they  so  explain,  that  the 
Father  and  the  Son  is  Lord,  as  we  read  in 
the   110th   Psalm,    The   Lord   said  unto  my 

unto  them,  as  the  Levites  before  the  congregation, 
Nu.  xvi.  9;  degraded  priests,  "to  serve  them." 
Ezek.  xliv.  11. 

11  The  tribe  of  Levi,  Deut.  x.  8,  2  Chr.  xix.  11 ;  the 
High  Priest,  Jud.  xx.  28,  Ezek.  xliv.  15;  Elijah,  1 
Kgs  xvii.  1,  xviii.  15 ;  Elisha,  2  Kgs  iii.  14,  v.  16 ;  Jo- 
naclab's  descendants,  Jer.  xxxv.  19.  It  is  used  of 
standing  to  intercede  with  God,  of  Abraham,  Gen. 
xviii.  22;  Moses  and  Samuel,  Jer.  xv.  1;  Jeremiah, 
lb.  19.    Also  of  worship,  Jer.  vii.  10. 

12  The  two  ^3 j?  express  a  correlative  condition. 
« 1  S.  Pet.  V.  8. 

"As  in  other  appellatives,  H'l'ri    (Hl^  twice 

only),  7_y3n,  but  in  its  contracted  form,  when  the 

etymology  was  lost,  73,  <S:c.  ^Qtf  as  a  Prop.  Name, 

without  the  article,  occurs  1  Chr.  xxi.  1,  Ps.  cix.  6; 
with  the  article,  eleven  times  here,  and  fourteen 
times  in  the  first  narrative  chapters  of  Job. 

16  Rev.  xii.  10.  i<>  Job  i.  8-11,  ii.  3-5. 

17  lb.  i.  11.  ii.  5. 

18  Ezr.  iii.  iv.       i»  Hagg.  i.  1-11.       »  Rom.  xl.  1. 
-1  P<.  xvi.  8.  cix.  31,  cxxi.  5,  cxiii.  4.        ^  S.  Jer. 


o4 


ZECIIAKIAir. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

<»ch.  1.  17. 

Rom.  8.  33. 
«.\mos4.  11. 

Rom.  11.  5. 

Jude  23. 


the  Lord  that  "*hath  cho- 
.  sen  Jerusalem  rebuke  thee : 
*  w  not  this  a  brand  phicked 
out  of  the  tire  ? 

3  Now  Joshua  was 


Lord,  Sit  Thou  on  My  rirjht  hand.  The  Lord 
speaketh  of  another  Lord;  not  that  He,  the 
Lord  Who  speaketh,  cannot  rebuke,  but  that, 
from  the  unity  of  nature,  when  tlie  Other 
rebuketh,  He  HiniseH'  Who  speaketli  rebuk- 
eth.  For  '  he  ivho  seeth  the  Son,  seeth  the 
Father  also."  It  may  be  that  God,  by  such 
sayings  '^,  also  accustomed  men,  before  Christ 
came,  to  believe  in  the  Plurality  of  Persons 
in  the  One  Oodhead. 

The  rebuke  of  God  must  be  witii  power. 
^  Thou  ha.it  rebul^ed  the  nations.  Thou  hast  de- 
stroyed the  ungodly.  *  Thou  hast  rebuked  the 
proud,  accursed.  °  They  perish  at  the  rebuke  of 
Thy  Countenance.  ^  At  Thy  rebuke,  0  God  of 
Jacob,  both  the  chariot  and  horse  are  cast  into  a 
deep  sleep.  '  God  shall  rebuke  him,  ami  he 
fleethfar  off,  and  shall  be  cimsed  as  the  chaff  of 
the  mountains  before  the  wind.  ®  He  rebuked 
the  Red  Sea  and  it  dried  up.  ®  The  founda- 
tions of  the  world  ivere  discovered  at  Thy  rebuke, 
O  Lord.  He  ^°  rebuked  the  .seec/,  and  it  per- 
ished; the  devourer^^,  and  it  no  longer  de- 
voured. The  rebuke  then  of  the  blasted 
spirit  involved  a  withering  rejection  of  him- 
self and  his  accusations,  as  when  Jesus  re- 
buked the  unclean  spirit  and  he  departed  out 
of  his  victim  '*. 

Tlie  Lord  hath  chosen  Jerusalem.  Joshua 
then  is  acquitted,  not  because  the  accusation 
of  Satan  was  false,  but  out  of  the  free  love  of 
God  for  His  pei)ple  and  for  Joshua  in  it  and 
as  its  representative.  '^  Who  shall  lay  arvy- 
thing  lo  the  charge  of  God's  elect  f  It  is  God 
that  justijicth.  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ? 
The  high  priest,  being  "  himself  also  compassed 
with  infirmity,  needed  daily  to  offer  up  sacrifices 
first  for  his  own  sins,  and  then  for  the  people's. 
As  Isaiah  said,  on  the  sight  of  God,  ''  /  am 
undone,  because  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips, 
and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  nnelean 
lips,  and,  until  cleansed  by  the  typical  coal, 
dared   not  offer   himself  for   the  prophetic 

»8.  John  xiv.  9. 

*  As  in  those,  "  the  Lord  rained  upon  Sodotn  and 
upon  Oomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the  Lord  out 
of  heaven,"  Goii.  xix.  24,  and  others  in  which  Goii 
speaks  of  Himself  in  the  third  person,  the  Lord. 
Gen.  xviii.  14, 19. 

aPs.  ix.  5.  Mb.  cxix.  21.  »  lb.  Ixxx.  10. 

•lb.  Ixxvi.  fi.  Ms.  xvii.  13.  «  Ps.  cvi.  9. 

»  lb.  xviii.  1.5.  add.  Nah.  i.  4.  'o  Mai.  ii.  .3. 

"  lb.  iii.  11.  "1|7J  ia  u.'»ed  11  times  of  God,  only  3 
times  of  man;  Gen.  xxxvii.  10,  Ruth  ii.  16,  Jer. 
xxix.  27.  n^i'j  8  times  of  God;  3  times  in  Prov. 

and  Eccl.  vii.  5,  of  rebuke  of  man,  and  Is.  xxx.  17. 
".S.  Mark  i.  2.5,  26,  ix,  2.5,  S.  Luke  iv.  3.5,  Ix.  42. 
1'  Uom.  viii.  .'..t,  34.      '«  Heb.  v.  2,  3.      ^  !>».  vi.  5. 


clothed  with  'filthy  gar- 
ments, and  stood  before  the 
angel. 

4  And  he  answered  and 
spake  unto  those  that  stood 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

'  Isai.  64.  6. 


office,  so  here  Satan,  in  Joshua,  aimed  at  the 
whole  priestly  office,  and  in  it,  at  Israel's  re- 
lation to  God. 

Is  not  this  a  brand  plucked  out  of  the  fire? 
"  '*  As  if  he  should  say,  Israel  confessedly  has 
sinned,  and  is  liable  to  these  charges.  Yet 
it  has  suiiercd  no  slight  punishment ;  it  has 
endured  sufferings,  and  has  scarce  been 
snatched  out  of  them,  as  a  half-burned  brand 
out  of  the  fire.  For  not  yet  had  it  shaken  off 
the  dust  of  the  harms  from  the  captivity  ; 
only  just  now  and  scarely  had  it  escaped  the 
flame  of  that  most  intolerable  calanuty.  Cease 
then  imputing  sin  to  them,  on  whom  God 
has  had  mercy." 

3.  Sow  Joshua  was  clotlied  with  filthy  gar- 
ments ;  such,  it  is  expressed,  was  his  habitual 
condition  "  ;  he  was  one  so  clothed.  The  filthy 
garment,  as  defilement  generally,  is,  in  Scrip- 
ture, the  symbol  of  sin.  '**  We  are  all  as  the 
unclean,  and  all  our  righteousne.'ises  are  as  filthy 
rags.  '"  He  that  is  left  in  Zion  and  he  that  re- 
muineth  in  Jerusalem  shall  be  called  holy — when 
the  Lord  shall  have  washed  away  the  filth  of  the 
daughters  of  Zion.  ^^  I'here  is  a  generation, pure 
in  its  own  eyes,  and  it  in  not  washed  from  its 
filthiness.  The  same  is  expressed  by  different 
words,  signifying  pollution,  defilement  by 
sin  ;  ^'  Wo  unto  her  that  is  filthy  and  polluted  ; 
'^'^  The  land  icas  defiled  with  blood  ;  ^^  they  were 
defiled  ivith  their  own  tvorks.  It  is  symbolized 
also  by  the  '^*  divers  ivashings  of  the  law,  rep- 
resenting restored  purity ;  and  the  use  of 
the  word  by  Psalmists  and  Prophets;  '^'Wash 
me  thoroughly  from  mine  iniquity  ;  '^^  wash  you, 
make  you  clean;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings 

from  before  Mine  eyes  ;  '"  0  Jerusalem,  wash  thy 
heart  from  wickedness.  In  later  times  at  least, 
the  accused  were  clothed  in  black  **,  not  in 
defded  ^^  garments. 

4.  And  He  spake  to  those  who  stood  before  Him, 
tiie  ministering  Angels  who  had  waited  on 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  to  do  His  bidding. 

i«  S.  Cyr.    "  The  force  of  the  participle  with  HTI. 
>8  Is.  Ixiv.  6.  '»  lb.  iv.  3,  4. 

■J"  Pr.  xxx.  12.  Filth,  filthiness,  in  Is.  iv.  4  also,  is 
riNiy,  the  abstract  of  the  o»r.  A«y.  in  Zech.,  Kiy. 
21  Zeph.  iii.  1,  n^N JJ1  rv<"110.    See  ib. 
M  Ps.  cvi.  38.  c]jn'  i.  q.  flJO  Cant.  v.  3. 

a  Ps.  cvi.  .39.  X"3£3  om..  to  liriD.    **  Heb.  ix.  10. 
»  Ps.  Ii.  4,  '3p33  [2  Eng.]  «>  Is.  i.  16.  ^^HT. 

"Jer.  iv.  14,  '033. 

wjos.  Ant.  xiv.  10.  4.  "Whosoever  is  brought 
before  the  tribunal  to  be  judged,  is  set,  as  lowly, 
before  i(,  and  is  clothed  with  black  raiment." 

■■"As  in  Latin,  "-^or.lid.iii."  I,iv.  ii  54,  vi.  20. 


CHAPTER  HI. 


365 


CHR°iST    before   him,  saying,  Take 

cir.  519.       away  the   filthy  garments 

from  him.     And  unto  him 

he  said,  Behold,  I   have 

caused   thine  iniquity  to 

«isai.  61. 10.      pass  from  thee,  "^and  I  will 

Rev.^9?'8^^'     clothe  thee  with  change  of 

raiment. 

5  And  I  said,  Let  them 
set  a  fair  "  mitre  upon  his 
head.     So  they  set  a  fair 


>>  Ex.  29.  6. 
ch.  6. 11. 


See,  I  have  caused  thine  iniquitt/  to  pa>^s  from 
thee;  the  pardoning  words  of  the  Lord  to 
David  by  Natlian,  '  The  Lord  too  hath  put 
away  thy  sin.  And  clothe  thee^  with  clumge  of 
raiment  *,  i.  e.  sucli  as  were  taken  off"  and  re- 
served for  great  occasions.  As  the  Jiltliy  (jur- 
ments  were  not  necessarily  other  tlian  tlie 
High  Priest's  vesture,  symbolically  defiled 
through  the  sins  of  the  people,  so  neither 
need  these  be  other  than  the  priestly  gar- 
ments in  their  purity  and  freshness.  The 
words  imply  the  condition,  not  the  natui-e  of 
the  vestment.  "  *  The  high-priest  having 
been  thus  taken  to  represent  tlie  whole 
people,  the  filthy  garments  would  be  no  un- 
clear symbol  of  the  wickedness  of  the  people. 
For  clad,  as  it  were,  with  their  sins,  with  the 
ill-efTaceable  spot  of  ungodliness,  they  abode 
in  captivity,  subject  to  retribution,  paying 
the  penalty  of  their  unholy  deeds.  But  when 
God  had  pity  on  them,  He  bade  them  be 
freed  from  their  defilements,  and  in  a  manner 
re-clad  with  justifying  grace.  He  indicates 
to  them  the  end  of  their  toils.  For  where 
remission  of  sin  is,  there  follows  of  necessity 
freedom  from  the  evils  brought  through 
sin." — He  adds  that  a  clean  mitre  should  be  put 
upon  his  head,  "  ^  that  so  we  might  understand 
that  the  glory  of  the  jDriesthood  ever,  in  a 
sort,  concurs  with  the  condition  of  the  people. 
For  the  boast  of  the  priesthood  is  the  purity 
of  those  in  their  charge. — As  then  when  the 
people  was  in  sin,  the  raiment  of  the  priest 
also  was  in  a  manner  defiled,  so  if  it  were 
again  well-approved,  pure  and  bright  is  the 
fashion  of  the  priesthood,  and  free  its  access 
to  God.  So  the  divine  Paul  having  minis- 
tered to  the  Gentiles  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 

12  Sam.  xii.  13,  "jriKDn  T3;?n  '"  DJ.  The 
idiom  occurs  lb.  xxiv.  10.  add.  Job  vii.  21. 

*  The  inf.  expresses  the  more,  the  contemporane- 
ousness ot  tlie  acts.  See  below  vii.  5,  xii.  10,  and 
others  in  Ewald  Lehrb.  §  3-51.  c.  p.  853.  ed.  8. 

*  nixSnO  recurs  Is.  iii.  22.  ♦  S.  Cyr. 
6  S.  Cyr.  •  1  Cor.  xv.  31.  '  Phil.  Iv.  1. 
•H'jy  is  uspH  of  the  turban  of  women,  Is.  iii.  23; 

or  of  nobles,  Job  xxix.  14  :  i.  q.  ni  JV  of  royalty,  l.s. 


mitre   upon  his  head,  and    chr°iIt 
clothed  him  with  garments.      "'r.  519. 
And  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
stood  by. 

6  And  the  angel  of  the 
LoED  protested  unto 
Joshua,  saying, 

7  Thus  saith  the  Lord 

of  hosts ;  If  thou  wilt  walk  , 

,    .^    ,        'Lev.  8. 3.5. 
in   my  ways,  and  11  thou  1  Kin.  2. 3. 

Ezek.  44. 16. 
wilt    'keep    my    1 1  charge,  II  Or,  ordinance. 


seeing  them  advancing  in  graces,  writes,  *  By 
your  boast,  brethren,  which  I  have  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and,  '  my  joy  and  crown" 

5.  And  I  said,  let  them  set  a  fair  mitre  •  on 
his  hpfid.  This  seems  to  have  been  purposely 
omitted,  in  order  to  leave  something,  and 
that,  the  completion  of  all,  to  be  done  at  the 
intercession  of  the  prophet.  The  glory  and 
complement  of  the  High  Priest's  sacrificial 
attire  was  the  mitre  with  the  holy  crown  upo'n 
it  and  the  plate  of  pure  gold,  on  ivhich  icas  graven. 
Holiness  to  the  JLorcr-' ;  which  was  to  be  upon 
the  High-priest's  forehead,  that  he  may  bear 
the  iniquity  of  the  holy  things  which  the  children 
of  Israel  shall  hallow  in  all  their  holy  gifts ; 
which  was  always  to  be  upon  his  forehead,  that 
they  may  be  accepted  before  the  Lord.  The 
renewed  gift  of  this  was  reserved  for  the 
intercession  of  man  co-working  with  God. 

And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  standing  by,  seeing 
that  all  was  done  aright,  and,  now  that  the 
acquittal  was  complete,  standing  to  give  the 
charge. 

6.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  protested  solemn- 
ly Tetymologically,  called  God  to  witness)  as 
in, '"  Did  I  not  make  thee  swear  by  the  Lord  and 
protested  vnto  thee,  laying  it  as  an  obligation 
upon  him ''.  The  charge  is  given  to  Joshua, 
and  in  him  to  all  successive  high-priests, 
while  Israel  should  continue  to  be  God's 
people,  as  the  condition  of  their  acceptance. 

7.  If  thou  ivilt  walk  in  My  ivays  and  if  thou 
ivilt  keep  My  charge.  Both  of  these  are  ex- 
pressions, dating  from  the  Pentateuch,  for 
holding  on  in  the  way  of  life,  well-pleasing 
to  God  and  keeping  the  charge  given  by 
God  ^*.  It  was  the  injunction  of  the  dying 
David  to  Solomon,  '^  Keep  tfce  charge  of  the 

Ixii.  3.  Here  it  is  put  for  r\3jyo,  the  Pentateuch 
name  for  the  high-priest's  mitre,  as  distinct  from 
the  nj?3jp  of  ordinary  priests. 

9  Ex.  xxviii.  36-38,  xxix.  6.  i»l  Kgs  ii.  42. 

"  n^'H  with  2  Gen.  xliii.  3,  Deut.  viii.  19,  xxxii. 

46,  Ps.  I.  7,  Ac. 

'*  mOK'O  IDK/  first  used  of  Abraham,  Gen.  xxri. 
5,  then  Lev.  xviii.  30,  xxil.  9,  Deut.  xi.  1,  Joa.  xxii.  S. 
13  1  Kgs  ii.  3. 


356 


ZECHAEIAH. 


C  H  R°I  S  T     ^^^^^  *'^°^  ^^^^^  ^^^°  "j^^^ige 

cir.  519.       my  house,  and   shalt  also 
keep  my  courts,  and  I  will 
give  thee  f  places  to  walk 
among  these  that  'stand  by. 
8  Hear  now,  O  Joshua 


k  Deut.  17.  9. 

Mai.  2.  7. 
+  Heb.  walks, 

»ch.  4. 14. 
&6.  6. 


Xorci  thy  God,  to  walk  in  His  ways,  to  keep  His 
gtatules  &c. 

Then  shalt  thou,  cdso  judge  My  house. 
.Judgment,  in  the  place  of  God,  was  part  of 
the  High-priest's  office  ^  Yet  these  judg- 
ments also  were  given  in  the  house  of  (iod. 
The  cause  was  directed  to  be  brought  to 
God,  and  He  through  His  priests  judged  it. 
Both  then  may  be  comprehended  in  the 
world,  the  oversight  of  the  people  itself  and 
the  judgment  of  all  causes  brouglit  to  it. 
"'^Thou  shalt  judge  those  who  minister  in 
the  house  of  My  sanctuary." 

And  I  will  give  thte  place  to  wallc  among  thoiie 
wlio  stand  by'',  i.e.  among  the  ministering 
spirits,  who  Avere  *  standing  before  the  Angel 
of  the  Lord.  This  can  be  fully  only  after 
death,  when  the  saints  shall  be  received 
among  the  several  choirs  of  angels.  "■'In 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  I  will  revive 
thee  and  give  thee  feet  walking  among  these 
Seraphim."  Even  in  this  life,  since  ^oiir 
<:onversatifj7i  w  in  heaven,  and  the  life  of 
priests  should  be  an  angel-life,  it  may  mean, 
that  he  should  have  free  access  to  God, 
Ids  soul  in  heaven,  while  his  body  was  on 
this  earth. 

8.  Thou  and  thy  companions  which  sit  before 
thee;  yea^  men  of  marvelous  signs  are  they^. 
It  seems  probable  that  the  words  addressed 
to  .Joshua  begin  here ;  else  the  men  of  signs 
would  be  the  companions  of  Joshua,  to  tlie 
exclusion  of  Himself.  His  companions  are 
probably  ordinary  priests,  who  ait  as  sharing 
his  dignity  as  priest,  but  before  him,  as  infe- 
riors. iSo  Ezekiel  says,  "  /  tvas  siding  in  my 
house,  and  the  elders  of  Israel  were  sitting  before 
me.     They  are  "*  images  of  the  things  to  come. 

1  Deut.  xvii.  9-13,  xix.  17,  Mai.  ii.  7.  J'T   is  u.sed 

"f  judging  a  cause  (with  J'l,  Jer.  v.  28,  xxx.  1.3; 

with  £33iy"D,  lb.  xxi.  12)  or  persons;  with  the  per- 
sonal pronoun,  Glen.  xxx.  6;  or  people,  peoples,  the 
eirds  of  the  earth,  the  poor  and  needj%  17  times: 
'no  i«  used  metaphorloally  ol'  the  people  of  God, 
only  in  Nu.  xii.  7,  l>e  is  laithful  in  all  My  house,  or  at 
most  .ler.  xij.  7,  /  hni-e  left  Mu  house.  Here  the 
parallel  word  My  courts,  shews  that  the  house  is  the 
literal  temple. 

••'  Jon. 

*  Against  the  runderiug,  "  those  who  shall  make 

thee  logo,"  i.e.,  guide  thee,  (D'Jjbnp  for  DO'ShO) 
ihore  were  valid  objections;  1)  that  the  Hif.  is 
alWMVii  1'7in,  except  I'vTI  Kx.  ii.  !'.    'I'Ik'  ]':iili<-. 


the  high  priest,  thou  and    chrTst 
thy  fellows  that  sit  before .      ^''•-  ^la- 


thee :  for  they  are  "  f  men  ">  Ps.  -i.  7. 
wondered  at :  for,  behold,  &  20. 3. 
I  will  bring  forth  °my  ser-^"j,!je"OT/^ 
vant  the  "  BKANCH.  ^ti^'s^^. 

n  Isai.  42.  1.  Si  49.  3, 5.  i  52. 13.  A  J3. 11.  Ezek.  34. 23,  24. 
•  Isai.  4. 2.  &  11. 1.  Jer.  23. 5.  i  33. 15.  ch.  G.  12.  Luke  1. 78. 


Isaiah's  two  sons,  with  their  prophetic 
names.  Haste-spoil  speed-prey,  and  a-remnant 
shull-reiurn,  were  with  his  own  name,  salm- 
tion-of-the-Lord,  ^^  signs  and  portents  of  the 
future  Israel.  Isaiah,  walking  naked  and 
barefoot,  was  "a  sign  ami  portent  against 
Egypt.  God  tells  Ezekiel,  that  in  the  remo- 
val of  his  stuff,  as  stuff  for  the  captivity,  '*  /  have 
set  thee  for  a  portent  unto  the  house  of  Israel.  I, 
he  explains  his  act  ^^,  am  your  portent;  like  as 
I  have  done,  so  shcdl  it  be  done  unto  you.  When 
forbidden  to  mourn  on  the  death  of  his  wife  ; 
'*  Ezekiel  is  unto  you  for  a  portent;  according  to 
(dl  tluU  he  hath  done,  shall  ye  do  ;  and  when  this 
Cometh,  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  God. 
Wherein  then  were  Joshua  and  the  other 
priests  portents  of  what  should  be?  One 
fact  alone  had  stood  out,  the  forgiveness  of 
sins.  Accusation  and  full  forgiveness,  out  of 
God's  free  mercy,  were  the  substance  of  tlie 
whole  previous  vision.  It  was  the  full  re- 
instatement of  the  priesthood.  The  priest- 
hood so  restored  was  the  portent  of  what  was 
to  come.  To  ^*  offer  the  offering  of  the  people, 
and  make  an  atonement  for  them;  ^^to  make  an 
I  atonement  for  the  children  of  Israel  for  all  their 
sins  once  a  year,  was  the  object  of  the  exist- 
I  ence  of  the  priesthood.  Typical  only  it 
j  could  be,  because  they  had  but  the  blood  of 
bulls  and  goats  to  offer,  which  could,  in  them- 
selves, ^'' never  take  away  sins.  But  in  this 
their  act  they  were  portents  of  what  was  to 
come.  He  adds  liere,  For,  behold,  I  will  bring 
My  Servant  the  Branch. 

The  Branch  had  now  become,  or  2^chariah 
made  it,  a  proper  name.  Isaiah  had  pro- 
phesied, '*  In  that  day  shall  the  Branch  of  the 
Lord  be  beautiful  and  glorious  for  the  escaped  of 

T'71D  occurs  9  times,  once  in  Zech.  v.  10.  2)  It 
would  have  been  probably  "out  of  these"  or  at 
least  "  from  among  those."  O'D/DO  is  then  prob- 
ably from  a  sing.  IjSnO  like  1\2r^0,  1^;.'p.  3Vnp) 
for  ^SnO  Jon.  iii.  3,  4,  Ez.  xlii.  4'. 

*  veWe  4.  *  Phil.  iii.  20. 

•'S  is  inserted  in  the  like  way  rii  Gen.  xviii.  20, 
Ps.  cxviii.  10-12,  cxxviii.  2. 

'The  subject  addressed  in  the  nominative  is 
resumed  by  the  pronoun  of  the  3d  person,  as 
in  Zeph.  ii.  12. 

"Ezek.  viii.  1.         «Heb.  x.  1.  '"Is.  viii.  18. 

"lb.  XX.  3.  <«  Ezek.  xii.  6,  "lb.  11. 

'Mb.  xxiv.  24.  "Lev.  ix7. 

i«  Lev.  xvi.  31.  I'Hol..  X.4.  'Ms.  i\.2. 


CHAPTER  IIT. 


y  For  behold  the  stone 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  619.      that   I   have  laid   before 


P  Ps.  118.  22.  Isai.  28.  16. 


Israel ;  and,  in  reference  to  the  low  estate  of 
him  wlio  should  come,  ^  There  shall  come  forth 
a  rod  out  of  the  stump  of  Jesse,  and  a  Branch 
shall  grow  out  of  his  roots;  and  Jeremiah, 
^  Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I 
ivill  raise  xmto  David  a  righteous  Branch,  and  a 
king  shall  reign  and  prosper,  and  shall  execute 
judgment  and  justice  in  the  earth,  and  this  is  the 
name  whereby  He  shall  be  called,  The  Lord  our 
Righteousness  ;  and,  ■*  In  tltose  days  and  at  that 
time,  u'ill  I  cause  the  Branch  of  righteousness  to 
grow  up  unto  David,  and  he  shall  execute  judg- 
ment and  righteousness  in  the  land.  Of  him 
Zechariah  afterward  spoke  as,  *n  man  whose 
name  is  the  Branch.  Here  Zecliariah  names 
him  simply,  as  a  proper  name,  3Iy  servant 
[the]  Branch,  as  Ezekiel  prophesied  of  ^  My 
servcmt  David.  The  title  My  sen'unt,  which 
is  Isaiah's  chiefest  title  of  the  Messiah,  oc- 
curs in  connection  with  the  same  image  of 
His  youth's  lowly  estate,  and  of  His  atoning 
Death.  ^  He  shall  grow  up  before  Him  as  a 
sucker,  and  as  a  root  from  a  dry  gi-ound;  '  a 
scion  shall  grow  out  of  his  roots.  "  ^  He  alone 
was  above  all  marked  by  this  name,  who 
never  in  anything  withdrew  from  the  Will 
of  God."  " "  God  had  before  promised  to 
Joshua,  i.  e.  to  the  priesthood  of  the  law, 
that  they  should  judge  His  house  and  fulfill 
the  types  of  the  legal  worshij).  Yet  not 
long  after,  the  things  of  the  law  were  to  be 
translated  into  the  true  worship,  and  the  un- 
loveliness  of  the  types  to  be  recast  into  tlie 
lovely  sj^'itual  polity.  ^'^  A  righteous  king 
Has  to  reign  and  princes  to  rule  with  judgment, 
as  the  Prophet  spake.  Another  priest  was  to 
arise,  after  the  order,  ^^  7iot  of  Aaron  but  of 
Melchisedee,  ^'^a  minister  of  the  sanctuary  and 
of  the  true  tabernacle  which  God  pitched  and  not 
man.  For  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  entered  the 
holy  of  holies,  '^  not  by  the  blood  of  bulls  and 
goats,  but  by  His  own  Blood,  having  obtained 
eternal  redemption,  and  ^*  having  by  One  Obla- 
tion perfected  for  ever  than  that  are  sanctified. 
Lest  then  God  should  seem  to  have  spoken 
untruly,  in  promising  to  the  legal  priesthood 
that  it  should  ever  have  the  oversight  over 
His  house,  there  was  need  to  fore-announce 
the  mystery  of  Christ,  that  the  things  of  the 


1  Is.  xi.  1.        2jer.  xxiii.  5,  6.        "  lb.  xxxiii.  15. 

<  Zech.  vi.  12. 

*  "yy  '^11^7  Ezek.  xxxiv.  23,  24,  xxxvii.  24,  as  here 

«Is.  liii.  2.  '  lb.  xi.  1.  sOsor.  »S.  Cvr. 
lois.  xxxii.  1.  "Heb.  vii.  11.  i^Ib.  viii.  2. 
13  lb.  ix.  12.  "  lb.  X.  14.  IS  Rashi. 

16  Kim.    Nor,  of  course,  were  either  foundation- 
stone  or  head-stone  engraven. 
1'  Also  in  Kim.  18  Is.  xxviii.  16. 

19  Ps.  exviii.  22.  S.  Matt.  xxi.  42.  add  Acts  iv.  11. 


Jo.«liua;  •'upon  one  stone    chrTst 
sliall  be  ''seven  eves:  be-      ^ir.  519. 


q  eh.  4.  10.  Rev.  5.  6. 


law  should  cease  and  He  Himself  should 
judge  His  own  house  through  the  Scion  from 
Himself,  His  Son." 

''"Look  ye  to  the  Branch  of  the  Lord; 
set  Him  as  the  example  of  life ;  in  Him,  as  a 
most  strong  tower,  place  with  most  becoming 
faith  all  your  hope  of  salvation  and  immor- 
tality. For  He  is  not  tmly  a  Branch,  who 
shall  fill  you  with  the  richness  of  Divine 
fruit,  but  a  stone  also,  to  break  all  the  essays 
of  the  enemy." 

9.  For  behold'the  stone,  that  I  have  laid  before 
Joshua.  This  must  be  an  expansion  of  what 
he  had  said,  or  the  ground  of  it,  being  intro- 
duced by, /or.  It  must  be  something  future, 
to  be  done  by  God  Himself,  since  God  says, 
Iivill  grave  the  graving  thereof ;  something  con- 
nected with  the  remission  of  sins,  which  fol- 
lows upon  that  graving.  The  stone,  then, 
cannot  be  the  stone  of  foundation  of  the  ma- 
terial temple  '^.  -For  this  had  long  before 
been  laid.  The  head-corner-stone,  the  com- 
pletion of  tlie  building  '*,  had  nothing  re- 
markable, why  God  should  be  said  to  grave 
it.  The  plumbline  '^  was  not  a  part  even  of 
the  material  temple.  The  stone  is  one  stone. 
But  to  interpret  it  by  other  prophecy,  one 
stone  there  is,  of  which  God  says,  '**  Behold  I 
lay  in  Zion  for  a  foundation,  a  stone,  a  tried 
stone,  a  precious  cmiier-sione,  a  sure  foundation, 
he  that  believeth  shcdl  not  make  haste;  that 
stone,  of  which  our  Lord  reminded  the 
Jews,  ^^the  stone  tchich  the  builders  refitsed  is 
beemne  the  head-stone  of  the  corner;  ^"Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  the  chief  corner-stone,  in  whom 
all  the  building,  fitly  framed  together,  groweth 
into  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord,  in  whom  ye  also 
are  buildecl  together  for  an  habitation  of  God 
through  the  Spirit. 

On  this  stone  had  Joshua,  with  all  those 
typical  priests,  to  look,  in  Whom  Alone  they 
and  all  have  forgiveness.  Whose  Sacrifice 
their  sacrifices  pictured  and  pleaded.  "It," 
says  an  old  mystical  Jewish  book  ",  "  is  the 
stone  of  foundation,  on  which  the  earth  is 
founded,  which  God  Himself  laid,  that  the 
world  might  receive  blessing  from  it." 
"  '^"^  The  Shechinah  is  called  the  stone, 
through  which  the  world  subsistetli ;  of  which 


The _passages  of  the  Psalm  and  of  Isaiah  are  united 
1  S.  Pet.  ii.  4-7.  ^o  Eph.  ii.  20,  21. 

21  Zohar  Gen.  fol.  124.  eol.  492. 

•■!2  lb.  Num.  {.  100.  col.  397.  quoted  by  Schoettg.  des 
Mess.  p.  218.  "Both  passages,"  he  subjoins,  "are 
again  adduced  as  parallel,  Zohar  Deut.  f.  118.  eol. 
472."  Jonathan  seems  to  identify  the  Branch,  the 
Messiah,  and  the  Stone ;  "  Lo  I  am  bringing  My  Ser- 
vant Messiah,  and  He  shall  be  revealed.  Lo,  the 
stone  which  I  have  set  before  Joshua,  upon  one 
stone  seven  eyes,  beholding  it;  lo,  I  revealed  the 
vision  therec^,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  will  r»- 


358 


ZFXIlAKIAn. 


r.  u  D^Tu  T    'lold,   I   will   engrave  the 

c'r.  519.      graving     thereof,     saith 

the    Lord    of  hosts,   and 


it  is  said,  A  stone  of  seven  eyes,  and,  the  stone 
which  tlie  builders  refused."  Tliis  stone,  God 
says,  /  have  laid  or  set  before  Joshua,  i.  e.  for 
liiin  to  consider ;  as  He  speaks  to  Solomon 
and  his  children,  of  My  commandments  which 
I  have  set  before  you  ^.  "  '^  That  the  stone  is 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  head  comer-stone, 
elect,  lavl  as  a  foundation  ;  and  that  the  seven 
eyes  on  the  one  stone  are  the  sevenfold  Spirit  of 
God  which  rested  upon  Him,  is  or  ought  to  be 
unknown  to  no  one.  For  to  Him  ^  God  giveth 
■not  the  Spirit  by  measure,  and  *  in  Him  dwcll- 
eth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.  Tliis 
stone  was  rejected  by  men,  but  cliosen  and 
honored  by  God."  "*This  stone  then,  on 
which  the  house  of  God  and  our  whole  .salva- 
tion resteth,  is  placed  by  God  before  that  high 
priest.  That  is,  the  most  holy  Name  of 
Jesus,  the  virtue  piety  and  largeness  of  Jesus 
i.s,  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  shewed  to  the  priest, 
that  he  might  understand  the  End  of  the 
law  and  holiness,  to  Whom  all  the  actions  of 
life  and  the  otlices  of  the  priesthood  were  to 
be  referred.  In  which  stone  was  foreshewn 
to  the  divine  man,  not  the  invisiljle  strength 
only,  but  also  the  manifold  light  of  the  Di- 
vine intelligence.     For  it  follows;" 

Upon  this  one  stone  are  seven  eyes,  whether 
they  are  the  eyes  of  God,  resting  in  loving 
care  upon  it,  or  whether,  as  the  wheeU  in 
Ezekiel's  vision  were  ^full  of  eyes  round  about, 
the  eyes  are  pictured  as  on  the  stone  itself, 
marking  that  it  symbolized  a  being  with 
manifold  intelligence.  Zechariah  speaks  of 
the  eyes  of  '  the  Lord  which  run  to  and  fro  on 
the  earth,  and  S.  John,  of  the  *  Lamb,  as  it  had 
been  slain,  having  seven  horns  and  seven  eyes, 
ithich  are  the  seven  spirits  of  God,  sent  forth  into 
fdl  the  earth.  Either  symbol  harmonizes  with 
the  context,  and  is  admissible  in  language  ^ 
The  care  of  God  for  this  stone  is  expressed 
•  before  and  afterward,  I  have  laid  it,  I  7viU  en- 
grave the  graving  thereof;  and  so  it  corresponds 

move  the  guilt  of  that  land  in  one  day."  The  Zohar 
fhadash  (f.  76.  1.)  joins  the  mention  of  the  stone  in 
Pan.  ii.  35,  Pa.  cxviii.  22,  Gen.  xlix.  24.  and  this 
place,  in  Schoettg.  1.  p.  p.  14().  n.  cv.  . 

>1  Kgsix.6.  Theidiomisthesame,  DD'J37'r>r\y 
See  also  Dent.  iv.  8,  xi.  3l',  .lor.  ix.  12,  xxvi.  4,  xliv. 
10;  of  two  things,  between  which  to  choose,  Deut. 

xi.  2fi,  XXX.  15.  In  Ezek.  xxiii.  24,  DD'JijS  'HHJ 
DSCD,  "  I  have  plaoed  before  them  judgment," 
which  they  are  to  consider  and  to  execute. 

siRup.       8S.  John  iii.  .34.       •'Col.  ii.  9.       SQsor. 

«  Ezek.  1.  18,  X.  12.  '  iv.  10.  ,  »  Rev.  v.  6. 

»  In  Ps.  xxxii.  8.  it  is  'y^j;  yiy  nXi»'t<  /  ivill 

counsel.  My  Eye  upon  thee;  In  Ps.  xxxiii.  18,  "  V^* 
VKT  Sk;  in  P.S.  xxxiv.  16.  D'p'HX  Sk  "  'J'j;;  but 
"directed  toward,  f>r  ro«tlne«pnn,"  are  only  shades 


!  '  I   will   remove   the  iniq-    ^  h  rTs  t 
uity  of  that   land   in  one      <^'''-  5i9. 

J     *  'Jer.  31.  34. 

day.  &  .50. 20. 

Mic.  7.  18,  19.  ch.  13.  1. 


to  the  '"  It  shall  grow  up  before  Him  as  a  tender 
plant.  But  the  contrast,  that  on  one  stone 
there  are  seven  eyes,  perhaps  i-ather  suggests 
that  the  eyes  are  on  the  stone  itself,  and  He, 
the  Living  Stone,  is  pictured  with  an  univer- 
sality of  siglit,  whereby,  with  a  Divine 
knowledge.  He  surveys  and  provides  for  the 
well-being  of  His  whole  Church.  It  has 
some  analogy  too  to  the  sevenfold  Spirit 
whicli  was  to  rest  upon  Him.  "  "  Foi-  this 
stone  to  have  seven  eyes  is  to  retain  in  opera- 
tion the  whole  virtue  of  the  Spirit  of  seven- 
fold grace.  For  according  to  the  distribution 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  ones  receives  prophecy  ; 
another,  knowledge ;  another,  miracles ; 
another,  kinds  of  tongues  ;  another,  interpre- 
tation of  words  ;  but  no  one  attaineth  to  have 
all  the  gilts  of  that  same  Spirit.  But  our 
Creator  taking  on  Him  our  infirmities,  be- 
cause, through  the  power  of  His  Divinity, 
He  shewed  that  He  had  at  once  in  Him  all 
the  virtues  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  united  beyond 
doubt  the  bright  gleams  of  the  sevenfold 
constellation."  "  None  among  men  had  to- 
gether all  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
save  the  Mediator  of  God  and  man  Alone, 
Whose  is  that  same  Spirit,  Who  proceeds 
from  the  Father  before  all  worlds."  "  '•'The 
stone  is  one.  For  as  we  have  in  God  One 
Spirit,  one  faith,  one  sacrament  of  that  most 
pure  laver,  so  we  worship  One  Christ,  the 
one  only  Deliverer  of  the  human  race,  and 
Author  of  our  righteousness  and  everlasting 
salvation ;  and  strengthened  by  His  guard- 
ianship, we  hope  for  immortality  and  eternal 
glory.  Who,  tiiough  He  be  One,  governs  all 
things  with  ineffable  wisdom.  For  His  wis- 
dom is  aptly  described  by  the  seven  eyes. 
For  tiie  number  seven  generally  describes  an 
universality  of  good." 

Behold  I  will  engrave  the  graving  ''  thereof, 
as  of  a  costly  stone.  What  the  graving  is,  is 
not  explained;    but  manifestly  it  is  every- 

of  the  same  meaning.  In  Gen.  xliv.  21.  is  HD'Ettl 
rS;r  ':y;  Jer.  xxiv.  6,  DH'S;^  'rj?  'notyi  and 
xl.  4,  for  good,  ySjr  'r;,'  nX  D'C/K. 

'ois.  liii.  2. 

"  S.  Greg,  on  Job  L.  xxix.  c.  31.  n.  74.  0pp.  i.  951. 

12  Osor. 

'TuniJ  only  occurs  besides  of  the  carved  wood 
of  the  house  of  God,  1  Kgs  vi.  29,  Ps.  Ixxiv.  6,  or  of 
the  carving  of  a  precious  stone,  Ex.  xxviii.  11,  21, 
36,  xxxix.fi,  14,30.  nP3  is  used  of  engraving  things 

on  wood,  1  Kgs  vii.  36,  2  Chr.  iii.  7;  on  precious 
,  stones,  Ex.  xxxviii.  9.  The  whole  idiom,  ''skilled 
il  to  grave  grflvinqs^'  to  grave  all  (jraving,  recurs  2  Chr. 
11  ii.ii,13:  thou  shnll  qrai-enn  it  With  the  enqravivfis  of  a 
ii   si  inri,  holiness  to  the  Lord ;  Ex.  xxviii.  3t!. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


,59 


chrTst     ^^  "^^  ^^^^  ^^y''  ^^"^^^ 

c"'-  5ii'- the  Lord  of  hosts,  shall 

•ch. 2.  u.         ye  call  every  man  his 
«iKin. 4. i!5,      neighbor  'under  the  vine 

Isai.  3G.  lij.  1  n       ii       ^      i 

Mic.  4. 4.         and  under  the  ng  tree. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1  By  the  golden  candlestick  is 
foreshewed  the  good  success  of 


Zerubbabd's  foundation.      11        ,l^''J°''l 

C  H  R  J  S  T 
By  the  tioo  olive  trees  the  tivo        cir.  519. 

anointed  ones. 

AND  *the  angel  that    "ch. 2. 3. 

talked  with  me  came 
again  and  waked  me,  '^  as  a    i>  Dan.  8.  is. 
man  that  is  wakened  out 
of  his  sleejD, 


thhig  which  conciu-s  to  its  beauty.  "  ^  This 
stone  is  of  earth,  and  of  the  power  and  work- 
manship of  God."  "^It  signifies  Him  Who 
had  His  birth  in  virgin-earth,  but  framed 
skillfully  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 
That  Precious  stone  was  further  graven, 
through  the  Providence  and  Will  of  God, 
when  "  ^  He  caused  it  to  be  wounded  by  the 
nails  of  the  Cross  and  the  soldiei-'s  lance,  and 
in  His  Passion  took  away  the  iniquity  of  the 
earth  in  one  day,  of  which  it  is  written,  *  This 
/.s  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made,  we  will 
rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it."  Beautiful  were  the 
gifts  and  graces  which  Christ  received,  as 
Man ;  but  beautiful  beyond  all  beauty  must 
be  those  glorious  scars,  with  which  He  al- 
lowed His  whole  Body  to  be  riven,  that 
"  ^  throughout  the  whole  frame  His  love  might 
be  engraven."  "®What  even  in  the  Body 
of  the  Lord  can  be  lovelier  or  more  lightful 
than  those  five  Wounds,  which  He  willed  to 
retain  in  His  immortal  Being,  lest  the  blessed 
should  be  deprived  of  that  splendor,  surpass- 
ing far  the  light  of  sun  and  stars  ?  " 

And  I  ivill  remove  the  iniquity  of  the  land  in 
one  day.  On  one  day  in  the  year  v.as  the 
typical  atonement ;  in  one  day  absolutely, 
God  Himself  would  make  the  iniquity  of  that 
land  to  depart.  One  day  is  always  emphatic  ', 
that  things  are  crowded  into  it,  which  seemed 
too  much  for  one  day.  Year  by  year  came 
the  day  of  atonement :  its  yearly  repetition 
shewed  that  nothing  lasting  was  effected.  On 
one  day  that  removal  should  be,  which  needed 
no  renewal  *.  A  Jewish  writer  confessed 
the  mystery,  while  he  said  **,  "  One  day ;  I 
know  not  what  that  day  is."  Ask  any 
(liristian  child,  "  On  what  day  was  iniquity 
removed,  not  from  the  land  only,  but  from 
all  lands  ?  "  he  would  say,  "  On  the  day  when 
Jesus  Died." 

10.  Under  the  vine  and  under  the  fig  tree. 
Micah  had  already  made  the  description  of 

1 S.  Iren.  Hser.  iii.  21.  7.        2  Lap.  as  from  S.  Iren. 

3S.  Jer.  *  Ps.  cxviii.  24. 

5"Cernis,  ut  in  toto  corpore  sculptus  amor."  in 
Lap.  6  Rib. 

^Gen.  xxvii.  45,  "  why  should  I  be  deprived  of  you 
lioth  in  one  dm/f"  1  Sam.  ii.  34,  "in  one  dai/  they 
shall  die  both  of  them;  "  1  Kgs  xx.  29,  "  Israel  slew 
of  the  Syrians  100,000  footmen  in  one  day;"  2  Chr. 
xxviii.  6,  "  Pekah  slew  in  Judah  120,000  in  one  day ; " 
Is.  ix.  14, "  shall  cut  off  branch  and  rush  in  one  day ; " 


the  peaceful  days  of  Solomon '",  a  symbol  '^ 
of  the  universal  fearless  peace  of  the  time  of 
Christ.  "  ^^  Christ  by  His  Passion  shall  not 
only  take  away  iniquity,  but  also  bring  peace, 
delight,  free  communication  of  all  things,  .so 
that  all  things  among  Christians  should  be 
common.  For  the  law  of  Christ  enjoineth 
charity,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  patience,  love 
of  enemies  &c.,  all  which  bring  temporal 
peace." 

IV.  1.  The  angel  came  again.  The  angel 
(as  before  ^^)  had  gone  forth  to  receive  some 
fresh  instruction  from  a  higher  angel  or  from 
God. 

And  awakened  me,  as  a  man  is  awakened 
out  of  sleep.  Zechariah,  overwhelmed  by 
the  greatness  of  the  visions,  must  have  sunk 
down  in  a  sort  of  stupor,  as  alter  the  vision 
of  the  ram  and  he-goat,  as  Gabriel  teas  speak- 
ing with  him,  Daniel  says,  '*  /  ivas  in  a  deep 
sleep  on  my  face  toward  the  ground,  and  he 
touched  me  and  set  me  upright ;  and  again  at 
the  voice  of  the  angel,  who,  after  his  three 
weeks'  fast'^,  came  to  declare  to  him  ^^the 
scripture  of  truth  ;  and  at  the  Transfiguration, 
^''  Peter  and  they  that  were  tvith  him  were  heavy 
uith  sleep,  and  irhen  they  were  awake,  they  saiv 
His  glory.  "  ^^  W^ondrous  and  stupendous 
mysteries  were  they  which  were  shewn  to 
the  divine  man.  He  saw  the  Branch  of  the 
Lord ;  he  saw  His  invincible  might ;  he  saw 
His  brightness  of  Divine  intelligence  and 
Providence  ;  he  saw  the  amplitude  of  beauty 
and  dignity.  Nailed  then  and  struck  still 
with  amazement,  while  he  revolved  these 
things  in  his  mind,  sunk  in  a  sort  of  sleep, 
he  is  borne  out  of  himself  and,  mantled 
around  with  darkness,  understands  that  the 
secret  things  of  Divine  wisdom  cannot  be 
perfectly  comprehended  by  the  mind  of  any. 
This  then  he  attained  that,  his  senses  being 
overpowered,  he  should  see  nothing,  save 
that  wherein  is  the  sum  of  wisdom,  that  this 

X.  17,  "  devour  his  thorns  and  briers  in  one  day ; "  Is. 
xlvii.  9,  "  two  things  shall  come  to  thee  in  one  day ; " 
lb.  Ixvi.  8,  "shall  the  earth  be  made  to  bring  forth 
in  one  day  f  " 

8  It  includes  then  the  6(|)dn-af  of  Heb.  vii.  27,  ix. 
12,  X.  10,  though  the  idiom  is  different. 

ORashi.  lolKgsiv.  25. 

"  Mi.  iv.  4.  See  ab.  p.  59.  12  Lap. 

13  ii.  3.       1*  Dan.  viii.  18.       •*  lb.  x.  9.      '«  lb.  21. 

"  S.  Luke  ix.  32.  "  Osor, 


noo 


ZFXIIAKIATI. 


2  Aud  said  u  ii  t  o  me, 


Beforp 
P  H  R  1  S  X 

cir.  519.       What  seest  thou?  And  I 


hi)wL 

d  Ex.  25.  37 

Rev.  4.  .5. 


said,  I   have   looked,  and 
Ex. 2.^.31.       behold  "a   candlestick  all 

Hev.  1. 12. 

t  H.'b.  with  her  of  gold,  f  with  a  bowl  upon 
the  top  of  it,  *  a  n  d  his 
seven  lamps  thereon,  and 

1  Or,  sewn         llseven  pipes  to  the  seven 

several  pipes  to   '  i  .   i  ,  i 

the  latnps,  ic.  lamps,  which  are  upon  the 

top  thereof: 
ever.  11. 12.  3  *And  two  olive  trees 

by  it,  one  upon  the  right 
side  of  the  bowl,  and  the 


immensity  of  the  Divine  excellence  cannot 
be  searched  out.  By  this  sleep  he  was 
seized,  when  he  was  roused  by  the  angel  to 
see  further  mysteries."  '"Such  is  the  con- 
dition of  our  mind,  so  far  inferior  to  that  in 
the  holy  angels,  that  their  state  may  be  called 
wakefulness,  our's  a  sleep." 

2.  And  Isaid^,  I  have  looked  and  behold  a 
candlestick  all  of  gold.  The  candlestick  is  the 
seven-branched  candlestick  of  tlie  taber- 
nacle*, but  with  variations  purposely  intro- 
duced to  symbolize  the  fuller  and  more  con- 
stant supply  of  the  oil,  itself  the  symbol  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit,  Who 

"  Enables  with  perpetual  light 
The  dullness  of  our  blinded  sight." 

The  first  variation  is  her  boni  *  on  the  top 
of  the  candlestick,  containing  the  oil;  then  (as 
dependent  on  this)  the  pipes  to  derive  tlie 
oil  into  each  lamp,  seven  several^  pipes  to  the 
seven  lamps,  i.e.,  seven  to  each  ;  and  ihe  two  oine 
trees  on  either  side  of  tlie  bowl,  whose  extreme 
and  tine  branches  poured  througli  two  golden 
pipes  the  golden  oil  into  the  bowl  wiiich  sup- 
plied the  lamps.  Tlie  multiplied  conduits 
imply  the  large  and  perfect  supply  of  oil 
unceasingly  supplied,  the  seven  being  sym- 
bolic of  perfection  or  of  the  reconciling  of 
God  (symbolized  by  3)  unto  the  world  (svm- 

>S  Cyr. 

«Tho  Kri  ipt<1  must  be  right,  "n0X"\  ajnani- 
fpst  hliinrier,  which  the  Kri  corrects;  counileps 
Mss.  correct  in  the  te.xt  also,  the  Bibl.  Bri.x.,  an  old 
(oho  without  date,  anrl  tlie  Soncin.  Prophets,  148fi." 
Do  Rossi  ad  loc.  All  the  Verss.  ajrree  with  the  Kri. 
The  te.xt  would  suppose  that,  in  the  silence  of  the 
prophet,  the  angel-interpreter  related  the  vision 
whid)  he  also  saw.  But  this  is  unlike  all  the  other 
ca~es.  Kim.  supposes  that  the  prophet  speaks  of 
himselt  in  the  tnird  person.  There  is  the  same 
variation  in  2  Sam.  i.  8,  Neh.  v.  9,  vii.  3. 

■•  Ex.  XXV.  31. 

<lj  an.  A«v  for  PI  7 J,  like  Other  rare  masculines, 
as  DJ^DR  Ho9.  xill.  2-  DTV,  Ps.  xlix.  15;  D0");'3 


other  upon   the   left  .side 
thereof 

4  So  I  answered  and 
spake  to  the  angel  that 
talked  w  i  t  h  me,  saying, 
"What  are  these,  my  lord  ? 

5  Then  the  angel  that 
talked  with  me  answ'ered 
and  said  unto  me,  Knowest 
thou  not  what  these  be? 
And  I  said.  No,  my  lord. 

6  Then  he  answered  and 
spake   unto   me,  saying. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


bolized  by  4,  its  four  quarters) ;  the  spon- 
taneous flow  of  the  golden  oil  from  the  olive 
trees  symbolizes  the  free  gift  of  God. 

4.  "®  Awakened  from  liis  state  of  sleep, 
even  thus  the  prophet  seemed  slowly  to 
understand  what  was  shewn  him.  He  asks 
then  of  the  instructing  angel.  The  angel, 
almost  amazed,  asks  if  he  knowns  it  not,  and 
when  he  plainly  declares  his  ignorance, 
makes  clear  the  enigma  of  the  vision." 

6.  This  is  the  word  of  the  Lord  unto  Zerub- 
babel.  "  *  As  if  he  were  to  say,  the  meaning 
of  the  vision  and  scope  of  what  has  been 
exhibited  is, '  God's  doings  have  almost  cried 
aloud  to  Zerubbabel  that  all  these  visions 
shall  come  to  an  end  in  their  time,  not 
eflected  by  human  might  nor  in  fleshly 
strength,  but  in  power  of  tiie  Holy  Ghost  and 
through  Divine  Will.'  P'or  the  Only  Begot- 
ten became  Man  as  we :  but  He  warred  not 
after  tlie  flesh,  to  set  up  tlie  Church  as  a 
candlestick  to  the  world,  nor  did  He,  through 
sensible  weapons  and  armed  phalanxes,  make 
those  two  people  His  own,  or  place  the 
spiritual  lights  on  the  candlestick  ;  but  in 
the  might  of  His  own  Spirit  He  appointed  in 
the  Chui'ch  ''Jirst  Apostles,  then  prophets  and 
eianf/cUsts,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  saintly 
band,  filling  them  with  Divine  gifts  and 
enriching  them  abundantly  bv  the  influx  of 
His  Spirit." 

Job  V.  13;  nj3  Pr.  vii.  8,  as  D'33  Zech.  xir.  10; 
D"J1JD3  Psr.  I'v.  IG;  )2D  Ps.  Ixxvi.  3;  )yp,  1  Kg* 
xiv.  4;  nnpO,  Pa.  Ixxxix.  4.'j. 
6  lit.  seven  and  seven,  \.  e.,  seven  to  each,  as  In  Gen. 

vii.  2,  without  the  nSaSjS  \  u'^p\i/  nt^oH  ntj'on 

"  five  shekels  apiece  by  the  poll,"  Nu.  iii.  47;  "the 
fingers  of  his  hands,  and  the  fingers  of  his  feet 
were  I^t^1  1^0,  six  and  six,  four  and  twenty  in 
number,"  2  Sam.  xxl.  20;  "his  fingers  (including 
as  in  2  Sam.  those  of  his  feet)  were  six  and  six, 
twenty-four."  1  Chron.  xx.  6. 
«  Osor.  ^  1  Cor.  xii.  28. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


361 


cir.  519.       Lord  unto  Zerubbabel, 


'Ho3. 1.  7. 
I  Or,  army. 


saying,  ^Not  by  ||  might, 
nor  by  power,  but  by  my 
spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts. 

f  jgj  5i_  25. 

Matt. 21. 21.         7  Who  art  thou,  ''O 


"  ^  Not  then  in  great  power  nor  in  fleshly 
might  were  the  things  of  Christ,  but  in  power 
of  the  Spirit  was  Satan  spoileii,  and  the  ranks 
of  the  adverse  powers  fell  with  him ;  and 
Israel  and  those  who  aforetime  served  the 
creature  rather  than  the  Creator,  were  called 
to  the  knowledge  of  God  through  iaith.  But 
that  He  saved  all  under  heaven,  not  by 
human  arm,  but  by  His  own  power  as  God 
Emmanuel,  Hosea  too  protested  '^,  I  ivill  have 
mercy  upon  the  house  oj  Juclah  and  ivill  save 
them  by  the  Lord  their  God,  and  will  not  save 
thetn  by  bow  nor  by  sword  nor  by  battle  nor  by 
chariots  nor  by  horses  nor  by  horsemen.  But 
exceeding  fittingly  was  this  said  to  Zerub- 
babel, who  was  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  at 
that  time  administered  the  royal  seat  at 
Jerusalem.  For  that  he  might  not  think 
tliat,  since  such  glorious  successes  were  fore- 
announced  to  him,  wars  would  in  their  season 
have  to  be  organized,  he  lifts  him  up  from 
these  unsound  and  human  thoughts,  and  bids 
him  le  thus  minded,  that  the  force  was  divine, 
the  might  of  Christ,  Who  should  bring  such 
things  to  pass,  and  not  imman." 

Having  given  this  kej^  ol  the  whole  vision, 
without  explaining  its  details,  God  enlarges 
what  He  had  said  to  Zerubbabel,  as  He  had 
in  the  preceding  chapter  to  Joshua  ^. 

7.  Who  art  thou,  0 great  mountain*?  Before 
Zerubbabel  thou  shall  be  a  plain.  The  words 
have  the  character  of  a  sacred  proverb ; 
"Every  one  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be  abased. 
Isaiah  prophesies  the  victories  of  the  Gospel 
in  the  same  imagery,  ^  Every  valley  shall  be 
exalted  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be 
made  low;  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight 
and  the  rough  places  plain.  And  in  the  New 
Testament  S.  Paul  says,  '  TJie  weapons  of  our 
warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God 
to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds,  casting  down 
imaginations  and  every  high  thing  that  exalteth 
itself  against  God,  and  bringing  into  captivity 
every  thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ.  As  it  is 
the  character  of  Anti-Christ,  that  he  ^opposeth 

>S.  Cyr.  2Hos.  i.  7.  azech.  iii.  8-10. 

*bnjn  "^H;  the  construction  as  JltyXTI  "l^Tty, 
xiv.lO;  n'*^_j;n  iyK'7  2Sam.xii.4;  ^HJH  limj?, 
1  Sam.  xix.  22;  njn  ■j'T*£3X  \^'ii  1  Sam.  xvii.  12; 
'tJ^'SuTI  H130  Jer.  xx.xviii.'U;  niH  "^21  lb.  xl. 
3;  n.rn  'iSjn  13p  Ib.  xxxU.  14.  aiso  1  kgs  vii.  8, 
12.  Ges.  Lehrg.  n.'l68.  p.  659. 


great  mountain?  before    ^3^"/'^-^ 
Zerubbabel   thou  shalt  he-      p'r-  519. 


come  a  plain :  and  he  shall 

bring  forth  "  the  headstone  1.  ps.  iis.  22. 

thereof  hoith  shoutings,iEzra.3. 11, 1.3. 

crying,  Grace,  grace  unto 

it. 


and  exalteth  himself  above  eveiy thing  that  is  called 
God,  so  of  Satan  himself  it  had  been  said  in 
the  former  vision,  that  he  stood  at  the  right 
hand  of  Joshua  " /o  resist  him.  So  then  the 
mountain  symbolizes  every  resisting  power ; 
Satan  and  all  his  instruments,  who,  each  in 
his  turn,  shall  oppose  himself  and  be  brought 
low.  In  the  finst  instance,  it  was  Sanballat 
and  his  companions,  who  opposed  the  re- 
building of  the  temple,  on  account  of  the 
"  exclusiveness  "  of  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua  '", 
because  they  would  not  make  the  temple  the 
abode  of  a  mixed  worship  of  him  whom  they 
call  your  God  and  of  their  own  idolatries. 
In  all  and  each  of  his  instruments,  the  perse- 
cuting Emperors  or  the  heretics,  it  was  the 
one  adversary.  "  '^  The  words  seem  all  but 
to  rebuke  the  great  mountain,  i.  e.  Satan,  who 
riseth  up  and  leadeth  against  Christ  the 
power  of  his  own  stubbornness,  who  was 
figuratively  spoken  of  before  ^. — For  that  as  far 
as  it  was  allowed  and  in  him  lay,  he  warred 
fiercely  against  the  Saviour,  no  one  would 
doubt,  who  considered  how  he  approached 
Him  when  fasting  in  the  wilderness,  and  see- 
ing Him  saving  all  below,  willed  to  make  Him 
his  own  worshiper,  shewing  Him  ^"^  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world,  saying  that  all  should 
be  His,  if  He  would  fcdl  down  and  worshiphim. 
Then  out  of  the  very  choir  of  the  hoh' 
Apostles  he  snatched  the  traitor  disciple, 
persuading  him  to  become  the  instrument  of 
the  Jewish  perverseness.  He  asks  him.  Who 
art  thou  ?  disparaging  him  and  making  him  of 
no  account,  great  as  the  mountain  was  and 
hard  to  withstand,  and  in  the  way  of  every 
one  who  would  bring  about  such  things  for 
Christ,  of  Whom,  as  we  said,  Zerubbabel  was 
a  type." 

And  he  shall  bring  forth  the  headstone^^. 
The  foundation  of  the  temple  had  long 
been  laid.  Humanly  it  still  hung  in  the 
balance  whether  they  would  be  permitted  to 
complete  it  "  :  Zechariah  foretells  absolutely 
that  they  would.     Two  images  appear  to  be 

6S.  Lune  xiv.  11,  xviii.  14.  , 

«  Is.  xl.  4.    The  same  word  nit!;'D  7,  there  with 

'  2  Cor.  X.  4,  5.  »  2  Thess.  ii.  4.  »  ni.  1. 

10 See  ab.  Introd.  to  Haggai.  p.  293.  "S.  Cyr. 

i2S.  Matt.  iv.  8,  9. 
1^  niyXl  is  a  form,  perhaps  framed  by  Zechariah, 

here  m  apposition  to  fiJ^n. 
1*  Ezr.  V.  ' 


362 


ZECHARIAH. 


8  Moreover  the  word  of 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  619.      the  Lord  came  unto  me, 


the   "LoHD  (if  hosts  hath    r^^T^v 
sent  me  unto  you.  cir.  5i9. 


*  Ezra  3. 10. 


1  Ezra  6. 15. 
■och.  2.  9, 11. 
&  6. 16. 


saying, 

9  The  hands  of  Zerub- 
babel "  have  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  this  house ;  his 
hands  '  shall  also  finish  it ; 
and  ■"  thou  shalt  know  that 


used  in  Holy  Scripture,  both  of  which 
meet  in  Clirist :  the  one,  in  which  the  stone 
spoken  of  is  the  foundation-stone ;  tlie  other, 
in  which  it  is  the  head  corner-stone  binding 
the  two  walls  together,  which  it  connects. 
Botli  were  corner  stones  ;  the  one  at  the  ba.'^e, 
tlie  other  at  the  summit.  In  Isaiah  the 
whole  emphasis  is  on  the  foundation ;  '  Be- 
hold Me  Who  have  laid  in  Zion  a  stone,  a  tried 
stone,  a  precious  corner-stone,  well-founded.  In 
the  Psalm,  tlie  building  had  been  com- 
menced ;  those  who  were  building  had  dis- 
regarded and  despised  the  stone,  but  it  became 
the  head  of  the  corner,  crowning  and  binding 
the  work  in  one'''.  Both  images  together 
express,  how  Christ  is  the  Beginning  and 
the  End,  the  Fii-st  and  the  Last ;  the  Foun- 
dation of  the  spiritual  building,  the  Church, 
and  its  summit  and  completion;  the  uaseen 
Foundation  which  was  laid  deep  in  Calvary, 
and  the  .Summit  to  which  it  grows  and  which 
holds  it  firm  together.  Whence  S.  Peter 
unites  the  two  prophecies,  and  blends  with 
them  that  other  of  IsaiaJi,  that  Christ  would 
^  be  a  stone  of  stumbling,  and  a  rock  of  offence. 
To  Whom  coming,  as  unto  a  living  stone,  disal- 
lowed  indeed  of  men  but  chosen  of  God  and  pre- 
cious, ye  ako  are  built  up  a  sjyiritual  house — 
Whence  also  it  is  contained  in  the  Scripture, 
Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  a  chief  corner-stone,  elect, 
precious : — unto  you  which  believe  He  is  precious, 
but  unto  them  which  be  di.-iobedient,  the  same 
stone  which  the  builders  refused  is  made  the  head 
of  the  comer,  and  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock 
of  offence,  to  them  which  stumble  at  the  word  being 
disobedient. 

A  Jew  paraphrases  this  of  the  Messiah ; 
"  *  And  He  shall  reveal  His  Messiah,  whose 

I  Is.  x.xviii.  16. 

■■i  Ps.  cxviii.  22.  This  is  implied  in  tlip  Midrash, 
quoted  by  iJe  Lira.  "They  explain  it  of  a  certain 
stone  of  this  Vjuilding,  which  wa.s  frequently  offered 
by  the  stone-masons' for  the  building  of  the  wall, 
but  was  always  found  too  long  or  too  .short,  and  so 
was  often  rejected  by  them  as  unfit,  but  in  the  com- 
pletion of  che  wall,  in  the  coupling  of  the  two  walls, 
It  is  found  most  tit,  which  was  then  accounted  a 
marvelous  thing."  in  Ps.  cxvii.  (118)  22.  tytt") 
"  head,"  is  a  natural  metaphor  for  the  summit;  tiie 
tops  of  mountains.  Gen.  viii.  5  <tc.;  of  a  hill  over 
valleys,  la.  xxviii.  1,4;  of  a  tower.  Gen.  xi.  4;  of 
columns,  1  Kgs  vii.  10 :  the  rounded  top  of  a  throne, 
lb.  X.  19;  of  a  bed,  Gen.  xlvii.  31  [Heb.];  ear  of 
corn,  .lob  xxiv.  24;   the  starrv  heavens  above  us. 


10  For  who  hath  de- » isai.  48.  lo. 
spised  the   day  of  °  small » Hag. '2. '3. 
things?  II  for  they  shall  re-Keven""Jofthe 
joice,  and  shall   see  the  jolce."  ^ 
t  plummet  in  the  hand  of  ^*?f- *'''"' ''■^ 
Z  e  r  u  b  b  a  b  e  1   iv  ith   those 


name  was  spoken  from  the  beginning,  and 
he  shall  rule  over  all  nations." 

With  shoutings'^,  grace,  grace  unto  it,  i.  e.  all 
favor  from  God  unto  it,  redoubled  favors, 
grace  ui)on  grace.  The  completion  of  the 
building  was  but  the  commencement  of  the 
dispensation  under  it.  It  was  the  beginning 
not  the  end.  They  pray  then  for  the  con- 
tinued and  manifold  grace  of  God,  that  He 
would  carry  on  the  work,  which  He  had 
begun.  Perseverance,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
crowns  the  life  of  the  Christian  ;  our  Lord's 
abiding  presence  in  grace  with  His  Church 
unto  the  end  of  the  world,  is  the  witness 
that  He  "Who  founded  her  upholds  her  in 
being. 

8.  And  the  word  of  the  Lord.  "  "  This  word 
of  the  Lord  is  not  addressed  through  '  the 
interpreting  angel,'  but  direct  from  the  Lord, 
and  that  through  the  '  Angel  of  the  Lord.' 
'  For  though  in  the  first  instance  the  words, 
the  hands  of  Zerubbabel  dc,  relate  to  the 
building  of  the  material  temple,  and  announce 
its  completion  through  Zerubbabel,  yet  the 
inference,  and  thou  shalt  know  that  the  Lord  of 
hosts  hath  sent  me  unto  you,  shews  that  the 
meaning  is  not  exhausted  thereby,  but  that 
here  too  this  building  is  mentioned  only  as  a 
type  of  the  building  of  the  spiritual  temple  * ; 
antl  the  completion  of  the  typical  temple  is 
but  a  pledge  of  the  completion  of  the  true 
temple.  For  not  through  the  completion  of 
the  material  temjile,  but  only  through  the 
building  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  shadowed 
forth  by  it,  can  Judah  know,  that  the  Angel 
of  the  Lord  was  sent  to  him." 

10.  The  simplest  rendering  is  marked  by 
the  accents.     For  ivho  hath  despised^  the  day 

Job  xxii.  12  ;  of  the  head  of  a  people,  tribes,  nations, 
a  family,  in  many  places.  Although  used  of  the 
chief  among  things,  it  cannot,  any  more  than 
K€4>aK-q,  be  used  of  "  the  base,"  a.s  Gescnius  would 
have  it.    Thes.  p.  12.51.  v.  niyXT. 

3  1  S.  Pet.  ii.  4-7.  '•Jon. 

*ni<^B'n  always  plur. ;  of  the  cries  of  a  city.  Is. 

xxii.  2;  of  the  exactor.  Job  xxxix.  7:  crash  of 
thunder,  lb.  xxxvi.  29.  [all] 

«  Keil. 

■  "  ccmp.  V.  9  !>  with  ii.  13  ^  and  15  •■." 

«"as  in  vi.  12.  sq." 

•  f3  I.  q-  T3  (and  with  its  const,  with  S^  as  nCP  for 
nta,  Is.  xliv.  18. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


363 


cir-  519.      the  Lord,  which  run  to  and 


p  2  Chr.  16.  9. 
Prov.  15.  3. 
ch.  3.  9. 


fro  through  the  whole  earth. 
11^  Then  answered  I, 
and  said  unto  him,  What 
are  these  '•two  olive  trees 
upon  the  right  side  of  the 
candlestick  and  upon  the 
left  side  thereof? 


of  small  things '  ?  and  [i.  e.  seeing  that  ^,]  there 
have  rejoiced  and  seen  the  plummet  in  the  hand  of 
Zerubbabel,  these  seven,  the  Eyes  of  the  Lord, 
they  are  running  to  and  fro  in  all  the  earth,  i.  e. 
since  God  hath  with  joy  and  good-pleasure 
beheld  the  progress  of  the  work  of  Zerub- 
babel, who  can  despise  the  day  of  s)nall  things  f 
The  day  of  smcdl  things  was  not  only  that  of 
the  foundation  of  the  temple,  but  of  its 
continued  building  also.  The  old  men  indeed, 
iliat  had  seen  the  Jirst  house,  wept  with  a  loud 
voice,  when  the  foundation  of  this  house  ivas  laid 
before  their  eyes  ^.  But  while  in  progress  too, 
Haggai  asks,  *  Who  is  left  among  you  that  saw 
this  house  in  its  Jirst  glory .?  And  how  do  ye  see 
it  now?  is  not  in  your  eyes  such  as  it,  as  nothing  ? 
But  that  temple  was  to  see  the  day  of  great 
things,  when  ^  the  later  glory  of  this  house  shall 
be  greater  than  thefoiiner,  and  in  this  place  will 
I  give  peace,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

They  are  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  which  run  to  and 
fro.  He  uses  almost  the  words  of  the  pro- 
phet Hanani  to  Asa  ®,  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  run 
to  and  fro  throughout  the  whole  earth,  to  shew 
Himself  strong  in  behalf  of  those  whose  heart  is 
perfect  toward  Him.  Yet  this  assurance  that 
God's  watchful  Providence  is  over  the  whole 
earth,  betokens  more  than  the  restoration  of 
the  material  temple,  wliose  only  hindrance 
could  be  the  will  of  one  man,  Darius. 

The  day  of  small  things  is  especially  God's 
day,  Whose  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness; 

ini:i3p  as  ni;r'i,  niNSaj,  r\vo]!,\  ps.  xvi.  n. 

sing.  nVnj  iK  n|£pp  Num.  xxii.  18. 

*  This  is  not  a  mere  relation  of  a  contemporaneous 
fact,  in  which  the  noun  is  placed  first.  (Ew.  Lehrb. 
g341  p.  835).  It  is  a  contrast;  in  which  ease  the 
word,  in  which  the  contrast  lies,  is  placed  first, 
whether  noun  or  verb.  Here  the  contrast  being 
between  "despising"  and  "rejoicing,"  IPIDtyi  is 
placed  first.  So  in  Ps.  v.  12,  inoty'l ;  lb.  xxv.  3, 
nil  that  trust  in  Thee  shall  not  be  ashamed ;  ashamed 
he  they  who  &c. ;  Ps.  xxxviii.  17.  The  arms  of  the  un- 
godly shall  he  broken,  and  iipholdeth  the  Lord  the 
righteous,  "  D'p'nV  1D1D1. 

3  Ezr.  iv.  12.  *  Hagg.  ii.  3.  6  ib.  9. 

«2Chr.  xvi.  9.  D*J"J'  is  masc.  in  Zech.  both  here 
and  iii.  9,  which  is  rare,  hut  also  Ps.  xxxviii.  11. 
pj;  m.  Cant.  iv.  9.  Ch.  Ps.  Ixxiii.  7. 

f  Rib.  vita  S.  Ther.  ap.  Lap. 


12  And   I   answered    eHR^sT 
again,  and  said  unto  him,      cir.  519. 
AVhat   be  these  two  olive 
branches  which  f  through  tHeb  6,7  f/i« 

'  °        hand. 

the  two  golden   pipes 

II empty  tthe  golden   oil i '^J< ^"'■P^yo^i 

"  -^     -^      '  °  ojT  themselves 

out  of  themselves  ?  oil  into  <;»« 

gold. 

13  And  he  answered  me  t'Heb.  the  gold. 
and  said,  Knowest  thou 


Who  raised  Joseph  from  the  prison,  David 
from  the  sheepfold,  Daniel  from  slavery,  and 
converted  the  world  by  the  fishermen  and 
the  tentmaker,  having  Himself  first  become 
the  Carpenter.  "  Wouldest  thou  be  great  ? 
Become  little."  "  Whenever,"  said  S.  The- 
resa ',  "  I  am  to  receive  some  singular  grace, 
I  first  annihilate  myself,  sink  into  my  own 
nothingness,  so  as  to  seem  to  myself  to  be 
nothing,  be  capable  of  nothing." 

11.  And  I  answered  and  said.  The  vision, 
as  a  whole,  had  been  explained  to  him.  The 
prophet  asks  as  to  subordinate  parts,  which 
seemed  perhaps  inconsistent  with  the  whole. 
If  the  whole  imports  that  everything  should 
be  done  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  not  by  human 
power,  what  means  it  that  there  are  these 
two  olive-trees?  And  when  the  Angel  re- 
turned no  answer,  to  invite  perhaps  clo.ser 
attention  and  a  more  definite  question,  he 
asks  again  ; 

12.  What  are  the  two  spikes^  of  the  olive  fcora- 
paring  the  extreme  branches  of  the  olive- 
tree,  laden  with  their  fruit,  to  the  ears  of 
corn,  which  were  by  or  in  the  hand  of^  the 
golden  pipes^'^,  which  empty  forth  the  golden  oil 
frrnn  themselves.  Zechariah's  expression,  in 
the  hand  of  ox,  if  so  be,  by  the  hand  of  the  two 
pipes,  shews  that  these  two  were  symbols  of 
living  agents,  for  it  is  nowhere  used  except 
of  a  living  agent,  or  of  that  which  it  pereoni- 
fied  as  such  ". 

8  'Sac^,  O.TT.  after  the  analogy  of  tHiW,  D'SaK? 
of  ears  of  corn. 

»  Kim.,  by  his  explanation  "in  the  midst"  and 
that  the  olive  trees  were  pressed  in  the  midst  of  the 
golden  pipes,  seems  to  mean  that  the  branches 
with  their  olives  fell  into  those  pipes  as  hands,  and 
yielded  in  them  their  oil;  Rashi  renders  "near  it" 

like  n'  bs^  2  Sam.  xiv.  30,  as  H'^  Job  xv.  23. 

iT\nr\JV  is  doubtless  the  same  as  Ch.  jnr\JV 
Esth.  (ii.)  i.  2,  "tubes"  HOIHn  ""11 JV  Ecel.  i.  7, 
Targ.  in  Buxt.,yet  larger  than  the  p^flO.both  from 

its  etymology,  and  since  the  oil  was  derived  through 
two  tubes  to  the  bowl,  but  by  7x7  =  49  to  the 
lamps. 

11  Of  the  276  cases  beside  this,  in  which  T;3 
occurs,  in  three  only  is  it  used  of  any  other  than  a 
personal  agent,  and  in  these  the  agent  is  personi- 
ned ;  Job  viii.  4,  and  he  cast  them  auap  in  the  hand  of 
their  transgression  ;  Prov.  xviii.  21,  death  and  life  ar* 


■■ICA 


ZECHARIAH. 


not  what  these  be  f   And  I 


Before 
CHRIST 

'^'r-  519.      said,  No,  my  lord. 


'Rev.  11.4. 


14  Then  said  he,  'These 


14.  These  are  the  two  sons  of  oil,  probably 
not  as  themselves  anointed,  (for  another 
word  is  used  for  this  \  and  the  whole  vision 
has  turned  on  tlie  use  of  oil  as  an  instrument 
of  light,  not  of  anointing)  but  as  themselves 
abundantly  ministering  the  stream  which  is 
the  source  of  light  '^. 

Which  stand  by  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth,  as 
His  servants  and  ministers. 

The  candlestick  is  almost  authoritatively  in- 
tei'preted  for  us,  by  the  adoption  of  the  symbol 
in  the  Revelation,  where  our  Lord  is  exhibit- 
ed ^  as  walkinxj  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden 
candlesticks,  and,  it  is  said,  *  the  seven  candle- 
sticks are  the  seven  Churches;  and  our  Lord 
says  to  the  Apostles,  on  whom  He  founded 
the  Church  ;  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world: 
men  light  a  candle,  and  put  it  on  a  candlestick, 
and  it  giveth  light  to  them  that  are  in  the  house. 

"*  The  goliien  candlestick  is  the  Church, 
as  being  honored  in  the  world,  most  briglit 
in  virtues,  raised  on  high  exceedingly  by  the 
doctrines  of  the  true  knowledge  of  God. 
But  there  are  seven  lamps,  having  light,  not 
of  their  own,  but  brought  to  them  from  with- 
out, and  nourished  by  the  supplies  through 
the  olive  tree.  These  signily  the  holy 
Apostles,  Evangelists,  and  tho.se  wlio,  each 
in  their  season,  were  teachers  of  the  Cluirches, 
receiving,  like  lamps,  into  their  mind  and 
heart  the  illumination  from  Christ,  which  is 
nourished  by  the  supplies  of  the  Spirit, 
casting  forth  light  to  those  who  are  in  the 
house."  "  '  Tlie  pipes  of  the  lamps,  which 
pour  in  the  oil,  signify  the  unstinted 
prodigality  of  the  loving-kindness  of  God  to 
man." 

The  most  difficult  of  explanation  (as  is 
plain  from  the  variety  of  interpretations)  is 
this  la.st  symbol  of  tlie  spikes  of  the  olive- 
tree,  through  whom  flows  the  oil  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  the  candlesticks,  and  which  yet 
represent  created  beings,  ministers,  and  ser- 
vants of  God.  Perliaps  it  represents  that,  in 
the  Church,  grace  is  ministered  through 
men,  as  S.  Paul  says,  •*  Unto  every  one  of  us  vs 
given  grace  armrding  to  the  measure  of  the  gift 
of  Christ.     Wherefore  he  saith,    ivlien    He  as- 

in  the  power,  lit.  the  hand,  of  the  tongue;  Is.  Ixiv.  0, 
thou  hoit  made  us  to  melt  away  by  the  hand  of  our  in- 
iquities. With  regard  to  'T3,  HTS,  this  could  not 
Ije  otherwise;  but  .also  in  the  02  cases  in  which 
n'3;  <■',  in  which  nT3;  «nd  34,  in  which  mO,  oc- 
curs, tlie  pronoun  relates  to  a  personal  agent. 

'  iny,  in  the  other  20  places  where  it  occurs,  is 
always  united  with  other  natural  products:  both 
E^iTn  (not  J"),  the  fresh  wine,  and  tJT  "wheat." 
:0E^  is  used  of  the  oil  aa  derived  from  the  olive 


arr   the   two  f  anointed 


Before 
CHRIST 

that  stand  by  '  the      cir.  519. 


Lord  of  the  whole  earth,    ^oil  "*'*"*  "•' 

»ch.  3.  7.  Luke  1. 19.    «See  Josh.  3. 11, 13.  ch.  6.  6. 


ccnded  up  on  high,  He  led  captivity  captive  and 
gave  gifts  unto  men.  And  He  gave  some, 
apostles ;  and  some,  prophets;  and  some,  evan- 
gelists ;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers,  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try, for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ — that 
we — may  grow  up  into  Him  in  ail  things  which 
is  the  Ilead,  even  Christ,  from  Whom  the  ivhole 
body,  fitly  joined  together  and  compacted  by  that 
which  every  joint  supplieth,  according  to  the 
effectual  tvorking  in  the  measure  of  every  part, 
maketh  increase  of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of 
itself  in  love,  \^'hat  S.  Paul  expresses  by  ^all 
the  body,  having  nourishment  ministered  and  be- 
ing knit  together  by  joints  and  bands,  from  the 
Head,  and  so  increasing  ivith  the  increase  of 
God,  (as  he  elsewhere  speaks  of  '"^/te  minis- 
tration of  the  Spirit;  '^  he  thai  ministereth  to  you, 
the  Spirit)  that  Zcchnriah  may  express  by  the 
oil  being  poured,  through  the  living  '*  tubes, 
the  bowl,  the  sevenfold  pipes,  into  the  lamp.s, 
which  shone  with  the  God-given  light.  So 
S.  Paul  speaks  again,  of  ^^ having  this  treasure 
in  earthen  vessels.  Joshua  and  Zerubbabel,  as 
representatives  of  the  priestly  and  royal 
offices,  shadowed  forth  what  was  united  in 
C'iirist,  and  so,  in  their  several  offices,  they 
might  be  included  in  the  symbol  of  the  olive- 
tree,  they  could  not  exhaust  it;  for  men 
who,  having  served  God  in  their  generation, 
were  to  pass  away,  could  not  be  alone  in- 
tended in  a  vision,  which  describes  the  abiding 
being  of  the  Church. 

""Christ  is  both  All-holy  Priest  and 
supreme  Eternal  King.  In  both  ways  He 
supplies  to  us  the  light  which  He  brought. 
For  from  Him  piety  and  righteousness  flow 
unceasingly  to  the  Church,  that  it  never  lack 
tlie  heavenly  light.  The  oil  is  exjiressed 
into  tubes  ;  thence  passed  through  pipes  into 
the  vessel  which  contains  the  lamj)s  ;  to  de- 
signate the  various  supi)liers  of  light,  which, 
the  nearer  they  are  to  the  eflluence  of  the 
oil,  the  more  they  resemble  Him  by  Whom 
they  are  appointed  to  so  Divine  an  office. 
The  seven  lamps  are  the  manifold  Churche+!, 
distinct  in  place  but  most  closely  bound  to- 
gether by  the  consent  of  one  faith  and  by  the 

(H'T  jDB',  Ex.  xxvii.  20,  Lev.  xxiv.  2.)  for  the  can- 
dlestick, Ex.  xxvii.  20,  as  well  as  for  the  anointing 
oil,  but  not  iny\ 

'So  JOiy  p  Is.  v.  1,  and  the  other  idioms  of  quali- 
ties, Vn  p,  hi^'h2  p,  n'7i;r  p  *c. 

3Rev.  i.  13.  ii.  1.  ■•lb.  i.20. 

6  S.  Matt.  V.  14, 15.  cf.  Phil.  ii.  1.1.  '8.  Cvr. 

7  Theod.  8  Eph.  Iv.  7,  8. 11, 12, 14-lfi. 
»  Col.  ii.  19.           >0  2  Cor.  iii.  8.  "  Gal,  Hi.  r,. 

"See  ab.  on  ver.  12.        i»2Cor.  iv.  7.        i*08or. 


CHAPTER  V. 


365 


Before  CHAPTER   V. 

CHRIST  V^XX^XXX^XV. 

""'•  ''^^^-        1  By  the  flying  roll  is  shewed  the 

curse  of  thieves  and  swearers. 
5  £y  a  wmnan  pressed  in  an 
ephah,  the  final  damnation  of 
Babylon. 

•JHEN  I  turned,  and 

lifted  up  mine  eyes, 
and  looked,  and  behold  a 
i  Ezek.  2. 9.       flying  *  roll. 


bond  of  charity.  For  although  the  Church 
is  one,  yet  it  is  distinct  according  to  the 
manifold  variety  of  nations.  They  are  said 
to  be  seven,  both  on  account  of  the  seven 
gifts  of  tlie  Spirit,  mentioned  by  Isaiah,  and 
because  in  the  numbers  3  and  4,  is  contained 
an  emblem  of  piety  and  righteousness.  There 
are  7  pipes  to  each  lamp,  to  signify  that  each 
has  need  of  many  instruments,  that  the  light 
may  be  maintained  longer.  For  as  there  are 
diversities  of  gifts,  so  must  there  needs  be 
the  functions  of  many  ministers,  to  complete 
one  work.  But  the  lamps  are  set  in  a  circle, 
that  the  oil  of  one  may  flow  more  readily 
into  others,  and  it,  in  turn,  may  receive  irom 
others  their  superabundance,  to  set  forth  the 
communion  of  love  and  the  indissoluble  com- 
munity of  faith." 

^'.  1 .  Hitherto  all  had  been  bright,  full  of 
the  largeness  of  the  gifts  of  God;  of  God's 
favor  to  His  people  ^ ;  the  removal  of  their 
enemies^;  the  restoration  and  expansion  and 
.security  of  God's  people  and  Church  under 
His  protection  * ;  the  acceptance  of  the  pre- 
sent tyjiical  priestho(}d  and  the  promise  of 
Him,  through  Whom  there  should  be  entire 
forgiveness*:  the  abiding  illumining  of  the 
Church  by  tlie  Spirit  of  God  °.  Yet  there 
is  a  reverse  side  to  all  this,  God's  judgments 
on  those  who  reject  all  His  mercies.  "  "  Pro- 
phecies partly  appertain  to  those  in  whose 
times  the  sacred  writers  pi'ophesied,  partly 
to  the  mysteries  of  Christ.  And  therefore  it 
is  the  wont  of  the  prophets,  at  one  time  to 
chastise  vices  and  set  forth  punishments,  at 
another  to  predict  the  mysteries  of  Christ 
and  the  Church." 

And  I  turned  and,  or.  Again '  /  lifted  up 
my  eyes,  having  again  sunk  down  in  meditation 
on  what  he  had  seen,  and  behold  aroll  flying  ; 
as,  to  Ezekiel  was  shewn  a  hand  with  a  roll  of 

1  Vision  1.  i.  7-17.  «  Vision  2.  lb.  18-21. 

*Visi.  3.  p.  ii.         •*  Vis.  4.  c.  iii.         *  Vis.  5.  e.  iv. 

•S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei.  xvii.  3.  Rib. 

'  Geu.  xxvi.  18,  2  Kgs  i.  11, 13.  Jer.  xviii.  14. 

8  Ez.  ii.  9, 10.  9  Rib. 

'"The  length  of  the  tabernacle  is  fixed  by  the  5 
t'urtains  which  were  to  be  on  each  side,  the  breadth 
uf  each  curtain  four  cubits.  Exod.  xxvi.  1,  2.  The 
whole,  including  the  holy  of  holies,  is  determined 
by  the  twnty  boards  on  each  side,  a  cubit  and  n  half, 
the  breadth  of  each  board ;  lb.  16, 18.    The  breadth   [ 


2  And  he  said  unto  me,   ^ ^^^°i% x 
What  seest  thou  ?    And  I      g'r-  5i9. 
answered,   I  see   a   flying 

roll ;  the  length  thereof  is 
twenty  cubits,  and  the 
breadth  thereof  ten  cubits. 

3  Then  said  he  unto  me, 

This  is  the  "curse  that  go-      d Mai. 4.6. 
eth  forth  over  the  face  of 


a  book  therein,  and  he  spread  it  befwe  me. 
Ezekiel's  roll  also  was  ^written  within  and 
without,  and  there  ivas  written  therein  lamentation, 
ami  mourning  and  woe.  It  was  a  wide  un- 
folded roll,  as  is  involved  in  its  flying;  but 
its  "  ^  flight  signified  the  very  swift  coming 
of  punishment ;  its  flying  from  heaven  that 
the  sentence  came  from  the  judgment-seat 
above." 

2.  And  he  (the  interpreting  angel)  said 
unto  me.  It  cannot  be  without  meaning,  that 
the  dimensions  of  the  roll  should  be  those  of 
the  tabernacle '",  as  the  last  vision  was  that 
of  the  candlestick,  after  the  likeness  of  the 
candlestick  therein.  The  explanations  of 
this  correspondence  do  not  exclude  each 
other.  It  may  be  that  ^^ judgment  shall  begin 
at  the  house  of  God  ;  that  the  punishment  on 
sin  is  proportioned  to  the  nearness  of  God 
and  the  knowledge  of  Him;  that  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  which  was  lor  life,  might  also 
be  to  death,  as  S.  Paul  says ;  ^^  God  maketh 
manifest  the  savor  of  this  knowledge  by  us  in 
every  place;  for  we  are  unto  God  a  sweet 
savor  of  Christ  in  them  that  are  saved  and  in, 
them  that  perish ;  to  the  one  we  are  the  savor  of 
decdh  unto  death,  and  to  the  other  the  savor  of 
life  unto  life;  and  Simeon  said,  '^  This  child  is 
set  for  the  fall  and  rising  again  of  many  in 
Israel. 

Over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  primarily 
land,  since  the  perjured  persons,  upon  whom 
the  curse  was  to  fall  ^*,  were  those  who  swore 
falsely  by  the  name  of  God  :  and  this  was  in 
Judah  only.  The  reference  to  the  two  tables 
of  the  law  also  confines  it  primarily  to  those 
who  were  under  the  law.  Yet,  since  the 
moral  law  abides  under  the  Gospel,  ulti- 
mately these  visions  related  to  the  Christian 
Church,  which  was  to  be  spread  over  the  whole 
earth.    The  roll   apparently  was  shewn,  as 

is  fixed  by  the  six  boards,  i.  e.  nine  cubits',  with  the 
tivo  boards  for  the  corners  of  the  tabernacle  in  the  two 
sides.  lb.  22,  23.  Josephus  gives  the  wlinle  thirty 
cubits  long,  (the  holy  of  holies  being  ten  cubits 
square)  ten  broad  (Aiit.  3.  6.  3.).  Kimchi  strangely 
neglects  this,  and  refers  to  the  porch  of  Solomon's 
temple,  in  which  the  dimensions  of  the  tabernacle 
were  repeated  (1  Kgs  vi.  3.),  but  which  was  itself 
only  an  ornament  to  the  temple. 

1'  1  Pet.  iv.  17.  "  2  Cor.  ii.  14-16. 

'-  S.  Luke  ii.  34.  >♦  Tor.  4. 


366 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

I  Or,  every  one 
oj  thin  people 
that  stealeth 
holdeth  him- 
selt'  guiltless 
as  it  doth. 


the  whole  earth:  for 
1 1  every  one  that  stealeth 
shall  be  cut  off  as  on  this 
side  according  to  it ;  and 
every  one  that  sweareth 
shall  be  cut  off  as  on  that 
side  according  to  it. 

4  I  will  bring  it  forth, 
saith  the   Lord  of  hosts, 


written  on  both  sides ;  tlie  commandments 
of  the  first  table,  in  which  perjury  is  for- 
bidden, on  the  one  side  ;  those  relating  to  the 
love  of  our  neighbor,  in  which  stealing  is  for- 
bidden, on  the  other'.  "■■'He  calleth  curse 
tliat  vengeance,  which  goeth  through  the 
wliole  world,  and  is  brought  upon  tlie  workers 
of  iniquity.  But  hereby  both  prophets  and 
jjeople  were  taught,  that  the  God  of  all  is  the 
judge  of  all  men,  and  will  exact  meet  pun- 
ishment of  all,  bringing  utter  destruction  not 
on  those  only  who  live  ungodly  toward  Him- 
self, but  on  those  also  who  are  unjust  to  their 
neighbors.  For  let  no  one  think  that  this 
threat  was  only  against  thieves  and  false- 
swearers  ;  for  He  gave  sentence  against  all 
iniipiity.  P'or  since  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets  iiang  on  this  word,  Thon  Hhalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  wUh  all  thy  heart  and  thy  neif/h- 
hor  (Ui  thyself,  He  comprised  every  sort  of  sin 
under  false  swearing  and  theft.  The  viola- 
tion of  oaths  is  the  head  of  all  ungodliness. 
(Jne  who  so  doeth  is  devoid  of  tiie  love  of 
God.  But  theft  indicates  injustice  to  one's 
neighbor;  for  no  one  who  loves  his  neigh- 
bor will  endure  to  be  unjust  to  him.  These 
heads  then  comprehend  all  the  other 
laws." 

Shall  be  cat  off,  lit.  dewised  aiuay ',  as  some- 
thing defiled  and  defiling,  which  has  to  be 
cleared  away  as  offensive :  as  God  says,  *  / 
will  take  away  the  rcinnant  of  the  house  of  Jero- 
boam, as  a  man  taketh  away  dung,  till  it  be  all 
gone,  and  so  often  in  Deuteronomy,  ilwu  shall 
put  the  evil  away  from  the  midst  of  thee  *,  or  of 

*  ntO  ntO,  in  two  corresponding  sentences,  can 
only  he  partitivp,  as  in 'Ex.  xvii.  12,  xxv.  19,  xxvi. 
13,  xxxii.  IS,  of  the  two  tahles  of  the  law,  written 
on  both  sides;  xxxvii.  8,  xxxviii.  15,  Nu.  xxii.  24  ; 
Jos.  viii.  22,  and  ten  other  places.     So  also  n?0 

jnK*?  nroi  Jos.  viii. 3.3.  nroi  mo  ez.  xivii.  7,12, 

as  in  other  partitives  7130,  7130,  or  13rp  Ez.  xl. 

in,  12,  21,  2r>,  xli.  2.  n?0  al-^o,  when  used  of  place, 
iihvays  mofvns  "  Irom  here,"  i.e.  a  definite  place 
wlicre  people  are, Gen.  xxxvii.  17,  xlii.  15,  Exod.  xi. 

I  (Maurer's  uistances).  ^Theod. 
3. So  is  KaOapiiio  used  Mark  vii.  10,  (See  reff.  notes 

li>-14.)  For  npj  is  not  simply  "clear,"  but  "cleanse 

out,"  as  «o«aipu>  Soph.  Tr.  1012,  lofii,  Pluiarch  Thes. 

II  7,  Ma"-,  n.  C.  "of  monsters  and  robbers."  (Gese- 
iiiiis  in  comparing  Arab.  'pJHK'K,  "emptied  clean 


and  it  shall  enter  into  the    ^^  h  rTs  t 
house  of  the  thief,  and  into      ^ir.  519. 


the   house  of  "  him  that  •  Lev.  19. 12. 

sweareth  falsely  by  my   Mai. '3. .5. 

name :  and  it  shall  remain 

in  the  midst  of  his  house, 

and  **  shall  consume  it  with  *  see  Lev.  u.  is. 

the  timber  thereof  and  the 

stones  thereof 


Israel  ®,  and  in  Ezekiel,  ^  /  n-Ul  disperse  thee 
in  the  countries  and  will  consume  thy  filthiness 
out  of  thee.  ®  Set  it  empty  upon  the  coals  thereof, 
that  the  brass  of  it  may  be  hot  and  may  buim,  and 
ihejilthiness  of  it  may  be  molten,  that  the  scum  of 
it  may  be  consumed. 

4.  I  will  bring  it  forth  out  of  the  treasure- 
house,  as  it  were ;  as  he  says,  "  He  bringeth 
forth  the  ivind  out  of  His  treasures;  and,  '"/s' 
not  this  laid  up  in  store  with  Me,  sealed  up  among 
My  treasures  F  To  3Ie  belongeth  vengeance 
a)ul  recompense." 

A)ul  it  shidl  reimtin,  lit.,  "lodge  for  the 
night  *',"  until  it  has  accomplisiied  that  for 
whicii  it  was  sent,  its  utter  destruction.  "  '^  So 
we  have  seen  and  see  at  this  day  powerful 
families,  which  attained  to  splendor  by  rapine 
or  ill-gotten  goods,  destroyed  by  the  just 
judgment  of  God,  that  those  who  see  it  are 
amazed,  how  such  wealth  perceptibly  yet  in- 
sensibly disappeared."  "  '^  Why  doth  it 
overthrow  the  stones  and  the  wood  of  the 
swearer's  house  ?  In  order  that  the  ruin  may 
be  a  correction  to  all.  For  since  the  earth 
must  hide  the  swearer,  when  dead,  his  house, 
overturned  and  become  a  heap,  will  by  the 
very  sight  be  an  admonition  to  all  who 
pass  by  and  see  it,  not  to  venture  on  the 
like,  lest  they  suffer  the  like,  and  it  will 
be  a  lasting  witness  against  the  sin  of  the 
departed."  Heathenism  was  imjMessed  '* 
with  the  doom  of  him  who  consulted  the 
oracle,  whether  he  shoidd  foreswear  himself 
for  gain'*.  "Swear,"  was  the  answer, 
"since  death  awaits  too  the  man,  who  keeps 

out"  (Vita  Tim.  i.  .576.),  '|*Snr\t:'N,  "appropriated  it 

exclusively  to  himself"  (Lane),  'Si'Ht'K  "took 
away  the  whole  "  (Freyt.),  "cleared  it  all  off,"  misses 
the  moral  meaning  of  the  Heb.  word. 

*  1  Krs  xiv.  10,  add  xxi.  21.  '  Deut.  xiii.  5  (6 

Heb.),  xvii.  7,  xix.  10,  xxi.  21,  xxii.  21,  24,  xxiv.  7. 

oib.  xvii.  12,  xxiii.  22. 

8Ih.  xxiv.  11. 

•«  Deut.  xxxii.  34,  35. 

"  niS  for  n^S  in  verb  iir 
Is.  \ix.  5. 

'"S.  Chrys.  on  the  statues  1,' 

H"The  story  of  Glaucus  is  alluded  to  by  Plutnn-li 
(ii.  p.  5.')r.  D)  Pausanias  (ll.xviii.  n.2.)  Juvenal  (xiii. 
190-2O8)  Clemens  (Strom,  vi.  p.  749)  Dio  Chrysostoni 
(Or.  IxiT.n.  040)  and  others"     °"'-'   "»>•'>■«   ><'  •••'■' 

"Herod,  vi.  a-"!. 


'Ezek.  xxii.  15. 
•Jer.  X.  13,  li.  16. 

in  part.  pass.  n^U 

»  Lap! 
).  13.  p.  2."i0.  Oxf.  Tr. 


Rawl  Herod   iil.  477 


CHAPTER   V. 


367 


5  ^  Then  the  angel  that 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  519.      talked  with  me  went  forth, 


and  said  unto  me,  Lift  up 
now  thine  eyes,  and  see 
what  is  this  that  goeth 
forth. 

6  And  I  said,  What  is 


the  oath ;  yet  Oath  hath  a  son,  nameless, 
handkss,  loutless ;  but  swift  he  pursiieth, 
until  he  grasp  together  and  destroy  the 
the  whole  race  and  house."  "  '  In  the  tliird 
generation,  there  was  nought  descended  from 
him,"  who  had  consulted  about  this  perjury, 
"  nor  hearthstone  reputed  to  be  his.  It  had 
been  uprooted  and  efTaeed."  A  Heathen 
orator'^  relates,  as  well  known,  that  "  the  per- 
jurer escapes  not  the  vengeance  of  the  gods, 
and  if  not  himself,  yet  the  sons  and  whole 
race  of  tlie  foresworn  fall  into  great  misfor- 
tunes." God  left  not  Himself  without  wit- 
ness. 

"*The  prophet  speaks  of  the  curse  in- 
flicted on  the  thieves  and  false  swearers  of 
his  own  day  ;  but  a  fortiori  he  includes  that 
which  came  upon  them  for  slaying  Christ. 
For  this  was  the  greatest  of  all,  which  utterly 
overthrew  and  consumed  .Jerusalem,  the 
temple  and  polity,  so  that  that  ancient  and 
glorious  Jerusalem  exists  no  longer,  as  Christ 
tlireatened.  *  They  shall  lay  thee  even  with  the 
ground,  and  they  shall  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone 
upon  another.  Thisresteth  upon  them  these" 
1800  "  years." 

5.  Ihen  the  ancjel  went  forth  from  the  choirs 
of  angels,  among  whom,  in  the  interval,  he 
had  retired,  as  before^  he  had  gone  forth 
to  meet  another  angel. 

6.  This  is  the  ephah  that  (Joeth  forth.  "  «  We 
too  are  taught  by  this,  that  the  Lord  of  all 
administers  all  things  in  weight  and  measure. 
So,  foretelling  to  Abraham  that  his  seed 
should  be  a  sojourner  and  tlie  cause  thereof, 
He  says,  ^for  the  iniquity  of  the  Amorites  is  not 
yet  full,  i.  e.,  they  liave  not  yet  committed  sins 
enough  to  merit  entire  destruction,  wherefore 
I  cannot  yet  endure  to  give  them  over  to  the 
slaughter,  but  will  wait  for  the  measure  of 
their  iniquity."  The  relation  then  of  this 
vision  to  the  seventh  is,  that  the   seventh 

'  Herod,  vi.  85,  86. 

*  Lycurgus  Or.  in  Leoer.  p.  157  fin.  *  Lap. 
<  S.  Luke  xix.  44.        » ii.  3  (7  Heb.)        «  Theod. 

•  Gen.  XV.  16. 

'  rj;  our  took,  as  in  Lev.  xiii.  55.  and  the  leprosy 

hath  not  changed   )yy   its  look ;   Nu.  xi.  7,  of  the 

manna,  its  took  (iy>')  was  tike  the  look  (Vp2)  of 

bdellium;  Ezek.  x.  0.  the  appearance  of  the  wheels 
was  like  the  look  {\'^2)  of  stone  of  Tarshish.  Add  Ez. 

i.  4,  7,  16,  27,  and  Dan.  x.  R.  like  the  look  (yy2)of 

polished  6ra«j. 


it  ?     And  he  .<aid,  This  is    ^  jfe^ore  ^ 
an  ephah  that  goeth  forth.      c'r-  ^^9- 
He  said  moreover,  This  is 
their  resemblance  through 
all  the  earth. 

7  And,  behold  thei'e  was 
lifted  up  a  1 1  talent  oi  lead :  piece. 


tells  of  God's  punishment  on  individual  sin- 
ners ;  this,  on  the  whole  people,  when  the 
iniquity  of  the  whole  is  full. 

This  is  tlieir  resemblance,  as  we  say,  (heir 
look**,  i.e.  the  look,  appearance,  of  the  in- 
habitants '  in  all  the  land.  Tliis  then  being 
the  condition  of  the  people  of  the  land,  at 
the  time  to  which  the  vision  relates,  the 
symbolical  carrying  away  of  tlie  full  measure 
of  sin  cannot  be  its  forgiveness,  since  there 
was  no  repentance,  but  the  taking  away  of 
the  sin  with  the  sinner.  "  '''The  Lord  of  all 
is  good  and  loving  to  mankind  ;  for  He  is 
patient  toward  sinners  and  endures  trans- 
gressors, waiting  for  the  repentance  of  each  ; 
but  if  one  pei-severes  long  in  iniquity,  and 
come  to  the  term  of  tlie  endurance  allowed,  it 
remains  that  he  should  be  subjected  to  pun- 
ishment, and  there  is  no  account  of  this  long 
I  forebarance,  nor  can  he  be  exempt  from 
judgment  proportioned  to  what  he  has  done. 
JSo  then  Christ  says  to  the  Jewish  people, 
rushing  with  unbridled  phrensy  to  all  strange 
excess,  "  Fill  ye  up  the  measure  of  your  fathers. 
The  measure  then,  which  was  seen,  pointed 
to  the  filling  up  of  the  measure  of  the  trans- 
i  gression  of  the  people  again.st  Himself." 
I  '"^The  angel  bids  him  beliold  the  sins  of 
the  people  Israel,  heaped  together  in  a  per- 
fect measure,  and  the  transgression  of  all  ful- 
filled— that  the  sins,  which  escaped  notice, 
one  by  one,  might,  when  collected  together, 
be  laid  open  to  the  eyes  of  all,  and  Israel 
might  go  forth  from  its  place,  and  it  might 
be  shewn  to  all  what  she  was  in  her  o^^ti 
land."  "  '*  I  think  the  Lord  alluded  to  the 
words  of  the  prophet,  as  though  He  would 
say,  Fill  up  the  measure  of  sins  which  your 
fathers  began  of  old,  as  it  is  in  Zechariab, 
i.  e.  ye  will  soon  fill  it ;  for  ye  so  haste  to  do 
evil,  that  ye  will  soon  fill  it  to  the  utmost." 
7.  And  behold  there  was  lifted  up  a  talent  of 

9The  D  relates  to  the  persons,  |implied  though 

not  expressed  ih  the  V'lSn  l2,  as  in  Pa.  \xr.  10, 

thou  preparest  DJJT  their  corn  ;  x.xxix.  7,  he  heapetk 

up  and  knoweth  not,   D3pK,  i«ho  gathereth  them , 

Eccl.  V.  17,  (18  Eng.)  to  lee  good  (lSoj;_  Sj3)  m  aU 

his  labor ;  lb.  vii.  I,  better  is  the  day  of  death  than 

the  day  nS-IH  of  his  birth;  Hagg.  i.  6,  lit.  to  clothe, 

yet  not  for  warmth  yf,  to  him.  Ew.  Lehrb.  n.  294.  1. 
p.  754.  ed.  8.  10  S.  Cyr. 

>'.S.  .Matt.  xxiii,.{2.  >2S.  Jer.         "Rib. 


368 


ZECHARIAH. 


chrYrt    ^^^  ^^^  ^  ^  Tvoman  that 
cir.  619.       sitteth  in  the  midst  of  the 


ephah. 

8  And  he  said,  This  is 
wickedness.  And  he  east 
it  into  the  midst  of  the 
ephah;  and  he  cast  the 
weight  of  lead  upon  the 
mouth  thereof. 

9  Then  lifted  I  up  mine 
eyes,  and  looked,  and,  be- 
hold, there  came  out  two 
women,  and  the  wind  ^vas 
in   their  wings;   for  they 


le(ul,  the  heaviest  Hebrew  weight,  elsewhere 
of  gold  or  silver;  the  golden  talent  weigh- 
ing, 1,300,000  grains;  the  silver,  660,000; 
here,  being  lead,  it  is  obvinusly  an  nnJe- 
fined  mass,  though  circular',  corresponding  to 
the  Ephah.  The  Ephah  too  was  the  largest 
Hebrew  measure,  whose  compass  cannot  now, 
with  certainty,  be  ascertained'^.  Both 
jn'obably  were,  in  the  vision,  ideal.  "  ^  Holy 
Scripture  calleth  the  punishment  of  sin,  lead, 
as  being  by  nature  heavy.  This  the  divine 
David  teacheth  us,  *mine  iniqaiiies  are  gone  I 
over  my  head:  as  an  heavy  burden,  they  are  too  ' 
heavy  forme.  The  divine  Zechariah  seeth  sin 
under  the  image  of  a  woman  ;  for  most  evils  ! 
are  engendered  by  luxury.  But  he  seeth  the 
punishment,  like  most  heavy  lead,  lying 
upon  the  mouth  of  iniquity,  according  to  a 
Psalm,  ^  all  iniquity  sk'Ul  stop  her  month." 
"  ^  Iniquity,  as  with  a  talent  of  lead,  weighs 
down  the  conscience."  i 

This  is  a  woman,  lit.  one  woman,  all  sin  I 
being  concentrated  and  personified  in  one,  as 
he  goes  on  to  speak  of  her  as  the,  personified, 
wickedness''.  The  sitting  may  represent  her 
abiding  tranquil  condition  in  her  sins,  ac- 
cording to  the  climax  in  the  first  Psalm, 
^and  hath  not  sat  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful; 
and,  ^  thoti,  sittesl  and  speakest  against  thy 
brother;  "'°not  standing  as  by  the  way,  but 
sitting,  as  if  of  set  purpose,  of  wont  and 
habit."  "  "  Whoso  hath  peace  in  sins  is  not 
far  from  lying  down  in  them,  so  that,  op- 
pressed by  a  spirit  of  slumber,  he  neither 
sees  light,  nor  feels  any  blow,  but  is  kept 
down  by  tlie  leaden  talent  of  ids  oljduracy." 

'  According  to  its  etymology. 

*  It  is  thouglit  that  .Josephus  (Ant.  ir>.  9. 2.)  put  the 
ft.i&iiivo<:  by  mistttko  for  the  /neTpijTijc,  which  is  J^  of 
the  ixeSi/xvoi ;  the  ntrpr\TT}<;  liolding  nine  of  our 
gallons,  the  /ueSinfot  tvvolve.  The  Ephah  was 
probahly  an  Egyptian  measure,  since  the  LXX  9uh- 
atitute  oi<(>t  4c.  corresponding  to  the  Egyptian  word 
foi  "  measure,"  and  Ephali  has  no  Semitic  etymology. 


had  wings  like  the  wings  •  ^  ^^■g^W  t 
of  a  stork :  and  they  lifted      «''•■  5i9. 
up  the  ephah  between  the 
earth  and  the  heaven. 

10  Then  said  I  to  the 
angel  that  talked  with  me, 
Whither  do  these  bear  the 
ephah  ? 

11  And  he  said  unto  me, 

To  *  build  it  an  house  in  •  Jer.  29. 5, 28. 
'the  land  of  Shinar:  and'Gen.  10. 10. 
it  shall  be  established,  and 
set   there   upon  her  own 
base. 


8.  And  cast  her  into  the  midst  of  the  Ephah. 
As  yet  then  the  measure  was  not  full. 
"  ''^  She  had  the  lower  iiart  within  the  Ephah, 
but  the  upper,  especially  the  head,  without. 
Though  the  Jews  liad  slain  the  prophets  and 
done  many  grievous  things,  the  greatest  sin 
of  all  remained  to  be  done.  But  when  they 
had  crucified  Christ  and  persecuted  the 
.\postles  and  the  Oospel,  the  measure  was 
full ;  she  was  wholly  within  the  Ephah,  no 
part  remained  without,  so  that  the  measure 
was  filled." 

And  he  cast  thexveiyht  of  lead  upon  tlie  mouth 
thereof,  i.e.  doubtless  of  the  Ephah;  as  in 
Genesis  ^^,  a  great  stone  was  on  the  mouth  of  the 
well,  so  that  there  should  be  no  access  to  it. 

9.  Tliere  came  out  two  women.  It  may  be 
that  there  may  be  no  symbol  herein,  but  that 
he  names  women  because  it  was  a  woman 
who  was  so  carried  ;  yet  their  wings  were 
the  wings  of  an  unclean  bird,  strong,  power- 
ful, borne  by  a  force  not  their  own;  with 
their  will,  since  they  flew ;  beyond  their 
will,  since  the  wind  was  in  tiieir  winss;  rap- 
idly, inexorably,  irresistibly,  they  flew  and 
bore  the  Ephah  between  heaven  and  earth. 
No  earthly  power  could  reach  or  rescue  it. 
God  would  not.  It  may  be  that  evil  spiriti 
are  symbolized,  as  being  like  to  this  person- 
ified human  wickedness,  such  as  snatch  away 
the  souls  of  the  damned,  who,  by  serving 
them,  have  become  as  they. 

11.  To  build  it  an  house  in  the  land  of  Shinar. 
The  name  of  Shinar,  thouijh  strictly  Baby- 
lonia, carries  back  to  an  older  power  than  the 
world-empire  of   Babylon ;    which   now  too 

»Theod.  <Ps.  xxxviii.  4.   ,       »Ib.  cvii.  42. 

•S.  Ambr.  in  Ps.  35.  n.  9.  0pp.  i.  769. 

'riJ.'E'in,  an.  with  ait.  as  HpliTI  absolutely, 

only  in  Dan.  ix.7.  Thine,  O  LorJ,ii  Hpll^n,  n^1>'n 
does  not  occur  ut  all  ' 

«Ps.  1. 1.  »Ib.  1.  20.      wLap. 

uflanet.  i"  Rib.  nuen.  xxl.x.  2. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


369 


Before 
CHRIST 

eir.  519. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1  The  vision  of  the  four  chariots. 
9  By  the  crowns  of  Joshua  is 
shewed  the  temple  and  kingdom 
of  Christ  the  Branch. 

A  ND  I  turned,  and  lifted 
up  mine  eyes,  and 
looked,  and  behold,  there 
came  four  chariots  out 
from  between  two  moun- 
tains; and  the  mountains 
were  mountains  of  brass. 


was  destroyed.  In  the  land  of  Shinar  ^  was 
that  first  attempt  to  array  a  world-empire 
against  God,  ere  mankind  was  yet  dispersed. 
And  so  it  is  the  apter  symbol  of  the  antithe- 
ist  or  Anti-Chribtian  world,  which  by  vio- 
lence, art,  falsehood,  sophistiy,  wars  against 
the  truth.  To  this  great  world-empire  it 
was  to  be  removed;  yet  to  live  there,  no 
longer  cramped  and  confined  as  within  an 
Ephah,  but  in  pomp  and  splendor.  A  house 
or  temple  was  to  be  built  for  it,  for  its  honor 
and  glory  ;  as  Dagon  '^  or  Ashtaroth ",  or 
Baal  *  had  their  houses  or  temples,  a  great 
idol  temple,  in  which  the  god  of  this  world 
should  be  worshiped. 

And  it — "  the  house,"  shall  be  established 
firmly  on  its  base,  like  the  house  of  God,  and 
it,  (wickedness*)  shall  be  tranquilly  rested  on 
its  base,  as  an  idol  in  its  temple,  until  the 
end  come.  In  the  end,  the  belief  of  those 
of  old  was,  that  the  Jews  would  have  great 
share  in  the  antagonism  to  Christ  and  His 
empire.  At  the  first,  they  were  the  great 
enemies  of  the  faith,  and  sent  forth,  S.  Justin 
says**,  those  everywhere  who  should  circu- 
late the  calumnies  against  Christians,  which 
were  made  a  ground  of  early  persecutions. 
In  the  end,  it  was  believed,  that  Anti -Christ 
should  be  from  them,  that  they  would  receive 
him  as  their  Christ,  the  last  fulfillment  of 
our  Lord's  words,  '  /  am  come  in  My  Father's 
name  and  ye  receive  Me  not  ;  another  shall  come 
in  his  own  name,  him  ye  will  receive. 

VI.  1.  Behold,  four  chariots  going  forth 
"*by  the  secret  disposal  of  God  into  the 
theatre  of  the  world,"  from  between  two  moun- 
tains of  brass.  Both  Jews**  and  Christians 
have  seen  that  the  four  chariots  relate  to  the 
same  four  empires,  as  the  visions  in  Daniel. 

1  Gen.  xi.  2.  2  1  Sam.  v.  2-5. 

«  lb.  xxxi.  10.  ■•  2  Kgs  x.  23. 

^The  subjects  are  marked  by  the  genders;  n'3 
being  masc,  Hi'tyT  fem. 

•8.  Just.  Dial.  n.  17  (n.  91.  Oxf.  Tr.)  and  n.  108.  p. 
205.  Eusebius  quotes  the  first  passage,  H.  E.  Iv.  18, 
and  repeats  the  statement  on  Is.  xviii. 

24 


2  In  the  first  chariot    chrTst 
were  'red  horses;  and  in      c'f-  5i9. 


the  second  chariot  "black    »eh  i. s. 

1  Rev.  6.  4. 

horses  ;  t>  Rev.  6. 5. 

3  And  in  the  third  char- 
iot °  white  horses ;  and  in    « Rev.  6. 2. 
the  fourth  chariot  grisled 

and  1 1  bay  horses.  n  Or,  strong. 

4  Then  I  answered  ''and    ^ch.  5. 10. 
said   unto   the  angel  that 
talked  with  me,  What  are 

these,  my  lord  ? 


"  The  two  mountains."  It  may  be  that  the 
imagery  is  from  the  two  mountains  on  either 
side  of  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  which  Joel 
had  spoken  of  as  the  place  of  God's  judg- 
ment^", and  Zechariah  afterward".  It  may 
then  picture  that  the  judgments  go  forth 
from  God.  Anyhow  the  powers,  symbolized 
by  the  four  cliariots,  are  pictured  as  closed  in 
on  either  side  by  these  mountains,  strong  as 
brass,  unsurmountable,  undecaying,  "'^tliat 
they  sjiould  not  go  forth  to  other  lands  to 
conquer,  until  the  time  should  come,  fixed  by 
the  counsels  of  God,  when  the  gates  should 
be  opened  for  their  going  forth."  The 
mountains  of  brass  may  signify  the  height  of 
the  Divine  wisdom  ordering  this,  and  the 
sublimity  of  the  power  which  putteth  them 
in  operation  ;  as  the  Psalmist  says,  ^^  Thy 
righteousnesses  are  like  the  mountains  of  God. 

2.  3.  The  symbol  is  diflerent  from  that  in 
the  first  vision.  There  '*,  they  were  horses 
only,  with  their  riders,  to  go  to  and  fro  to  en- 
quire ;  here  they  are  war-chariots  with  their 
horses,  to  execute  God's  judgments,  each  in 
their  turn.  In  the  first  vision  also,  there  is 
not  the  characteristic  fourfold  division,  which 
reminds  of  the  four  world-empires  of  Dan- 
iel '* ;  after  which,  in  both  prophets,  is  the 
mention  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Even  if 
the  grvded  horses  be  the  same  as  the  speckled 
of  the  first  vision,  the  black  horses  are  wanting 
there,  as  well  as  the  succession,  in  which  they 
go  forth.  The  only  resemblance  is,  that 
there  are  horses  of  divers  colors,  two  of 
which,  red  and  white,  are  the  same.  The 
symbol  of  the  fourth  empire,  grizzled,  strong '®, 
remarkably  corresponds  with  the  strength 
and  mingled  character  of  the  fourth  empire 
in  Daniel. 

'S.  John  V.  43.  8  Alb. 

'Saadiah  in  Kim,,  Kim.,  Rashi,  the  Jews  in  the 
time  of  S.  Jerome.  Jon.  paraphrases  vi.  5,  "four 
kingdoms."  i"  jo.  iii.  2.  n  Zeeli.  xiv.  4. 

12  Rib.        13  Ps.  xxxvi.  6.       » i.  8.        J6  Dan.  ii. 

"The  guess  of  Abulwalid  and  Kimehi  that  VOK 
might  be  }.  q.,  V^DTI  bright  red,  Is.  Ixlii.  1,  is  at 


370 


ZECHARLIH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

•  Ps.  104.  4. 

Heb.  1.  7,  14. 
1  Or,  winds. 

n  Kin.  22.  19. 
Dan.  7.  10. 
ch.  4.  14. 
Luke  1. 19. 


5  And  the  angel  an- 
swered and  said  unto  me, 
^  These  are  the  four  1 1  spirits 
of  the  heavens,  which  go 
forth  from  'standing  be- 
fore the  Lord  of  all  the 
earth. 


5.  These  are  the  four  spirits  of  the  heavens. 
They  cannot  be  literal  winds :  for  spirits,  not 
winds,  stand  before  God,  as  His  servants,  as  in 
Job,  ^  the  sons  of  God  caine  to  present  themselves 
before  the  Lord.  This  they  did,  "^  for  these 
four  kingdoms  did  nothing  without  the  will 
of  God."  Zechariah  sums  up  in  one,  what 
former  prophets  had  said  separately  of  the 
Assyrian,  the  Babylonian,  Egyptian,  Per- 
sian. ^  O  Assyria,  the  rod  of  Mine  amjer — / 
tvill  send  him  against  an  um/odly  nation,  and 
against  the  people  of  My  wrath  I  will  give  him 
a  eharge.  */  will  send  and  take  all  the  families 
of  the  north,  and  Nebuchadrezzar,  the  king  of 
Babylon,  My  servant,  and  will  bring  them  against 
this  land.  *  The  Lord  shall  hiss  for  the  fly,  that 
is  in  the  uttermost  part  of  Egypt,  and  for  the  bee 
that  is  in  the  land  of  Assyria,  and  they  shall 
come,  and  shall  rest,  all  of  them,  in  the  desolate 
vcdleys.  ^  I  will  call  all  the  families  of  the  king- 
doms of  the  north,  saith  the  Lord ;  and  they 
shall  come,  and  shall  set  every  one  his  throne  at 
the  entering  of  the  gates  of  Jerusalem.  Wliat- 
ever  the  human  impulse  or  the  human 
means,  aU.  stand  before  the  Lord  of  the  ivhole 
earth,  ministering  to  His  will  Whose  are  all 
things,  the  Judge  of  all.  Who  withholdeth 
the  chastisement  till  the  iniquity  is  full,  and 
then,  through  man's  injustice,  executes  His 
own  just  judgment.  "'He  says  tliat  they 
went  forth  from  where  they  had  stood  before 
the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth,  to  shew  that 
.  tlieir  power  had  been  obtained  by  the  coun- 
sel of  God,  tliat  they  might  serve  His  will. 
For  no  empire  was  ever  set  up  on  earth 
without  the  mind,  counsel  and  power  of  God. 
He  exalts  tlie  humble  and  obscure.  He  pros- 
tiates  the  lofty,  who  trust  overmuch  in  them- 

variance  with  the  whole  use  of  the  Hebrew  root, 
which  occurs  40  times  in  the  verb,  VOX;  7  times  in 
the  adj.  |"7pX;  and  once  each  in  Pli'pX,  ^'OXO, 
VOX,  beside  the  Proper  Names  VIOX,  Isaiah's 
father;    *]fpX,  of   two  persons,  H'^fOX,  of    four 

persons.  The  Arab.  jfOI.  which  Eiehhorn  and 
Henderson  comparo,  is  no  name  of  a  color,  but  is 
used  apparf-ntly  of  the  "slight  summer  lightninK." 
The  ground  with  some  was,  that  the  word  is  united 
with  names  of  colore;  with  Ewald,  to  replace  the 
red  horsei,  on  which  the  prophet  is  silent.  See 
"  Daniel  the  prophet"  p.  :JOO.  The  single  case  too. 
in  which  n  and  X  are  supposed  to  be  interchangea 
in  Heb.,  is  that  a  Proper  Name  J,*'^nP  1  Chr.  i.x.  41, 
is  written  J,nxn  lb.  viii.  ZT>,  but  the  prunuuciatioa 


Before 
CH  RIST 

forth  into      cir.  519. 


6  The  black  horses  which 
are  therein  go 
^the  north  country;  and«Jer.  1 
the  white  go  forth  after 
them ;  and  the  grisled  go 
forth  toward  the  south 
country. 


14. 


selves,  arms  one  against  the  other,  so  that 
no  fraud  or  pride  shall  be  without  punish- 
ment." 

6.  The  black  horses  which  are  therein  go  forth. 
lit.  That  chariot  wherein  the  black  horses  are, 
these  go  forth.  "^Most  suitably  is  the  first 
chariot,  wlierein  the  red  horses  were,  passed 
over,  and  wliat  tlie  second,  third,  fourth  did 
is  described.  For  when  the  propliet  re- 
lated this,  the  Babylonian  empire  had  passed, 
and  the  power  of  the  Medes  possessed  all 
Asia."  Red,  as  the  color  of  blood,  repre- 
sented Babylon  as  sanguinary ;  as  it  is  said 
in  the  Revelation,  *  There  went  out  another 
horse,  red,  and  power  tras  given  to  him  that  sat 
thereon,  to  take  peace  from  the  earth,  and  that 
they  should  kill  one  another,  ami  tliere  ivas  given 
him  a  sharp  sword.  The  black  were  to  go  forth 
to  the  North  country,  the  ancient  title  of 
Babylon.  For  Babylon,  though  taken,  was 
far  from  being  broken.  They  had  probably 
been  betrayed  through  the  weakness  of  their 
kings.  Their  resistance,  in  the  first  carefully 
prepared  '••  revolt  against  Darius,  was  more 
courageous  than  that  against  Cyrus :  and 
more  desperate'".  Since  probably  more 
Jews  remained  in  it,  than  returned  to  their 
own  country,  what  was  to  befall  it  had  a 
special  interest  for  them.  They  had  already 
been  warned  in  the  third  vision '^  to  escape 
from  it.  The  color  black  doubtless  sj'mbol- 
izes  the  heavy  lot,  inflicted  by  tlie  Medo- 
Persians;  as  in  the  Revelation  it  is  said, 
'^  the  sun  became  black  as  sackcloth  of  hair  ;  and 
to  the  beast  in  Daniel's  vision  which  corres- 
ponded with  it,  '^  it  was  said.  Arise,  devour 
much  flesh;  and  in  the  Revelation  ",  Ae  </ia/ 
sat  on  the  black  horse  was  the  angel  charged 

of  Proper  Names  varies  in  all  languajies.  See 
"Daniel  the  prophet"  p.  405.  Fiirst's  instances 
(Hand wort.  p.  3(!8)   are  conjectures    of  his  own. 

Within  Arabic,  'flX,  i.  q.,  "Jjin  ;  b'^X  i.  q-,  O'^h  ; 
O'^X  i.  q.,  n"^n;  (Eichh.  in  Ges.  Thes.  p.  2.)  are 
without  authority;  03X  is  not  owned  by  Lane; 
else,  if  it  means  "  imprisoned,"  it  would  be  a  softer 
pronunciation  of  p3n  in  this  one  sense;  ^yx  and 
lyn  are  perhaps  from  the  same  biliteral  root. 

'Job  i.  C,  ii.  1.    The  same  idiom  ^j,»  3X'r>n. 

2S.  Jer.  'Is.  X.  5.  <  Jer.  xxv.  9. 

6  Is.  vii.  18, 19.    6jer.  i.  15.    ^  Osor.    SRev.  vi.  4. 

»  Herod,  iii.  150. 

>0Seo  "Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  129, 130.  cd.  2. 

11  ii.  7.  "  Rev.  vi.  12. 

"  Dan.  vii.  5.  "  Rev.  vi.  5,  o. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


371 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

^  Gen.  13. 17. 
ch.  1.  10. 


7  And  the  bay  went 
forth,  and  sought  to  go 
that  they  might  ''walk  to 
and  fro  through  the  earth : 
and  he  said,  Get  you  hence, 
walk  to  and  fro  through 


with  the  infliction  of  famine.  Of  the  Medes, 
Isaiah  had  said\  I  ivill  stir  up  the  Medes 
against  them  [Babylon],  which  shall  not  regard 
silver;  and  gold,  they  shall  not  delight  in  it. 
Their  bows  also  shall  dash  the  young  men  to 
pieces;  and  they  shall  have  no  pity  on  the  fruit 
of  the  womb  ;  their  eye  shall  not  spare  children. 

The  white  ivent  forth  after  them:  for  the 
Greek  empire  occupied  the  same  portion  of 
the  earth  as  the  Pei-sian.  White  is  a  symbol 
of  joy,  gladness  ^,  victory  ^,  perhajjs  also, 
from  its  relation  to  light,  of  acute  intelli- 
gence. It  may  relate  too  to  the  benevolence 
of  Alexander  to  the  Jewish  nation.  "  *  Alex- 
ander used  such  clemency  to  the  conquered, 
that  it  seemed  as  though  he  might  be  called 
rather  the  founder  than  the  destroyer  of  the 
nations  whom  he  subdued." 

And  the  grizzled,  the  Romans  in  their 
mingled  character,  so  prominent  in  the  fourth 
empire  of  Daniel*,  go  forth  to  the  south 
country,  i.  e.  Egypt ;  as  Daniel  speaks  of 
''the  ships  of  Chittim  and  the  intervention  of 
the  Romans  first  in  regard  to  the  expulsion 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  from  Egypt;  in 
Egypt  also,  the  last  enduring  kingdom  of 
any  successor  of  Alexander,  that  of  the 
Ptolemies,  expired.  "30  years  afterward, 
the  Son  of  God  was  to  bring  light  to  the 
earth.  The  prophet  so  interweaves  the  pre- 
diction, that  from  the  series  of  the  four  king- 
doms it  is  brought  to  the  Birth  of  the  Eter- 
nal King ''." 

7.  And  the  strong  went  forth  and  sought  to  go, 
that  they  might  walk  to  and  fro  through  tlie 
earth.  The  mention  of  their  strength  cor- 
responds to  the  extent  of  the  power  and  com- 
mission, for  which  they  asked,  to  go  to  and 
fro,  up  and  down,  at  their  will,  unhindered, 
through  the  whole  earth.  The  Babylonian 
empire  held  Egypt  only  out  of  Asia ;  the 
Persian  was  conquered  in  its  efforts  against 
Europe,  in  Greece ;  Alexander's  was  like  a 
meteor,  gleaming  but  breaking  into  the  four : 

lis.  xiii.  17,18.         SEcel.  ix.  8.         «Rev.  vi.  2. 
<  See  note  Ifi,  p.  .3fi9.    6  Dan.  ii.  41-43.    «  lb.  xi.  30. 

7  Osor.  See  "  Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  142-150. 

8  The  fem.  HJD  7nnr\  may  have  been  occasioned 
by  the  symbol  X>i33TD  v.  1,  or  the  explanation 
r\inn,  v.  5;  but  since  their  going  was  consequent 
on  the  permission  to  go,  which  they  asked  and 
obtained,  it  must  relate  to  the  empire  symbolized 
by  the  4th  chariot,  not  (as  some)  to  all.      ^  8.  Cyr. 

p'J/in,  with  ace.  p.  is  used  elsewhere  of  calling 

together  people.    Jud.  iv.  10, 13,  2  Sam.  xx.  4,  5. 


the  earth.  So  they  walked 
to  and  fro  through  the. 
earth. 

8  Then  cried  he  upon 
me,  and  spake  unto  me, 
saying.  Behold,  these  that 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


the  Roman  combined  East  and  West  and 
within  large  limits  tranquilly. 

And  he  said  go,  walk  to  and  fro  in  the  earth. 
He  commanded,  and  they,  which  were  before 
withheld,  went,  and  they  walked  to  and  fro  *  on 
the  earth,  ordering  all  things  at  their  will, 
under  the  Providence  of  God,  whereby  He 
gave  free  access  to  the  Gospel  in  all  their 
wide  empire.  The  Greek  empire  being  ex- 
tinguished, the  Romans  no  longer  went  into 
any  given  country,  but  superintended  and 
governed  all  human  things  in  (it  is  the  lan- 
guage of  the  New  Testament)  all  the  world. 
"  *  These  same,  the  dappled  and  ashen  grey 
horses  were  commanded  to  travei-se  the  earth, 
and  they  did  traverse  it ;  for  they  mastered 
all  under  heaven,  and  ruled  the  whole  earth, 
God  consenting  and  arraying  those  who 
swayed  the  Roman  might  with  this  brilliant 
glory.  For,  as  God,  He  knew  beforehand 
the  greatness  of  their  future  piety." 

8.  Then  God,  or  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  who 
speaks  of  Avhat  belonged  to  God  alone,  called 
me  (probably  "  loudly  ^^  "),  so  as  to  command 
his  attention  to  this  which  most  immediately 
concerned  his  people. 

These  have  quieted  My  spirit  in  the  North 
country,  or  rather,  have  made  My  anger  to  rest " 
on,  i.  e.  have  carried  it  thither  and  deposited 
it  there,  made  it  to  rest  upon  them,  as  its 
abode,  as  S.  John  saith  of  the  unbelieving, 
^^  The  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.  Babylon 
had  been  the  final  antagonist  and  subduer  of 
the  people  of  God.  It  had  at  the  outset  de- 
stroyed the  temple  of  God,  and  carried  off 
its  vessels  to  adorn  idol-temples.  Its  empire 
closed  on  that  night  when  it  triumphed  over 
God  ^^,  using  the  vessels  dedicated  to  Him,  to 
the  glorifying  of  their  idols.  In  that  night 
tvas  Belshazzar  the  king  of  the  Chaldceans  slain. 
This  final  execution  of  God's  anger  upon 
that  their  destroyer  was  the  earnest  of 
the  rest  to  them;  and  in  this  the  visions 
pause. 

"'nn  nx  n'jn,  with  n,  as  ez.  v.  is.  'nin'jn 

Q2  "TIDn,  followed  by  Q2  MDH  TllSlJa  lb.  xxiv. 
13  :  thou  Shalt  not  be  cleansed  any  more,  until  I  have, 
made  my  anger  to  rest  upon  thee.  The  idiom,  "  to 
cause  to  rest  upon"  a  person,  involves  that  that 
person  is  the  object,  on  whom  it  abides ;  not  that 
anger  or  spirit  was  quieted  in  him  whose  it  was, 
(as  Kim.),    ni"^  is  "anger,"  Jud.  viii.  3,  Eeel.  x.  4. 

12S.  John  iii.  36. 

"  Dan.  V.  See  in  Daniel  the  Prophet  pp.  450-463, 


372 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRI8T 

clr.  519. 


Ecclea.  10. 4. 


go  toward  the  north  coun- 
.  try  have  quieted  my  'spirit 
in  the  north  country. 

9  ^And  the  word  of 
the  Lord  came  unto  me, 
saying, 

10  Take  of  them  of  the 


9.  A)id  theword  of  the  Lord  came  to  me.  The 
visions  being  closed,  Zechariah  marks  tlie 
change  by  adopting  the  usual  formula,  with 
which  the  prophets  authenticated,  that  they 
spake  not  of  themselves,  but  by  the  Spirit  of 
God.  The  act  enjoined  is  a  symbolic  act, 
pointing  and  summing  up  and  interpreting 
the  visions,  as  some  of  the  visions  had  been 
already  expanded  by  fresh  revelations  fol- 
lowing immediately  upon  them. 

10.  Take  of  the  captivity,  of  that  which  they 
liad  brought  with  them  ^  The  cxiptivity  was, 
in  Jeremiah  *,  and  Ezekiel  *,  the  title  of  those 
who  had  been  actually  carried  captive  and 
were  at  that  moment  in  captivity.  Ezra  con- 
tinues it  of  those  who  had  been  in  captivity, 
though  now  returned  from  exile.  Yet  not 
without  a  reference  to  the  circumstances  or 
causes  of  that  captivity.  It  is  the  captivity  * 
which  Sheshbazzar  brings  from  Babylon,  or 
Ezra  subsequently*;  the  children  of  the  cap- 
tivity, who  set  themselves  to  build  the  temple 
of  God*;  who  dedicated  it  and  kept  the 
passover ''.  The  title  is  used  apparently  as 
an  aggravation  of  sin,  like  that  which  had 
been  chastened  by  that  captivity**.  Here, 
the  term  seems  to  imply  some  blame,  that 
they  remained  of  their  own  accord  in  this 
state  of  severance  from  the  altar,  where  alone 
special  worship  of  God  and  sacrifice  could  be 
offered.  They  had  been  removed  against 
their  will ;  yet,  as  Christians  often  do,  acqui- 
esced in  the  loss,  rather  than  forego  their 
temporal  advantages.    Still  they  wished  to 

*  r\KD  npS,  as  Ex.  XXV.  2,  xxx.  16,  xxxv.  5,  Lev. 
vii.  34.         I 

«  Jer.  xxviil.  6,  xxix.  1,  4,  20,  31.  (ni7J  lb.  xxiv.  5, 
xxviii.  4,  xxix.  22,  xl.  1.) 

«  Ezek.  i.  2,  iii.  11, 15,  xi.  24,  25.  ♦  Ezr.  i.  11. 

»  lb.  viii.  35.  •  lb.  iv.  1. 

'  the  children  of  the  captivity  lb.  vl.  16.  Ch.  19,  20. 

»n"7Un  lb.  ix.  4,  X.  0,  rhMT}  'J3  lb.  X.  7.  lo, 

nSun  hry^  ib.s. 

•As  in  1  Kgs  xii.  2,  n"^3  "^lifH  whither  he  hud 
lied;  add  Gen.  xlv.  25,  for  the  like  aecus.  of  place. 
Kim.  renders*,  "who  have  come  from  Babylon" 
expressly  including  Josiah.  Yet  this  too  is  an 
impossible  construction. 

'"in^DID.    Tobias  happens  only  to  occur  after 

the  exile,  in  Ezr.  II.  60,  Neh.  vll.  62;  2)  in  Noh.  ii. 
10,  vi.  1  ;  H)  the  Tobias  here  and  14;  4)  Toblt  and 
Tobiits  in  hJM  book, 


captivity,  even  of  Heldai, 
of  Tobijah,  and  of  Jeda- 
iah,  Avhich  are  come  from 
Babylon,  and  come  thou 
the  same  day,  and  go  into 
the  house  of  Josiah  the 
son  of  Zephaniah ; 


Before 
CHRIST 

oir.  519. 


take  part  in  the  work  of  restoring  the  public 
worship,  and  so  sent  these  men,  with  their 
contribution  of  gold  and  silver,  to  their  breth- 
ren, who  had  returned  ;  as,  in  the  first  times 
of  the  Gospel,  the  Christians  everywhere 
made  collections  for  the  poor  saints,  who 
dwelt  in  Jerusalem.  And  this  their  imper- 
fect zeal  was  instantly  accepted. 

And  go  thyself,  to  make  the  act  more  im- 
pressive, on  that  same  day,  as  matter  of  urgency, 
and  thou  shall  come  to  the  house  of  Josiah  son  of 
Zephaniah,  whither  they  have  come  from  Baby- 
lon^. The  exiles  who  had  brought  presents 
for  the  building  of  the  temple,  lodged,  it 
seems,  in  the  house  of  Josiah,  whether  they 
doubted  or  no  that  their  presents  would  be 
accepted,  since  they  chose  Babylon,  not  Jeru- 
salem for  their  abode.  This  acceptance  of 
their  gifts  symbolized  the  incoming  of  those 
from  afar.  It  is  remarkable  that  all  five 
names  express  a  relation  to  God.  Tobiah, 
"'"The  Lord  is  my  good ;"  FerfataA,  "God 
knoweth  "  or  "  careth  for  ;  "  Josiah,  "  The 
Lord  supporteth"  ;  "  Zephaniah,  "The  Lord 
hideth,"  and  perhaps  Cheldai,  ''  The  Lord's 
world  ''*."  They  had  taken  religious  instead 
of  worldly  names.  Probably  Zechariah  was 
first  to  accept  the  offerings  from  tlie  three 
exiles,  and  then  to  take  the  actual  gold  from 
the  house  of  Josiah  whither  they  had  brought 
it.  The  pilgrims  from  Babylon  and  their 
host  are  included  in  one  common  blessing. 

And  make  crowns  ;  or  o  croicn^^,  as  in  Job, 
^*  I  toould  bind  it  as  a  crown  wvto  me,  and  our 

u  Josiah  only  occurs  beside,  as  the  name  of  the 
well-known  king. 

"  'H Sn.  The  name  is  preserved,  though  obelised, 
in  the  LXX.  'EAiaui,  EASai ;  not  from  Aq.  who  has 
"OASo.  Jon.  retains  the  name  ;  the  Syr.  and  S.  Jer. 
HoMai,  (the  Syr.  in  v.  14.  also.)    The  LXX  only 

Trapa  Tuii'  a.p\6vTit>v- 

13 "  great  crown,"  Jon. ;  "  a  crown,"  Syr. 

'^nnDj^  Job  xxxi.  36.  The  plural  form  is  used 
only  in  these  two  places,  and  .as,  or  in,  the  Proper 
Name  of  four  towns;  1)  ni'^t^i'  a  town  of  the 
Gadite.a,  Nu.  xxxii.  3,34;  2)  of  Ephrnim,  Josh.  xvi. 
27,  also  T^X  nnpj,'  "crown  of  Addar,"  lb.  xvi.  .'>, 
xviii.  13;  '3)  of  Judah  3KV  iTS  r>ni3i'  ("crown 
of  the  house  of  Joab  ")  1  Chr.  ii.  54;  and  4)  and  of 
Gad,  jS'lE^  riTIt);;'  (mentioned  with  Ataroth)  Nu. 
xxxii.  n.J.     In  all  these  it  must  needs  be  singular. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


373 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


k  Ex.  28.  36. 
&  29.  6. 
Lev.  8.  9.  ch.  3. 5. 


11  Then  take  silver  and 
gold,  and  make  "crowns, 
and    set    them    upon    the 


Lord  is  seen  in  the  Revelation,  ^  on  His  Head 
were  many  croiinis.  The  singular  is  used  of 
*  a  royal  croicn,  apparently  of  a  festive  crown  ^ ; 
and  figuratively  * ;  even  of  Almighty  God 
Himself  as  a  crown  * ;  but  no  where  of  the 
mitre  of  the  high-priest. 

The  characteristic  of  the  act  is,  that  thecrown 
or  crowns  (it  is  not  in  the  context  said,  which) 
were  placed  on  the  head  of  the  one  high 
priest,  Joshua ;  and  thou  shall  place  [^it  or  them, 
it  is  not  said  which]  upon  the  head  of  Joshua 
son  of  Josedech  the  high-priest,  and  shalt  say 
unto  him.  If  crowns  were  made  of  each  ma- 
terial, there  were  two  crowns.  But  this  is 
not  said,  and  the  silver  might  have  formed  a 
circlet  in  the  crown  of  gold,  as,  in  modern 
times,  the  iron  crown  of  Lombardy,  was 
called  iron,  because  it  had  "®a  plate  of  iron 
in  its  summit,  being  else  of  gold  and  most 
precious."  In  any  case  the  symbolical  act 
was  completed  by  the  placing  of  a  royal 
crown  upon  the  head  of  the  high-priest. 
This,  in  itself,  represented  that  He,  Whom 
he  and  all  other  priests  represented,  would  be 
also  our  King.  It  is  all  one  then,  whether 
the  word  designate  one  single  crown,  so  en- 
titled for  its  greatness,  or  one  united  royal 
crown,  i.  e.,  one  crown  uniting  many  crowns, 
symbolizing  the  many  kingdoms  of  tlie  earth, 
over  which  our  High  Priest  and  King  should 
rule.  Either  symbol,  of  separate  crowns',  or 
an  united  crown  *,  has  been  used  in  the  same 
meaning,  to  symbolize  as  many  empires,  as 
there  were  crowns. 

On  Zerubbabel  no  crown  was  placed.  It 
would  have  been  confusing ;  a  seeming  resto- 

1  Rev.  xix.  12.  In  Rev.  xii.  3,  the  7  crowns  are  for 
the  7  heads  of  the  dragon.  D'^TK'p  is  used  of  the 
one  girdle,  Jer.  ii.  32. 

*  Dd'^D  r\"lDj?  2  Sam.  xii.  30, 1  Chr.  xx.  2;  also  of 
a  king,  Ps.  xxi.  4,  Cant.  iii.  11,  Jer.  xiii.  18;  perhaps 
Esther  viii.  15,  (coll.  vi.  8.)  possibly  Ezek.  xvi.  12, 

(coll.  13);  fig.,  parallel  with  HDlSo  HUV  Is.  Ixii. 
3 ;  comp.  also  DTtOj^D  T1!f  Tyre  the  crowning  i.  e., 
the  kingmaker,  in  her  colonies,  Is.  xxiii.  8. 

s  Is.  xxviii.  1,  3,  Lam.  v.  16 ;  of  festive  array,  Ez. 
xxiii.  42 

♦  Job  xix.  9.  [plur.  lb.  xxxi.  36]  Pr.  iv.  9,  xii.  4,  xiv. 
24,  xvi.  31.  xvii.  6. 

s  Is.  xxviii.  5.  is  contrasted  with  "the  crown  of 
pride"  lb.  I,  3.  [all] 

^Ceremoniale  Rom.  L.  1.  sect.  5.  in  Du  Cange 
Glossar.  v.  Corona  Ferrea. 

"  Ptolemj'Philadelphus  "set  two  crowns  upon  his 
head,"  the  crown  of  Asia  and  of  Egypt  (1  Mace.  xi. 
13);  Artabanus,  "in  whom  the  kingdom  of  Parthia 
ended  "  used  two  diadems  (Herodian  Hist.vi.  2.  p.  119 
Bekk.) ;  "the  Emperor  of  Germany  received  three 
crowns:  first,  silver  (at  Aix)  for  Germany;  one  of 
iron  at  Monza  in  the  Milanese  or  Milan  (for  Lom- 
bardy) ;  that  of  gold  in  divers  places,"  (Alber.  Indi  x 


head   of   Joshua    the   son  „  „  51(°t  I 


of     Josedech 
priest ; 


the 


ICHR  1ST 
high         cir.  519. 


ration  of  the  kingdom,  when  it  was  not  to  be 
restored  ;  an  encouragement  of  the  temporal 
hopes,  which  were  the  bane  of  Israel.  God 
had  foretold,  that  none  of  the  race  of  Jehoia- 
kim  should  prosper,  sitting  on  the  throne  of 
David,  or  ruling  any  more  in  Israel.  Nehe- 
miah  rejects  tlie  imputation  of  Sanballat ", 
Thou  hast  ako  appointed  prophets  to  preach  of 
thee  at  Jerusalem,  There  is  a  king  in  Juduh, 
He  answers,  I'here  are  no  such  things  done  as 
thou  say  est ;  and  thoufeignest  them  out  of  thine 
ou~n  heart.  But  Isaiah  had  foretold  much  of 
the  king  who  should  reign  :  Zechariah,  by 
placing  the  royal  crown  on  the  head  of 
Joshua,  foreshewed  that  the  kingdom  was  not 
to  be  of  this  world.  The  royal  crown  had 
been  taken  away  in  the  time  of  Zedekiah, 
'"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Rennove  the  diadem 
and  take  away  the  croivn;  this  shall  not  be  this  ; 
exalt  the  low  and  abase  the  high  ;  an  overthrow, 
overthrow,  overthrow  will  I  make  it;  this  too  is 
not;  until  he  come  lohose  the  right  is,  and  Itvill 
give  it. 

But  the  Messiah,  it  was  foretold,  was  to  be 
both  priest  and  king  ;  "  a  pinest  after  the  order 
of  Mdchizedec,  and  a  king,  set  by  the  Lord 
'*  upon  His  holy  hill  of  Zion.  The  act  of 
placing  the  crown  on  the  head  of  Joshua  the 
high-priest,  pictured  not  only  the  union  of 
the  offices  of  priest  and  king  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  but  that  He  should  be  King,  being 
first  our  High  Priest.  Joshua  was  already 
High  Priest ;  being  such,  the  kingly  crown 
was  added  to  him.  It  says  in  act,  what  S. 
Paul  says,  that  ^^  Christ  Jesus,  being  found  in 
fashion  as  a  man,  humbled  Himself  and  became 

V.  Corona  in  Du  Cange  v.  Corona  Imperialis)  "  the 
golden  at  Rome."  Du  Cang.  Otto  of  Frisingen  said 
that  Frederic  received  5  crowns ;  the  first  at  Aix 
for  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks;  a  second  at  Ratis- 
bon  for  that  of  Germany ;  a  third  at  Pavia  for  the 
kingdom  of  Lombardy;  the  fourth  at  Rome  for  the 
Roman  empire  from  Adrian  iv ;  the  fifth  of  Monza 
for  the  kingdom  of  Italy."  In  our  own  memory. 
Napoleon  I.  having  been  crowned  in  France,  was 
crowned  with  the  iron  crown  at  Monza. 

8  "  The  headdress  of  the  king,  on  state  occasions, 
was  the  crown  of  the  upper  or  of  the  lower  country, 
or  the  pshent,  the  union  of  the  two.  Every  king, 
after  the  sovereignty  of  the  Thebaid  and  lower 
Egypt  had  become  once  more  vested  in  the  same 
person,  put  on  this  double  crown  at  his  coronation, 
and  we  find  in  the  grand  representation  given  of 
this  ceremony  at  Medeenet  Haboo  that  the  princi- 
pal feature  of  the  proclamation,  on  his  ascension  to 
tiie  throne,  was  the  announcement  that  Remeses 
had  put  on  the  crown  of  the  ixpper  and  lower 
country. — When  crowned,  the  king  invariably  put 
on  the  two  crowns  at  the  same  time,  though  on 
other  occasions  he  was  permitted  to  wear  each  sep- 
arately, whether  in  the  temple,  the  city,  or  the  field 
of  battle."  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Eevpt,  iii.  3.51-3.5.3. 
i«  Ezek.  xxi.  31,  3-J  [26,  27,  Eng.] 


8  Neh.  vi.  6-8. 
11  Ps.  ex.  4. 


'8  lb.  ii.  6. 


IS  Phil.  ii.  8,  9. 


374 


ZF/'HARIAH. 


chrYst        -^^  And  speak  unto  him, 
cir.  519.      saying,  Thus  speaketh  the 


Lord  of  hosts,  saying,  Be- 
»See  Luke  1. 73.  hold  '  the  man  whose  name 
4h^3.8.*^'      is  The  -"BRANCH;  and 


obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  Cross. 
Wherefore  God  aho  hath  highly  exalted  Him. 

12.  The  Prophet  is  taught  to  explain  his 
own  symbolic  act.  Behold  the  Man  whose 
name  is  the  Branch  ^.  "  Not  for  himself, 
but  for  Christ,  Whose  name  Joshua  bare, 
and  Whose  Priesthood  and  Princedom 
he  represented,"  was  the  crown  given  liim. 
The  Prophet  had  already  foretold  the  Mes- 
siah, under  the  name  of  the  Branch.  Here 
he  adds, 

And  he  shall  grow  tip  out  of  His  place  '^, 
lowly  and  of  no  seeming  account,  as  God 
foretold  by  Jeremiah,  ^I  will  cause  the 
Branch  of  righteousness  to  grow  up  unto  David; 
and  Jesus  Himself  said,  *  Except  a  grain  of 
wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth  ahne  ; 
but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.  Alone 
He  grew  up  before  God,  as  a  tender  plant  ^, 
unknown  of  man,  known  to  God.  It  is  that 
still,  Divine  life  at  Nazareth,  of  which  we  see 
only  that  one  bright  flash  in  the  temple,  the 
deep  saying,  ununderstood  even  by  Joseph 
and  Mary,  and  then,  •*  He  ivcnt  down  with  them 
and  came  to  Nazareth  and  ivas  subject  unto  them. 

And  he  shall  build  the  temple  of  the  Lord. 
The  matei'ial  temple  was  soon  to  be  fin- 
ished, and  that  by  Zerubbabel,  to  whom  this 

1  The  consent  ot  the  ancient  Jews  in  interpreting 
"the  Branch"  of  tlie  Messiah  is  verv  remarkable. 
"  R.  Beraehiah  (about  A.  D.  2(i0,  Wolf.  Bibl.  Hebr.  ii. 
870)  .said,  that '  God,  blessed  for  ever,  saith  to  Israel, 
Ye  .'<ay  before  Me,  we  are  become  orphans  and  have 
no  father;  the  Redeemer  too,  Whom  1  am  about  to 
make  to  stand  from  you,  He  shall  have  no  father, as 
is  said.  Behold  the  Afan  Whose  name  is  the  Branch, 
and  he  shall  shoot  [lit.  from  below  him]  from  his 
place;  and  so  saith  Isaiah,  And  he  grew  up  like  a 
sucker  before  him.' "  (Bereshith  Rabba  on  Gen. 
xxxvi.  22.  in  Martini  Pug.  Fid.  f.  .'iPl  quoted  also  by 
a  Jewish  convert,  Joshua  Hallorki,  known  among  us 
as  Hieron.  de  S.  Fide,  c.  Jud.  i.  5.  Bibl.  Max.  Patr. 
xxvi.  .5.'W.  His  quotation  is  independent  of  Martini, 
since  he  adds  the  quotation  from  Ps.  ii.  "and  else- 
where, '  Tlie  Lord  said  unto  me,  Thou  art  my  Son,' ") 
Jon.  paraphrases,  "  Behold  a  Man,  Whose  name  is 
Messiah,  Who  shall  be  revealed,  and  shall  be  mul- 
tiplied," ('3in'1,  by  which  HOIf  is  rendered  Ps. 
Ix.xxv.  12.)  "and  he  shall  build  the  tenii)le  of  the 
Lord,  and  lie  shall  bear  glory,  and  he  shall  sit  and 
shall  rule  on  his  throne,  and  he  shall  be  a  great  priest 
on  his  throne,  and  counsel  of  peace  there  shall  be 
between  them  both."  Rashi  says,  "  He  liints  at  the 
Mi'ssiah,  and  so  paraphrases  Jonathan,  Behold  a 
Man  Whose  name  is  Messiah,  Ac."  (in  Mart.  p.  871). 
'I'lie  printed  odd.  substitute  "An<l  some  interpret  it 
of  king  Messiah.")  R.  Nachman  observes  on  the 
force  of  the  word  man,  "  Man  (in  Nu.  i.  4.)  is  not 
said  here  but  of  the  Messiah  the  Son  of  r)avid,  as 
is  said,  '  Behold  the  Man,  Whose  name  is  the 
Branch,'  Jonathan  paraphrases  The  Man  Messiah. 
and  BO  It  is  said,  'a  man  of  sorrows  and  aciiuainted 
with  grief.' "    (Mart.  p.  064).    Tlie  Echa  Rabati,  f. 


he  shall  ||grow  up  out  of   chr7st 
his  place,  "and  he  shall      dr.  ovx 


I  Or,  hrancli  up 


build  the  temple  of  the  from  under 

•f  hmi. 

-LfOKD  :  n  ch.  4.  9.  Matt. 

13  Even  he  shall  build  at  21;  .^^"' "' 

Heb.'s.  3. 


had  been  promised ',  not  by  Joshua.  It  was 
then  a  new  temple,  to  be  built  from  the 
foundation,  of  which  He  Himself  was  to  be 
the  foundation^,  as  He  said,  "  On  thu'i  rock  I  will 
build  My  Church  ;  and  in  Him  ^°all  the  build- 
ing, fidy  framed  together,  groweth  unto  an  holy 
temple  to  the  Lord.  "  ^^  He  it  is,  Who  built  the 
house ;  ibr  neither  Solomon  nor  Zerubbabel 
nor  Joshua  son  of  Josedech  could  build  a 
house  worthy  of  the  majesty  of  God.  For 
''■^  the  most  High,  H.  Stephen  says,  dwelleth  not 
in  temples  made  with  hands,  as  saith  the  prophet  ; 
Heaven  is  My  throne  and  earth  is  My  footstool ; 
what  house  will  ye  build  Me,  saith  the  Lord? 
For  if  they  could  have  built  a  house  for  God, 
He  would  not  have  allowed  His  house  to  be 
burned  and  overthrown.  What  then  is  the 
house  of  God  wliich  Christ  built  ?  The 
Church,  founded  on  faith  in  Him,  dedicated 
by  His  Blood,  stablished  by  the  stayedness 
of  Divine  virtue,  adorned  with  Divine  and 
eternal  riches,  wherein  the  Lord  ever 
dwelleth." 

13.  FA'en  He,  lit.  He  Himself".  The  repe- 
tition shews  that  it  is  a  great  thing,  which 
he  affirms ;  and  He,  again  emphatic,  He,  the 
same  who  shall  build  the  temple  of  the  Lord, 
He  shall  bear  tlie  glory.     Great  must  be  the 

59,  2.  and  Jerus.  Bereshith  f.  5, 1,  quote  R.  Joshua 
B.  Levi  (end  of  2d  cent..  Wolf.  B.  H.  ii.  842. 
coll.  pp.  834,  841)  as  alleging  this  place  in  proof  that 
"Branch  is  a  name  of  tne  Messiah."  Sehottgen 
[ad  loc.].  Sehottgen  ouotes  also  the  Pirke  Elieser 
c.  38,  "God  will  free  Israel  at  the  end  of  the  4tli 
kingdom,  saying,  I  have  put  forth  a  germ  unto  you. 
Behold  my  servant  the  Branch."  Bammidb.ar  R. 
sect.  18  f.  23G,  1,  Tanchuma  f.  08,  3.  "Behold  the 
Man,  whose  name  is  the  Branch.  This  is  the 
Messiah,  of  Whom  it  is  said  (Jer.  xxiii.  5.)  And  I 
will  raise  up  unto  David  a  righteous  Branch."  Mid- 
rash  Mishle  xix.  21  f.  57,1.  quotes,  "  R.  Huna  (3d 
cent.)  said.  The  name  of  Messiah  is  Branch,  as  in, 
'Behold  a  man.'"  lb.  After  all  this  Kimchi  says, 
"■Some  interpr(>t  it  of  king  Messiah." 
-VnnnO  as  Ex.  x.  23,  "neither  rose  any  from 

his  place,"  vnnno. 

''Jer.  xxxiii.  \r>.  This  is  the  natural  construction, 
1)  nOV  being  the  common  word  for  the  shooting 
of  plants,  (Gen.  ii.  5,  xli.  (),  23,  Is.  xliv.  4,  Ez.  xvii. 
(!.)  the  name  of  "the  branch,"  having  preceded,  is 
tlie  idiomatic  subject  to  TTDV ;  2)  the  impers. 
would  have  been  plural,  since  the  meaning  would 
liavo  been  plural,  they  i.  e.  many,  slmll  (/row  up,  3)  it 
is  unnatural  to  assume  an  impersonal,  since  a 
subject  has  been  mentioned  in  the  preceding  clause 
to  which  it  is  united  by  1 ;  and  4)  it  is  followed  by  a 
personal  verb  with  that  .same  subject  for  its  subject. 

<.S.  John  xii.  24.  Ms.  liii.  2. 

«  See  .S.  Luke  ii.  49-,51.  '  iv.  10. 

8  Is.  xxviii.  10, 1  Cor.  iii.  11,  Eph.  ii.  20,  21. 

•  S.  Matt.  xvi.  18.  >»  Eph.  II.  21. 

i>  Osor. 

>i'Actsvll.48,49.  "Xinemph. 


CHAPTER  Vr. 


375 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

•  Isai.  22.  24. 


the  temple  of  the  Lord; 
and  he  "shall  bear  the 
glory,  and  shall  sit  and 
rule  upon  his  throne ;  and 


glory,  since  it  is  affirmed  of  Him  as  of  none 
beside,  "  He  shall  bear  glory,"  "  He  should 
build   the   temple  of    the    Lord,"    as  none 
beside  ever  built  it ;  He  should  hear  glory,  as 
none  beside  ever  bare  it,  ^  the  glory  as  ojf  the 
Only  Begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and 
truth.    This  word  gloi-y  is  almost  always  used 
of   the  special   glory   of   God^,   and    then, 
although  seldom,  of  the  Majesty  of  those,  on 
whom  God  confers  majesty  as  His  represen- 
tatives, as  Moses,  or  Joshua  ^,  or  the  glory  of 
the  kingdom  given  to  Solomon*.     It  is  used 
also  of  Him,  a  likeness  of  Whom  these  vice- 
gerents of  God  bare,  in  a  Psalm  whose  lan- 
guage  belongs  (as  Jews  too  have  seen,)  to 
One  more  than  man  %  although  also  of  glory 
given   by  God,  either  of  grace  or  nature". 
So  in  our  Lord's  great  High  Priest's  prayer 
He  says,  '  Father,  glorify  Thou  Me  with  Thine 
oiimself  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  Thee 
before  the  world  was;    and  prays,  ^that  they 
also  whom  Thou  hast  given  Hie,  be  with  Me, 
where  I  am;    that  they  may  behold  My  glory 
which  Thou  hast  given  Me.     So  S.  Paul,  apply- 
ing the  words  of  the  eighth  Psalm,  says  of 
our  Lord,  *  We  see  Jesus,   Who  was  made  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels,  croimed  with  glory 
and  honor;  and  the  angels  and  saints  round 
the  Throne  say,  ^'  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  which 
was  slain   to   receive  power    and   wisdom   and 
strength  and  honor  and  glory  and  blessing,  and 
those  on  earth  answer.  Blessing  and  honor  and 
glory  and  power  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon 
the  Throne  and  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever  and  ever. 
That  glory  Isaiah  saw  ^^ ;  in  His  miracles  He 
manifested  forth  His  glory  ^'\  which  resided  in 
Him;    in*  His    Transfiguration,-   the    three 
Apostles  saw  His  glory  ^^  shining  out   from 
within  Him;  hj to  this  His  glory ^*,   He  told 
the  disciples  at  Emmans,  the  p-ophets  said, 
that  He  was  to  enter,  having  first   suffered 
what  He  suffered  ;  in  this  His  glory  He  is  to 
.w<,  when  He  judges'*.     And  He  shall  sit  and 
rule  on  His  Throne.     His   rule  shall  be,_  not 
passing   but   abiding,  not  by  human  might, 
but  in  peaceful  majesty,  as"God  says,  '"  Yet 
have  I  set  My  king  upon  My  holy  hill  of  Zion, 
and  again,  ''  Sit  Thou  on  My  Right  Hand, 
until  I  make  Thine  enemies  Thy  footstool;  and 

iS.Johni.U. 

2  "inni  nin  Ps.  xevi.  O,  (l  Chr.  xvi.  27.)  civ.  1,  exi. 

?,,  Job  xl.  10,  of  Christ,  Ps.  xlv.  4;  "jin  -\)2D  "nH 
Ps.  cxlv.  5;  nin  alone,  Job  xxxvii.  22,  Is.  xxx.  30, 1 
Chr.  xxix.  11,  Ps.  viii.  2,  exlviii.  I?,,  Hab.  iii.  3. 

a  Nu.  xxvii.  20.  ••  1  Chr.  xxix.  25. 

s  Ps.  xxi.  6.    See  in  Schottgen  de  Messia  ad  loc. 

«  It  is  used  of  the  inward  glory  given  to  regener- 
ate Israel,  Hos.  xiv.  7.  (6  Eng.) ;  or  as  glorified  by 


p  he  shall  be  a  priest  upon    ^  h  r°i"|  t 

his  throne :  and  the  coun- °'''-  ^^^- 

sel  of  peace  shall  be  be-  p  Ps.  no.  4. 

f        ,      -  Heb.  3. 1. 

tween  them  both. 


the  angel  said  to  Mary,  '**  The  Lord  God  shall 
give  xmto  Him  the  throne  of  His  father  David, 
and  He  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob  for 
ever,  and  of  His  kingdom  there  shall  be  no 
end. 

And  He  shall  be  a  priest  upon  His  Throne. 
He  shall  be  at  once  king  and  priest,  as  it  is 
said,  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedec.    When  the  Christ  should  reign. 
He  should  not  cease  to  be   our  Priest.     He, 
having  all  poiver  given  to  Him  in  heaven  and 
earth,   reigneth   over  His  Church   and   His 
elect  by  His  grace,  and  over  tlie  world   by 
His  power,  yet  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession 
for  us.     "  '^  Not  dwelling  now   on   what   is 
chiefest,  that  ^"  by  Him  were  all  things  created, 
that  are  in  heaven  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible 
and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones  or  domin- 
ions or  principcdities  or  powers  ;  all  things  were 
created  by  Him  and  for  Him,  and  He  is  before 
all  things,  and  by  Him  all  things  consist,  how 
many  crowns  of  glory  belong  to  Him,  One 
and  the  Same,  God  and  man,  Christ  Jesus  ! 
He  then  will  bear  glory  and  icill  sit  upon  His 
throne  and  shall  be  a  pnest  on  His  throne.   How 
just  this  is,  it  is  easier  to  think  than  to  ex- 
press, that  He  shoidd  sit  and  rule  all  things,  by 
Whom  all  things  were  made,  and  He  should  be 
a  Priest  for  ever,  by  W^hose  Blood  all  things 
are  reconciled.     He  shall  rule  then  upon  His 
throne,   and   He   shall  be  a  priest  upon  His 
throne,  which  cannot  be  said  of  any  of  the 
saints,  because  it  is  the  right  of  none  of  them, 
to  call  the  throne  of  his  rule  or  of  his  priest- 
hood  his  own,  but  of  this  Only  Lord  and 
Priest,  Whose  majesty  and  throne  are  one 
and  the  same  with  the  Majesty  of  God,  as  He 
saith,  ^'  When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  His 
Majesty  \_Glory'],    then  shall  He  sit  upon  the 
throne  of  His  Majesty   \_Glonj'].    And    what 
meaneth   that  re-duplication,  and  He  shall 
rule  on  His  Throne,  but  that   One  and  the 
Same,  of  Whom  all  this  is  said,  should  be 
and  is  King  and  Priest.     He  Who  is  King 
shall  rule  on  His  Throne,  because  kingdom 
and  priesthood  shall   meet  in  One  Person, 
and  One  shall  occupy  the  double  throne  of 
kingdom  and  priesthood."    He  Alone  should 
be  our  King;  He   Alone  our  Saviour:     He 

God,  Zeeh.  x.  3;  of  kingly  glory,  Jer.  xxii.  18,  Dan. 
xi.  21 ;  of  the  inward  glory  of  man,  as  such,  Dan.  x. 
8  Pr.  V.  9,  or  even  of  the  horse,  as  the  creation  of 
God,  Job  xxxix.  20  [all].      ^  '  S.  John  xvii.  o. 

8  lb  24.  9  Heb.  li.  9.  ">  Rev.  v.  12, 13. 

"S.  John  xii.  41.    12  lb.  ii. 11.     iss.  Luke  ix.  32. 

14  lb.  xxiv.  2C;  add  1  S.  Pet.  i.  11, 12. 

15  S.  Matt.  xix.  28,  S.  Luke  ix.  26.  '«  Ps.  ii.  6. 
1  "lb.  ex.  1.  18 S.  Luke  i.  32,  33.  !»  Rup,. 
I       20  Col.  i.  16, 17.                            '^'^  S.  Matt.  xxv.  31, 


376 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 


14  And  the  crowns  shall 
be  to  Helem,  and  to  Tobi- 
jah,  and   to  Jedaiah,  and 


Alone  the  Object  of  our  love,  obedience  and 
adoration. 

And  the  counsel  of  peace  shall  be  between  them 
both.  The  counsel  of  peace  is  not  merely 
peace,  as  S.  Jerome  seems  to  interpret :  "  He 
IS  both  king  and  priest,  and  shall  sit  both  on 
the  royal  and  sacerdotal  tlirone,  and  there 
shall  be  peaceful  counsel  between  both,  so 
that  neither  should  the  royal  eminence  de- 
press the  dignity  of  the  priesthood,  nor  the 
dignity  of  the  priesthood,  the  royal  emi- 
nency,  but  both  should  be  consistent  in  the 
glory  of  the  One  Lord  Jesus."  For  had  this 
been  all,  the  simple  idiom,  there  shall  be  peace 
between  them,  would  have  been  used  here,  as 
elsewhere '.  But  counsel  of  peace,  must,  ac- 
cording to  the  like  idioms''*,  signify  "a 
counsel  devising  or  procuring  peace"  for 
some  other  than  those  who  counsel  thereon. 
We  have  the  idiom  itself,  counsellors  of  peace^. 

They  twain  raiglit  be  said  of  things  * :  but 
things  are  naturally  not  said  to  counsel,  so 
that  the  meaning  should  be,  that  the  thrones 
of  the  priests  and  of  the  Branch  should 
counsel.  For  the  throne  is  in  eacli  case 
merely  subordinate.  It  is  not  as  we  might 
say,  "the  See  of  Rome,"  or  " of  Constanti- 
nople," or  "of  Canterbury,"  meaning  the 
successive  Bishops.  It  is  simply  tlie  mate- 
rial throne,  on  which  He  sits.  Nor  is  any- 
thing said  of  any  throne  of  a  priest,  nor  had 
a  priest  any  throne.  His  office  was  to  stand 
before  the  Lord',  his  intercessorial  office  to 
*  offer  gifts  and  sacrifices  for  sin.  To  '  offer  up 
sacrifice,  first  for  his  own  sins  and  then  for  the 
people's,  was  his  special  office  and  honor. 
There  are  then  not  two  thrones.  One  sits  on 
His  Throne,  as  King  and  Priest.  It  seems 
only  to  remain,  that  the  counsel  of  peace  should 
be  between  Jesus  and  the  Father ;  as  S. 
Jerome  says,  "  I  read  in  the  book  of  some, 
that  this,  there  shall  be  a  peaceful  counsel  be- 

1  Jud.  iv.  17, 1  Sam.  vii.  U,  1  Kgs  v.  16  (12  Eng.). 
■■i  The  verbal  noun  retaining  the  aotive  force  of  the 
verb,  as  _y"1  n^}l  D'2^;^rn  Ez.  xi.  2.  as  in  the  verb 

in'^S  r\iy3  nv;;'  Hab.  li.  lo;  |*jr  nioi  Kin,  is. 

xxxii.  7;  y^;^  nU'7p  anj,  Ib.8.  " 
8  Pr.  xii.  20. 

*  DH' JB^  is  used  of  things,  throughout  Nu.  vii.  of 
the  offerings  of  the  princes  of  the  12  tribes;  also 
Ex.  xxvi.  24,  xxxvi.20,  De.  xxiii.  19,  Pr.  xx.  10,  xxvii. 
3,  Eocl.  xi.  0:  but  not  with  any  verb  implying 
action. 

6  See  ab  p.  363,  note  12.  •  Heb.  v.  1,  ix.  9. 

'  lb.  vii.  27.  8S.  John  v.  .30,  vi.  38. 

•lb.  xiv.  10.      loib.  iii.  16.      '>  Eph.  ii.  14,ir.,17. 

"Rup.  "Col.  i.  19,  20. 

•*.Ml  MSS.  and  the  Versions  (except  the  Syr. 
which  repeats  here  the  names  of  v.  lo)  have  or  im- 
ply the  names  Helem  and  //en.  Aq.  and  Jon.  have 
the  namea  Helem  here;   Symm.  translated  it  as 


to  Hen  the  son  of  Zepha- 
niah,  ""for  a  memorial  in 
the  temple  of  the  Lord. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  519. 

qEx.  12.14. 
Mark  14.  9. 


tween  the  two,  is  referred  to  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  because  He  ®  came  to  do  not  His  own  unit, 
but  the  Will  of  the  Father,  and  *  the  Fattier  is 
in  the  Son,  and  tlie  Son  in  the  Father."  In 
Christ  all  is  perfect  harmony.  There  is  a 
counsel  of  peace  between  Him  and  the  Father 
Whose  temple  He  builds.  The  Will  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son  is  one.  Both  had  one 
AVill  of  love  toward  us,  the  salvation  of  the 
world,  bringing  forth  peace  through  our  re- 
demption. God  the  Father  '"  so  loved  the 
world,  that  He  gave  His  Only-Begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but 
have  everlasting  life  ;  and  God  the  Son  ''  is  our 
peace.  Who  hath  made  both  one,  that  He  might 
reconcile  both  unto  God  in  one  body  by  the  Cross, 
and  came  and  preached  peace  to  them  which  were 
afar  off  and  to  them  that  were  nigh.  Others 
seem  to  me  less  naturally  to  interpret  it  of 
Christ  in  His  two  offices.  "  '^  There  shall  be 
the  counsel  of  peace  between  them,  the  ruler 
and  the  priest,  not  that  Christ  is  divided,  but 
that  those  two  princedoms,  which  were 
hitherto  divided,  (the  priest  and  the  king 
being  different  persons)  should  be  united  in 
the  One  Christ.  Betiveen  these  two  prince- 
doms, being  inseparably  joined  in  one,  shall 
be  the  counsel  of  peace,  because  through  that 
union  we  have  peace  ;  and  through  Him  "  it 
pleased  the  Father  to  reconcile  all  things  unto 
Himself,  and  that  all  th  ings  should  be  brought  to 
peace  through  the  Blood  of  His  cross,  whether 
things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven." 

14.  And  the  crowns  shall  be  to  Helem.  There 
is  no  ground  apparent  to  us,  why  the  name 
Helem  appears  instead  of  Hoklai^*,  or  Hen  for 
Josiah  ■■  yet  the  same  person  must  have  been 
called  botli  Hen  and  Josiah,  since  the 
fathei''s  name  is  the  same  in  both  places. 
They  cannot  both  be  intended  as  explanations 
of  the  former  names,  since  Helem  stands  insu- 
lated in  Hebrew,  its  meaning  conjectural  ^*. 

Holem,  Tti  opivTi  ivvnvia..  The  LXX  render  the 
names  common  to  both  verses  by  the  same  words, 

(tuii*  \(ir\tri^iit3v  avTY]';^  tiov  (n^yvitiKOTiov  auTTjj')  but  Use 
different  words  for  Hnldni  and  Helem;  for  Holdai 
(v.   10)  apxavTuiv  ;    for  Helem.  roi?  vnonivovtri,  as  if 

D'Tn'.  (The  Prop.  Name  SxSn'  is,  in  Gen.  xlvi. 
14,  the    third    son"  of   Zabulon,   the    patronymic 

''7K'7r\',  Nu.  xxvi.  26,  and  the  adj.  S'lT  Lam.  iii. 
26).    The  Jews  in  S.Jerome's  time  identified  the 
three  with  Ananias  Azarias  and  Misael,  and  Hen, 
"grace"  witli  Daniel. 
16  In  Syr.  the  central  meaning  of  H^ri  seems  to 

be  "  crept,"  hence  used  of  a  "  cancer  "  or  a  "  mole." 
Neither 'n7n  nor  Q/n  signify  "strong."  InT}  is 
rather  used  of  "the  world"  as  "fleeting."  'yjn 
Arab,  is  perhaps  originally  "lingered,"  hence  was 
"slow  in  becoming  grey,  "lingered,"  abode  in  a 
place  over,  "everlastingly,"  in  heaven  or  hell.    It  la 


CHAPTER  VI. 


CHrTsT  1^    ^^    '*^®y    ^^"^    "^'"^ 

cir.  519.      far  off  shall  come  and 


'i8ai.57. 19.  build  in  the  temple  of  the 

&  60.  10.  ^ 

Eph.  2. 13, 19.  LoKD,  and  •  ye  shall  know 

■ch.  2.  9.  "^ 

&  4. 9.  that  the  Lord  of  hosts 


Perhaps  then  they  were  the  own  names  of 
the  individuals,  and  the  names  compounded 
with  the  name  of  God,  honorable  names 
which  they  had  taken. 

For  a  meinorial  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord. 
They  brought  a  passing  gift,  but  it  should  be 
for  a  lasting  memorial  in  their  behalf.  It  is 
a  renewal  of  the  well-known  term  of  the 
law  ^.  The  two  stones,  engraven  with  the 
names  of  the  children  of  Israel,  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  Ephod,  were  to  the  end,  that 
Aaron  should  hear  their  names  before  the  Lord 
upon  his  two  shoulders  for  a  memorial^;  con- 
tinually, it  is  added  of  the  breastplate  with  its 
twelve  precious  stones  ^ ;  the  atonement  money  of 
the  children  of  Israel  was  to  be  appointed  for  the 
service  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation,  that 
it  may  be  a  memorial  for  the  children  of  Israel 
before  the  Lord,  to  make  atonement  for  their 
souls* ;  to  make  an  atonement  for  their  souls 
before  the  Lord.  They  were  to  blow  with  the 
trumpets  over  their  burnt-offerings,  and  over  the 
sacrifice  of  their  peace-offerings,  that  they  may  be 
to  you  for  a  memorial  befoi-e  your  God  *.  When 
Midian  had  been  smitten  before  Israel,  and 
not  one  of  Israel  had  been  slain,  they 
brought  all  the  gold  which  had  accrued  to 
them,  and  3Ioses  and  Eleazar  took  the  gold,  and 
brought  it  into  the  tabernacle,  a  memorial  for  the 
children  of  Israel  before  the  Lord^.  8o  the 
angel  said  to  Cornelius,  '  thy  prayers  and  thy 
alms  are  come  up  for  a  memorial  before  God. 
"  ^  This  is  what  we  look  for,  that  to  all  the 
saints  and  friends  of  God,  whom  these  sig- 
nify, those  crowns  which  they  made  of  their 
gold  and  silver  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  shall  be 
an  everlasting  memorial  in  that  heavenly 
temple  of  the  Lord."  The  tradition  of  the 
Jews,  that  this  was  literally  observed ",  can 
hardly  be  without  foundation.  "^°  These 
their  offerings  shall  be  for  grace  to  those  who 
dedicated  them  and  an  occasion  of  doxology. 
For  the  piety  of  princes  becomes  to  the  rest 
a  path  to  the  love  of  God.  But  when  Christ  is 
crowned  by  us,  then  shall  also  the  multitude  of 
the  Gentiles  haste  to  the  knowledge  of  Him." 

not  used  of  strength.  D  vH  is  used  of  "good  con- 
dition" of  an  animal,  Job  xxxix.  4;  (as  in  Arab.); 
in  Hif.  is  "restored  one  to  health"  (Is.  xxxviii.  16), 

as  Syr.  in  Ethp.  In  Syr.  D' /Jl  is  used  of  recovered 
health,  S.  Mark  v.  34,  S.  John  v.  11,  Acts  iv.  10;  as 
opposed  to  sickness,  S.  Mark  ii.  17 ;  or  sound 
healthy  words,  S.  John  vi.  3,  2  Tim.  i.  11.    In  Arab. 

Din  eonj.  i.  is  "  dreamt "  ii. "  was  kind,  forbearing," 
V.  "  became  fat"  (of  animals).    Other  senses  are  de- 
rived from  dreaming. 
'  ;n3T.  *  Ex.  xxviii.  12, 22,  xxxix.  7. 


hath  sent  me  unto  you. 
And  this  shall  come  to. 
pass,  if  ye  will  diligently 
obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
your  God. 


Before 

CURI8T 

cir.  519. 


And  they  who  are  far  off  shall  come.  They 
who  came  from  Babylon  with  offerings  to 
God,  became  types  of  the  Gentiles,  of  whom 
the  Apostle  says,  '^  Noiv  in  Christ  Jesus  ye  who 
sometimes  xcere  far  off  have  become  nigh  through 
the  blood  of  Christ;  and,  ^'^  He  came  and  preached 
peace  to  you  ivhich  were  far  off  and  to  therm  thai 
were  nigh  ;  and  '^  the  promise  is  to  you  and  to 
your  children,  and  to  all  that  are  far  off',  as  many 
as  the  Lord  our  God  shcdl  call. 

And  build  in,  or  upon,  the  temple  of  the 
Lord  ^*,  not  "  build  it "  for  it  was  to  be  built 
by  the  Branch,  but  build  on,  labor  on,  it.  It 
was  a  building,  which  should  continually  be 
enlarged  ;  of  which  S.  Paul  says,  -*  /,  as  a  wise 
master-builder,  according  to  the  grace  given  unto 
me,  laid  the  foundation,  and  another  buildeth 
thereon;  let  every  num  take  heed  how  he  buildeth 
thereupon.  "  ^^  What  shall  they  build  ?  Them- 
selves, compacting  themselves  with  the  saints, 
and  joining  together  in  faith  to  oneness  with 
those  of  Israel,  Jesus  Christ  Himself  being 
the  head  corner-stone  and  uniting  together  in 
harmony  through  Himself,  what  was  of  old 
divided.  For  He  united  "  the  two  peoples  into 
one  new  man,  making  peace,  and  reconciling  in 
His  own  Body  all  things  unto  the  Father,  which 
being  accomplished,  we  shall  own  the  truth 
of  the  holy  prophets,  and  know  clearly 
that  it  was  God  Who  spake  in  them  and 
declared  to  us  beforehand  the  mystery  of 
Christ." 

15.  And  this  shall  be  ;  not  as  though  the 
coming  of  Christ  depended  upon  their  faith- 
fulness, but  their  share  in  it.  Ye  shall  know 
(he  had  said)  that  the  Lord  of  hosts  hath  sent 
me  unto  you ;  but  whether  this  knowledge 
should  reach  to  individuals,  depends  upon 
their  obedience  and  their  willingness  to 
know  ;  it  shall  be,  ^^  if  ye  will  diligently  obey  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  your  God.  For  noTie  of  the 
wicked,  Daniel  say s^^,  shcdl  understand;  and 
Hosea,  '"'  Who  is  wise,  and  he  shall  understand 
these  things  f  prudent,  and  he  shall  know  them  f 
For  the  ways  of  the  Lord  are  right,  and  the  just 
shall  tvalk  in  them  and  the  transgressors  slutll 

"lb.  xxviii.  29.         ♦lb.  xxx.  16.  * Nu.  x.  10. 

«  lb.  xxxi.  50,  54.  '  Acts  x.  4,  31.  8  Rup. 

*"The  crowns  were  hung  in  windows  in  the 
height  of  the  temple,"  as  we  learn  from  the  tract 
Middot.  a.  f.  36.  Rashi  ad  loc. 

i«S.  Cyr. 

"  Eph.  ii.  13.  12  lb.  17.  i3  Acts  ii.  39. 

"  .2  nj3  Neh.  iv.  4, 11  [10, 17  Eng.l 

>5 1  Cor.  iii.  10.  i6  s.  Cyr. 

"Eph.  ii.  15, 16. 

isSoMarck.  i»Dan.  xii.  10. 

ao  Hosea  xiv.  9.  [10  Heb.]  see  vol.  i.  p.  141. 


S78 


ZECHARIAH. 


Befor«' 

CHRIST 

cir.  518. 


618. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

■  1  The  captives  enquire  of  fasting, 
4  Zechariah  reproveth  their 
fasting.  8  Sin  the  cause  of 
their  captivity. 

AND  it  came  to  pass  in 

the  fourth  year  of  king 

Darius,   that  the  word  of 


stumble  at  them ;  and  the  wise  man,  ^  he  that 
keepeth  the  law  of  the  Lord  getteth  the  under- 
standing thereof.  So  our  Lord  said,  ^  If  any 
man  will  do  His  tvill,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  of  God  or  whether  I  speak  of  My- 
self;  ^ He  tlutt  is  of  God  heareth  GodJs  words: 
ye  therefore  hear  them  not  because  ye  are  not  of 
God:  *  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth 
My  voice.  "*  Because  he  had  said, -<4rt</  ye 
shcdl  know  that  the  Lord  hath  sent  me  unto  you, 
he  warns  them,  that  the  fruit  of  that  com- 
ing will  reach  to  those  only,  who  should  hear 
God  and  with  ardent  mind  join  themselves  to 
His  name.  For  as  many  as  believed  in  Him 
were  made  sons  of  God  ;  but  the  rest  v)ere  ca.ft 
into  outer  darkness.  But  they  receive  Christ, 
who  hear  His  voice  and  do  not  refuse  His 
rule.  For  He  teas  made  the  cause  of  eternal 
mdvation  to  all  who  obey  Him." 

VII.  1.  Li  the  fourth  year  of  Darius.  Two 
years  after  the  series  of  visions,  shewn  to 
him,  and  two  years  before  the  completion  of 
tlie  temple.  Chisleu  being  December,  it  was 
the  end  of  B.  C.  518. 

2.  When  they  had  sent  unto  (he  house  of  God. 
Kather,  And  Bethel  sent;  i.  e.  the  inhabitants 
of  Bethel  sent.  The  house  of  God  is  nowhere 
in  Holy  Scripture  called  Bethel.  Bethel  is 
always  the  name  of  the  place®.  The  house 
if  God  is  designated  by  historians.  Psalmists, 

1  Ecclu.s.  xxi.  n.  «S.  John  vii.  17. 

^  lb.  viii.  47.  *  lb.  xviii.  37. 

s  Osor. 

«  The  LXX,  Jon..  Syr.  render  in  the  accufsative, 
to  Bethel.    Tlje  Vulg.  alone  has  "ad  domum  Dei." 

'  Altliongh  H'P  is  used  alike  of  tlie  "tent"  and 
the  "house,"  it  is  used  but  little  of  the  "house  of 
fiod"  before  Solomon's  temple;  ^'  HO  Ex.  xxiii. 
19,  xxxiv.  20,  Deut.  xxiii.  18,  Jos.  vi.  24,  Jud.  xix.  18, 

1  Sam.  1.  7,  24,  iii.  15,  2  Sam.  xii.  20;  DTlSxH  n'3 
Jud.  xviii.  31.  Subsequently  "  r\'2  oeours  in  the 
liooks  of  Kings,  7.'5  times  ;  in  the  Chmnieles,  92;  in 
the  Psalms,  7;  in  Isaiah,  C;  in  Jeremiah,  .32;  in 
Lam.,  1;  Ezek.  6;  Hosea,  2;  Joel,  3;  Micah,  1 ; 
Haggai,  2;  Zechariah,  5;  Ezra,  7;  in  all  24fi;  r\'3 

D'H/X  occurs  Gen.  xxviii.  17,  22 ;  in  two  of  DaVid's 
I'saims  (Ps.  Iii.  Id,  Iv.  l.'«,) ;  once  in  the  filironioles,  2 

Cliron.  xxxiv.  9;  in  all  .1;   and   DTIvKn  r\^2   in 
Keel.  iv.  17;  in  Chronicles,  33  times  (intermingled 
with  "HO);  Daniel  i.  2;  Ezra,  7  times;  Neheniiah, 
Stimes;  in  all  60. 
»  8o  Ibn  Ezra,  altliough  regarding  Bethel  as  the 


the  Lord  came  unto  Zech-    ^,  ^^^^l\  j, 
ariah  in  the  fourth  day  of      cir.  sis. 
the   ninth   month,  even  in 
Chisleu  ; 

2  When   they  had  sent 
unto   the  house  of  God  ^  „  ,^ 

t  Heb.  to 

Sherezer  and  Regem-me-  intreatoie 

°  face  of  the 

lech,  and  their  men,  tto  L"Rd; 

,     „  ,       T-  '  1  Sam.  13. 12. 

pray  betore  the  L,ord,  eh.  s.  21. 


prophets,  by  the  name,  Beth-elohim,  more 
Commonly  Beth-Ha-elohim,  the  God;  or  of  the 
Lord,  YHVH  ^.  Zechariah  and  Ilaggai  use 
these  names.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  name, 
Bcth-el,  should  have  first  been  given  to  the 
house  of  God,  when  it  had  been  desecrated 
by  tlie  idolatries  of  Jeroboam.  Bethel  also 
is,  in  the  Hebrew  order  of  the  words,  natu- 
rally the  subject  *.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
why  they  sliould  have  sent  to  Bethel,  since 
they  sought  an  answer  from  God.  For  it 
would  be  forced  to  say  that  they  sent  to 
Bethel,  in  order  that  those  at  Bethel  should 
send  to  Jerusalem  ;  which  is  not  said.  It 
were  unnatural  also  that  the  name  of  the 
sender  should  not  have  been  mentioned, 
when  the  names  of  persons  inferior,  because 
sent,  are  recorded'*.  Bethel,  in  Nehemiah's 
time  '",  was  one  of  the  chief  places  of  Benja- 
min. Tu'O  hundred  twenty  and  three  of  the 
mm  of  Bethel  and  J.)'"  had  returned  with 
Zerubbabel.  The  answer  being  to  the  people 
of  the  land,  such  were  doul)tless  the  enquirers, 
not  those  still  in  Babylon.  The  answer  shews 
that  the  question  was  not  religious,  though 
put  as  matter  of  religion.  It  is  remark- 
able that,  whereas  in  the  case  of  those  who 
brought  presents  from  Babylon,  the  names 
express  some  relation  to  God,  these  names 
are  singularly,  the  one  of  a  parricide  son  of 

name  of  a  man,  who  sent  the  others.  Rashi  and  S. 
Jerome's  Hebrew  instructors  made  Shareser  and 
Rogommelech  the  senders.  Rashi  says  that  they 
sent  to  their  kinsmen  in  Bethel,  that  these  should 
come  to  entreat  the  face  «/  Ood  at  Jerusalem.  S.  Je- 
rome's teachers  said  more  naturally,  that  "Shareser 
and  Regemmelech  sent  to  the  house  of  God;"  only 
"  Bethel "  is  not  so  used,  and  the  theory  that  they 
were  "Persian  officers  of  Darius  fearing  God,"  is 
inconsistent  with  the  (|Ucstion  as  to  a  Jewish  politi- 
cal fast  of  long  standing.  The  interposition  of  the 
place  whither  they  were  sent,  between  the  verb  and 
the  suliject,  without  any  mark  that  it  is  not  the 
subject,  would  be  unnatural.  The  E.  V.  follows 
Kimelii,  taking  Plviy'l  as  impersonal.  But  here  it 
is  a  formal  message  from  some  definite  person  or 
person-s.  In  Gen.  xlviii.  1,  '2^]}'h  10X"1  is  alto- 
gether like  our  "one  told  Jacob."  In  Esth  ix.  30, 
the  subject  is  probably  Mordecai,  mentioned  v.  29. 

»  Abarbanel  notices  this  difficulty. 

»o  Neh.  xl.  31.  "  Ezr.  11.  28. 


CHAPTER  YII. 


379 


c  H  rTs  t        ^  -^'^^  ^°   '  ^P®^^  ""^° 
cir.  518.      the  priests  which  were  in 

the  house  of  the  Lord  of 


•  Deut.  17. 
9, 10, 11. 
&  33.  10. 
Mai.  2.  7. 

tjer.  52. 12. 
ch.  8. 19. 


hosts,  and  to  the  prophets, 
saying,  Should  I  weep  in 
•"the  fifth  month,  separat- 
ing myself,  as  I  have  done 
these  so  many  years  ? 


Sennacherib  ^,  and  of  one,  chief  among  the 
King  of  Babylon's  princes  ^ ;  the  other  prob- 
ably a  secular  name,  "  the  king's  friend  ^." 

"  *  I  do  not  see  why  under  the  name  of 
Bethel,  the  city  so  called  is  not  understood. 
For  since  Jerusalem  was  not  yet  fortified,  the 
Jews  chose  them  sites  in  various  places, 
where  they  should  be  less  harassed.  All 
hatred  was  concentrated  on  that  city,  whicli 
the  neighbors  wished  not  to  be  restored  to 
its  former  greatness.  Other  cities  they  did 
not  so  molest.  Bethel  then,  i.  e.  the  assembly 
of  the  city,  sent  messengers  to  Jerusalem  to 
offer  sacrifices  to  God  and  consult  the  wise 
there." 

To  entreat  the  face  of  the  Lord.  They 
wished,  it  seems,  (so  to  speak)  to  ingratiate 
themselves  with  God  with  an  account  of  their 
past  self-humiliation,  on  the  day  when  the 
liouse  of  God  was  burned  by  Nebuchadnez- 
zar. In  regard  to  God,  the  word  is  always 
used  of  entreating  Him  by  earnest  prayer*. 

3.  Should  I  weep  in  the  fifth  month,  separating 
myself?  In  the  fifth  month,  from  the  seventh 
to  the  tenth  day,  Jerusalem  was  in  flames, 
fired  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  *•  He  burnt  the  house 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  kiyig^s  house,  and  all  the 
houses  of  Jerusalem  and  every  great  man's  house 
he  bwnt  with  fire. 

"  '  Now  since  it  is  said  that  the  temple  is 
builded  and  we  see  that  no  cause  of  sorrow 
remaineth,  answer,  we  pray,  are  we  to  do  this 
or  to  change  our  sorrow  into  joy  ?  " 

Separating  myself.    This  seems  to  be  added, 

1  Is.  xxxvii.  .38,  2  Kgs  xix.  37. 

2  Nergal-Shar-ezer,  "  Nergal  preserve  the  prince," 
.Jer.  xxxix.  3, 13.  veptyAio-o-ap.  The  omission  of  the 
name  of  the  idol  left  it  less  openly  idolatrous,  but 
retained  the  prayer  originally  idolatrous. 

3  D  J"<  occurs  as  a  proper  name,  1  Chr.  ii.  47.    The 

Kamoos  and  Fasee  say  that  the  Arab,  bj"!  is 
"friend,"  [see  Lane]  and,  though  this  meaning  is 
wholly  insulated  from  the  rest  of  the  root,  their 
authority  is,  of  course,  decisive. 

*  Osor. 

6  The  explanation  of  the  idiom,  stroked  the  face  of, 
in  regard  to  which  critics  have  so  descanted  about 
anthropomorphisms,  is  altogether  imaginary.  The 
phrase  occurs,  in  all,  13  times  in  regard  to  God; 
three  of  these  are  in  Zechariah,  here,  and  viii.  21, 22 ; 
and  beside  Ex.  xxxii.  11, 1  Sam.  xiii.  12, 1  Kgs  xiii. 
G,  (bis)  2  Kgs  xiii.  4,  Jer.  xxvi.  19,  Dan.  ix.  13,  Ps. 
cxix.  58,  2  Chr.  xxxiii.  12,  Mai.  i.  9,  and  all  the  sim- 
plest prose.  Of  man  it  occurs  only  3  timee  Ps.  xlv. 
13,  Pr.  xix.  6,  Job  xi.  19.    In  no  dialect  is  there  any 


4  ^  Then  came  the  word    chrTIt 
of  the  Lord  of  hosts  unto      <''''•  ^^^- 
me,  saying, 

5  Speak  unto  all  the 
people  of  the  land,  and  to 
the  priests,  saying,  When 

ye  "  fasted  and  mourned  in    '  isai.  58. 5. 

•'  d  Jer.  41. 1. 

the  fifth  ''and  seventh      ch. s. i9. 


to  intensify  the  fast  which  they  had  kept. 
The  Nazarite  was  bound  to  **  separate  himself 
from  wine  and  strong  drink,  and  so,  they  sev- 
ered themselves  to  the  Lord,  and  consecrated 
themselves  to  Him ".  These  had  severed 
themselves  from  food,  from  things  pleasant, 
from  pleasure,  from  sin,  it  may  be,  for  the 
day,  but  not  abidingly :  they  had  not  given 
themselves  to  God. 

As  I  have  done  these  so  many  years,  lit.  how 
many ".  As  if,  although  they  knew  that 
they  were  seventy  years,  they  could  not  count 
them. 

5.  Speak  unto  all  the  people  of  the  land.  They 
of  Bethel  had  spoken  as  one  man,  as  Edom 
said  to  Israel,  ^^  TAou  shalt  not  pass  by  me  ; 
and  ^'^  the  men  of  Israel  said  to  the  Hivite  ; 
Perhaps  thou  dwellest  in  the  midst  of  me,  and 
hoiv  shall  I  make  a  league  with  thee  ?  God  gives 
tlie  answer  not  to  them  only,  but  to  all  like- 
nunded  with  them,  all  the  people  of  the  land, 
the  whole  population  (in  our  language)  ;  as 
Jeremiah  says,  ^^  ye  and  your  fathers,  your 
kings  and  your  princes  and  all  the  people  of  the 
land,  and,  ^*  the  scribe  who  mustered  the  people 
of  the  land. 

W^ien  ye  fasted  and  that,  mourning.  It  was 
no  mere  abstinence  from  food  (severe  as  the 
Jewish  fasts  were,  one  unbroken  abstinence 
from  evening  to  evening)  but  with  real 
mourning,  the  word  being  used  only  of 
mourning  for  the  dead  '*,  or,  in  a  few  in- 
stances ^^  for  a  very  great  public  calamity  ; 
probably  with  beating  on  the  breast. 

trace  of  the  meaning  Icevis  or  palpo.  The  Arab 
Vhr\  is,  any  how,  used  of  hard  friction,  as  to 
bruising  collyrium,  rubbing  off  hair  from  skin  [tan- 
ning], striking  with  sword,  &c.  X/H  ("h- 1)  is, 
"sweet;"  ''bn  is  "adorned  with  jewels." 

«  2  Kgs  XXV.  9,  Jer.  lii.  13.  Jeremiah  mentions  f he- 
tenth  day;  the  book  of  Kings,  the  seventh. 

7  S.  Jer.  «  Nu.  vi.  3. 

9  lb.  5.    See  on  Am.  ii.  11.  vol.  i.  p.  265. 

1"  nOD  is  used  in  exclamation,  not  interrogatively, 
here,  Ps.  Ixxviii.  40,  Job  xxi.  17. 

»  Nu.  XX.  18.        12  Josh.  ix.  7.        is  Jer.  xliv.  21. 

» lb.  lii.  25. 

15  Gen.  xxiii.  2, 1. 10, 1  Sam.  xxv.  1,  xxviii.  3,  2  Sam. 
i.  12,  iii.  31,  xi.  26, 1  Kgs.  xiii.  29,  30,  xiv.  13,18,  Eccl. 
xii.  .5,  Jer.  xvi.  4,  5,  6,  xxii.  18,  [bis],  xxv.  33,  xxxiv. 
6,  Ezek.  xxiv.  16,  23,  Zech.  xii.  10, 12. 

18  Is.  xxxii.  12,  Jo.  i.  13,  Mic.  i.  8,  Jer.  iv.  8,  xllx.  3. 
In  Eccl.  iii.  4,  it  is  "mourning"  as  op.posed  to  '^p\ 


380 


ZECHARIAH. 


•  ch.  1. 12. 
'See  Rom.  14.  6 


c  H  R*Ys  T    ^^^'^^^  '  ^^^^  those  seventy 
cir.  518.      years,  did   ye   at   all  fast 
'  unto  me,  even  to  me  ? 

6  And  when  ye  did  eat, 
and   when   ye   did  drink, 
II  did  not  ye  eat /or  your- 
selves, and  drink  for  your- 
.  ^    .  selves  f 

I  Or,  Are 


I  Or,  be 
not  ye 
thafikc. 


not  ye  they 
t  i 


not  these 
the  words. 


7  \\  Should  ye  not  hear 
the  words  which  the  Lord 


In  the  seventh  month.  The  murder  of  Geda- 
liah,  tvhom  the  king  of  Babylon  nutde  governor 
of  the  land,  completed  the  calamities  of  Jeru- 
salem, in  the  voluntary,  but  prohibited  exile 
to  Egypt,  for  fear  lest  the  murder  should  be 
avenged  on  them  ^. 

Did  ye  at  all  fast  unto  Me,  Me  '■'  ?  God  em- 
phatically rejects  such  fasting  as  t  heir's  had 
been,  as  something,  unutterably  alien  from 
Him,  to  Me,  Me  ^ !  Yet  the  fasting  and 
mourning  had  been  real,  but  irreligious,  like 
remorse  for  ill-deeds,  which  has  self  only  for 
its  ground.  He  prepares  the  way  for  His 
answer  by  correcting  the  error  of  the  ques- 
tion. "*ye  fasted  to  yourselves,  not  to  Me. 
For  ye  mourned  your  sorrows,  not  your  mis- 
deeds ;  and  your  public  fast  was  undertaken, 
not  for  My  glory,  but  out  of  feeling  for  your 
own  grief.  But  nothing  can  be  pleasing  to 
God,  which  is  not  referred  to  His  glory.  But 
those  things  alone  can  be  referred  to  His 
glory,  which  are  done  with  i-ighteousness  and 
devotion." 

6.  And  u-hen  ye  eat  and  wJien  ye  drink,  is  it 
vot  ye  who  eat  and  ye  who  drink  f  Conversely 
now  that,  after  your  return,  ye  feast  for  joy, 
this  is  no  religious  act ;  ye  have  all  the  good 
of  it,  there  is  no  thanksgiving  to  God.  Con- 
trary to  the  Apostle's  saying,  ^  Whether  ye 
eat  or  drink,  or  whatever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the 
glory  of  God.  "^He  eateth  and  drinketh  to 
himself,  who  receiveth  the  nourishments  of 
the  body,  which  are  the  common  gifts  of  the 


"bounding"  for  joy  [all].  The  noun  1300  is  in 
like  way  used  of  "mourning"  for  the  de.id,  Gen.  I. 
10,  .Jer.  vi.  2G,  Nu.  v.  16,  Zech.  xii.  10,  11,  12;  for  the 
de.struf^tion  of  a  people  or  place,  Jer.  xlviii.  38,  Ez. 
xxvii.  :{4,  Mi.  i.8, 11 ;  for  imminont  dostruction,  Am. 
V.  17,  Esth.  iv.  3 :  or  great  pulilie  calamity,  Jo.  ii.  12, 
Is.  xvii.  12.    In  Ps.  xxx.  12,  it  stands  contrasted  with 

a  great  outward  exprea.sion  of  joy,  dancing,  7inD- 
[ali.l 

•  Jer.  xli.-xliii. 

*'jnO}f.  The  affix  is  almost  a  dative,  as  in  Is. 
xliv.  21,  Ixv.  5,  Job  xxxi.  18;    and  Ch.  Dan.  v.  6. 

'mjC,  for  which,  IPIlS;^  J'JC',  occurs  ver.  9. 

*The  pronoun  repeated  after  the  affix,  as  in '3 
'JKlSam.  XXV.  24;  onN  DD'Ija  Nu.  xiv.  32,  and 
With  DJ,  'JK  DJ  'J3-13  Gen.  xxvii. 38;  2Sam.xvii. 
6, 1  Kgs  XXI.  19,  Pr.  xxiii.  15,  Jer.  xxv.  14,  xxvii.  7. 


hath  cried  f  by  the  former    ^  h  rT I  t 
prophets,  when  Jerusalem      ^'''-  °^^- 
was  inhabited  and  in  pros-  +  Heb.  by  the 
perity,  and  the  cities  there-    **" 
of  round  about  her,  when 
men  inhabited  *the  south  i  Jer.  n.  ae. 
and  the  plain  ? 

8  ^And  the  word  of 
the  Lord  came  unto  Zech- 
ariah,  saying, 


Creator,  without  the  needy.  And  any  one 
fasts  to  himself,  if  he  doth  not  give  to  the 
l)Oor  what  for  the  time  he  withdraweth  from 
liimself,  but  keepetli  it  to  be  thereafter  of- 
fered to  his  appetite.  Hence  it  is  said  by 
Joel,  sanctify  a  fast.  For  to  '  sanctify  a  fast ' 
is  to  shew  an  abstinence  worthy  of  God 
through  other  good  deeds.  Let  anger  cease, 
quarrels  be  hushed.  For  in  vain  is  the  flesh 
worn,  if  the  mind  is  not  refrained  from  evil 
pleasures,  since  the  Lord  says  by  the  Pro- 
phet, '  Behold,  in  the  day  of  your  fast  ye  find 
pleasure.  Behold,  ye  fast  for  strife  and  debate 
tfcc. 

7.  Should  ye  not  hear  the  words,  or,  Know 
ye  not  the  ivords  f  The  verb  is  presupposed 
in  the  emphatic  question,  as  in,  "  ShaU  I,  the 
blood  of  these  men?  David  omits  the  word 
"  drink  "  for  abhorrence. 

By  the  former  prophets  Isaiah  and  Jere. 
miah  *,  when  Jerusalem  teas  duelling  abidingly  *", 
at  ease,  as  the  whole  world  then  was,  except 
herself,  and  the  south  and  the  low-country,  both 
belonging  to  Judah,  were  inhabited.  'The  re- 
storation then  was  still  very  incomplete,  since 
he  contrasts  their  then  condition  with  the 
present,  as  inhabited  or  no.  The  mountain, 
the  south,  and  the  low  country,  known  still  by 
its  name  of  Sephela  to  Greeks",  made  up  the 
territory  of  Judah  ". 

8.  Instead  of  quoting  the  former  prophets, 
Zechariah  gives  the  substance  of  their  exhor- 
tations, as  renewed  to  himself. 


*  Osor.  6 1  Cor.  x.  31. 

«  S.  Greg,  in  Evang.  Horn.  16,  n.  6.  0pp.  1495. 

'  Is.  Ivii.  3,  4. 

8  2  Sam.  xxiii.  17. 

•Is.  Iviii.  4,  Jer.  xiv.  12.  Since  Isaiah's  is  the 
chief  passage  and  Jeremiah's  scarcely  more  than 
allusive,  Zechariah, just  after  the  captivity,  knew 
that  the  prophecy  Is.  Iviii.  was  Isaiah's,  not  by  a 
prophet  after  the  captivity. 

'"  ni^iyi  nji!''— nrnj  as  ab.  i.  u,  nopc/i  n3c?' ; 

"thes^n^e  of  ease  is  conveyed  by  the  DTI  with  the 
act.  partic. 

"1  Mace.  xii.  38.  "It  is  still  called  Sephdla."  Eus. 
Onom. 

"Josh.  X.  40,  Jud.  i.  9,  Jer.  xvii.  2G,  xxxil.  44, 
xxxiii.  13. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


381 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  618. 

»  Ih.  58.  6,  7. 

Jer.  7. 23. 

Mic.  6.  8. 

ch.  8. 16. 

Matt.  23.  23. 
t  Heb.  Judge 

judgment 

of  truth. 
i  Ex.  22.  21,  22. 

Deut.  24. 17. 

Isai.  1. 17. 

Jer.  6.  28. 

k  Ps.  36.  4. 
Mic.  2. 1. 
ch.  8. 17. 


9  Thus  speaketh  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  saying, 
"  t  Execute  true  judgment, 
and  shew  mercy  and  com- 
passions every  man  to  his 
brother : 

10  And  'oppress  not  the 
widow,  nor  the  fatherless, 
the  stranger,  nor  the  poor ; 
"  and  let  none  of  you  im- 
agine evil  against  his 
brother  in  your  heart. 


9.  Thus  spake  the  Lord,  i.  e.  through  the 
former  prophets,  for  he  goes  on  to  speak  of 
their  rejection  in  the  past.  Execute  true 
judgment.  He  retains  the  words  of  Ezekiel  ^ 
The  injunction  itself  runs  throughout  the 
prophets  ^  Shew  mercy,  i.  e.  tender  love,  to 
all ;  compassion,  to  the  unhappy.  Omit  no 
act  of  love,  God  so  loves  the  loving.  "  ^  Like 
S.  Paul  to  the  Romans  ^  he  names  only  the 
duties  to  the  neighbor,  but  understands  what 
relates  to  God.  For  the  love  of  our  neighbor 
presupposes  the  love  of  God,  from  which  it 
springs."  "  *  After  strictness  of  justice,  let 
mercy  to  all  follow,  and  specially  to  breth- 
ren, of  the  same  blood  and  of  one  faith. 
Brother  and  neighbor  we  ought  to  account 
the  whole  human  race,  since  we  are  all  born 
of  one  parent,  or  those  who  are  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith,  according  to  the  parable 
of  the  Gospel®,  which  willeth  us  to  un- 
derstand by  neighbor,  nor  our  kin,  but  all 
men." 

10.  And  oppress  not.  He  had  commanded 
positive  acts  of  love  ;  he  now  forbids  every 
sort  of  unlove.  He  that  oppresseth  the  poor, 
Solomon  had  said  \  reproacheth  his  Maker.  The 
widow,  the  orphan,  the  stranger,  the  afflicted,  are, 
throughout  the  law,  the  special  objects  of 
God's  care.  This  was  the  condition  which 
God  made  by  Jeremiah »;  If  ye  thoroughly 
amend  your  ways  and  your  doings,  if  ye  thoroughly 
execute  judgment  between  a  man  and  his  neigh- 
bor ;  if  ye  oppress  not  the  stranger  the  fatherless 
and  the  widoiv,  and  shed  not  innocent  blood  in 
this  place,  neither  walk  after  other  gods  to  your 
hurt,  then  will  I  cause  you  to  dwell  in  this  place. 
It  was  on  the  breach  of  the  covenant  to  set 
their  brethren  free  in  the  year  of  release, 

^r>DK  tDSE'P  occurs  beside  in  Ezek.  xviii.  8, 
only.  In  Deut.  xvi.  18,  occurs  DHX  122^0. 

2  As  Is.  i.  17,  23,  Iviii.  6,  7,  Jer.  vii.  5,  Ezek.  xviii.  8. 
Hos.  xli.  6  &c.  ,  „   , 

8  Lap.  ■•  Rom.  xiii.  9.  ^  S.  Jer. 

8  8.  Luke  X.  30  sqq.  '  Pi'ov.  xxiv.  31. 

8  Jer.  vii.  6-7.  *  lb.  xxxlv.  17.  ^°  2lifTi. 

11  Mic.  ii.  1,  3.         '■•'  Hos.  iv.  16.         "  Neh.  ix.  29. 


11  But  they  refused  to     chr^st 

hearken,  and  'f  pulled £i£:_52i 

awav  the  shoulder,  andiNeh. 9. 29. 

Jer.  7.  24. 

t "  stopped  their  ears,  that  Hos.  4.  le. 

,  111         .1  tHeb. 

they  should  not  hear.  they  gave « 

12  Yea  they  made  their  shoulder^ 

„ ,  ,  J  ,  +  Heb.  viade 

"hearts  as  an  adamant  heavy. 
stone,  "lest  they  should T Ezek. ii. k 
hear  the  law,  and  the „ Neh. 9. '29, 30. 
words  which  the  Lord  of 
hosts  hath  sent  in  his  spirit  ^  „  .  .   ,, 

•^         t  Heb.  by  the 

t  by  the  former  prophets :   hand  of. 


that  God  said ;  ^  I  proclaim  a  liberty  for  you  to 
the  sword,  to  the  pestilence  awl  to  the  famine,  and 
I  will  make  you  to  be  removed  into  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth. 

And  let  none  of  you  imagine,  i.  e.  devise  ^^,  as, 
by  Micah,  God  retorted  the  evil  upon  them. 
They  "  devised  evil  on  their  beds  ;  therefore,  be- 
hold, against  this  family  do  I  devise  an  evil,  from 
which  ye  shall  not  remove  your  necks. 

11.  But  they  gave  a  backsliding  shoulder,  like 
a  restive  animal,  which  would  not  endure  the 
yoke,  dull  and  stupid  as  the  beasts :  as  Hosea 
says,  ^'^  Israel  slideth  back  like  a  backsliding 
heifer.  Nehemiah  confesses  the  same  ;  ^^  they 
gave  a  backsliding  shoulder  and  hardened  their 
neck  and  would  not  hear. 

And  made  heavy  their  ears,  fulfilling  in 
themselves  what  God  foretold  to  Isaiah  would 
be  the  result  of  his  preaching,  make  their  ears 
heavy  ^*.  Tlie  heart,  which  will  not  hearken, 
becomes  duller  by  the  outward  hearing,  as 
S.  Paul  says,  ^*  The  earth  which  drinketh  in  the 
rain  that  cometh  oft  upon  it,  and  bringeth  forth 
herbs  meet  for  them  by  whom  it  is  dressed,  receiv- 
eth  blessing  from  God;  but  that  which  beareth 
thorns  and  briars  is  rejected. 

12.  Harder  than  adamant.  The  stone, 
whatever  it  be,  was  hard  enough  to  cut  inef- 
faceable characters  ^^ :  it  was  harder  than 
flint".  It  would  cut  rocks;  it  could  not 
be  graven  itself,  or  receive  the  characters  of 
God. 

This  is  the  last  sin,  obduracy,  persevering 
impenitence,  which  '**  resisted  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  ^^did  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  gra^e.  Not 
through  infirmity,  but  of  set  purpose,  they 
hardened  themselves,  lest  ^**  they  should  con- 
vert and  be  healed.   They  feared  to  trust  them- 

HThe  same  words  ;n3Dn  VJiHI  Is.  vi.5,  Dn'J?K1 
'\T:i2r\  Zech. 

iSHeb.  vi.  7,  8. 

i»  Jer.  xvii.  1.  "  The  sin  of  Judah  is  written  with 
a  pen  of  iron,  with  thepoint  of  a  O'DB')  diamond." 

E  V. 
"  Ezek.  iii.  9,  "  As  an  adamant  harder  than  flint." 
18  \ets  vii.  51.  19  Heb.  ?.  29.  O'lsv}.  10 


382 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  518. 

»2Chr,36.  16. 
Dan.  9. 11. 


q  Prov.  1. 
24—28. 
Isa.  1. 15. 
Jer.  11.  11. 
&  14. 12. 
Mic.  3.  4. 


P  therefore  came  a  great  i 
wrath  from  the  Lord  of 
hosts. 

13  Therefore  it  is  come 
to  pass,  that  as  he  cried, 
and  they  would  not  hear  ; 
so  ''  they  cried,  and  I  would 
not  hear,  saith  the  Loed 
of  hosts : 


selves  to  God's  word,  lest  He  should  convert 
them  by  it. 

Lest  they  should  hear  the  law  and  the  icords 
which  the  Lord  God  sent  by  His  Spirit  bij  the 
hand  oj  the  former  prophets.  The  Holy  Ghost 
was  the  chief  agent ;  by  His  Spirit ;  the  in- 
spired prophets  were  His  instruments  ;  by  the 
hand  of.  Nehemiah  confesses  the  same  to 
God :  ^  Thou  didst  protest  to  them  by  Thy 
Spirit  by  the  hand  of  Thy  prophets.  Moses  was 
one  of  the  greatest  prophets.  The  law  tlien 
may  be  included,  either  as  delivered  by 
Moses,  or  as  being  continually  enforced  by 
all  the  prophets.  Observe  the  gradations. 
1 )  The  words  of  God  are  not  heard.  2)  The 
restive  shoulder  is  shewn ;  men  turn  away, 
when  God,  by  the  inner  motions  of  His 
Spirit  or  by  lesser  chastisements,  would  bring 
them  to  the  yoke  of  obedience.  "  '^  They 
would  not  bear  the  burden  of  the  law,  whereas 
they  willingly  bore  that  most  heavy  weight 
of  their  sins."  3)  Obduracy.  "  ^  Their  ada- 
mantine heart  could  be  softened  neither  by 
promises  nor  threats."  Therefore  nothing 
remained  but  the  grexit  urath,  which  they  had 
treasured  to  themselves  against  the  day  of  wrath. 
And  so  Zechariah  returns  to  that,  wherewitli 
his  message  and  visions  of  future  mercy  began, 
the  great  wrath  which  fell  upon  tlieir  fathers  ^. 

"■^ '  I  sougiit  not,'  He  says,  '  for  your  tears ; 
I  enjoined  not  bitterness  of  sorrow  ;  but  what, 
had  they  been  done,  tlie  calamity,  for  which 
those  tears  were  meet,  had  never  befallen 
you.  What  was  it  which  I  admonished  you 
formerly  by  the  former  prophets  to  recall  you 
from  sin  ?  What  I  bid  you  by  Zechariah 
now.  This  I  preach,  admonish,  testify,  in- 
culcate upon  you.'  " 

13.  And  it  came  to  pass,  i.  e.  this  which 
God  had  said,  As  He  cried  and  they  heard  not, 
80  shall  they  cry  and  I  will  not  hear,  saith  the 
Lord  of  liosis.    God  had  often  said  this.     "  It 


>  Neh.  ix.  30.         I 
» i.  7-  nXp ;  here  ^nj 


a  O.'-or. 
*  Prov.  i.  27,  28. 


»  I."!.  1. 15.  «  Hos.  V.  G.  see  vol.  i.  pp.  .''>8,  r.9. 

'  iii.  4.  see  ab.  pp.  40,  41.         *  Jer.  xi.  14,  xiv.  12. 
•See  Pusey's  Parochial  Scvmonti,  Vol.  I.  8crm.  12. 
'  Irreversible  cha8tisement.s." 
'"The  form    D"!i*.0X1    for   "Kl,   Is   remarkable 

■liicfly,  if  the  pnnotujaiuu  comes,  (as  is  as.^nmcfl) 


14  But '  I  scattered  them    chrTst 
with   a  whirlwind   among      c'r.  sis. 
all  the  nations  °  whom  they  f  Deut.  4. 27. 
knew  not.     Thus  '  the  land  Ezek.  36. 19. 
was  desolate  after  them,ii)eut". 28. 33, 
that  no  man  passed  througli     ^^'    '    '. 
nor  returned :  for  they  laid 


"the  t pleasant  land  deso-"i>an.8.9. 

'■  t  Heb.  lane 


late 


desire. 


land  of 


shall  be  too  late  to  cry  for  mercy,  when  it  is 
the  time  of  justice."  So  Wisdom  had  said 
by  Solomon ;  *  then,  i.  e.  when  distress  and  an- 
guish Cometh  upon  them,  they  shall  call  upon  Me, 
but  I  tvill  not  answer  ;  they  shall  seek  Me  early, 
ami  they  shall  not  find  Me.  So  by  Isaiah, 
*  When  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide 
Mine  eyes  from  you ;  yea,  when  ye  make  many 
prayers,  I  will  7iot  hear  ;  your  hands  are  fidl  of 
bloods.  So  by  Hosea®,  oy  Micah',  by  Jere- 
miah ".  It  was  one  message  which  was  veri- 
fied in  every  day  of  chastisement,  "  there  will 
be  a  '  too  late ; '  "  not  a  final  "  too  late,"  until 
the  end  of  ends  comes,  but  a  "  too  late  "  for 
them,  a  "too  late"  to  avert  that  particular 
judgment  of  God,  Avhereby  the  sinner's 
earthly  trial  and  future  were  changed  per- 
manently ". 

14.  But  I  scattered  them,  rather.  And  I 
will  scatter  them^°.  The  saying  continues 
what  God  had  said  that  He  had  said,  and 
wiiich  had  come  to  pass.  Among  all  nations 
whom  they  knew  not.  So  God  had  repeatedly 
said  by  Jeremiah,  "  /  will  cast  you  out  of  this 
land  into  a  land  that  ye  knoiv  not,  ye  nor  your 
fathers  ;  where  I  will  not  shew  you  favor.  This 
was  the  aggravation  of  the  original  woe  in 
the  law :  ^'^  The  Lord  shall  bring  a  nfition 
against  thee  from  far,  from  the  end  of  the  earth,  a 
nation  ivhose  tongue  thou  shall  not  understand,  a 
nation  of  fierce  countenance.  There  was  no 
mitigation  of  suflering,  when  the  common 
bond  between  man  and  man,  mutual  speech, 
was  wanting. 

That  no  man  passed  through  nor  returned,  lit. 
from  passer  through  and  from  retwner ;  as  in 
the  prophecy  of  Alexander's  march  and 
return,  ^'^  because  of  him  that  passeth  by  and  of 
him  that  retumcth  ;  and  of  Seir  God  saith,  '*  / 
will  cut  off  from  him,  passer-through  and  re- 
turner ^^.  As  we  say,  tnere  shall  be  no  traflSc 
more  through  her. 

from  Zochariah's  time,  for  the  care  with  which  the 
vowel  pronunciation  has  been  preserved.  It  has 
no  exact  parallel.  The  conjugation  recurs  with  the 
C,  .Job  xxvii.  21.    See  Introd.  to  Zech.  p.  327.  n.  c. 

b  ,Ior.  xvi.  13  ;  add  xv.  14,  xvii.  4. 

1-  Dent,  xxviii.  49,  50.  "  iX.  8. 

i<  Ezek.  XXXV.  7, 

"■  The  form  implies  that  tlie  same  did.  or  did  not, 
pass  and  return,  whence  lie  came.    Ezek.  xxxii.  27. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


383 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  518. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1  The  restoration  of  Jerusalem. 
9  They  are  encouraged  to  the 
building  by  God's  favor  to 
them.  16  Good  works  are  re- 
quired of  them.  18  Joy  and 
enlargement  are  promised. 

A  GAIN  the  word  of  the 
LoKD  of  hosts   came 
to  me,  saying, 


And  they  made  the  pleasant  land^  desolate. 
They  were  the  doers  of  what  they  by  their 
sins  caused,  by  bringing  down  the  judgments 
of  God.  Heretofore  the  land  whicli  God  liad 
given  them,  had  been  in  our  hmguage 
"  the  envy  "  of  all  who  knew  it  now  they  had 
made  it  into  a  desolation,  one  wide  waste  ^. 

"  *  What  is  said  in  the  beginning  of  the 
chapter  against  Jews  who  abstained  indis- 
creetly, applies  mystically  to  all,  not  inward, 
but  rude  Christians,  who  not  being  diligent 
enough  but  rather  negligent  about  acts  of 
piety  and  inward  prayer  and  reformation  of 
the  powers  of  the  soul,  account  highly  of 
bodily  exercises  and  outward  observances, 
and  use  no  slight  scrupulosity  as  to  things  of 
less  moment,  and  do  not  attend  to  the  chief 
things,  charity,  luimility,  patience  meekness. 
On  these  it  must  be  inculcated,  that  if  they 
wish  their  fasts  and  other  outward  exercises 
to  please  God,  they  must  judge  true  judg- 
ment, and  be  compassionate,  kind,  liberal  to 
their  neighbors,  keep  their  mind  ever  stead- 
fast in  God,  cast  away  wholly  all  hardness  of 
heart,  and  be  soft  and  open  to  receive  within 
them  the  word  of  God.  Otherwise  their 
land  wdl  be  desolate,  i.  e.  deprived  of  the  in- 
dwelling of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they  scat- 
tered amid  various  vices."  "*That  which 
was  formerly  a  pleasant  land,  and  the  hospice 
of  the  Trinity,  is  turned  into  a  desert  and 
dwelling-place  of  dragons." 

VIII.  "  *  After  the  Lord  had,  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  manifoldly  rebuked  the  Jew- 
ish people.  He  now  comforts  it  with  renewed 
promises,  as  a  good  physician,  who  after  a 
bitter  draught  employs  sweet  and  soothing 
remedies ;  as  that  most  loving  Samaritan 
poured  in  wine  and  oil."  The  chapter  falls 
into  two  portions,  each  marked  by  the  words. 
The  Word  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  came  *,  or  came 
w)ito  me,  the  first  ^declaring  the  reversal  of 
the   former  judgments,  and    the    complete, 

'  mon  "I'lX  occurs  Ps.  cvi.  24,  Jer.  iii.  19.  On 
mon  see  ah.  on  Hagg.  ii.  7.  pp.  310,  311. 

2  This  idiom  nOE/S  n'K^  or  .t^S  UW  had  been 
used  by  Jo.  i.  7,  Is.  xiii.  9,  Jer  ii.  15,  iv.  7,  xviii.  16, 
xix.  8,  XXV.  9, 1.  3,  Ii.  29. 

3  Dion.  *  S.  Jer. 

S'Sx,  ver.  1,  which  is  added  in  22  Kenn.  MSS.,  13 
pe  R, :  7  at  first,  3  corrected;  2earlyedd.;  Jnn.  Syr., 


»Nah.  1.  21. 
eh.  1. 14. 


2  Thus  saith  the  Lord    ^  l^fore  ^ 

of  hosts;  *I  was  jealous <^'''-  ^^^- 

for  Zion  with  great  jeal- 
ousy, and  I  was  jealous  for 
her  with  great  fury. 

3  Thus  saith  the  Lord  ; 

"  I  am  returned  unto  Zion,    »'ch.  i.  le. 
and  'will  dwell   in  the    °ch.2.io. 


though  conditional,  restoration  of  God's 
favor  ;  the  2d  '  containing  the  answer  to  the 
original  question  as  to  those  fasts,  in  the 
declaration  of  the  joy  and  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel.  The  first  portion  has,  again,  a 
sevenfold,  the  second,  a  threefold  subordinate 
division  ;  marked  by  the  beginning.  Thus  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts. 

2.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts.  "  ^  At  each 
word  and  sentence,  in  which  good  things,  for 
their  greatness,  almost  incredible  are  prom- 
ised, the  prophet  premises.  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  as  if  he  would  say.  Think  not  that 
what  1  pledge  you  are  my  own,  and  refuse 
me  not  credence  as  man.  What  I  unfold  are 
the  promises  of  God." 

I  was  jealous,  lit.  I  have  been  and  am  jealous 
for^.  He  repeats  in  words  slightly  varied, 
but  in  the  same  i-hythm,  the  declaration  of 
His  tender  love  wherewith  He  opened  the 
series  of  visions,  thereby  assuring  beforehand 
that  this  was,  like  that,  an  answer  of  peace. 
The  form  of  words  shews,  that  this  was  a 
jealousy /o?',  not  uith  her;  yet  it  was  one  and 
the  same  strong,  yea  infinite  love,  whereby 
God,  as  He  says,  ^'^  clave  unto  their  fathers  to 
love  them  and  chose  their  seed  after  them  out  of 
all  nations.  His  jealousy  of  their  sins  was 
part  of  that  love,  whereby,  "^without  dis- 
turbance of  passion  or  of  tranquillity.  He  in- 
flicted rigorous  punishment,  as  a  man  fear- 
fully reproves  a  wife  who  sins."  They  are 
two  different  forms  of  love  according  to  two 
needs.  "  ^^  The  jealousy  ^^  of  God  is  good,  to 
love  men  and  hate  the  sins  of  men.  Con- 
trariwise the  jealousy  of  the  devil  is  evil,  to 
hate  men  and  love  the  sins  of  men." 
"  '^  Since  God's  anger  had  its  origin  in  the 
vehemence  of  His  love  (for  this  sort  of  jeal- 
ousy arises  from  the  greatness  of  love),  there 
was  hope  that  the  anger  might  readily  be  ap- 
peased toward  her." 

3.  lam  returned.     "^Without  change  in 

is  only  an  explanatory  addition.  It  is  noted  to  be 
"  wanting  in  correct  MSS."  De  R. 

6 1—17.  7 18—23.  8  S.  Jer. 

9  It  is  the  inverted  Hebrew  parallelism  1,2;  4,3. 
/  am  Jealous  for  Zion  with  a  great  jealousy,  and  with 
great  wrath  am  I  jealous  for  her,  only  substituting 

ri'im  non  for  Snj  f^i'p,  in  it. 

I'O  pK/n  Ue.  X.  15.     iiRup.     isZelus.    "Osor. 


384 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  518. 

*  la.  1.  21, 26. 

•  Is.  2.  2,3. 

tJer.  31.  23. 


midst  of  Jerusalem :  and 
.  Jerusalem  *  shall  be  called 
a  city  of  truth ;  and  "  the 
mountain  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts  'the  holy  mountain. 
4  Thus  saith  the  Lord 


Myself,  I  am  turned  to  that  people  from  the 
effect  of  justice  to  the  sweetness  of  mercy, 
and  I  uyill  dwell  in  the  inidsl  of  Jerusalem,  in 
the  temple  and  the  people,  indwelling  the 
hearts  of  the  good  hy  charity  and  grace. 
Christ  also,  Very  God  and  Very  Man,  visi- 
bly conversed  and  was  seen  in  Zion." 
" '  When  He  says,  '  I  am  turned,'  He  shews 
that  she  was  turned  too.  He  had  said,  Turn 
unto  Me  and  I  xvill  tiwn  unto  you ;  otherwise 
she  would  not  have  been  received  into  favor 
by  Him.  As  the  fruit  of  this  conversion,  He 
promises  her  His  presence,  the  ornaments  of 
trutli,  the  hope  of  security,  and  adorns  her 
with  glorious  titles." 

God  had  symbolized  to  Ezekicl  the  depart- 
ure of  His  special  presence,  in  that  the  glory 
of  the  God  of  Israel  whkh.  was  over  the  tem- 
ple, at  the  very  place  where  they  placed  the 
image  of  jealousy^,  '^  went  up  from  the  Cherub, 
whereupon  it  was,  to  the  threshold  of  the  house; 
then  *  stood  over  the  Cherubim ;  and  tlien 
*  went  up  from  the  midst  of  the  city  and  stood 
upon  the  mountain,  which  is  on  the  east  side  of 
the  city,  so  removing  from  them.  He  had 
prophesied  its  return  in  the  vision  of  the 
symbolic  temple,  hovf^the  glory  of  the  Lord 
came  into  the  house  by  the  way  of  the  gate  looking 
toward  the  East,  and  the  Spirit  took  ine  up  and 
brought  me  into  the  inner  court,  and  behold,  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  tilled  the  house.  Tliis  renewed 
dwelling  in  the  midst  of  them,  Zechariahtoo 
prophesies,  in  the  same  terms  as  in  his  third 
vision ',  /  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem. 

And  Jerusalem  shall  be  called  the  city  of  truth, 
being  what  siie  is  called,  since  God  would  not 
call  her  untruly;  so  Isaiah  says,  ^afterward 
thou  shall  be  called  the  city  of  rightconsness,  the 
faiOdal  city,  and  ®  tfiey  shall  call  thee  the  city  of 
the  Lord,  the  Zion  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israd.  f-^o 
Zephaniah  had  prophesied,  ^°  The  remmint  of 
Israel  shall  not  do  inifpxity,  nor  speak  lies.  Truth 
embraces  everything  opposite  to  imtruth ; 
faithfulness,  as  opposed  to  faithlessness;  sin- 
cerity, as  oi^posed  to  simulation  ;  veracity,  as 
opposed  to  falsehood  ;  honesty,  as  opposed  to 

>09or.  »  Ezok.  viii.  4,  5.  «Ib.  ix.  3. 

••lb.  X.  4,  18.  6ih.  xi.  23.  «Ib.  xliii.  4. 

'  pin3  'I^i2V^  ii-  !•».  Heb.  [10  Eng.] 

«  l».  i.  26. 

9Ib.lx.  14.  9o3eT.ni.n,Atthattime  theyshallcall 
Jerusalem  the  throne  of  the  Lord. 

'«Zeph.  iii.  1.3.  "Dion. 

"  David,  Ps.  ii.  6,  iil.  4,  xv.  1,  sons  of  Korah,  xliii. 
3,  xtviii.  1,  Ixxxvii.  1,  and  anou.,  Ps.  \c\\.  y. 


of  hosts ;  « There  shall  yet    ^  ii^°l%,  x 
old  men  and  old  women      c'r-  5i8. 
dwell  in  the  streets  of  Je-«seeisam.2 

31 .  Is.  (50, 20,  22. 

rusalem,   and  every  man  Lam. 2. 20,4c. 
with  his  staff  in  his  hand  t  Heb. /or 

,  7nultitude 

J  for  very  age.  of  days. 


untruth  in  act ;  truth  of  religion  or  faith,  as 
opposed  to  untrue  doctrine.  "  ^'  It  shall  be 
called  the  city  of  truth,  i.  e.  of  the  True  God  or 
of  truth  of  life,  doctrine,  and  justice.  It  is 
chiefly  verified  by  the  Coming  of  Christ, 
Who  often  preached  in  Jerusa,lem,  in  Whom 
the  city  afterward  believed." 

And  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  Mount 
Zion,  on  which  the  temple  shall  be  built,  shall 
be  called  and  be  the  mountain  of  holiness. 
This  had  been  the  favorite  title  of  the 
Psalmists  ^'^,  and  Isaiah  ^^ ;  and  Obadiah  had 
foretold,  ^*  upon  Mount  Zion  there  shall  be  holi- 
ness; and  Jeremiaii,  ^^  As  yet  they  shall  use 
this  speech  in  the  land  of  Judah  and  in  the  cities 
thereof,  ivhen  I  shall  bring  again  their  captiiiiy  ; 
The  Lord  shall  bless  thee,  O  habitation  of  jus- 
tice, and  mountain  of  holiness.  It  should  be 
called  and  be ;  it  should  fulfill  the  destinati.)n 
of  its  titles ;  as,  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  we  pro- 
fess our  belief  of  "  the  holy  Catholic  Churcli," 
and  holiness  is  one  of  its  characteristics. 

4.  There  shall  yet  dwell  old  men  and  old 
ivomen.  "^'Men  and  women  shall  not  be 
slain  now,  as  before  in  the  time  of  the  Baby- 
lonish destruction,  but  shall  fulfill  tlieir 
natural  course."  It  shall  not  be,  as  when 
^'^ He  gave  His  people  over  unto  the  sword;  the 
fire  consumed  their  young  men  and  their  nuiidens 
were  not  given  to  marriage  ;  the  priests  were  slain 
by  the  sword  and  their  widows  made  no  lamenta- 
tion ;  apart  from  the  liorrible  atrocities  of 
heathen  war,  when  the  unborn  children  were 
destroyed  in  their  mothers'  womb ",  with 
their  mothers.  Fe< '^,  once  more  as  in  the 
days  of  old,  and  as  conditionally  ])romised  in 
the  law  ^'.  As  death  is  the  punishment  of 
sin,  so  prolongation  of  life  to  the  time  wliich 
Goil  has  now  made  its  natural  term,  seems 
the  more  a  token  of  His  goodness.  This 
promise  Isaiah  had  renewed  '",  There  shall  no 
more  be  an  infant  of  days,  nor  an  old  man  that 
hath  not  filled  his  days.  In  tliose  fierce  war-^ 
neither  young  nor  very  old  were  sjnired.  It 
implied  then  a  lonjr  peace,  that  men  should 
live  to  that  utmost  verge  of  human  life. 

"  Is.  xi.  9,  Ivi.  7,  Ivii.  1.3,  Ixv.  11,  2r^,  Ixvi.  20,  also  in 
Jo.  ii.  1,  iii.  17,  Ob.  16,  Zeph.  iii.  11,  Dan.  ix.  16,  20. 

"Ob.  17. 

's.Ier.  xxxi.  23.  i"  P.s.  Ixxviii.  63,  64. 

"  2  Kgs  XV.  16,  H08.  xiii.  IC,  Am.  i.  13. 

>8As  in  Zeeh.  i.  17. 

>»De.  Iv.  10.  V.  16.  33,  vi.  2,  xi.  9,  xvii.  20,  xxli.  7, 
xxxii.  47,  Ezek.  xx.  17. 

»l9.  IXV.  20, 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


385 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  518. 


5  And  the  streets  of  the 
,  city  shall  be  full  of  boys 
and  girls  playing  in  the 
streets  thereof. 


The  man,  whose  staff  is  in  his  hand  for  the 
multitude  of  days.  The  two  opposite  pictures, 
the  old  men,  "^so  aged  that  they  support 
with  a  staff  tlieir  failing  and  trembling 
limbs,"  and  the  young  in  the  glad  buoyancy 
of  recent  liie,  fresh  from  their  Creator's 
hands,  attest  alike  the  goodness  of  the  Cre- 
ator, Who  protecteth  both,  the  children  in 
their  yet  undeveloped  strength,  the  very  old 
whom  He  hath  brought  through  "all  tlie 
changes  and  chances  of  this  mortal  life,"  in 
their  yet  sustained  weakness.  The  tottering 
limbs  of  the  very  old,  and  the  elastic  per- 
petual motion  of  childhood  are  like  far  dis- 
tant chords  of  the  diapason  of  the  Creator's 
love.  It  must  have  been  one  of  the  most 
piteous  sights  in  that  first  imminent  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem*,  how  ^  the  children  and 
the  sucklings  swooned  in  the  streets  of  the  city ; 
how  the  young  children  fainted  for  hunger  m 
the  top  of  every  street.  We  have  but  to  picture 
to  ourselves  any  city  in  which  one  lives,  the 
ground  strewed  with  these  little  all-hut 
corpses,  alive  only  to  suffer.  We  know  not, 
how  great  the  relief  of  the  yet  innocent, 
almost  indomitable  joyousness  of  children  is, 
until  we  miss  them.  In  the  dreadful  Irish 
famine  of  1847  the  absence  of  the  children 
from  the  streets  of  Gal  way  was  told  me  by 
Religious  as  one  of  its  dreariest  features*. 
In  the  dreary  back-streets  and  alleys  of  Lon- 
don, the  irrepressible  joyousness  of  children 
is  one  of  the  bright  sun -beams  of  that  great 
Babylon,  amid  the  oppressiveness  of  the 
anxious,  hard,  luxurious,  thoughtless,  care- 
worn, eager,  sensual,  worldly,  frivolous,  vain, 
stolid,  sottish,  cunning,  faces,  which  traverse 
it.  God  sanctions  by  His  word  here  our  joy 
in  the  joyousness  of  children,  that  He  too 
taketh  pleasure  in  it,  He  the  Father  of  all. 
It  is  precisely  their  laughing  *,  the  fullness 
of  her  streets  of  these  merry  creations  of  His 
hands,  that  He  speaks  of  with  complacency. 

6.  If  it  should  be  marvelous  in  the  eyes  of  the 
remnant  of  this  people  in  those  ^  [not  these^  days, 
shall  it  be  marvelous  in  Mine  eyes  also  ?  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts.     Man's  anticipations,  by  reason 

1  Dion.       2  jer.  vi.  11,  ix.  21.       3  Lam.  ii.  11. 19. 

*  See  other  pictures  of  that  time  in  Pusey's 
"  Chastisements  neglected  forerunners  of  greater," 
in  "Occasional  Sermons."  6  □'pntyO. 

*  Dnn  D'D'3  as  in  Gen.  vi.  4,  E.x.  ii.  11,  De.  xvii. 
9,  n?3nn  D'D'3  are  the  times  of  the  Gospel,  Jo.  iii. 
2,  iv^l;  bel.  25.  'S.  Jer. 

8  Ps.  cxviii.  23.  The  phrase  occurs  beside  only  2 
Sam.  xiii.  2. 

•See  on  Am.  1. 8,  vol.  i.  p.  247,  n.  28,  and  on  Hagg.  i. 
12,  p.  305.  1"  Rom.  xi.  5-7. 

25 


6  Thus  saith  the  Lord    ^  ^e^fore  ^ 

cir.  518. 


of  hosts ;  If  it  be  II  marvel- 
ous in  the  eyes  of  the  rem- 1  Or,  hcn-d, 
nant  of  this  people  in  these 


or,  difficult. 


of  his  imperfections  and  the  chequered  char- 
acter of  earthly  things,  are  always  disap- 
pointing. God's  doings,  by  reason  of  His  in- 
finite greatness  and  goodness,  are  always 
beyond  our  anticipations,  past  all  belief.  It 
is  their  very  greatness  which  staggers  us.  It 
is  not  then  merely  that  the  temporal  prom- 
ises seemed  "  too  good  to  be  true  "  (in  our 
words)  "'  in  the  eyes  ol  the  people  who  had 
come  from  the  captivity,  seeing  that  the  city 
almost  desolate,  the  ruins  of  the  city-walls, 
the  charred  houses  shewed  the  doings  of  the 
Babylonians."  It  is  in  tlie  day  of  the  fulfill- 
ment, not  of  the  anticipation,  that  they 
would  seem  marvelous  in  their  eye.s,  as  the 
Psalmist  says,  ®  This  is  the  Lord's  doing :  and 
it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes.  The  temporal 
blessings  which  God  would  give  were  not  so 
incredible.  They  were  but  the  ordinary 
gifts  of  His  Providence:  they  involved  no 
change  in  their  outward  relaticms.  His  peo- 
ple were  still  to  remain  under  their  Persian 
masters,  until  their  time  too  should  come.  It 
was  matter  of  gladness  and  of  God's  Provi- 
dence, that  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  should  be 
rebuilt :  but  not  so  marvelous,  when  it  came 
to  pass.  The  mysteries  of  the  Gospel  are  a 
marvel  even  to  the  blessed  Angels.  That 
fulfillment  being  yet  future,  so  the  people,  in 
whose  eyes  that  fulfillment  should  be  mar- 
velous, were  future  also.  And  this  was  to  be 
a  remnant  still.  It  does  not  say,  this  people 
ivhieh  is  a  remnant,  nor  this  remnant  of  the  peo- 
ple, i.  e.,  those  who  remained  over  out  of  the 
people  who  went  into  captivity,  or  this  rem- 
nant, but  "  the  remnant  of  this  people,"  i.  e. 
those  who  should  remain  over  of  it,  i.  e.,  of 
the  people  who  were  returned.  It  is  the 
remnant  of  the  larger  whole,  this  people^.  It 
is  still  the  remnant  according  to  the  election  of 
grace;  that  election  which  obtained  what  all 
Israel  sought,  but,  seeking  wrongly,  were 
blinded  i". 

Shall  it  be  marvelous  in  Mine  eyes  also  f  It 
is  an  indirect  ciuestion  in  the  way  of  excla- 
mation'^  It  be  marvelous  in  3Iine  eyes  also, 
rejecting  the  thought,  as  alien  from  the  na- 

iiAs  in  2  Sam.  xvi.  17,  This  thy  kindness!  tor,  Is 
this  thy  kindness?  Gen.  xxvii.  24,  Thou,  this  my  son 
Esau!  for.  Art  thou  my  very  son  Esau  f  1  Sam.  xxii. 
7,  Yea,  to  you  all  the  son,  of  Jesse  shall  give  I  for,  shall 
he  give  f  Job  ii.  9,  Thou  still  holding  fast  thine  integ- 
rity!  for.  art  thouf  Jud.  xiv.  16,  I' have  not  told  my 

father  and  my  mother,']'' }ii  In  and  to  thee  I  shall  tell! 

i.  e.,  shall  I  tell  thee?  Jer.  xxv.  29,  For  lo,  on  the  city 
which  is  called  by  My  Name,  I  begin  to  bring  evil,  and 
ye  shall  be  utterly  unpunished !  as  we  should  say,  "  and 
ye  be  utterly  unpunished."  Ew.  Lehrb.  n.  324.  p. 
802.  ed.  8. 


386 


ZrXHARLUI. 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  518. 
•>Gen.  18.  14. 
Luke  1.  37. 
&  18.  27. 
Kom.  4.  21. 
ils.  11.  11,  12.  & 
43.  5,  6. 
Ezek.  37.  21. 
Amos  9.  14,  15. 


days,  ''should  it  also  be 
marvelous  in  iniiie  eyes  ? 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

7  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts ;  Behold,  '  I  will 
save  my  people  from  the 


Before 


east  country,  and  from    ^  y  ^  j  g  ^ 
t  the  west  country  ;  ''''■■  ^^^• 


ture  of  God,  to  "Whom  '  all  things  are  possible, 
yea,  what  with  men  is  impossible.  As  God  says 
to  Jeremiah,  ^  Behold,  1  am  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  all  flesh.  Is  there  anythinc/  too  hard  for  Me  f 
■^  For  with  God  nothing  shall  be  impossible. 
*  The  things  which  are  impossible  with  men  are 
possible  ivith  God.  ^  For  with  God  all  things 
are  possible.  '""For  He  is  the  Lord  of  all 
powers,  fulfilling  by  His  will  what  exceed- 
ingly surpasseth  nature,  and  effecting  at  once 
what  seemeth  Him  good.  The  mystery  of 
the  Incarnation  passeth  all  marvel  and  dis- 
course, and  no  less  the  benetlts  redounding  to 
us.  For  how  is  it  not  next  to  incredible, 
that  the  Word,  Begotten  of  God,  should  be 
imited  with  the  flesh  and  be  in  tlie  form  of  a 
servant,  and  endure  the  Cross  and  the  insults 
and  outrages  of  the  Jews?  Or  how  should 
one  not  admire  above  measure  the  issue  of 
the  dispensation,  whereby  sin  was  destroyed, 
death  abolished,  corruption  expelled,  and 
man,  once  a  recreant  slave,  became  re- 
splendent with  the  grace  of  an  adopted  son?" 
7.  I  ivill  save  Mij  people  from  the  East  coun- 
try and  from  the  Went  country,  " ''  i.  e.  the  whole 
world  ;  for  Israel  had  been  scattered  in  every 
part  of  the  world."  God  had  said  to  Israel, 
^  I  will  bring  thy  seed  from  the  ett.'it  and  gather 
thee  from  the  we.it;  I  ivill  say  to  the  north,  Give 
up,  and  to  the  south,  Keep  not  back.  The 
two  tribes  had  been  carried  to  Babylon 
and  had  been  dispersed,  or  had  been  al- 
lowed to  migrate  to  the  various  provinces 
of  the  Babylonian  or  Persian  empire. 
But  these  were  in  the  East,  though  com- 
monly called  the  North,  because  they  in- 
vaded Israel  from  the  North.  Those  who 
liad  migrated  to  Egypt  were  in  the  Soutli. 
As  yet  none  were  in  the  West.  The  disper- 
sion, as  well  as  the  gathering,  was  still 
future.  When  our  Lord  came,  they  had 
migrated  Westward.  Greece,  Italy,  Asia 
minor,  were  full  of  them  ;  and  from  all  they 
were  gathered.  All  8.  Paul's  Epistles  writ- 
ten to  named  Churdies,  were  written  to 
Churches  formed  from  converts  in  the  West. 
In  all  these  countries  God  would  gather  His 
one  people,  His  Church,  not  oi'-' the. Jews  only, 
but  oko  of  the  GcntUeji,  grafted  into  tliem,  as 
our  Lord  said, '"  /  say  unto  yon^  that  vinny  shall 
come  from  the  East  and  from  the  West,  and  shall 


„      ,       ,  T      .11  1     .  1  +  Hcb.  the  coun- 

0  And  i  Will  brmg  them,   i,p  of  the  qoiruj 
and  they  shall  dwell  in  the  lun? 

.  ,  ^       ,.    T  1  V         1    See  Ps.  60.  1. 

midst  01  Jerusalem:  "and   &113.3. 
thev  sliall   be  mv  people,  kjer.'so.  22. 

&  31. 1,  33.  ch.  13.  9. 


'8.  Matt.  xix.  2r>. 
».S.Lukoi  .'iT.        Mb.  xviii. 
•  8.  C.yr.  '■  I>ii>n. 


*.Jer.  x.xxii.  27. 
f'S.  Mnrkx.27. 
M.'*.  xliii. .".,  •!, 


sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  the  children  of  the 
kiiigdom  .(the  unbelieving  Jews,  who  were 
not  the  remnant)  shall  be  cast  out  into  oiUer 
darkne.'is. 

8.  They  shall  dwell  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem, 
not  the  literal  Jerusalem  ;  for  this  would  not 
contain  the  Jews  from  all  quarters  of  the 
world,  whom,  as  they  nuiltiplied,  the  whole 
land  could  not  contain  ;  but  the  promised 
Jerusalem,  the  Jerusalem,  which  should  be 
inhabited  as  towns  without  avails,  to  which  the 
Lord  sliould  be  a  wall  of  fire  round  about. 

And  they  shidl  be  My  people.  He  promises 
this  as  to  tliose  who  were  already  His  people; 
J  will  save  My  people — and  will  bring  them,  and 
they  shall  dwell — and  they  shall  be  My  people. 
And  this  they  were  to  be  in  a  new  way,  by 
conversion  of  heart,  as  Jeremiah  says,  ^^  IwUl 
give  them  an  heart  to  know  Me,  that  I  am  the 
Lord,  and  they  shall  be  My  people,  and  I  will  be 
their  God :  for  they  shall  return  unto  Me  with 
tluiir  whole  lieart,  and,  '•'  This  shall  be  the  cove- 
nant that  I  will  nutke  ivith  the  house  of  Israel  ; 
After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  IwUl  put  My 
law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  will  wnte  it  in 
their  hearts;  and  will  be  their  God,  and  they 
shall  be  My  people. 

"  '*  The  circuit  ot  one  city  will  not  contain 
so  great  a  multitude.  But  one  confession  of 
faith,  one  conspiration  of  sanctity,  one  com- 
munion of  religion  and  righteousness,  can 
easily  enlbld  all  born  of  the  holy  fathers, 
united  to  tliem  in  faith  and  piety.  And  God 
is  specially  called  the  God  of  all  these.  For 
He  specially  consults  for  these,  loads  them 
with  benefits,  fences  them  in  with  most 
strong  protection,  illumines  them  with  His 
light,  crowns  them,  when  confirmed  in  the 
Image  of  His  beauty,  with  glory  immortal 
and  Divine." 

In  truth  and  in  righteousness.  This  too  is  on 
account  of  their  former  relation  to  God. 
Isaiah  had  upbraided  them  for  a  worship  of 
(jod,  '*  not  in  truth  and  righteousness.  Jere- 
miah liad  said,  **  Thou  .'<halt  swear,  the  Lord 
liveth,  in  truth,  in  judgment,  and  in  righteous- 
ness. God  should  lie  their  God  in  truth  and 
righteousne.'is  ;  "  '*  truth  in  fulfilling  His  pro- 
raises;  righteousness  in  rewarding  every  man 
according  to  his  works." 

V  Rom.  ix.  24.  i*S.  Matt.  viii.  11, 12. 

>'  .ler.  xxiv.  7.  add  xxx.  22.  "  lb.  xxxi.  3,1. 

"■Osor.       'Ms.  xlviii.  1.       If- .ler.  iv. 2.       "Rib. 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 


387 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  518. 

1  Jer.  4.  2. 

>"  Hag.  2.  4. 
ver.  18. 


»  Ezra  5. 1,  2. 


•Hag.  2. 18. 


and  I  will  be  their  God,  'in 
.  truth  and  in  righteousness. 
9  ^Thus  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts ;  ""  Let  your 
hands  be  strong,  ye  that 
hear  in  these  days  these 
words  by  the  mouth  of "  the 
prophets,  which  were  in 
"the  day  that  the  founda- 
tion of  the  house  of  the 
Lord  of  hosts  was  laid, 


9  Let  your  hands  be  stronc/.  The  fulfill- 
ment of  God's  former  promises  are  the  ear- 
nest of  the  future ;  His  former  providences, 
of  those  to  come.  Having  then  those  great 
promises  for  the  time  to  come,  they  were  to 
be  earnest  in  whatever  meantime  God  gave 
them  to  do.  He  speaks  to  them,  as  hearing 
in  these  dai/s,  i.  e.  that  fourth  year  of  Darius 
in  which  tliey  apparent)}'  were,  these  uords 
from  the  mouth  of  the  prophets,  which  were  in 
the  day  when  the  foundation  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord  was  lai<l,  the  temple,  that  it  might  be  built. 
Ilaggai  wa'^  now  gone  to  his  rest.  His  voice 
had  been  silent  for  two  years.  But  his  words 
lived  on.  The  fulfillment  of  what  the  pro- 
phets had  then  spoken  in  God's  Name,  was  a 
ground,  why  tlieir  liands  should  be  sti-ong, 
now  and  thereafter,  for  every  work  which 
God  gave  or  should  give  them  to  do. 
"^tSonie  things  are  said  to  Jerusalem,  i.  e. 
to  the  Jews,  which  belong  to  them  only ; 
some  relate  to  what  is  common  to  them  and 
the  other  members  of  the  Church,  i.  e.  those 
who  are  called  from  the  Gentiles.  Now  he 
speaks  to  the  Jews,  but  not  so  as  to  seem  to 
forget  what  he  had  said  before.  He  would 
say.  Ye  who  hear  the  words,  which  in  those 
days  when  the  temple  was  founded,  Haggai 
and  Zechariah  spake,  be  strong  and  proceed 
to  the  work  which  ye  began  of  fulfilling  the 
will  of  the  Lord  in  the  building  of  the  tem- 
ple, and  in  keeping  from  the  sins,  in  which 
ye  were  before  entangled.  For  as,  before  ye 
began  to  build  the  temple,  ye  were  afflicted 
with  many  calamities,  but  after  ye  had  be- 
gun, all  things  went  well  with  you,  as  Hag- 


iRib. 


-  Hagg.  ii.  15-19. 


<*  Osor. 


.^iTTlJ  K"?.  rrnj  occurs  only  iu  19  otlier  places: 
"  it  came  to  pass,"  with  PiU'O,  "it  was  from,"  i.e. 
his  doing,  1  Kings  i.  27,  xii.  24,  2  Chr.  xi.  4 ;  of  a 
thing  which  had  not  its  like,  with  J  or  TOO  Ex. 
xi.  (i,  Deut.  iv.  32,  Jo.  ii.  2,  Jud.  xix.  30,  Dan.  xii.  1, 
or  abs.,  .Jud.  xx.  :>,  12,  Jer.  v.  30,  xlviii.  19,  Ezelc.  xxi. 
12,  xxxix.  8.  There  remain  five  insulated  eases; 
"was  made  God's  people,"  Deut.  xxvii.  9;  "a 
desire  accomplished,"  Pr.  xiii.  19  ;  "  hath  not  been 
done,"  (rejecting  an  imputation)  Neh.  vi.  8 ;  "  was 
ileparted,"  Dan.  li.  1 ;  as  if  he  had  ceased  to  be,  lb. 
viii.  27. 


that  the  temple  might  be    chrTIt 

built.  '-ir.  518. 

10  For  before  these  days  i  Or,  the  hire  of 

1 1  ,1  n  1  •         J?        man  became 

II  there   w'as   no  ^hire  lor  nothing,  ^c. 
man,   nor  any  hire  for" fel" '•'■'"• 
beast;  ''neither  was  ^/ierei2Chr. is. 5. 
any  peace  to  him  that  went 
out  or  came  in  because  of 
the  affliction  :  for  I  set  all 
men  every  one  against  his 
neighbor. 


gai  said^,  so,  if  you  cultivate  piety  and  do 
not  depart  from  God,  ye  shall  enjoy  great 
abundance  of  spiritual  good."  "^The  mem- 
ory of  past  calamity  made  the  then  tran- 
quillity much  sweeter,  and  stirred  the  mind 
to  greater  thanksgiving.  He  set  forth  then 
the  grief  of  those  times  when  he  says ;  " 

10.  There  was  no  hire  for  man,  lit.  hire  for 
man  came  not  to  pass*.  It  was  longed  for, 
waited  for,  and  came  not.  So  little  was  the 
produce,  that  neither  laborer  nor  beast  of 
burden  were  employed  to  gather  it  in. 

Neither  was  there  peace  to  him  tvho  went  out  or 
came  in  because  of  the  affliction,  better,  of  the 
adversary.  In  such  an  empire  as  the  Persian, 
there  was  large  scope  for  actual  hostility 
among  the  petty  nations  subject  to  it,  so  that 
they  did  not  threaten  revolt  against  itself,  or 
interfere  with  the  payment  of  tribute,  as  in 
the  Turkish  Empire  now,  or  in  the  weak 
government  of  Greece.  At  the  rebuilding  of 
the  walls,  after  this  time,  the  Samaritans, 
Arabians,  Ammonites,  Ashdodites  conspired  to 
fight  against  Jerusalem,  and  to  slay  ikon '. 
They  are  summed  up  here  in  the  general 
title  used  here,  our  adversaries  ^. 

For  I  set ;  lit.  and  I  set.  Domestic  confu- 
sions and  strife  were  added  to  hostility  from 
without.  Nehemiah's  reformation  was,  in 
part,  to  stop  the  grinding  usury  in  time  of 
dearth  or  to  pay  the  king's  taxes,  through 
which  men  sold  lands,  vineyards,  even  their 
children  ^. 

God  (lit.)  let  them  loose,  each  against  his 
neighbor,  in  that  He  left  them  to  their  own 
ways  and  withheld  them  not. 

6  Neh.  iv.  7-11. 

^\yyi  Neh.  iv.  5  Heb.  (11  Eng.),  iy,  as  calamity, 
is  very  rare,  except  in  the  idiom  7  "12^3.  It  is 
used  twice  in  the  construct,  as  a  sort  of  adj., 
iy  OnS,  bread  of  affliction  Is.  xxx.  20;  iy  n^' 
time  of  affliction.  Job  xxxviii.  23 ;  and  as  united  with 
the  synonyme  np1)f D1,  Job  xv.  24,  pl^f  D1,  Ps.  cxix. 
143;  absolutely,  once  only,  Is.  v.  30.  The  fern.  n"^i" 

occurs,  in  all.  72  times. 
'  Neh.  V.  l-i2. 


388 


ZECHARIAH. 


chrTst        -^^  -^^^  "°^^  ^  ^^"^^  ^°* 
c'r-  518.      })e  unto  the  residue  of  this 


Befor* 

CHRIST 

rir.  SIS. 


people  as  in  the  former  days, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 
»Hos.2.2i,22.        12  'For  the  seed  i>haU 

Joel  2.  22.  . 

Hae.  2. 19.       06  t  prospcrous ;  the  vine 

tHeb.o/ peace.    ,     ,,       .         ,  /.     •.  j 

shall  give  her  iruit,  and 
•  Ps.  67. 0.  •  the  ground  shall  give  her 
«See  Hag.  1. 10. increase,  and  'the  heavens 


11.  And  now.  The  words  imply  a  contrast 
of  God's  dealings,  rather  than  a  contrast  of 
time.  /  am  not  to  the  remnant  of  this  people. 
He  had  said,  /  ivill  he  to  them  Cfod ;  so  now 
He  does  not  say  that  He  will  not  do  to  them, 
as  in  former  days,  but  I  am  not  to  the  remnant 
of  tliis  people  as  lieretofore.  He  would  be, 
as  He  was  in  Jesus,  in  a  new  relation  to 
tliem. 

12.  For  the  secrf  shall  be  peace^.  "^Your 
seed  shall  be  peace  and  a  blessing,  so  tliat 
tliey  will  call  it  '  a  seed  of  peace.' "  The 
unusual  construction  is  perhaps  adopted,  in 
order  to  suggest  a  further  meaning.  It  is  a 
reversal  of  the  condition,  just  spoken  of, 
when  there  was  no  peace  to  him  that  ivent,  or  to 
him  that  returned. 

The  vine  shall  give  //«•  fruit  and  the  (/round 
^liull  give  her  increase.  The  old  promise  in 
tlie  law  on  obedience ',  as  the  exact  contrary 
was  threatened  on  disobedience*.  It  had 
Iteen  revived  in  the  midst  of  promise  of 
spiritual  blessin?  and  of  the  coming  of  Christ, 
in  Ezekiel'.  "*By  the  metaphor  of  sensible 
things  he  exjdaius  (as  the  prophets  often  do) 
the  abundance  of  spiritual  good  in  the  time 
of  the  new  law,  a.s  did  Hosea',  Joel*, 
.ALmos",  and  many  others."  And  I  will  cause 
the  remnant  of  the  people  to  inherit.  ""As  if 
he  said,  I  promised  these  things  not  to  you 
who  live  now,  but  to  the  future  remnant  of 
your  people,  i.  e.  those  who  shall  believe  in 
Christ  and  shall  be  saved,  while  the  rest 
])erish.  Tlicse  shall  possess  tliese  spiritual 
goods,  which  I  promise  now,  under  the  image 
of  temporal."  As  our  Lord  said  "^,  He  thai 
overcotneth  shall  inherit  all  things,  and  I  will  be 
his  Qod,  and  he  shall  be  My  son. 

1  It  caunot  be,  the  need  shall  be  nafe,  (Jon.),  for 
D  wiyn  is  never  used  except  of  peace ;  nor  is  even 
Dl7ty  used  as  a  predicate,  except  of  human  beings, 
either  directly  or  as  implied,  as  in  Job  v.  24,  thy 
tent,  tShK  Dwty;  Job  \xi. '.),  their  houses  are  peace 
from  fear,  HnSO   Dwty  DiTHJ.     The  sense  in- 

columitas,  inteRritas,  is  wrongly  assumed  in  R6d. 
Ues.  Thes.  Dent,  xxi.x.  Is,  1  Kjss  ii.  3,1,  Ps.  xxxvii. 
II,  37,  Ixxii.  3,  7,  Is.  lii.  7,  Ivii.  19,  21,  Jer.  iv.  10,  vi. 
14, except  as  I'rtius  this  may  be  involved  in  "peace." 

^ii'i'  L-iin  DOU/ri  ^nr  be  a  nuim.  ubs.  before  Ji)J, 


shall  give  their  dew;  and 
I  will  cause  the  remnant 
of  this  people  to  possess  all 
these  things. 

13  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass,  that  as  ye  were  "  a "  Jer.  42.  is. 
curse  among  the  heathen, 
O  house  of  Judah,  and 
house  of  Israel ;  so  will  I 


13.  As  ye  were  a  curse  among  the  nations,  0 
house  of  Judah  and  house  of  Israel,  so  I  will 
save  you.  The  ten  tribes  bore  the  name  of 
Israel,  in  contrast  with  the  two  tribes  witli 
the  name  of  Judah,  not  only  in  the  history 
but  in  the  prophets;  as  Hosea  says",  /  will 
no  more  have  mercy  upon  the  house  of  Israel,  and 
on  the  house  of  Judah  I  will  have  mercy.  Here 
he  unites  both ;  both,  in  the  time  of  their 
captivity,  were  a  curse,  were  held  to  be  a 
thing  accursed,  as  it  is  said,  ^'-  He  that  is  hanf/ed 
is  the  curse  of  God,  i.  e.  a  thing  accursed  by 
Him ;  and  God  foretold  of  Judah,  that  they 
should  be  '*  a  desolation  and  a  curse,  and  by 
Jeremiah,  "  /  uiU  deliver  them  to  be  removed 
into  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  for  hurt,  a  re- 
proach and  a  proverb,  a  taunt  and  a  curse  in  all 
places  idtilher  I  shall  drive  them;  and  in  deed, 
when  it  was  so,  ^'  therefore  is  your  land  a  deso- 
lation and  an  astonishment  aiid  a  curse  without 
an  inhabitant,  as  at  this  day.  Now  the  sen- 
tence was  to  be  reversed  as  to  both.  As  ye 
v:ere  a  curse,  annong  the  nations,  naming  each, 
so  I  will  save  you.  There  would  have  been  no 
proportion  between  the  curse  and  the  bless- 
ing, unless  both  had  been  included  under  the 
blessing,  as  they  were  under  tlie  curse.  But 
Israel  had  no  share  in  the  temporal  blessing, 
not  returning  from  captivity,  as  Zechariah 
knew  they  were  not  returned  hitiierto. 
Therefore  the  blessings  promised  must  be 
spiritual.  Even  a  Jewish  commentator  saw 
this.  "'*It  is  possible,  that  this  may  have 
been  spoken  of  the  second  temple,  on  condi- 
tion that  they  should  keep  the  command- 
ments of  the  Lord ;  or,  it  is  still  future, 
referring  to  the  days  of  the  Messiah :  and 
this  is  proved  by  the  following  verse  which 

"a  seed  of  peace,  the  vine  sliall  yield  her  fruit;" 
for  "seed  "  lias  no  relation  to  the  "  vine." 

«  Kim.  =»  Lev.  xxvi.  4.  *  lb.  20. 

*  Ezek.  xrxiv.  27.         •  Rib.         "  Hos.  ii.  21,  22. 

8  Jo.  ii.  2.3-25,  iii.  18.  » .\m.  ix  13. 

lORev.  xxi.  7.        "Ho.s.  i.  e,  7.        "  De.  xxi.  23. 

"2  Kgs  xxii.  19. 

1*  Jer.  xxiv.  9,  add  lb.  xxv.  18,  to  make  thee  a  deso- 
lafion,  nil  astonishment,  n  hissing  and  a  curse  ;  and  of 
those  who  wi^nt  in  rebellion  to  Egypt,  i/e  shall  be  an 

execration  [rilX]  ""m'  an  astonishment  and  a  rinse  and 
a  reproach  (lb,  xlii.  18),  and  that  i/e  might  l>c  a  rnrsa 
awl  n  repronrh  (Wiong  nil  the  ntittnns  of  tin  rorth  (il». 
xliv.  8.;  "•  lb,  xliv.  22.  X'  Kiin.  on  \or.  12. 


CTIAPTErt   VITT. 


389 


ci?rTst    ^^^'^  y^^'  ^"*^  '^'®  ^^^^^  ^^ 
__£i£i.5I^i__ a  blessing:   fear   not,  but 


» Gen.  12. 2.       '  let  vour  hands  be  strong. 

Ruth4. 11,  12.        ,  /-r-,  ,  .     ,       , 

Is.  19.24,25.        14  For  thus  saith  the 

Zeph.3.20.        _  n   ■,  ^         r   A       T 

Hag.  2. 19.       Lord  oi  hosts;    As  i 
•  Jer.si. 28.       thought  to  puuish  you, 
when  your  fathers  pro- 
voked me  to  wrath,  saith 


says,  0  house  of  Jndah  and  house  of  Israel. 
During  the  second  temple  the  house  of  Israel 
did  not  return." 

And  ye  shall  be  a  blessing.  This  is  a  revival 
and  an  application  of  the  original  promise  to 
Abraham,  ^thoii  shall  be  a  blesdng ;  which 
was  continued  to  Jacob,  *  Ood  give  thee  the 
blessing  of  Abraham,  to  thee  and  to  thy  seed  with 
thee.  And  of  the  future  king,  of  whom  it  is 
said,  '  Thou  gavest  him  length  of  days  for  ever 
and  ever,  David  says,  Thou  hast  made  him 
blessings  for  ever,  and  again,  *  They  shall  be 
blessed  in  Him.  So  Isaiah  had  said  of  the 
days  of  Christ,  ^  In  that  day  sludl  Israel  be  the 
third  with  Egypt  and  with  Assyria,  a  blessing  in 
the  midst  of  the  land  ;  and  symbolically  of  the 
cluster  of  grapes,  *  Destroy  it  not :  for  a  bless- 
ing is  in  it ;  and  Ezekiel,  ^  /  will  make  them 
and  the  places  round  about  My  hill  a  blessing. 
They  were  this;  for  of  them,  ^according  to 
the  flesh,  Christ  came,  Who  is  over  all,  God 
blessed  for  ever;  of  them  were  the  Apostles 
and  Evangelists,  of  them  every  writer  of 
God's  word,  of  them  those  who  carried  the 
Gospel  throughout  the  world.  "  ^  Was  this 
fulfilled,  when  the  Jews  were  under  the  Per- 
sians? or  when  they  paid  tribute  to  the 
Greeks?  or  when  they  trembled,  hour  by 
hour,  at  the  mention  of  the  Roman  name? 
Do  not  all  count  those  who  rule  much  hap- 
pier than  those  oppressed  by  the  rule  of 
others?  The  prediction  then  was  fulfilled, 
not  then,  but  when  Christ,  the  Sun  of  Eight- 
eousness,  shone  on  the  earth,  and  He  chose 
from  the  Hebrews  lights,  through  whom  to 
dissipate  darkness  and  illumine  the  minds  of 
men  who  were  in  that  darkness.  The  Jews, 
when  restored  from  the  captivity,  seemed 
born  to  slavery."  They  were  reputed  to  be 
of  slaves  the  most  despised.  "But  when 
they  had  through  Christ  been  put  in  posses- 
sion of  that  most  sure  liberty,  they  over- 
threw, through  their  empire,  the  power  and 
tyranny  of  the  evil  spirits." 

14.  ^.s  I  thought  to  punish  you  (lit.  to  do  evil 
to  you)  and  repented  not.  In  like  way  God 
says  in  Jeremiah  ^°,  I  have  purposed  and  will 
not  repent. 


>  Gen  xii.  2. 
»Ps.  xxi.  4,  6. 
» l3.  xix.  24. 
'  Ezek.  xxxlv.  26. 


sib.  xxvili.  4. 
♦lb  Ixxii.  17. 
•lb  Ixv.  8. 
»Eom.  Ix.  5. 


tlu'  LoKD  of  hosts,  "and  I    ^  h  r°[s  y 
repented  not :  ^'r-  5i8. 

15  So  again  have  I»2Chr. 35. le. 
thought  in  these  days  to  do 

well  unto  Jerusalem  and 
to  the  house  of  Judah :  fear 
ye  not. 

16  ^These  are  the 


15.  So  have  I  turned  and  purposed  ^^  in  these 
days  to  do  well  unto  Jcrusakm.  "  '^  God,  to  be 
better  understood,  speaketh  with  the  feelings 
and  after  the  manner  of  men,  although,  in 
the  passionless  and  unchangeable  God,  there 
is  no  provocation  to  anger,  nor  turning,  im- 
plying change  in  Himself."  So  He  says  by 
Jeremiah,  **  /  know  the  thoughts  that  I  think 
toward  you,  saith  the  Lord,  thoughts  of  peace  and 
not  of  evil.  And,  with  the  same  contrast  as 
here,  ^*As  I  have  watched  over  them  to  pluck  up 
and  to  break  down  and  to  throiv  down,  and  to 
destroy  and  to  afflict,  so  ivill  I  watch  over  them,  to 
build  and  to  plant,  saith  the  Lord.  His  havint;- 
done  what  He  purposed  before  was  an  ear- 
nest the  more,  that  He  would  do  what  He 
purposed  now.  His  chastisements  were  the 
earnests  of  His  mercies ;  for  they  too  were 
an  austere  form  of  His  love.  "'When  the 
Lord  stretches  out  His  hand  to  strike  those 
who  are  contumacious  in  guilt,  none  can  hold 
His  hand  that  He  exact  not  the  due  punish- 
ment. Therefore  He  says,  that  He  repented 
not ;  so,  when  He  receives  to  grace  those  who 
repent  of  their  sins,  no  one  can  any  way 
delay  the  course  of  His  benevolence.  ^^For 
the  gifts  and  calling  of  God  are  without  repent- 
ance." 

And  to  the  house  of  Judah.  ^''He  speaks  to 
the  two  tribes,  not  to,  or  of,  the  ten,  because 
Christ  was  to  come  to  the  two  tribes,  and 
Zechariah  was  prophesying  to  them,  and 
they  were  to  be  admonished  to  prepare 
themselves  in  good  works,  lest  the  coming  of 
Christ  should  not  profit  them,  on  account  of 
their  depraved  ways.  But  the  ten  tribes 
were  far  off  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes,  nor 
was  Christ  to  come  to  them ;  but  they  were 
to  hear  the  Gospel  through  the  Apostles, 
and  so  he  prophesies  of  the  conversion  of  all 
to  the  glory  of  Christ,  yet  he  could  not  ad- 
monish aU,  but  those  only  to  whom  he  was 
sent. 

16.  These  are  the  things  that  ye  shall  do.  He 
exhorts  them  to  the  same  duties,  to  which 
the  former  prophets  had  exhorted  their 
fathers",  and,  as  before,  first  positively  to 
truth  and  peace;  then  to  avoid  everything 

9  0sor.  wjer.  iv.  28. 

n  On  001  see  above  on  i.  6,  p.  341,  note  8. 
"  Dion.  13  Jer.  xxix.  11.  "lb.  xxxi.  28. 

16  R^m,  tL  29.  16  Rib.  "vil.  9, 10. 


390 


ZI'XM  \1M  AH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  518. 

»  ch.  7.  9. 

ver.  19. 

Ephes.  4.  25. 
t  Heh.  judge 

truth,  ana  the 

judgment  of 

peace. 

•  Prov.  3.  29. 
ch.  7. 10. 


4  ch.  5.  3,  4. 


things  that  ye  shall  do ; 
•*  Speak  ye  every  man  the 
truth  to  his  neighbor;  f  ex- 
ecute the  judgment  of 
truth  and  peace  in  your 
gates : 

17  "  And  let  none  of  you 
imagine  evil  in  your  hearts 
against  his  neighbor ;  and 
^  love  no  false  oath :  for 
all  these  are  things  that  I 
hate,  saith  the  Lord. 

18  ^  And  the  word  of 
the  Lord  of  hosts  came 
unto  me,  saying. 


contrary  to  it.  Judcfment  of  peace  must  be 
Judgment  which  issues  in  peace,  as  all  right- 
eous judgment  righteously  received,  in  which 
case  each  party  acquiesces,  must.  " '  If  ye 
judge  righteousness,  there  will  be  peace  be- 
tween the  litigants,  according  to  that  pro- 
verb, '^He  that  hath  liis  coat  taken  from 
him  by  the  tribunal,  let  him  sing  and  go  his 
way'  ["because,"  says  a  gloss  ^,  "they  have 
judged  the  judgment  of  truth,  and  have 
taken  away  that  which  would  have  been 
stolen  property,  if  he  retained  it,"  being  in 
fact  not  his].  And  they  have  quoted  that, 
*  And  all  (his  people  shall  (jo  to  their  place  in 
peace."  "^All  this  people,  even  he  that  is 
condemned  in  judgment.  It  is  also  inter- 
preted of  arbitration.  What  sort  of  judgment 
is  that,  in  which  tbere  is  peace?  It  is  that 
of  arbitration." 

17.  For  all  these  thin(js  do  I  hate.  lit.  em- 
phatic, ^  For  they  arc  all  these  things  which  I 
hate.  This  is  the  sum  of  what  I  hate;  for 
they  comprise  in  brief  the  breaches  of  the 
two  tables,  the  love  of  God  and  of  man. 

19.  The  fast  of  the  fourth  month.  On  the 
ninth  day  of  the  fourth  month''  of  Zedekiah's 
eleventh  year,  Jerusalem,  in  the  extremity 
of  famine,  opened  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
bis  princes  sat  in  her  gate;  in  the  tenth 
laonth^  of  his  ninth  year  Nebuchadnezzar 
began  the  siege.     Ezekiel  was  bidden  *  on  its 

iKim. 

'Sanhedr.  f.  7.  a.  quoted  by  Mc.  Caul,  p.  78. 

"  Kashi,  quoted  lb.  ■•  Exod.  xviii.  23. 

^Judah  b.  Korcha  in  Sanhr.  f.  6  b.  lb. 

'H/K  7^  ritt  is  a  -sort  of  noun  abs.,  as  Ha);g. 
ii.  .5.  '  Jer.  xxxix.  2,  3;  lii.  fi,  7. 

"2  Kes  XXV.  1,  .Jpf.  xxxix.  1,  iii.  4. 

»  Ezek.  xxiv.  1,  2. 

'0  lb.  6-14.  Tho  Jews  in  S.  Jerome's  time  added, 
that  in  the  fourth  month  Mopes  brake  the  tablos 
of  the  law;  in  the  fifth  month  was  tho  rebellion  on 
the  return  of  the  opip",  and  the  oentenee  of  th« 


19  Thus  saith  the  Lord    ,.  Before  ^ 
of  hosts ;  '  The  fast  of  the       ^J*--  ^ts- 


fourth  month,  'and  the  fast « Jer.  52. 6, 7. 
of  the  fifth,  ^  and  the  fast  ch.Y  3,  a.' 
of  the   seventh,  "and  the  . jer. 41. li 2. ' 
fast  of  the  tenth,  shall  be     ^^' 


lOV  '  Esth.  8. 17. 
*'   ■^     Isai.  35. 10. 


to  the  house  of  Judah 

and  gladness,  and  cheerful 

1 1  feasts;  "therefore  love  II  Or,  solemn,  or, 

the  truth  and  peace.  "ver.  le. 

20  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts ;  It  shall  yet  coTne 
to  pass,  that  there  shall 
come  people,  and  the  in- 
habitants of  many  cities: 


tenth  day ;  irrife  thee  the  name  of  the  daij,  of  this 
same  day,  as  the  beginning  of  God's  utter- 
most judgments  against  the  bloody  city '". 
The  days  of  national  sorrow  were  to  be 
turned  into  exuberant  joy,  joy  and  gladness 
and  cheerful  /ea.sfe",  for  the  sorrows,  which 
they  commemorated,  were  but  the  harbin- 
gers of  joy,  when  the  chastisements  were 
ended  ;  only  He  adds,  love  the  truth  and  peace ; 
ff)r  such  love  whereby  they  would  be  Israel- 
ites indeed,  in  whose  spirits  is  no  guile,  were 
the  conditions  of  their  participating  the 
blessings  of  the  Gospel,  of  which  he  goes  on 
to  speak; 

20.  It  shall  yet  be  that.  The  promises  are 
those  which  God  had  al  ready  made  by  Isaiah  ''^ 
and  Micah '^.  Yet  where  was  the  shew  of 
tbeir  fulfillment?  The  Jews  themselves,  a 
handful :  the  temple  unfinished ;  its  com- 
pletion depending,  in  human  sight,  upon  the 
will  of  their  heatlien  masters,  the  rival  wor- 
ship at  Samaria  standing  and  inviting  to  co- 
alition. Appearances  and  experience  were 
against  it.  God  says  virtually,  that  it  was, 
in  human  sight,  contrary  to  all  expectations. 
But  "  weakness  is  aye  Heaven's  might." 
Despite  of  all,  of  the  fewness  of  those  who 
were  returned,  their  downheartedness,  broken 
condition,  hopelessness,  though  all  had  hith- 
erto failed,  though,  or  rather  because,  all 
human  energy  and  strength  were  gone,  as 

forty  years'  wandering.  This  is  true.  For  since 
Moses"  went  up  into  the  moimt  in  the  third  month 
fEx.  xix.  1,  IG,  xxiv.  12,  IC),  the  endof  tlie  forty  d.nvs 
(lb.  18).  after  which  he  came  down  and  brake  the 
tables  (Ex.  xxxii.  15,  19)  would  fall  in  tlie  fourth 
month.  Kil)ora  calculates  the  fourth  month  thus: 
sotting  off  from  Sinai,  20th  dav  of  2d  month,  Nu.  x. 
11;  3  davs'  journey,  lb.  33;  halt  of  one  month,  lb. 
xi.  20,  21";  of  7  days,  lb.  xii.  16;  40  days'  search  of 
spies,  lb.  xiii.  25. 

"DID  fls  3ID  OV,  Esth.  vHi.  17.  ix.  19,22,  Ecel. 
rli.  14.  "  I?,  ii.  2,  sqq.  "  Mic.  iv.  1.  sqq. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


391 


21  And  the  inhabitants 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  518.       of  one  city  shall  go  to  an- 


Mic.4'.  1, 2.      other,  saying,  'Let  us  go 

fOr,continiiaUy.  ,,  ,  ti      j  ,  in 

•f  Heb.  going.      ||  jspeedily  J to  pray  beiore 

t  Heb.  to  iii'trent  .it  i    j.  i     ii 

the  face  of  the  the  LiOKD,  and  to  scek  the 

LoED,  ch.  7.  2. 


(tocI  had  said  before,  The  Lord  shall  yet^ 
choom  Jerusalem,  so  now.  It  shall  yet''  be  that. 

Nations  and  many  cities  shall  come.  He  de- 
scribes vividly  the  eagerness  and  mutual  im- 
pulse, with  which  not  only  many  but  mighty 
nations  should  throng  to  the  Gospel,  and 
every  fresh  conversion  should  win  others  also, 
till  the  great  tide  should  sweep  through  the 
world. 

21.  T/ie  inhabitants  of  one  city  shall  go  to 
another.  It  is  one  unresting  extension  of  the 
faith,  the  restlessness  of  faith  and  love. 
"  ^  They  shall  not  be  satisfied  with  their  own 
salvation,  careless  about  the  salvation  of 
others;  they  shall  employ  all  labor  and  in- 
dustry, with  wondrous  love,  to  provide  for 
the  salvation  of  others  as  if  it  were  their 
own."  It  is  a  marvelous  stirring  of  minds. 
Missionary  eflbrts,  so  familiar  with  us  as  to 
be  a  household  word,  were  unknown  then. 
The  time  was  not  yet  come.  Before  the  faith 
in  Christ  came,  the  Jewish  people  were  not 
to  be  the  convei-ters  of  mankind.  They  were 
to  await  for  Him,  the  Redeemer  of  the  world, 
through  Whom  and  to  ^Vhom  they  were  to 
be  first  converted,  and  then  the  world  through 
those  who  were  of  them.  This  mutual  con- 
version was  absolutely  unknown.  The  pro- 
phet* predicts  certainly  that  it  would  be,  and 
in  God's  time  it  was.  From  yon,  S.  Paul 
writes  to  a  small  colony  in  Greece',  sounded 
out  the  word  of  the  Lord,  not  only  in  Macedonia 
and  Achaia,  but  also  in  every  place  your  faith  to 
God-ward  is  sprecul  abroad.  ®  Your  faith,  he 
writes  to  the  heathen  capital  of  the  world,  is 
spoken  of  throughout  the  vhole  icorld.  Within 
eighty  years  after  our  Lord's  Ascension,  the 
Roman  governor  of  Bithynia  reported,  on 
occasion  of  the  then  persecution,  that  it 
spread  as  a  contagion.  " '  The  contagion  of 
that  superstition  traversed  not  cities  only  but 
villages  and  scattered  houses  too."  Before 
the  persecution,  the  temples  had  been  deso- 
lated, the  solemn  rites  long  intermitted,  the 
sacrificed  animals  had  very  rarely  found  a 
purchaser.  An  impostor  of  the  same  date 
says,  "*Pontus  is  full  of  atheists  and  Chris- 
tians." " "  There  is  no  one  race  of  men,"  it 
was  said   before   the   middle   of  the   second 

1  i.  17,  ii.  16  [12  Eng.] 

*11^  is  premised  emphaticallj^  ^Osor. 

*See  below  on  ix.  12.  s  i  Thess.  i.  8. 

•Rom.  i.  8.  '  Plin.  ad.  Traj.  Ep.  x.  97. 

8  Alexander  in  Lucian.  Alexander. 
»S.  Justin  M.  Dial.  n.  117,  on  Mai.  i.  10.  p.  21R. 
Oxf.  Tr. 


Lord  of  hosts :  I  will  go 
also. 

22  Yea,  "  many  people  ■ 
and  strong  nations  shall 
come  to  seek  the  Lord  of 


'  Isai.  CO.  3,  &c. 
&  60.  23. 


century  ^°,  "  whether  Barbarians  or  Greeks 
or  by  whatsoever  name  called,  whether  of 
those  wandering  houseless  tribes  who  live  in 
wagons  or  those  pastoral  people  who  dwell  in 
tents,  in  which  there  are  not  prayers  and 
Eucharists  to  the  Father  and  Creator  of  all 
things,  through  the  name  of  the  crucified 
Jesus."  "  The  word  of  our  teacher,"  said 
another ",  "  abode  not  in  Judrea  alone,  as 
philosophy  in  Greece ;  but  M'as  poured  out 
throughout  the  whole  world,  persuading 
Greeks  and  barbarians  in  their  several  na- 
tions and  villages  and  every  city,  whole 
houses  and  each  hearer  individually,  and 
having  brought  over  to  the  truth  no  few 
even  of  the  very  philosophers.  And  if 
any  ordinary  magistrate  forbid  the  Greek 
philosophy,  forthwith  it  vanishes ;  but  our 
teaching,  forthwith  at  its  first  announcement, 
kings  and  emperors  and  subordinate  rulers 
and  governors  with  all  their  mercenaries  and 
countless  multitudes  forbid,  and  war  against 
us  and  try  to  extirpate ;  but  it  the  rather  flour- 
ishes." The  second  century  had  not  closed, 
before  another  said,  "  '^  We  are  a  people 
of  yesterday,  and  yet  we  have  filled  every 
place  belonging  to  you,  cities,  islands,  castles, 
towns,  assemblies,  your  very  camp,  your 
tribes,  companies,  palace,  senate,  forum ! 
We  leave  you  your  temples  only.  We  can 
count  your  armies  ;  our  numbers  in  a  single 
province  will  be  greater."  "  ^^  Men  cry  out 
that  the  state  is  beset ;  that  the  Christians 
are  in  their  fields,  in  their  forts,  in  their 
islands.  They  mourn,  as  for  a  loss,  that 
every  sex,  age,  condition,  and  now  even  rank 
is  going  over  to  this  sect."  "  ^*  On  whom  be- 
sides have  all  nations  believed,  except  on 
Christ  Who  hath  already  come  ? "  Then 
having  enumerated  the  nations  mentioned  in 
the  Acts  '^  he  adds,  "  And  now  the  varieties 
of  the  Getulians,  and  the  many  tracts  of  the 
Moors,  all  the  bounds  of  the  Spains,  and  the 
divers  nations  of  the  Gauls,  and  places  of 
the  Britons,  unreached  by  the  Romans  but 
subdued  to  Christ;  of  Sarmatians,  Dacians, 
Germans,  and  Scythians,  and  of  many  re- 
mote nations,  and  many  provinces  and  is- 
lands, unknown   to  us,  aftd   which   we  can 

iTrvplio  says,  "I  escaped  from  the  late  wftr." 
(A.  D.  1.32-135)  Dial.  init.  p.  70. 

11  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vi.  fin. 

12  Tert.  Apol.  n.  37,  p.  78.  Oxf.  Tr. 

13  lb.  n.  1.  pp.  2.  3. 

1*  Tert.  adv.  Jud.  c.  7  p.  113  Rig. 
"Acts  ii.  9-11. 


392 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  518. 


hosts  in  Jerusalem,  aud  to 
.  pray  before  the  Lord. 
23  Thus  saith  the  Lord 


scarce  enumerate.  In  all  which  places  the 
name  of  Christ,  Who  hath  already  come, 
reigneth,  seeing  that  before  Him  the  gates 
of  all  cities  are  opened  and  none  are  shut 
against  Him,  before  Whom  ^  (he  bars  of  iron 
are  broken  in  pieces  and  the  gates  of  brass  are 
opened.  In  all  these  places  dwelletli  a  peo- 
ple called  by  the  name  of  Christ.  For  who 
could  reign  over  all,  save  Christ  the  Son  of 
God,  Who  was  foretold  as  about  to  reign 
over  all  nations  forever  ?  "  Tiien  having 
contrasted  the  limited  rule  of  Solomon,  Da- 
rius, the  Pliaraohs,  Nebuchadnezzar,  Alex- 
ander, "  the  Romans  who  protect  their  own 
empire  by  the  strength  of  tlieir  legions  and 
are  unable  to  extend  the  might  of  their 
kingdom  beyond  these  nations  [Germans, 
Britons,  Moors,  Getulians],  he  sums  up, 
"  but  tlie  kingdom  and  the  Name  of  Christ 
is  extended  everywhere,  is  believed  in  every- 
where, is  worshiped  by  all  the  nations  above 
enumerated.  Everywhere  He  reigns,  every- 
where is  adored,  is  given  everywhere  equally 
to  all.  With  Him  no  king  hath  greater  fa- 
vor ;  no  Barbarian  inferior  joy  ;  no  dignities 
or  birth  enhance  the  merit  of  any ;  to  all 
He  is  equal ;  to  all,  King;  to  all  Judge;  to 
all,  God  and  Lord."  A  little  later,  a  hea- 
then owns,  while  calumniating,  "  '^  Those 
most  foul  rites  of  that  impious  coalition  are 
growing  throughout  the  whole  world,  as  bad 
things  come  up  most  luxuriantly,  evil  ways 
creeping  on  daily."  The  Christian  answers, 
"^Tliat  our  number  increases  daily,  this  is 
no  imputation  of  error,  but  a  testimony  to 
praise.  For  in  a  good  mode  of  life,  its  own 
persevere,  aliens  accrue  to  it." 

Let  us  go  on  and  on,  *  perseveringly,  until 
we  attain  to  entreat  the  face  of  the  Lord.  It  is 
not  a  Theism  or  Monotheism,  but  the  God, 
Who  had  revealed  Himself  to  Israel,  Who, 
when  our  Lord  came,  was  worshiped  in  Jeru- 
Siilem,  to  which  those  invited  say,  I  too  would 
go  with  thee.  Yet  not  so,  but  the  words  seem 
to  speak  of  that  which  is  a  special  gift  of  the 
Gospel,  continued  progress,  ^^  ^ forgetting  those 
things  which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto 
those  things  which  are  before,  to  prr^s  toward  t/ie 
mark  of  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in 

I  Is.  xlv.  2. 

«CiBciI.  in  Minnt.  Fel.  p.  80.  Ouz. 

»  Minut.  Fel.  lb.  p.  312.  Other  like  sayings  are  in 
OriKen,  ^de  Princ.  iv.  1.  c.  Cels.  i.  7,  r>7,  ii.  13,  iii.  -24,) 
Lactantiu.s,  (v.  Vi)  Arnobius  (i.  p. ;«,  ii.  .'>(),  Luitd.), 
who  argues  thence  to  the  divinity  of  the  Gospel, 
Jul.  Firmicus,  (c.  21  B.  P.  iv.  172.) 

*  "jlSn  r\Dli.  *  Phil.  iii.  13,  U. 

•"  non  progredi  est  regredl." 
'S.  Aug.  in  1  Ep.  8.  Joann.  Horn.  Iv.  n.  0.  p.  1144. 
Oxf.  Tr. 


of  hosts;  In  those  Jays  it    chrTst 
shall  come  to  jyo^ss,  that  ten .     ^ir.  sis. 


men  shall  "take  hold  out"^!'!/ 


Christ  Jesus.  Let  us  go  on  and  on  ;  whence  it 
is  a  Christian  proverb,  "  "  not  to  go  on  is  to 
go  back."  " ''  The  whole  life  of  a  good 
Christian  is  a  holy  longing  to  make  progress." 
""The  one  perfection  of  man  is,  to  have 
found  that  he  is  not  perfect."  "*lf  thou 
sayest,  It  sufKceth,  thou  art  lost."  " '"To  be 
unwilling  to  increase,  is  to  decrease;" 

23.  Ten  men  of  all  languages  of  the  nations. 
Ten  *'  is  the  symbol  of  a  whole,  all  the  num- 
bers before  it  meeting  in  it  and  starting 
again  from  it.  The  day  of  Pentecost  was  to 
be  the  reversal  of  the  confusion  of  Babel ; 
all  were  to  have  one  voice,  as  God  had  said, 
'^/<  (the  time)  .s7ta//  come  to  gather  all  nations 
and  tongues,  and  they  shall  come  and  see  My  glory. 

They  shall  lay  hold  of  the  skirt  of  one  man  who 
is  a  Jew,  "  '^that  is,  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour, 
of  Whom  it  is  said,  ^*  A  prince  shall  not  depart 
from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his 
feet,  until  He  shall  come,  for  Whom  it  is  laid  up, 
and  for  Him  shall  the  Gentiles  wait ;  for  ^^  there 
shall  be  a  rod  of  Jesse,  and  He  who  shall  arise 
to  rule  over  the  Gentiles,  to  Him  shall  the  Gen- 
tiles seek.  And  when  they  shall  lay  hold  of 
Him,  they  shall  desire  to  tread  in  His  steps, 
since  God  is  with  Him.  Or  else,  whosoever 
shall  believe  out  of  all  nations,  shcdl  lay  hold 
of  a  man  who  is  a,  Jew,  the  Apostles  who  are 
from  the  Jews,  and  shall  say.  Let  us  go  with 
yon  ;  for  we  have  known  through  the  pro- 
phets and  from  the  voice  of  all  the  Scrip- 
tures, that  the  Son  of  God,  Christ,  God  and 
Lord,  is  with  you.  Where  there  is  a  most 
manifest  prophecy,  and  the  coming  of 
Christ  and  His  Apostles  and  the  faith  of 
all  nations  is  preached,  let  us  seek  for  noth- 
ing more." 

"  '^Christ  turning  our  sorrow  into  joy  and 
a  feast  and  good  days  an<l  gladne.«s,  and 
transferring  lamentation  into  cheerfulness, 
the  accession  to  the  faith  and  union  to  God 
by  sanctifioation  in  those  called  to  salvjition 
shall  not  henceforth  lie  individually  ;  but  the 
cities  shall  exhort  each  other  thereto,  and  all 
nations  shall  come  in  multitudes,  the  later 
ever  calling  out  to  those  Itcfore  them,  /  too 
wdl  go.  For  it  is  written,  ''  iron  sharpeneth 
iron,  so  doth  a  man  the  countenance  of  another. 

8  Id.  f?erm.  120,  [170.  Ben.]  c  8.  p.  877.  Oxf.  Tr. 

0  Id.  Sornn.  110,  [1(:9.]  fin.  ib.  p.  871.  Oxf.  Tr. 
10  Nolle  proficere  deficere  e.it.  S.  Bern.  Ep.  254  ad 
Guarin.  n.  4. 

n  As  in  Gen.  xxxi.  7,  he  hnth  changed  my  wages  these 
ten  time^;  Lev.  xxvi.  26,  when  I  have  broken  your 
staff  of  bread,  ten  women  shal/  bake  your  bread  in  one 
oven  ;  Nu.  xiv.  22,  ihn.u  men  which  have  seen  Mi/glori/, 
liave  tempted  Me  now  these  ten  times,  and  have  not. 
hearkened  to  My  voice. 

i»  I.s.  Ixvi.  18.         >«  S.  Jer.         "  Gen.  xlix.  8-10. 

16  Is.  xl.  10.  ••  S.  Cyr.         "  Pr.  xxvii.  17. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


son 


c  H  rTs  t    ^^  ^^^  languages  of  the  na- 
'^^^-  5^8-      tions,  even  shall  take  hold 


of  the  skirt  of  him  that  is 
a  Jew,  saying,  We  will  go 
with  you:  for  we  have 
oicor.  14. 25.  heard  °that  God  is  with 
you. 


For  the  zeal  of  some  is  ever  found  to  call 
forth  others  to  fulfill  what  is  good.  But  what 
is  the  aim  proposed  to  the  cities,  that  is,  the 
Gentiles  ?  To  entreat  and  to  seek  the  face  of  the 
Lord,  i.  e.  Christ,  Who  is  the  exact  image  of 
God  the  Father,  and,  as  is  written,  '  the 
brightness  of  His  glory,  and  the  express  image  of 
His  Person,  of  Whom  also  the  divine  David 
saith,  ^  Sheiv  Thy  countenance  to  Thy  servant. 
For  the  Image  and  Countenance  of  God  the 
Father  hath  shone  upon  us.  Having  Him 
propitious  and  kind,  we  lay  aside  the  injury 
from  sin,  being  justified  through  faith,  ^  not 
by  loorks  of  righteousness,  which  we  have  done, 
but  according  to  His  great  mercy. — But  how 
they  shall  come,  he  exjilains.  By  the  ten  men 
you  are  to  understand  the  perfect  number  of 
those  who  come.  For  the  number  ten  is  the 
symbol  of  periection.  But  that  those  of  the 
Gentiles,  who  cleave  to  the  holy  Apostles, 
took  in  hand  to  go  the  same  way  with  them, 
being  justified  by  the  faith  in  Christ,  he  sets 
evidently  before  us.  For  little  children,  if 
tliey  would  follow  their  fathers,  lay  hold  of 
the  hem  of  their  dress,  and,  aided  by  the 
touch  and  hanging  irom  their  dress,  walk 
steadily  and  safely.  In  like  way,  they  too 
who  *  worshiped  the  creature  rather  than  the 
Creator,  choosing  as  their  true  fathers  the 
bringers-in  of  tlie  Gospel-doctrines,  and  join- 
ing themselves  by  like-mindedness  to  them, 
follow  them,  being  still  of  childlike  minds, 
and  go  the  same  way,  ever  shewing  them- 
selves zeak>us  followers  of  their  life,  and  by 
continued  progress  advancing  ^to  a  perfect 
man,  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of 
Christ.  But  why  do  they  follow  them? 
Being  persuaded  that  God  is  with  them,  i.  e. 
Emmanuel,  God  ivith  us.  But  that  this 
calling  belongs  not  only  to  those  of  the  blood 
of  Israel  but  to  all  nations  throughout  the 
world,  he  indicated  by  saying,  that  those  who 
laid  hold  of  that  hem  should  be  of  all  lan- 
giages.  But  when  were  the  nations  called  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  when  did 
they  desire  to  seek  the  face  of  the  Lord  and 
to  entreat  it,  and  to  go  the  same  way,  as  it 
were,  as  the  holy  Apostles,  except  when  the 

>  Heb.  i.  3.  2  Ps.  cxix.  135.  »  Tit.  iii.  5. 

«Rom.  i.  25.         SEph.  iv.  13.         «Gen.xlix.  10. 

7  Pg,  IxXXVi,  9. 

8  S.  John  xv'iii'.  35.  »  S.  Matt.  i.  1.  xxii.  42. 
JOS.  John  vii.  42.  "Actsii.  30.  12  lb.  xiii.  :i3. 
"  Rom.  i.  1-4.  "  Eccl.  vii.  28. 


CHAPTER  IX.  r.M"ri.. 

CUR'S  1 
1   God  defendeth  his  church,     9        cir-  487. 
Zion  is  exhorted,  to  rejoice  for 
the  coining  of  Christ,  and  his 
peaceable  kingdom.     12  God's 
promises  of  victory  and  defence. 

THE  "burden  of  the* Jer. 23. 33. 
word  of  the  Lord  in 


Only-Begotten   came   to    us.   Who    is  ®the 

expectations  of  the  nations  ;  to  Whom  also  the 
divine  David  singeth,  ''All  the  Tiations,  whom 
Thou  hast  made,  shall  come  and  worship  before 
Thee,  0  Lord  ?  For  the  multitude  of  the 
nations  also  is  saved  through  Him." 

The  startling  condescension  of  this  passage 
is,  that  our  Lord  is  spoken  of  as  "  a  man,  a 
Jew."  Yet  of  His  Human  Nature  it  is  not 
only  the  simple  truth,  but  essential  to  the 
truth.  Pilate  said  to  Him  in  scorn.  Am  I  a 
Jew  ^  ?  Thine  own  nation  and  the  Chief  Priests 
have  delivered  Thee  unto  me.  But  it  was  es- 
sential to  the  fulfillment  of  God's  promises. 
Tlie  Chi-ist  was  to  be  ^the  Son  of  David. 
^^ Hath  not  the  Scripture  said.  That  Christ  cometh 
of  the  seed  of  David,  and  out  of  the  town  of 
Bethlehem,  ivhere  David  was  f  David,  '^  being  a 
prophet  and  knoiving  that  God  had  sworn  with  an 
oath  to  him,  that  of  the  fruit  of  his  loins  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh.  He  would  raise  up  Christ  to  sit 
on  his  throne  ;  ^'^  Of  this  man's  seed  hath  God, 
according  to  promise,  raised  unto  Israel  a  Sa- 
viour, Jesus.  Whence  S.  Paul  begins  hia 
great  doctrinal  Epistle  with  this  contrast, 
'•*  the  Gospel  of  God  concerning  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  which  was  made  of  the  seed  of  David  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh,  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  with  power.  He  was  that  "ome  3fan 
among  a  thousand,  whom  Solomon  says,  / 
found  ;  but  a  woman  among  all  those  have  I  not 
found  ;  the  one  in  the  whole  human  race.  It 
was  fulfilled  in  the  very  letter  when  ^*  they 
brought  to  Him  all  that  were  diseased,  and  be- 
sought Him  that  they  might  only  touch  the  hem  of 
His  garment :  and  as  many  as  touched  were  made 
perfectly  whole.  ^®  T7ie  whole  multitude  sought  to 
touch  Him,  for  there  went  virtue  out  of  Him 
and  healed  all. 

Even  the  Jews  saw  the  reference  to  the 
Messiah.  "  "All  nations  shall  come,  falling 
on  their  faces  before  the  Messiah  and  the 
Israelites,  saying.  Grant,  that  we  may  be 
Thy  servants  and  of  Israel.  For  as  re- 
lates to  the  doctrine  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
law,  the  Gentiles  shall  be  their  servants,  ac- 
cording to  that.  In  those  days  ten  men  &c." 

IX.  1.  The  burden  ^^  of  the  word  of  the  Lord 

15  S.  Matt.  xiv.  35,  3fi. 

16  S.  Luke  vi.  19.  add  lb.  viii.  46,  S.  Mark  v.  30. 

"  Pesikta  Rabhathi,  in  Yalkut  Shim  'oni  ii.  56.  4. 
in  Schottgen  ad  loc. 

18 On  the  word  "Burden"  see  above  on  Nah.  i.  1, 
p.  129. 


394 


ZECHARIAH. 


Belore 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


the  laud  of  Hadrach,  and 

.  •"  Damascus  shall  be  the  rest 


thereof:  when  "  the  eyes  of   ^  h  kTs  t 
man,  as  of  all  the  tribes  of      cir.  487. 


<2  Chr.  20.  12.  Ps.  145.  15. 


in  [or  upon ']  the  land  of  Hadrach.  The 
foreground  of  this  prophecy  i.s  tlie  coui-se  of 
the  victories  of  Alexander,  which  circled 
round  the  holy  land  without  hurting  it,  and 
ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Persian  em- 
pire. The  surrender  of  Damascus  followed 
tirst,  immediately  on  his  great  victory  at  the 
Is.sus;  then  Sidon  yielded  itself  and  received 
its  ruler  from  the  conqueror,  Tyre  he  utterly 
destroyed ;  Gaza,  we  know,  perished ;  he 
passed  harmless  by  Jerusalem.  Samaria,  on 
his  return  from  Egypt,  he  chastised. 

It  is  now  certain  that  there  was  a  city 
called  Hadrach  in  the  neighborhood  of  Da- 
mascus and  Hamath,  although  its  exact  site 
is  not  known.  "  It  was  first  found  upon  the 
geographical  tablets  ^  among  the  Assyrian 
inscriptions."  " "  In  the  catalogue  of  Syrian 
cities,  tributary  to  Nineveh,  (of  which  we 
have  several  copies  in  a  more  or  less  perfect 
state,  and  varying  from  each  other,  both  in 
arrangement  and  extent)  there  are  three 
names,  which  are  uniformly  grouped  together 
and  which  we  read  Manatsuah,  Magida  [Me- 
giddo]  and  Du'ar  [Dor].  As  these  namesare 
associated  with  those  of  Samaria,  Damascus, 
Arpad,  Hamath,  Carchemisli,  Hadrach,  Zobali, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  position  of  the 
cities  *."  In  tJie  Assyrian  Canon,  Hadrach  is 
the  object  of  three  Assvrian  expeditions,  *  91 83 
(B.C.  818),  9190  (8li)  and  9200  (801).  The 
first  of  these  follows  upon  one  against  Damas- 
cus, 9182  (817).  In  the  wai-s  of  Tiglath-pileser 
ii.  (the  Tiglath-pileser  of  Holy  Scripture,) 
it  has  been  twice  deciphered  ;  1)  in  the  war 
B.  C.  738,  737,  after  the  mention  of  "  the 

1  As  Is.  ix.  8,  "  The  Lord  sent  a  word  upon  Jacob 
(Dp;?'3)  and  it  lighted  on  Israel"  {hi<1^'2). 

2  Published  in  the  Briti.sh  Museum  Series  vol.  ii. 
PI.  .53,  Prof.  Rawlinson. 

3 Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  Athenreuni,  Xo.  1869,  Aug.  22, 
18G3,  p.  246,  where  he  "published  his  reading,  some 
time  after  he  identified  it."  "  It  has  since  been 
identified  by  others." 

■•Sir  H.  Rawlinson  adds  in  a  note;  "From  the 
position  on  the  lists,  I  should  be  inclined  to  identify 
it  with  Horns  or  Edessa  which  was  certainly  a  very 
ancient  capital,  (being  the  Kedesh  of  the  Egyptian 
records)  and  which  would  not  otherwise  be  repre- 
sented in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions."    Note  2(\.  lb. 

''Oppert  in  the  R6vue  ArehC'ologique  18G8.  T.  2. 
p.  323.       •  G.  Smith's  Assyrian  discoveries  p.  276. 

» lb.  p.  284. 

8  in  Siphre  sect.  Debarim  (ed.  Friedm.  p.  65.) 

9  In  the  time  of  Hadrian.    Wolf  Bibl.  Hebr.  i.  411. 
10  Here. 

'•  David  ben  Abraham,  MS.  0pp.  Add.  f.  25.  quoted 
by  Neubauer.  Geogr.  du  Talmud  p.  298.  The  account 
of  one  Joseph  Abassi  that  "  it  was  once  a  large  city, 
but  now  small ;  that  the  Arabs  told  much  of  its 
Icings  and  princes;  that  it  was  said  to  have  had 
giants  and  was  about  10  miles  from  Damascus,"  no 
doubt  relates  to  Edrel.  See  Hengstenberg  Christol. 
ii.  92  sqn.  A.  v.  Kremor,  Beitnige  zur  Geographic 
des  ndrdllcliPii  Svriens  (in  d.  Donkschriften  d.  Kais. 


il  cities  to  Sana  the  mountain  which  is  in  Le- 
banon were  divided,  the  land  of  Bahalzephon 
to  Ammana"  (Amnion),  there  follows  Ha- 
drach''; and  subsequently  there  are  men- 
tioned as  joined  to  the  league,  "19  districts 
J  of  Hamath,  and  the  cities  wiiich  were  round 
I  them,  which  aie  beside  the  sea  of  the  setting 
I  sun."  2)  In  his  "  war  in  Palestine  and  Ara- 
bia," "  '  the  city  of  Hadrach  to  the  land  of 
Sana,"  and  six  other  cities  are  enumerated, 
as  "  the  cities  beside  the  upper  sea,"  which, 
he  says,  "  I  possessed,  and  six  of  my  generals 
as  governors  over  them  I  appointed."  No 
other  authority  nearly  approaches  these 
times.  The  nearest  authority  is  of  the  second 
century  after  our  Lord,  A.D.  116.  "^R. 
Jose,  born  of  a  Damascene  mother,  said,"  an- 
swering R.  Yehudah  ben  Elai  ",  "  I  call  hea- 
ven and  earth  to  witne&s  upon  me,  that  I  am 
of  Damascus,  and  that  there  is  a  place  called 
Hadrach."  S.  Cyril  of  Alexandria  says  "*, 
that  "the  land  of  Hadrach  must  be  some- 
where in  the  Eastern  parts,  and  near  to 
Emath  (now  Epiphania  of  Antioch)  a  little 
further  than  Damascus,  the  metropolis  of  the 
Phf  enicians  and  Palestine."  A  writer  of  the 
10th  century"  says  that  there  was  "a  very 
beautiful  mosque  there,  called  the  Mesjed-el- 
Khadra,  and  that  the  town  was  named  from 
it."  The  conjecture  that  Hadrach  might  be 
the  name  of  a  king  ^^,  or  an  idol  '^,  will  now 
probably  be  abandoned,  nor  can  the  idea, 
(which  before  seemed  the  most  probable  and 
which  was  very  old),  that  it  was  a  symbolic 
name,  hold  any  longer.  For  the  Prophets  rfo 
use  symbolic  names  •* ;   but  then    they  are 

Akad.  d.  Wissensch.  [Wien]  philos.  hist.  Classe,  .\. 
1852.  2  Abth.  p.  21  sqq?)  and  Topographie  v.  Damas- 
cus (lb.  1854.  ■>  Abth.  p.  1  sqq. ;  1855  2  Abth.  p.  1  sqq.) 
and  Wetzstein  d.  .Alarkt  v.  Damascus  (ZDMG.  1857. 
p.  47fi  sqq.)  Roisebericht  iib.  Hanran  n.  a.  Traehonen 
(1800),  carry  out  the  evidence  that  no  trace  of  sucli 
a  place  can  now  be  found.  Kohler  ad  loc.  T.  ii.  p.  7. 

'2  The  idiom,  the  land  of,  is  used  of  a  people, 
Canaan,  Benjamin,  Israel,  Jiuirth,Zebulon,  Naphtali, 
Sinim.Chittim,  Egypt,  Assyria,  the  Philistines;  or 
of  the  actual  king;  speaking  of  his  territory,  (as 
Neh.  ix.  22,  they  possesseil  the  land  of  Sihon,  and  the 
land  of  the  king  of  Ileshbon  and  tlif'land  of  Og,  king 
of  Ba'shan,  (Sirtori  and  Og  and  the  king  of"  Heshboh 
being,  at  the  time  spoken  of,  in  actual  possession 
of  that  land);  but  it  is  nowhere  used  ot  any  past 
king  or  of  an  idol ;  much  less  would  it  be  used  in 
reference  to  an  unknown  king  or  idol.  Scotland 
might,  in  oratory,  be  called  "  land  of  the  Bruce,"  or 
England  perhaps,  "  thou  land  of  Mammon."  But 
it  would  not  be  called,  without  emphasis,  "land  of 
Stephen"  or  "  Edgar"  or  any  obscure  .Siixon  king. 

18  The  people,  not  the  land,  is  called  "the  people 
of  Chemosh"  (i.e.  the  people  who  worshiped  it) 
Nu.  xxi.  29.  .ler.  .xlviii.  4G.  Nor  is  there  any  like 
i  name  of  an  idol.  "  Derketo"  (v.  Alpheni  would  be 
i  Kr*I?^0-  Hitzig  gave  up  the  combination,  by 
which  he  made  the  name  of  an  Idol.  (Kl.  Proph. 
Ed.  3.) 

1*  As  "  Ariel,"  Is.  xxix.  1, 2, 7  j  "  The  burden  of  the 


CHAPTER  IX. 


39o 


names  which  they  themselves  frame.  Micah 
again  selects  several  names  of  towns,  now 
almost  unknown  and  probably  unimportant, 
in  order  to  impress  upon  his  people  some 
meaning  connected  with  them  \  but  then  he 
does  him.self  so  connect  it.  He  does  not 
name  it  (so  to  say),  leaving  it  to  explain 
itself.  The  name  Hadrach  '^  would  be  a  real 
name,  used  symbolically,  without  anything 
in  the  context  to  shew  that  it  is  a  symbol. 

The  cities,  upon  which  the  burden  or 
heavy  prophecy  tell,  possessed  no  interest  for 
Israel.  Damascus  was  no  longer  a  hostile 
power;  Hamath  had  ever  been  peaceable, 
and  was  far  away  ;  Tyre  and  Sidon  did  not 
now  carry  on  a  trade  in  Jewish  captives. 
But  the  Jews  knew  from  Daniel,  that  the  em- 
pire, to  which  they  were  in  subjection,  would 
be  overthrown  by  Greece  ^.  When  that  rapid 
attack  should  come,  it  would  be  a  great  con- 
solation to  them  to  knoAv,  how  they  them- 
selves would  fare.  It  was  a  turning  point  in 
tlieir  history  and  the  history  of  the  then 
known  world.  The  prophet  describes*  the 
circuit,  which  the  conqueror  would  take 
around  the  land  which  God  defended ;  how 
the  thunder-cloud  circled  round  Judc^a,  broke 
irresistibly  upon  cities  more  powerful  than 
Jerusalem,  but  was  turned  aside  from  the 
holy  city  in  going  and  returning,  because  God 
encamped  around  it. 

"*The  selection  of  the  places  and  of  the 
whole  line  of  country  corresponds  very  ex- 
actly to  the  march  of  Alexander  after  the 
battle  of  Issus,  when  Damascus,  which  Darius 

desert  of  the  .sea,"  lb.  xxi.  1 ;  "the  sea,"  Jer.  xlix. 
2.3;  "Sheshae,"  of  Babylon,  (whatever  the  explana- 
tion is,  perhaps  from  sinking  down,  coll.  "l^lif  Gen. 

viii.  1)  Jer.  xxv.  26,  li.  41;  "the  land  Merathaim," 
("double  rebellion"),  and  "the  inhabitants  of 
Pekod"  ("visitation")  of  Babylon  (Jer.  I.  21);  not 
Dumah,  which  is  probably  a  real  proper  name,  Is. 

xxi.  11;  nor  'Op  3^,  (Jer.  li.  1.)  for  DHl^J ;  for 
D'lK'D  could  not  be  mentally  substituted  for  it, 
since  D^IK'D  O^'  would  be  an  impossible  com- 
bination. For  inhabitants  are  of  a  land,  city  &c ; 
but  D'Hi^D  are  the  people  themselves. 

1  See  ab.  on  Micah  i.  10,  p.  221. 

2  The  word,  divided  into  two  halves,  would  signify, 
"  sharp-soft."  "in  is  used  of  sharpness  (see  on  Hab. 
i.  8.  comp.  Ps.  Ivii.  5,  Is.  xlix.  2.);   "IT  of  delicacy, 

Deut.  xxxiii.  54-56;  of  weakness,  lb.  xx.  8,  2  Chr. 
xiii.  7.  And  so  it  would  signify,  what  was  in  one 
respect  or  at  one  time  "  sharp,"  and  in  or  at  another, 
"soft."  A  Jewish  tradition,  extant  in  times  soon 
after  our  Lord,  so  explained  it:  "Severe  to  the 
Trentiles,  and  tender  to  Isr.ael."  (R.  Judah  ben 
Elai,  a  disciple  of  R.  Akibah.  Wolf.  Bibl.  Hebr.  ii. 
690.)  S.  Jerome  has  the  same  from  his  Jewish 
teacher,  "The  burden  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  is  on 
the  land  of  Hadrach;  on  which  the  Lord  exercised 
both  His  austerity  and  clemency;  austerity  ou 
those  vvho  would  not  believe,  clemency  on  those 
who,  with  the  Apostles,  returned  to  Him."  The 
name  would  have  singularly  suited  Persia,  whose 
empire  Alexander  was  engaged  in  destroying,  when 
this  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  and  which  was  aimed 
at  in  them.  It  would  describe  tliem  as  they  were, 
tierce  and  cruel,  as  conquerors,  but  infamous,  even 
among  the  Heathen,  for  their  incests.    Sins  of  the 


had  chosen  as  the  strong  depository  of  hi.s 
wealth,  of  Persian  women  of  rank,  confiden- 
tial officers  and  envoys'*,"  was  betrayed,  but 
so  opened  its  gates  to  his  general,  Parmenio. 
Zidon,  a  city  renowned  for  its  anticjuity  and 
its  founders,  surrendered  freely ;  Tyre,  here 
specially  marked  out,  was  taken  after  a  7 
months'  siege  ;  Gaza  too  resisted  for  5  month.s, 
was  taken,  and,  as  it  was  said,  "plucked 
upV 

And  Damascus  shall  be  the  rest  thereof. 
God's  judgment  fell  first  upon  Damascus. 
But  the  word  "  resting-place  "  is  commonly 
used  of  quiet  peaceful  resting,  especially  as 
given  by  God  to  Israel ;  of  the  ark,  the  token 
of  the  Presence  of  God,  after  its  manifold  re- 
movals, and  of  the  glorious  dwelling-place  of 
the  Christ  among  men  *.  The  prophet  seems 
then  purposely  to  have  chosen  a  word  of 
large  meaning,  which  should  at  once  express 
(as  he  had  before'),  that  the  word  of  God 
should  fall  heavily  on  Damascus  and  yet  be 
its  resting-place.  Hence,  about  the  time  of 
our  Lord,  the  Jews  interpreted  this  of  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah,  that  "'"Jerusalem 
should  reacli  to  the  gates  of  Damascus.  Since 
Damascus  shall  be  the  place  of  His  rest,  but 
the  place  of  His  rest  is  only  the  house  of  the 
sanctuary,  as  it  is  said,  This  is  My  red  for  ever  ; 
here  will  I  dwell."  Another  added",  "All 
the  prophets  and  all  propliesied  but  of  the 
years  of  redemption  and  the  days  of  the 
Messiah."  Damascus,  on  the  conversion  of 
S.  Paul,  became  the  first  resting-place  of  the 
word  of  God,  the  first-fruits  of  the  Gentiles 

flesh,  destroying  pure  love,  brutalizing  the  soul,  dis- 
organizing the  frame,  are  parents  of  ferocity,  from 
which  voluptuousness  seems  at  tirst  sight  most 
alien. 

s  Dan.  viii.  20,  21.  *  See  below  on  ver.  8. 

5  Pusey's  "  Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  279,  280. 

8Grote's  Greece  xii.  173,  4. 

7  (caTeo-Trao-^iev'T).  Strabo  xvi.  2.  30. 

'  nni  JO  is  used  of  rest  or  a  place  of  rest,  given  by 
God,  Deut.  xii.  9,  Ps.  xxiii.  2,  xcv.  11,  Mi.  li.  10,  Is. 
xxviii.  12,  x.xxii.  18  ;  dwelling  of  God,  Ps.  cxxxii.  8, 
14,  Is.  Ixvi.  1;  for  the  ark,  1  Chr.  x.xviii.  2;  of  the 
Slessiah,  Is.  xi.  10.  It  is  probably  a  proper  name, 
Jud.  XX.  43. 

^n'jn  Zech.  vi.  8. 

1"  R.  Johanan  in  Midrash  Shir  Hasshirim  on  Cant, 
vii.  4  in  Raym.  Pug.  Fid.  643.  This  Midrash  gives 
a  second  mystical  interpretation  of  Hadrach.  "Had- 
rach (1"nn)  is  the  King  Messiah,  Who  is  to  guide 
("imn?)  all  who  come  into  the  world  by  repent- 
ance before  God,  Blessed  for  ever."  lb.  "  R.  Joha- 
nan was  a  disciple  of  the  elder  Hillel  and  Shammai, 
according  to  the  Pirk6  Aboth  c.  2  ;  prince  of  Israel 
for  40  years,  5  of  them  after  the  destruction  of  the 
temple.  Rashi  on  cod.  Rosh  Hasshana,  end."  Wolf 
Bibl.  Hebr.  ii.  844. 

"  Mar  (quoted  by  Rashi)  i.e.  Rabbi  ben  Nachman 
"  Rector  of  the  Academy  of  Pombedita  in  300."  De 
Rossi  Diet.  St.  v.  Rabboth.  Ibn  Ezra  has;  "the 
rest  of  the  prophecy  shall  be  on  Damascus;  for  this 
prophecy  shall  be  fulfilled,  connected  with  the 
second  temple ;  For  the  ej'es  of  man  are  to  the 
Lord;  for  many  from  the  rtien  of  Damascus  shall 
return  to  worship  the  Lord  and  to  turn  to  the  obe- 
dience of  Israel  in  Jerusalem."  And  so  Kimchi, 
"  Damascus  shall  be  His  resting-place,  i.  e.  the  She- 
chiuali  of  His  glory  and  prophecy." 


39G 


ZECHARIAH. 


hr'^ist    I^^'^®^'  ^''■'^^^  **  toward  the 

)RD. 

2  And  *  H  a  m  a  t  h  also 


CH 
cir-  487.         LORD. 


*Jer.  49.  23. 


whom  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  gathered 
from  East  to  West  throughout  the  world. 

When  [or  For'\  the  eyea  of  man,  as  [lit.  and 
i.e.  especially  beyond  others]  of  all  the  tribes 
of  Israel,  shall  be  toward  the  Lord.  This  also 
implies  a  conversion  of  Gentiles,  as  well  as 
Jews.  For  man,  as  contrasted  with  Israel, 
must  be  the  heatlien  world,  mankind  ^ 
"  *  The  eyes  of  all  must  needs  look  in  adora- 
tion to  God,  expecting  all  good  from  Ilim, 
because  the  Creator  of  all  provided  for  the 
well-being  of  all,  as  the  Apostle  says,  *  Is  He 
the  God  of  the  Jews  only  ?  Is  He  not  also  of  the 
Gentiles  f  Yea,  of  the  Gentiles  also.  God's 
time  of  delivering  His  people  is,  when  they 
pray  to  Him.  So  Jehoshaphat  prayed,  *  O 
our  God,  wilt  Thou  not  judge  them  f  For  we 
have  no  strength  against  this  great  company, 
which  is  come  against  us,  and  we  know  not  what 
we  shall  do  ;  but  our  eyes  are  on  Thee  * ;  and 
the  Psalmist  says,  *  The  eyes  of  all  wait  toward 
Thee ;  and,  ^  as  tlie  eyes  of  servants  are  unto 
the  lutnd  of  their  masters,  and  cts  the  eyes  of  a 
maiden  are  unto  the  hand  of  her  m,istress,  so  our 
eyes  are  unto  the  Lord  our  God,  until  He  have 
mercy  upon  us.  "  For  in  those  days,"  says  a 
Jew,  who  represents  tlie  traditional  interpre- 
tation*, "man  sluiU  look  to  his  Creator,  and 
his  eyes  shall  look  to  the  Blessed  One,  as  it 
was  said  above,  ive  will  go  with  you,  and  they 
shall  join  themselves,  they  and  their  cities, 
to  the  cities  of  Israel."  And  anotlier '' ;  "  In 
tliose  days  the  eyes  of  all  mankind  shall  be 
to  the  Lord,  not  to  idols  or  images;  therefore 
the  land  of  Hadrach  and  Damascus,  and  the 
other  places  near  the  land  of  Israel — shall  be 
included  among  the  cities  of  Judah,  and  shall 
be  in  the  faith  of  Israel." 

2.  And  Hamath  also  shall  border  thereby '". 

iSo  Israel  and  man  (01X71)  are  contrasted  in 
Jer.  xxxii.  20. 
«Rib.  3Rom.  iii.  29.  '»2  Chron.  xx.  12. 

•naty  tSx  Ps.  cxlv.  15;  without  Tj;  Ps.  civ. 
27 ;  and  in  the  same  sense,  with  j,  "tn^ltJ^'b  'P"13ty 
Ps.  cxix.  1C6. 

'  Ps.  cxxiii.  2.  God's  eye  is  said  to  be  VNT  iV,, 
toward  them  that  fear  Him.  Ps.  xxxiii.  18,  or  in  Ez- 
ra's Chaldee,  The  eye  of  th-Ar  Ood  was  upon  the  eiders 
C^ty  bi?)  of  the  Jews  (Ezr.  v.  5.),  or,  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  thy  Ood  are  upon  it  (the  land)  ,13.  De  xi.  12; 
but  there  is  no  construction  like  DHX  PJ^  "?  "the 
Lord  hath  an  eye  on  (obj.)  man"  (as  Ixx.  Jon.  Syr.) 
The  passages,  Whose  eyes  are  opened  {r{}r\p3)  upon 

mil  the  ways  of  the  sons  of  men.  to  aive  ^o  l-h'f  vwii. 


shall  border  thereby  ;  '  Ty-    ^  h  r°i  I  t 
rus,  and  '  Zidou,  though  it      c'^.  487. 

•1  e     •  1  Isai.  23. 

be  verv  ^wise.  Ezek.  26,  &  27, 

&  28.  Amos  1.9.    '1  Kin.  17.9.  Ezek.  28. 21.  Obad.2«. 
t  Ezek.  28. 3,  (fee. 


Near  to  it  in  place  and  character,  it  shall 
share  its  subdual.  After  the  betrayal  of 
Damascus,  Parmenio  was  set  over  all  Syria. 
"  "  The  Syrians,  not  as  yet  tamed  by  the 
losses  of  war,  despised  the  new  empire,  but, 
swiftly  subdued,  they  did  obediently  what 
they  were  commanded." 

And  Zidon.  Zidon,  although  probably  older 
tlian  Tyre''^,  is  here  spoken  of  parentheti- 
cally, as  subordinate.  Perhaps,  owing  to  its 
situation,  it  was  a  wealthy  '^,  rather  than  a 
strong  place.  Its  name  is  "  Fishing-town  ;" 
in  Joshua,  it  is  called  "  the  great  ^V'  perhaps 
the  metropolis;  wliile  Tyre  is  named  from 
its  strength  '^  It  infected  Israel  with  its 
idolatry  '®,  and  is  mentioned  among  the  na- 
tions who  oi)pressed  them  and  from  whom 
God  delivered  them  on  their  prayers",  proba- 
bly under  Jabin.  In  the  time  of  the  Judges, 
it,  not  Tyre,  was  looked  to  for  protection  '*. 
In  tlie  times  of  Ezekiel  it  had  become  subor- 
dinate, furnishing  "rowers'*"  to  Tyre;  but 
Esarhaddon,  about  80  years  before,  boasts 
that  he  had  taken  it,  destroyed  its  inhabit- 
ants, and  repeopled  it  with  men  from  the 
East,  building  a  new  city  which  he  called  by 
his  own  name  '^".  Tyre  too  had  been  taken  by 
Nebuchadnezzar '^^  At  the  restoration  from 
the  captivity,  Sidon  had  the  first  place  ^^ 
which  it  retained  in  the  time  of  Xerxes  '^^ 
But  Artaxerxes  Ochus  gained  posses.sion  of  it 
by  treachery,  when  all  Phoenicia  revolted 
from  Persia,  and,  besides  those  crucified, 
40,000  of  its  inhabitants  perisiied  by  their 
own  hands  ^*,  twenty  years  before  the  inva- 
sion of  Alexander,  to  whom  it  submitted 
willingly ''^ 

Tlie  prophet  having  named  Tyre  and 
Zidon  together,  yet  continues  as  to  Tj're 

19),  "His  eyes  behold  the  nations"  (HrflVH  D'lJ^ 
Ps.  Ixvi.  7),  arc  altogether  different.  "The  eye  of" 
must  be  construed  as  "his  own  eye." 

8  Rash i.  »Kimchi. 

w  It  might  be  also,  and  Hamath  too,  which  bordereth 
thereby,  viz.  shall  be  the  place  of  its  rest,  as  well  as 
Damascus,  but  it  seems  not  so  forcible. 

11 Q.  Curtius  iv.  1. 

""The  Tyrians  are  often  called  Sidonians;  the 
Sidonians  are  never  called  Tyrians." 

i»  Its  manufactures  of  silver  bowls  and  of  female 
robes  of  gr(>at  beauty,  are  mentioned  by  Homer  (II. 
vi.289,  xxiii.743,744;  Od.  iv.  614-018.);  Homer  does 
not  name  Tyre. 

i«Jos.  xi.  8,  xix.  28.      ""  lb.  xix.-29.      "Jud.  x.  6. 

17  lb.  12.       18  lb.  xviii.  7,  28.        '»  Ezek.  xxvii.  8. 

*>  Inscription  of  Esarhaddon  (.■Vnnals  of  the  past 
iii.  112).  Suchnames,  in  the  East,  last  only  with  the 
conquerors. 

21  Sec  vol.  i.  pp.  249,  2.V),  and,  more  fully,  "Daniel 
the  Prophet,"  pp.  289,  290. 

ss  Ezr.  ill.  7.       »  Herod,  viii.  07,  see  also  vii.  9.  6. 

s<  Died.  xvl.  41  sqq.    Mela  i.  12.         *  Curt.  iv.  ». 


CHAPTER  IX. 


397 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

»Job27. 16. 
Ezek.  28.  4,  5. 


3  And  Tyrus  did  build 
herself  a  strong  hold,  aud 
''heaped  up  silver  as  the 
dust,  and  fine  gold  as  the 
mire  of  the  streets. 


alone,  as  being  alone  of  account  in  the  days 
of  which  he  is  speaking,  those  of  Alexander. 

Although,  rather,  because  she  is  very  wise. 
Man's  own  wisdom  is  his  foolishness  and  de- 
struction, as  the  foolishness  of  Gorf  is  his  wisdom 
and  salvation.  God  ^  iaketh  the  wise  in  their 
own  craftiness.  '^  For  after  that,  in  the  wisdom  of 
God,  the  u'orld  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to 
save  them  that  believe.  Of  the  Hagarenes  it  is 
said,  they  ^  seek  wisdom  upon  earth ;  none  of 
these  know  the  way  of  wisdom,  or  remember  her 
paths.  The  wisdom  of  Tyre  was  the  source 
of  her  pride,  and  so  of  her  destruction  also. 
*  Because  thy  heart  is  lifted  up,  and  thou  hast 
said,  I  am  a  god,  I  sit  in  the  seat  of  God,  in  the 
midst  of  the  seas ;  yet  thou  art  a  man  and  not 
God,  though  thou  hast  set  thine  heart  as  the  heart 
of  God;  behold  thou  art  wiser  than  Daniel, 
there  is  no  secret  that  they  can  hide  from  thee. 
Therefare  I  ivill  bring  strangers  upon  thee — they 
shall  bring  thee  doivn  to  the  pit.  So  of  Edom 
Obadiah  says,  *  The  pride  of  thy  heart  hath  de- 
ceived thee,  thou  that  dicellest  in  the  clefts  of  the 
rock.  Shall  I  not  destroy  the  wise  men  out  of 
Edom,  and  understanding  out  of  the  mount  of 
Esau  ? 

3.  And  Tyre  did  build  herself  a  stronghold. 
She  built  it  for  herself,  not  for  God,  and 
trusted  to  it,  not  to  God,  and  so  its  strengtli 
brought  her  tlie  greater  fall.  The  words  in 
Hebrew  express  yet  more.  "Tyre"  (Zoi-)  lit. 
"  the  rock,"  built  herself  mazor,  tower,  a  rock- 
like fort,  as  it  were,  a  rock  upon  a  rock  for 
exceeding  strength,  binding  her  together. 
"6  The  walls,  150  feet  high  and  of  breadth 
proportionate,  compacted  of  large  stones,  em- 
bedded in  gypsum,"  seemed  to  defy  an  enemy 
who  could  only  approach  her  by  sea.  " '  In 
order  to  make  the  wall  twice  as  strong  they 
built  a  second  wall  ten  cubits  broad,  leaving 
a  space  between  of  five  cubits,  which  they 
filled  with  stones  and  earth."  Yet  high 
walls  do  not  fence  in  only ;  they  also  hem  in. 
Mazor  is  both  "  a  stronghold  "  and  "  a  siege." 
Wealth  and  strength,  without  God,  do  but 
invite  and  embitter  t  he  spoiler  and  the  con- 
queror." 

And  she  heaped  up  silver  as  the  dust,  and  fine 

>  Job  V.  13.         2 1  Cor.  i.  21.  3  Barueh  iii.  23. 

<Ezek.  xxviii.2,8.        5  0b.3,8.        « Arriaa  ii.21. 

7  Diod.  Sic.  xvii.  43.  8  Job  xxvii.  16. 

"2  Chron.  is.  27.    w  Diod.  Sic.  xvii.  40.    "Theod. 
'  12  jj^'^iv,  of  God,  is  chiefly  used  of  the  driving  out 
the  Canaanitish  nations  before  Israel,  Ex.  xxxiv. 
24,  Nu.  xxxii.  21,  Ps.  xliv.  3,  1  Kgs  xiv.  24,  xxi.  26,  2 
Kgs  xvi.  3,  xvii.  8.  xxi.  2. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


4  Behold,  'the  Lord 
will  cast  her  out,  and  he 
will  smite  "her  power  in i i^ai. 23. i. 
the  sea;  and  she  shall  be 
devoured  with  fire. 


k  Ezek.  26.  17. 


gold  as  the  mire  of  the  streets.  Though  he  heap 
up  silver  as  the  dust,  Job  says.  ^  The  King, 
Solomon,  made  silver  in  Jerusalem  as  stones ". 
Through  her  manifold  commerce  she  gath- 
ered to  herself  wealth,  as  abundant  as  the 
mii'e  and  the  dust,  and  as  valueless.  "  Gold 
and  silver,"  said  a  heathen,  "  are  but  red  and 
white  earth."  Its  strength  was  its  destruc- 
tion. Tyre  determined  to  resist  Alexander, 
"  "*  trusting  in  1  he  strength  of  tlie  island, 
and  the  stores  which  they  had  laid  up,"  the 
strength  within  and  without,  of  which  the 
Prophet  speaks. 

4.  Behold.  Such  were  the  preparations  of 
Tyre.  Over  against  them,  as  it  were,  the 
prophet  sets  betore  our  eyes  the  counsels  of 
God.  "  "  Since  they  had  severed  themsc4ves 
from  the  providence  of  God,  they  were  now 
to  experience  His  power."  The  Lord  will  cast 
her  out  ^^,  lit.  deprive  her  of  her  possessions, 
give  her  an  heir  of  what  she  had  amassed, 
viz :  the  enemy ;  and  he  inll  smite  her  power 
or  wealth  ^^,  of  which  Ezekiel  says,  ^*  With  thy 
wisdom  and  with  thine  understanding  thou  hast 
gotten  thee  riche.%  and  hast  gotten  gold  and  sil- 
ver into  thy  treasures :  by  the  greatness  of  thy 
tiisdom  and  by  thy  traffic  thou  hast  increased  thy 
riches,  and  thine  heart  is  lifted  up  because  of  thy 
riches  '*.  x\ll  wherein  she  relied,  and  so  too 
the  stronghold  itself,  God  would  smite  in  the 
sea.  The  sea  was  her  confidence  and  boast. 
She  said  ^^  I  am  a  God;  I  sit  in  the  seat  of 
God,  in  the  midst  of  the  seas. 

The  scene  of  her  pride  was  to  be  that  of 
her  overthrow  ;  the  waves,  which  girt  her 
round,  should  bury  her  ruins  and  wash  over  her 
site.  Even  in  the  sea  the  hand  of  God  should  find 
her,  and  smite  her  in  it,  and  into  it,  and  Sf) 
that  she  should  abide  in  it.  "  "  They  mocked 
at  the  king,  as  though  he  thought  to  prevail 
against  Neptune  [the  sea]."  '"**  Ye  despise 
tiiis  land-army,  through  confidence  in  the 
place,  that  ye  dwell  in  an  island,"  was  the 
message  of  Alexander,  "  but  soon  wiU  I  shew 
you  that  ye  dwell  on  a  continent." 

Every  device  had  been  put  in  force  in  its 
defence :  the  versatility  by  which  the  inhab- 
itants of  an  island,  some  2j  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, held  at  bay  the  conqueror  of  the 

i^S'n  cannot  be  here  the  outer  wall  (on  which 
see  Nah.  iii.  8,  ab.  p.  ISO,  n.  2.)  which  was  useless  in 
island  Tyre,  whose  walls  rising  from  the  sea  needed 
no  outer  wall  and  admitted  of  no  fosse  or  pomce- 
rium. 

"Ezek.xxvili.4,5.  "71°!'. 

18  Ezek.  xxviii.  2. 

"  Diod.  Sic.  xvii.  41.  "  Q.  Curt.  iv.  7. 


398 


ZECHARL\.H. 


c  H  R°f  s  T       ^  '  Ashkelou  shall  see  it, 
cir.  487.      ahd  fear ;  Gaza  also  shall 


«Jer.  47. 1,5. 
Zeph.  2.  4. 


i<ee  it,  and  be  very  sorrow- 


battle  of  Issus  with  unlimited  resources, 
"  '  engineers  from  Cyprus  and  all  Phoenicia," 
and  "^a  fleet  of  180  ships  from  Cyprus," 
attests  the  wisdom  in  which  the  prophet 
says,  she  would  trust.  "^She  had  already  a 
profusion  of  catapults  and  other  machines 
useful  in  a  siege,  and  easily  prepared  mani- 
fold others  by  the  makers  of  war-engines  and 
all  sorts  of  artificers  whom  she  had,  and 
these  invented  new  engines  of  all  sorts;  so 
that  the  whole  circuit  of  the  city  was  filled 
with  engines."  Divers  who  should  loosen 
the  mole;  grappling  hooks  and  nets  to  en- 
tangle near-assailants;  melted  metal  or 
lieated  sand  to  penetrate  between  the  joints 
of  their  armor ;  bags  of  sea-weed  to  deaden 
the  blows  of  the  battering  machines;  a  fire- 
ship  navigated  so  as  to  destroy  the  works  of 
the  enemy,  while  its  sailors  escaped;  fiery 
arrows  ;  wheels  set  in  continual  motion,  to 
turn  aside  the  missiles  against  them*,  bear 
witness  to  an  unwearied  inventiveness  of  de- 
fence. The  temporary  failures  might  have 
shaken  any  mind  but  Alexander's  (who  is 
even  said  to  liave  hesitated  ^)  but  that  he  dared 
not,  by  abandoning  the  enterprise,  lose  the 
prestige  of  victory.  Yet  all  ended  in  the 
massacre  of  6,  7,  or  8000  of  her  men,  the 
crucifixion  of  2000,  the  sale  of  the  rest, 
whether  13,000  or  30,000,  into  slavery*. 
None  escaped  save  those  whom  the  Sidonians 
.secreted  in  the  vessels',  with  wliieh  tliey 
had  been  compelled  to  serve  against  her. 

Ami  she  Itemelf^,  when  her  strength  is  over- 
thrown, .s/ta//  be  dfvoared  with  fire.  ^"Alex- 
ander, having  slain  all,  save  those  who  fled 
to  the  temples,  ordered  the  houses  to  be  set 
on  fire." 

5.  Aahkelon  shall  see  and  f ear.  The  words 
express  that  to  see  and  /ear  shall  be  as  one*. 
The  mightiest  and  wealthiest,  Tyre,  liaving 
fallen,  the  neighbor  cities  of  Philistia  who 
had  hoped  that  her  might  should  be  their 
.stay,  shall  stand  in  fear  and  shame.  Tyre, 
being  a  merchant-city,  the  mother-city  of 
the  cities  of  the  African  coast  and  in  Si)ain, 
its  desolation  caused  the  more  terror  '". 

»  Arr.  ii.  21.    «  Q.  Curt.  iv.  13.    »  Diod.  Sic.  xvii.  41. 

«Q.  Curt.  iv.  I1-ir,.  Arrian  ii.  18-22. 

8  Diod.  Sio.  xvii.  42-4r.. 

«  Diod.  xvii.  U;.  (}.  (^iirt.  iv.  19,  Arr.  ii.  24. 

7  Q.  Curt.  1.  <•.      «N'ni  emph.      'NTni-Kin. 

">  Is.  xxiii.  .1-11. 

"  Herodotus  states  it  to  have  been  the  wont  of  the 
Persian  moiiaroh-'  to  put  the  sons  even  of  revolted 
kinj^s  on  their  fathers'  thrones  (iii.  Li),  and  in  the 
review  of  the  Persian  troops  under  Xerxes  mentions 
diHerent  tributary  kinf(s,  amone  whom  tho  kinif  ol^ 
Sidon  had  first  rank  ;  then  the  king  of  Tyre ;  then 
the  rest  (viii.  t;7).  Josephus  speaks  of  "  tlie  kinRS 
ol  .Syria.'*    (Aut.  xi.  8.  5.) 


fill,  and  Ekron ;  for  lier  ^hr^ist 
exjDectation  shall  b e __cir^_487^_ 
ashamed;  and   the   king 


And  (he  [«]  kinr/  shali  perish  from  Gaza,  i.  e. 
it  shall  have  no  more  kings.  It  had  been 
the  policy  of  the  world-empires  to  have  trib- 
utary kings  in  tlie  petty  kingdums  wliicli 
they  conquered,  thus  providing  for  their  con- 
tinued tranquil  submission  to  themselves". 
The  internal  government  remained  as  before : 
the  people  felt  no  diflerence,  except  as  to  the 
payment  of  the  tribute.  The  policy  is  ex- 
])ressed  by  the  title  "  king  of  kings,"  which 
they  successively  bore.  Seimaclierib  speaks 
of  the  kings  of  Ascalon,  Ekron  and  Gaza  '■^. 
A  contemporary  of  Alexander'^  mentions, 
that  the  king  of  Gaza  was  brought  alive  to 
Alexander  on  its  capture.  Alexander's 
policy  was  essentially  different  from  that  of 
the  world-monarchs  beftjre  him.  They  de- 
sired only  to  hold  an  empire  as  wide  as  pos- 
sible, leaving  the  native  kings,  if  they  could; 
and  only,  if  these  were  intractable,  placing 
their  own  lieutenants.  Alexander's  iiolicy 
was  to  blend  East  and  West  into  one'*. 
The.se  petty  sovereignties,  so  many  insulated 
centres  of  mutual  repulsion,  were  essentially 
at  variance  with  this  plan,  and  so  this  reui- 
nant  of  sovereignty  of  loOO  years  was  taken 
away  by  him,  when,  after  a  siege  in  which 
he  himself  was  twice  wounded,  lie  took  it. 
Alexander  wholly  depopulated  it,  and  re- 
j^eopled  the  city  with  strangers. 

And  Ashkelon  shall  not  be  inhabited.  Asli- 
kelnn  yielded  at  once  to  Jonathan,  when  he 
"camped  against  it'*,"  after  he  had  taken 
and  "  l)urned  Ashdod  and  the  cities  round 
about  it."  In  another  expedition  of  Jona- 
than its  inhabitants  "'^met  him  honorably," 
while  "they  of  Gaza  shut  him  out"  at  first. 
""Simon — passed  through  the  country  imto 
Ascalon,  and  tiie  holds  tliere  adjoiuing," 
without  resistance,  whereas  "he  turned  aside 
to  Joppe,  and  won  it."  He  placed  Jews  in 
Gaza,  but  of  Ascalon  nothing  is  said.  The 
ruins  of  a  Christian  city,  built  on  its  site, 
"  khirliet-Ascalon,"  have  been  lately  dis- 
covered in  the  hills  near  Tell  Zakariyeh  '*, 
and  so,  a  little  >South  of  Timnath,  a  Philis- 
tine city  in   the  days  of  Samson,  whence 

'«  in  Layard  Nin.  and  Bab.  p.  14-1. 

13  Hegesias  in  Dionys.  Hal.  de  comp.  verb.  e.  18. 
T.  V.  p.  Vi'i,  Reiske,  There  is  iniieh  obscurity  al)out 
the  inilividiml.  Dion.  Hal.  ha.s,  "its  kinj:  Baistis 
or  Baistios;"  Arrian  (ii.  2.1)  mentions  Batis,  an 
Eunueli  and  so  a  Persian  officer,  as  "havinp  supreme 
authority  over  (Jaza;"  Kpariov  t.  ra^anov  n6\eiot-  Q. 
(Jiirtius  "says,  "Betis  was  over  the  city"  (iv.  2fi). 
"Josephus'(Ant.  xi.  84.)  says  that  "the  name  of  the 
commandant  of  the  garrison  was  Babemt^ses." 

'<See  "Daniel  the  Prophet,"  pp.  142-14.1. 

>•'■  1  Mace.  X.  86.      i«  lb.  xi.  liO,  61.       »'  lb.  xii.  33. 

'8 "The  name  was  given  twice  to  Lieut.  Conder 
and;;  times  to  Corporal  Bropliy  by  diflcroiit  wii- 


CHAPTER  IX. 


399 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


'  Amos  1.  8. 


shall  perish  from  Gaza, 
.  and  Ashkelon  shall  not  be 
inhabited. 

6  And  a  bastard  shall 
dwell  in  "Ashdod,  and  I 
will  cut  off  the  pride  of  the 
Philistines. 


Samson  went  to  it,  to  gain  the  30  changes  of 
raiment  ^  Commentators  have  assigned 
reasons,  why  Samson  might  have  gone  so  far 
as  the  maritime  Ascalon,  whereas,  in  fact,  he 
went  to  a  city  close  by. 

That  city,  in  536  A.D.,  had  its  Bishop^. 
"^Tlie  site  shews  the  remains  of  an  early 
Christian  Church  or  convent :  "  as  a  great 
lintel  of  stone*,  resembling  somewhat  the 
Maltese  Cross,  lies  on  the  ground."  It  was 
probably  destrojed  by  the  inundation  of 
Mohanmiedan  conquest.  In  1163  A.  D.  it 
was  a  ruin.  The  distance  of  the  ruins  from 
the  Ascalon  Maiumas  corresponds  to  that  as- 
signed by  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  being  twice 
the  distance  of  that  city  from  Ashdod^  ;  but 
since  he  was  at  Beth  Jibrin  ",  he  must  have 
been  not  far  from  the  spot  where  it  has  been 
lately  discovered'.  The  Ashkelon,  which 
was  Herod's  birth-place  and  which  he  beau- 
tified, must  have  been  the  well-known  -city 
by  the  sea;  since  the  distance  from  Jerusa- 
lem assigned  by  .Josephus  *  is  too  great  for 
the  old  Ashkelon,  and  he  speaks  of  it  as  on 
the  sea®. 

6.  Aiid  a  bastard  shall  dwell  at  Ashdod  '**. 

nesses,"  "  so  that  there  is  no  doubt  (Lieut.'Cobcler 
subjoins)  that  it  is  a  well-liuown  site."  Lieut. 
(,'onder's  Report  N.  xxxiv.  p.  l.^.'i.      *  .Jud.  xiv.  19. 

-  See  ab.  p.  244.  s  Lieut.  Conder,  lb.  *  "  Such 
lintels  are  to  be  found  in  all  that  class  of  ruins, 
wliieh  (late  from  about  tlie  5th  totlie  Tth  nentury."Ib. 

5  He  .says  that  the  new  .\shk(-lon.  that  on  the  sea, 
is  2  parasaugs  from  Ashdod,  4  from  tiie  old  Aslike- 
lou.  •'Travels,  p.  30. 

'  Jeremiah,  xlvii.  7,  How  can  it  (the  sword  of  the 
Lord)  be  quiet,  seeiii;/  that  the  Lord  has  given  it.  a 
charge  against  Ashkelon,  and.  against  iJic  sea-shore  ? 
has  often  been  wrongly  quoted  in  proof  that  Ash- 
kelon was  on  the  sea-shore."  On  the  contrary, 
Jeremiah  speak*  of  them  as  distinct ;  "  against  Ash- 
kelon and  against  the  sea-shore."  The  b'D  'Y\X^,  in 

the  3  other  pjaces,  in  which  it  occurs,  is  only  a  title 
for  Philistia  itself,  ^s  lying  between  the  Shephelah 
and  tlie  sea.  Thus  m  Dent,  i.7,  Palestine  is  divided 
into  the  hill  country,  the  '.\rabah,  the  Shephelah, 
the  Nejeb,  and  the  QTI  'lin.    In  Joshua,  ix.  1,  the 

division  is,  "the  hill  country,  the  Shephelah,  and 
the  whole  coast  of  the  great  sea,  DTI  ^IIH  /D 
*7njn."  Ezekiel  (xxv.  16.)  uses  D'H  t^in,as 
equivalent  to  the  Cherethitn  and  Pliilistim,  whom 
he  had  named  in  v.  .5.  Jeremiah  names  together 
the  whole  tract  and  a  chief  city  of  it,  as  the 
prophets  so  often  speak  of  "  Judah  and  Jerusalem." 

s  520  stadia.  B.  J.  iii.  2. 1.  » lb.  iv.  11.  5. 

'"On  the  omission  of  Gath  see  on  Am.  i.  6. 

Uex  nopvri^,  6  in  Deut.  xxiii.  .S;  "de  scorto,"  Vulg. 
and  soSaact. ;  "sou  of  adultery,"  Syr.    With  this 


7  And  I  will  take  away    ^.  ^%°l%  ^ 
his  fblood  out  of  his  mouth,      ^'r-  ^^7 . 
and  his  abominations  fi-om  t  Heb.  bloods. 
between  his  teeth :  but  he 
that   remaineth,   even   he, 
shall  be  for  our  God,  and 
he  shall  be  as  a  governor 


The  "  niamzer "  was  one  born  unlawfully, 
whether  out  of  marriage,  or  in  forbidden 
marriage,  or  in  adultery".  Here  it  is,  pro- 
bably, like  our  "  spurious  brood  ^^ ;  "  whetlier 
it  was  so  itself  or  in  the  eyes  of  the  Ashdo- 
dites  ;  whence  he  adds, 

J  ivill  cut  off  the  pride  of  the  PIdlistints. 
Pi'ide  would  survive  the  ruin  of  their  coun- 
try, the  capture  of  their  cities,  the  loss  of 
independence.  It  would  not  survive  the  loss 
of  their  nationality ;  for  they  themselves 
would  not  be  the  same  people,  who  were 
proud  of  their  hmg  descent  and  their  victo- 
ries over  Isiael.  The  breaking  down  of 
nationalities,  which  was  the  policy  of  Alex- 
ander, was  an  instrument  in  God's  hands  in 
cutting  off  their  pride. 

7.  And  I  wUl  take  away  his  bloods  out  of  A/.s 
7iioiith.  The  abominations  being  idol-sacri- 
fices '•*,.  the  bloods  will  also  be,  the  blood 
mingled  with  the  wine  of  .sacrifices,  of  which 
David  says,  '*  Their  drink-offerings  of  blood  will 

1  not  offer;  and  Ezekiel  unites  the  ofi'ences, 
"^^  Ye  eat  with  the  blood,  and  lift  up  your  eyes 
toward  your  idols,  and  shed  blood." 

£ut   he  that  remaineth,   better.  And  he  too 

agrees  the  opinion  of  R.  Joshua  A.D.  7.3,  "every 
one,  for  whom  they  are  guilty  of  death  in  the 
house  of  judgment."  R.  Joshua  b.  Azai  says,  '  I 
have  found  a  roll  of  genealogies  in  Jerusalem,  and 
there  was  written  in  it, '  M.,  a  mamzer  from  a  man's 
wife;'  to  confirm  the  words  of  R.  Joshua."  in  Yeba- 
moth  c.  4,  §13.  R.  AkiVia's  opinion  was,  that  "it 
was  any  near  of  kin,  with  whom  marriage  was  for- 
bidden ;"  Simon  the  Temanite  said,  "any  liable  to 
excision  at  tlie  bauds  of  God."  lb.  in  Ges.  Thes.  p. 
781  sub.  V.  Of  the  etymologies,  Kimchi's  is  perhaps 
the  most  probable,  that  it  is  from  111,  the  two 
O's  being  added,  as  iia  Hn  JDO,  Joel  i.  17. 

12  The  Lxx.  Jon.  Syr.  agree  in  the  rendering, 
"  strangers,"  Jon.  and  the  Syr.  using  the  same 
word;  N'^blJ  Pesh.;  "and  the  children  of  Israel 
shall  dwell  in  Ashdod,  who  were  in  it,  as  strangers  " 
(rNIDIJD).  Jon.  Aq.  Symm.  Theod.  retain  the 
Hebrew  word,  as  do  Onk.  and  Sam.  in  Deut. 
i3r»!|p{jr  always  retains  its  appellative  sense.    It  is 

not  merely  "  idols,"  but  idols,  in  that  they  were 
"abominations."  It  is  generally  in  constr.,  "the 
abomination  of"  such  a  nation,  1  Kgs  xi.  5,  7  fbis], 

2  Kgs  xxiii.  13  [bis],  "  the  abomination  of  his,  tneir, 
eyes,"  Ezek.  xx.  7, 8  ;  or  with  the  personal  pronoun 
as  here,  Dout.  xxix.  16,  Is.  Ixvi.  3,  Jer.  [5  times] 
Ezek.  [6  times].  In  a  few  places  it  stands  absolutely, 
in  its  original  appellative  sense,  Nah.  iii.  6;  allu- 
sively to  the  idol  abominations,  Hos.  ix.  10;  with 
art.  the  [idol]  abominations  (2  Kgs  xxiii.  24,  2  Chr. 
XV.  8);  and  the  abomination  of  desolation.  Dan. 
ix.27,  xi.  31.  xii.  11.  [all]. 

'■1  Ps.  xvi.  4.  '"  Ezok.  xxxiii.  2a. 


400 


ZECIL\R1AII. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

»  Ps.  34.  3. 
Ch.  2.  5. 


in  Judah,  and  Ekron  as  a 
,  Jebusite. 

8  And  °I  will  encamp 
about  mine  house  because 


shall  remain  over  to  our  God.  Of  the  Philis- 
tines too,  as  of  Israel,  a  remnant  shall  be 
saved.  After  this  visitation  tlieir  idolatry 
should  cease  ;  God  speaks  of  the  Philistine 
nation  as  one  man ;  He  would  wring  his 
idol-sacrifices  and  idol-cnjoynients from  him; 
he  should  exist  as  a  nation,  but  as  God's. 

And  he  shall  be  as  a  (jovi'rnor  in  Judah,  lit. 
"  a  captain  of  a  thousand,"  merged  in  Ju- 
dah as  in  a  larger  wliole,  as  each  tribe  was 
divided  into  its  "  thousands,"  yet  intimately 
blended,  in  no  inferior  position,  witli  the 
people  of  God,  as  each  converted  nation  be- 
came an  integral  yet  unseparated  whole  in 
the  people  of  God. 

And  Ekron  as  a  Jebusite.  Ekron  was  ap- 
parently the  least  important  of  the  lew  re- 
maining Philistine  cities^;  yet  he  shall  be, 
as  those  of  the  Canaanite  nations  who  were 
not  destroyed,  nor  fled,  but  in  the  very  capi- 
tal and  centre  of  Israel's  worsliip,  '^  dwelt  with 
the  children  of  Benjamin  and  Judah,  and  were, 
as  a  type  of  the  future  conversion  and  ab- 
sorption of  the  heathen,  incorporated  into 
Judah. 

8.  And  I  will  encamp  about  my  house  {for  ^ 
my  house's  sake)  because  of  the  army  *  ;  because, 
it  is  added  in  explanation,  of  him  that  paxseth 
by  and  of  him  that  returneth  ;  Alexander,  who 
passed  by  with  his  army,  on  his  way  to 
Egypt,  and  returned,  having  founded  Alex- 
andria. 

It  was  a  most  eventful  march ;  one  of  the 
most  eventful  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
The  destruction  of  the  Persian  empire,  for 
which  it  prepared,  was  in  itself  of  little 
moment ;  Alexander's  own  empire  was  very 
brief.  As  Daniel  had  foretold*,  he  came, 
cast  down  Pereia  to  the  ground,  waxed  venj 
great,  and  when  he  was  strong,  the  great  horn 
was  broken.  But  with  the  marvelous  percep- 
tion which  ciiaracterized  him,  he  saw  and 
impressed  upon  his  successors  the  depcndi- 
bleness  of  the  Jewish  people.  Wlien  lie 
came  into  Judjea,  he  sent  to  the  high  priest 
for  aid  against  Tyre  and  for  the  like  tribute 
a.s  he  used  to  pay  to  Darius,  promising  tiiat 

iSee  on  Jo.  i.  8,  vol.  i.  . 

«  Josh.  XV.  63.  Jud.  i.  21.  » '^'37. 

TlDi*,  for  K3i',  according  to  the  Masorites  as 
in  ttio  verb  al'jo.  Is.  xxix.  7.  So  Symm.  kwAOui' 
trrpaTeios.  The  context  also  favors  "the  reading;; 
fur  unless  the  passers  h>/  and  returners  had  heen  a 
powerful  army,  there  had  been  no  occasion  for  that 
dotence  of  which  God  .speaks.  The  correction 
n33fO  would  come  to  the  same,  "a  military  post;" 
only,  in  actual  use,  this  is  a  "fort,"  "fortress,"  1 
Surii  xtv.  12,  i.  q.  32fO  lb.  xili.  23,  xlv.  1,  4,  6,  11,  15, 


of  the  army,  because  of  chrTst 
him  that  passeth  by,  and      cir.  487. 
because  of  him  that  re- 

•  Isai.  60. 18. 

turneth :  and  "  no  oppressor  Ezeii.  28. 24. 


he  would  not  repent  of  choosing  the  friend- 
ship of  the  Macedonians®.  Tlie  high  priest 
refused  on  the  ground  of  the  oath,  by  which 
his  people  were  bound  in  fealty  to  the 
earthly  king  of  kings,  wliom  Alexander 
came  to  subdue.  Alexander  threatened  to 
teach  all,  tii rough  its  fate,  to  whom  fealty 
was  due.  This,  after  the  conquest  of  Gaza, 
he  pre{)ared  to  fulfill.  He  came,  he  saw,  he 
was  conquered.  '  Jaddua  and  his  people 
prayed  to  God.  Taught  by  God  in  a  dream 
not  to  fear,  he  went  to  meet  the  conqueror. 
The  gates  of  the  city  were  thrown  open. 
There  marched  out,  not  an  army  such  as 
encountered  the  Romans,  but  as  he  had 
been  taught,  a  multitude  in  white  garments, 
and  the  priests  going  beinre  in  their  rai- 
ment of  fine  linen.  Tlie  high  priest,  in  his 
apparel  of  purple  and  gohl,  having  on  his 
head  the  mitre,  and  on  it  the  golden  plate", 
whereon  was  written  the  name  of  God,  ad- 
vanced alone,  and  the  Con(iueror,  who  was 
expected  to  give  the  cit}'  to  be  plundered, 
and  the  high  priest  to  be  insulted  and  slain, 
kissed  the  name  of  God,  recognizing  in  the 
priest  one  whom  he  had  seen  in  the  like 
dress  in  a  dream,  who  had  bidden  him,  when 
hesitating,  cross  to  Asia  ;  for  that  he  would 
go  before  liis  army  and  deliver  the  Persian 
empire  to  him. 

The  result  is  related  to  have  been,  that 
Alexander  promised  to  allow  the  Jews  in 
Judiea  to  live  according  to  their  own  laws, 
remitted  the  tribute  of  every  seventh  year, 
acceded  belbrehand  to  the  terms  to  be  pro- 
posed by  those  in  Babylonia  and  Media,  and 
that  many  Jews  joined  his  army,  under  con- 
dition that  they  might  live  under  their  own 
laws. 

Rationalism,  while  it  remains  such,  can- 
not admit  of  Daniel's  prophecies  which  the 
high  priest  shewed  him,  declaring  that  a 
(jreek  should  destroy  the  Persian  empire, 
which  Alexander  rightly  interpreted  of 
himself^  But  the  facts  remain  ;  that  the 
conqueror,  who,  above  most,  gave  way  to  his 
anger,  bestowed  privileges  almost  incredible 

2  Sam.  xxiii.  14.  32^0  Is.  xxix.  .3,  is  a  worlt  on  the 
offensive,  not  defensive.  Ewald  comes  to  the  same 
sense,  that  God  would  protect  her  against  any -one 
coming  against  her. 

6  Dan.  viii.  7,  8.      «  Jos.  Ant.  xi.  8,  3.      Mb.  n.  5. 

8  Justin  says,  "then  he,  Alexander,  goes  to  Svria, 
where  many  kings  of  the  East  with  fillets  met  nim. 
Of  these,  acci>rding  to  their  deserts,  he  received 
some  into  alliance;  others  he  deprived  of  their 
kingdom,  putting  other  kings  in  their  place.' 
.xi.  10. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


401 


Before         olmll 
CHRIST     ^'^^^^ 
cir.  487 


f  Ex.  3.  7. 


pass  through  them 
any  more :  for  now  ^  have 
I  seen  with  mine  eyes. 


on  a  nation,  which  under  the  Medes  and 
Persians  had  been  "  '  the  most  despised  part 
of  the  enslaved  ; "  made  them  equal  in  priv- 
ileges to  his  own  Macedonians^,  who  could 
hardly  brook  the  absorption  of  the  Persians, 
although  in  inferior  condition,  among  them- 
selves '\  The  most  despised  of  the  enslaved 
became  the  most  trusted  of  the  trusted. 
They  became  a  large  portion  of  the  second 
and  third  then  known  cities  of  the  world. 
They  became  Alexandrians,  Antiochenes, 
Ephesians*,  without  ceasing  to  be  Jews. 
The  law  commanded  faithmlness  to  oaths, 
and  they  who  despised  their  religion  re- 
spected its  fruits. 

The  immediate  successors  of  Alexander, 
Ptolemy  Lagi  *  and  Antiochus  Nicator,  fol- 
lowed his  policy  ;  Ptolemy  especially  on  the 
ground  of  the  fealty  shewn  to  Darius  ;  Nica- 
tor, as  having  observed  their  faithfulness  as 
soldiers,  who  had  served  with  him®;  but 
they  were  so  enrolled  on  this  visit  to  Jerusa- 
lem. The  Heathen  kings  multiplied,  in  their 
own  purpose,  laith.ul  subjects  to  themselves; 
in  God  s  design,  they  prepared  in  Asia  and 
Egypt  a  seed-plot  for  the  Gospel.  The  set- 
tlement of  the  Jews  at  Alexandria  formed 
the  language  of  the  Gospel ;  that  wonderful 

'Tacitus  limits  the  description  to  the  time, 
•'  when  the  East  belonged  to  the  Assyrians,  Medes 
and  Persians."    Hist.  v.  8. 

2 "Alexander  gave  them  (the  Jews)  a  place  to 
dwell  in,  and  thev  obtained  equal  rank  with  the 
Macedonians.  I  l^now  not  what  Apion  would  have 
said,  had  they  been  settled  near  the  Necropolis 
and  not  near  the  palace,  and  were  not  their  race 
now  too  called  '  Macedonians.'  If  then  he  (Apion) 
has  read  the  Epistles  of  Alexander  the  King,  and 
has  met  with  the  rescripts  of  Ptolemy  Lagi  and  the 
kings  after  him,  and  has  lighted  on  the  column 
which  stands  in  Alexandria  and  contains  the  rights 
given  by  the  great  Csesar  to  the  Jews;  if,  I  say, 
he  knows  these  things,  and,  knowing  them,  has 
dared  to  write  the  central y,  he  is  unprincipled; 
if  he  knew  nothing  of  them,  he  is  ill-instructed." 
"Alexander  collected  some  of  our  people  there, 
not  for  want  of  such  as  should  colonize  the  city 
which  he  founded  with  great  earnestness.  But 
carefully  proving  all  as  to  good  faith  and  probity, 
he  gave  this  distinction  to  our  people.  For  he 
honored  our  nation,  as  Hecatteus  too  says  of  us, 
that,  for  the  probity  and  good  faith  which  the  Jews 
evinced  toward  him,  he  gave  them  in  addition  the 
territory  of  Samaria  to  hold,  free  from  tribute. 
And  Ptolemy  Lagi  too  was  like-minded  with  Alex- 
ander as  to  those  who  dwelt  in  Alexandria."  Jos.  lb. 
Thisearlvequalizingofthe  Jews  with  Alexandrians 
is  recognized  in  the  edict  of  Claudius  ;  "  Having 
learnt  that  the  Jews  in  Alexandria  were  from  the 
first  callel  Alexandrians,  having  been  settled  there 
together  with  the  Alexandrians  straightway  at  the 
earlinst  period,  and  having  received  from  the  kings 
equal  citizenship,  as  appeared  plain  both  from  their 
letters  and  from  the  ordinances,"  &c.  [in  Jos.  Ant. 
xix.  5,  2.]  In  Pusey's  "Daniel  the  Prophet,"  p. 
146,  n.  3.  sArr.  vii.  6. 

26 


9  U "  Rejoice  greatly,  O    ^  tiTs  t 
daughter  of  Zion;  shout,,     cir.487. 


O  daughter  of  Jerusalem :  eh* 'i  16. 

Matt.  21.  5.  John  12. 15. 


blending  of  the  depth  of  the  Hebrew  with 
the  clearness  and  precision  of  the  Greek. 
Everywhere  the  seed  of  the  preparatory  dis- 
pensation was  sown,  to  be  fostered,  grow  and 
ripen  with  the  harvest  of  the  Gospel. 

For  now  have  I  seen  ivith  Mine  eyes.  This  is 
the  counterpart  of  what  the  Psalmists  and 
pious  men  so  often  pray,  '  Awake  to  help  me 
and  behold ;  "  Look  doivn  from  heaven,  behold 
and  visit  this  vine;  *  Look  upon  my  trouble  from, 
them  that  hate  me;  ^° Look  upon  my  affliction 
and  my  trouble  ;  look  upon  my  enemies,  for  they 
are  many  ;  ''  Look  upon  my  adversity  and  deliver 
me  ;  ^*  0  Lord,  behold  my  affliction  ;  '^  Behold, 
0  Lord,  for  I  am  in  distress ;  "  Look  and 
behold  my  reproach ;  '^  Open  Thine  eyes,  0 
Lord,  and  see  ;  '®  Look  down  from  heaven,  and 
behold  from  the  habitation  of  Thy  holiness  and 
glory.  With  God,  compassion  is  so  intrinsic 
an  attribute,  that  He  is  pictured  as  looking 
away,  when  He  does  not  put  it  forth.  With 
God,  to  behold  is  to  help. 

9.  From  the  protection,  which  God  pro- 
mised to  His  people  and  to  His  House, 
the  Prophet  passes  on  to  Him  Who  was  ever 
in  his  thoughts,  and  lor  Whot^e  sake  that 
people  and  temple  were  preserved.  He  had 
described  the  great  conqueror  of  this  world, 


*"  His  (Anion's)  marveling, how,  being  Jew.s, they 
were  called  Alexandrians,  betrays  the  same  ignor- 
ance. For  all  who  are  invited  into  a  given  colony, 
much  as  they  differ  in  race,  take  their  name  Irom 
its  founders.  Those  of  us,  who  dwell  at  Antioch, 
are  called  Antiochenes.  For  Seleucus,  the  founder, 
gave  them  citizenship.  And  so  too  in  Ephesus,  and 
the  rest  of  Ionia,  they  bear  the  same  name  with 
the  natives,  the  Successors  (of  Alexander)  having 
given  it  to  them."  Jos.  c.  Ap.  ii.  4.  See  Pusey'.s 
"  Daniel  the  Prophet,"  p.  140.  n.  2. 

6  Ptolemy  Lagi,  "  understanding  that,  those  from 
Jerusalem  were  most  reliable  as  to  their  oaths  and 
fealty,  (from  the  answer  which  they  gave  to  the 
embassy  of  Alexander  after  he  had  conquered 
Darius,)  having  located  many  of  them  in  the  garri- 
sons and  given  them  equal  rights  of  citizenship  with 
the  Macedonians  in  Alexandria,  took  an  oath  oi  them 
that  they  would  keep  fealty  to  the  descendants  of 
him  who  gave  them  this  charge.  And  no  few  of 
the  other  Jews  came  of  their  own  accord  into 
Egypt,  invited  by  the  goodness  of  the  soil  and  the 
liberality  of  Ptolemy."  Jos.  Ant.  xii.  1.  lb.  p.  145. 
n.  8. 

6"They  (the  Jews)  obtained  the  honor  from  the 
kings  of  Asia  also,  having  served  in  the  army  with 
them.  For  Seleucus  Nicator,  in  the  cities  "which 
he  founded  in  Asia  and  in  lower  Syria,  and  in  the 
metropolis  itself,  Antioch,  conferred  on  them  citi- 
zenship, and  made  them  rank  with  the  Mace- 
donians and  Greeks  who  were  settled  therein,  so 
that  this  citizenship  remains  even  now  also."  Ant. 
xii.  3.  lb.  p.  146.  n.  1. 

jps.  lix.  4.  8Ib.  Ixxx.  14.  9Ib.  ix.l3. 

10  lb.  XXV.  18, 19.  "  lb.  exix.  163. 

i«  Lam.  1.  9.  add  11,  li.  20.  « lb.  i.  20. 

"lb.  V.  1. 

15  Is.  xxxvii.  17.  Dan.  ix.  18.  '» Is.  Ixili.  15. 


402 


ZECHARIAH. 


behold,  '  thy  King  cometh 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir   4«7  '  Jer.  23.  5.  A  30.  9.  Luke  19.  38. 
'■ '■ John  1.  49. 


sweeping  along  in  Iiis  course  of  victory.  In 
contrast  with  such  as  he,  he  now  exhibits  to 
his  people  the  character  and  procession  of 
their  king.  Rejoke  fjreatly.  Not  with  this 
■world's  joy.  God  never  exhorts  man  to  rejoice 
greatly  in  this  world's  fleeting  joys.  He 
allows  us  to  be  glad,  as  children,  before  Him; 
He  permits  such  buoyancy  of  heart,  if  inno- 
cent ;  but  He  does  not  command  it.  Now 
He  commands  His  people  to  burst  out  into  a 
jubilee  of  rejoicing  :  they  were  to  dance  and 
shout  for  gladness  of  spirit;  "despising  the  poor 
exultation  of  this  world  and  exulting  with  that 
exceeding"  yet  chaste  joy,  which  befits  the 
true  bliss  to  be  brought  by  their  King  and 
Saviour.  "^This  word,  greatly,  means  that 
there  should  be  no  measure  whatever  in  their 
exultation;  for  the  exultaticm  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  bridegroom  is  far  unlike  to  the 
exultation  of  the  children  of  this  world." 
"  ^  He  biddeth  the  spiritual  Zion  rejoice,  in- 
asmuch as  dejection  was  removed.  For  what 
cause  of  sorrow  is  there,  Avhen  sin  has  been 
removed,  death  trampled  under  foot,  and 
human  nature  called  to  the  dignity  of  free- 
dom, and  crowned  with  the  grace  of  adop- 
tion and  illumined  with  the  heavenly  gift  ?  " 
Behold,  thy  king  cometh  unto  thre.  He  does 
not  say  "  a  king,"  but  "  thy  king  ;  "  thy  king, 
thine  own,  the  long-promised,  the  long-ex- 
pected ;  He  Who,  wlien  thev  had  kings  of 
their  own,  given  them  by  (rod,  had  lieen 
promised  as  the  king  ^ ;  *the  righteous  Ruler 
among  men,  of  tlie  seed  of  David  ;  He  Who, 
above  all  other  kings,  was  their  King  and 
Saviour ;  Whose  kingdom  was  to  absorb  in 
itself  all  kingdoms  of  the  earth  ;  the  King  of 
kings,  and  Lord  of  lords.  Her  king  was  to 
come  to  her.  He  was  in  a  manner  then  "  of 
her,"  and  "  not  of  her  ; "  "  of  her,"  since  He 
was  to  be  her  king,  "  not  of  her,"  since  He 
was  to  "come  to  her."  As  Man,  He  was  born 
of  her :  as  God,  the  Word  made  flesh,  He 
came  to  her.  " ''  To  thee,  to  be  manifest  unto 
thee";  to  be  thine  by  communion  of 
nature ' ;  as  He  is  thine,  by  the  earnest  of 
the  Eternal  Spirit  and  tlie  gift  of  the  Father, 
to  procure  thy  good.  "  Unto  m.s  a  Child  is 
born,  unto  'u»  a  Son  is  given,"  Of  this.  His 
entry  into  Jerusalem  was  an  image.  But 
how  should  He  come  ?     "  He  shall  come  to 

1  Rup.  ^.S.  Cyr. 

'e.e-  Ps.  ii.  Ixxii.  Is.  xxxii.  1.  Jer.  xxiii.  5. 

*  2  Sam.  xxiii.  3.  »  Cocc.  « 1  Tim.  iii.  IG. 

'  Heb.  ii.  14.  »  Is.  ix.  6. 

"Zohar  Levit.  f.  3.  col.  9  in  SchOttg.  on  Ho.s.  ii.  21. 
lois.  xlv.  21.  liii.  11,  .ler.  xxiii.  5,  B,  xxxiii.  15,1(5, 
Mai.  iv.  2. 
ns.  Luke  ii.  10, 11.  "Dion.  >»  Wisd.  xil.  16,  Ifi. 
>«  1  S.  Pet.  ii.  22.  •!>  9.  John  vii.  18.  >•  Acts  vii.  .'Ji. 
"The  Jewish  Versions  as  well  as  the  Thristian 
roni1er,actively,  ".Saviour,"  LXXjtrui^wi';  Jon.  p'13, 


unto  thee:  he  is  just,  and    QyR°jgx 

cir.  487. 


thee,"  says  an  old  Jewish  writing ',  "  to 
atone  thee ;  He  sliall  come  to  thee,  to  upraise 
thee  ;  He  shall  come  to  thee,  to  raise  thee  up 
to  His  temple,  and  to  espouse  thee  with  an 
everlasting  espousal." 

He  is  just  and  having  scdvalion.  Just  or 
righteous,  and  the  Fountain  of  justice  or 
righteousness.  For  wliat  He  is,  that  He 
ditiuseth.  Righteousness  which  God  Is,  and 
righteousness  which  God,  made  Man,  im- 
parts, are  often  blended  in  Holy  Scripture  '". 
This  is  also  tlie  source  of  the  exceeding  joy. 
For  the  coming  of  their  king  in  righteousness 
would  be,  to  sinful  man,  a  cause,  not  of  joy 
but  of  fear.  This  was  the  source  of  the 
Angel's  message  of  joy ;  "  /  bring  you  good 
tidings  of  great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people  ; 
for  unto  you  is  born  this  day,  in  the  city  uf 
David,  a  Saviour. 

He  is  just,  "  '*  because  in  the  Divine  Nature, 
He  is  the  Fountain  of  all  holiness  and  jus- 
tice."     "  '^  As  Thou  art  righteous  Thyself, 
Thou  orderest  all   things  righteously.     For 
Thy   power  is  the  beginning  of  righteous- 
ness."    According  to  the  nature  which  He 
took.  He  was  also  most  just ;    for  He  ever 
sought  the  glory  of  the  Father,  and  "  He  did 
no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His  Mouth. 
In  the  way  also  of  justice  He  satisfied  for 
men,  delivering  Himself  for  their  faults  to 
the  pain  of  the  most  bitter  death,  to  satisfy 
the  honor  of   the  Divine  Majesty,  so  that 
sin  should  not  remain  unpunished.     Hence 
He  saith  of  Himself;  ^^  He  that  seeketh  His 
glory  that  sent  Him,  the  .same  is  true,  and  no 
unrighteousness  is  in  Him.     Of  W^hom   also 
!  Stephen  said  to  the  Jews,  '®  Your  fathers  slew 
I  them  which  shewed  before  of  the  coming  of  the 
I  Just  One,  of  Whom  ye  have  been  now  the  be- 
I  traycrs  and  murderers.     Righteousness  is  an 
I  awl'ul   attribute  of  God.     It  is  a  glory  and 
I  perfection  of  His   Being,  for  the  perfect  to 
i  gaze  on  and  adore.     Mercy,  issuing  in  our 
salvation,  is  the  attribute  wliich  draws  us 
sinners.     And  this  lies  in  the  promise  that 
He  shoidd  come  to   them,  however  the  one 
word  no.'ihu'  be  rendered  ".     The  meaning  of 
such    a   prophecy  as  this  is  secure,   inde- 
pendent of  single  words.     The  whole  context 
implies,  tliat  He  .should  come  as  a  ruler  and 
deliverer,   whether  the  word    nosha'  signify 

as  well  ns  the  Christian,  the  Syr.  and  8.  Jerome. 
The  participle  j,'iyij  mijiht,  according  to  analogy, 
he  a  reflective,  hiu  it  only  occurs  elsewhere  as  n 
passive;  with  2  p..  Dent,  xxxiii.  29,  Is.  .xlv.  17: 
with  3  r.,  Ps.  xxxiii.  10.  Imperat.  "look  unto  Me 
and  be  yo  saved,"  ^^'ly^m  Is.  xlv.  22;  being  ".saved 

bv  God  "  implied  Nu.  x.  9.  Ps.  xviii.  4.  [2  Sam.  xxii. 
4.]  Ixxx.  4,  8,  20,  Qxix.  117,  Pr.  xxviii.  18,  Is.  xxx.  1 ".. 
Ixiv.  4,  Jer.  iv.  14,  viil.  fO,  xvii  14,  xxiii.  6,  xxx  '. , 
xxxiii.  Ifi.  [all] 


CHAPTEK  IX. 


403 


c  inTs  T    II  ^^"^^^S  salvation ;  lowly, 
cir.  487.      and  riding  upon  an  ass, 


I  Or,  saving  himself. 


"  endued  with  salvation,"   (whereas  the  old 
vei-sions  rendered  it,  "  Saviour  ")  or  whether 
it  be,   "saved."     For  as  He  came,  not  for 
Himself  but  for  us,  so,  in  as  far  as  He  could 
be  said  to  be  saved,  He  was  "saved,"  not  for 
Himself  but  for  us.'    Of  our  Lord,  as  Man,  it 
is,  in  like  way,  said,  '  Thou  shalt.  not  leave  His 
soul  in  Hell,  oV,  ^  Whom  God  raised  up,  having 
loosed  the  pains  of  death,  because  it   ims  not 
possible  that  He  should  be  holden  of  it.    As 
Man,  He  was  raised  from  the  dead  ;  as  God, 
He  raised  Himself  from  the  dead,  for  our 
sakes,  for  whom  He  died.     For  us,  He  was 
born  a  Saviour  ;  for  us.  He  was  endued  with 
salvation ;  for  us.  He  was  saved  from  being 
held  of  death  ;  in  like  way  as,  of  His  Human 
Nature,  the  Apostle  says,  *  He  ims  heard,  in 
that  He  feared.    To  us,  as  sinners,  it  is  hap- 
piest to  hear  of  the  Saviour ;  but  the  most 
literal  meaning  "  saved  "  has  its  own  proper 
comfort:    for  it  implies  the   Sufferings,   by 
which  that  salvation  was  procured,  and  so  it 
contains  a  hint  of  the  teaching  by  Isaiah,  He 
was  taken  from  oppression  and  from  judgment  ; 
upon  which  that  same  wide  reign  follows,  of 
which  David,  in  his  picture  of  the  Passion  *, 
and    Isaiah    ^ prophesy.      ""This    'saved' 
does  not  imply,  that  He  obtained  salvation 
for  His  own  otherwise  than  from  Himself. 
Mine  own  arm,  He  saith  in  Isaiah,  ^  brought 
salvation  unto  Me.     But  as  Man,  He  obtained 
salvation  from  the  indwelling  Godhead.   For 
when    He    destroyed    the  might   of  death, 
when,  rising  from  the   dead,   He   ascended 
into  heaven,  when  He  took  on  Him  the  ever- 
lasting kingdom  of  heaven   and   earth,  He 
obtained   salvation   from   the   glory   of  the 
Father,  i.  e.  from  His  own  Divinity,  to  im- 
part it  to  all  His.     The  Hebrew  word  then 
in  no  way  diminishes  the  amplitude  of  His 
dio-nity.  '  For  we  confess,  that   the  Human 
Nature  of  Christ  had  that  everlasting  glory 
added  to  It  from  His  Divine  Nature,  so  that 
He  should  not  only  be  Himself  adorned  with 
those  everlasting  gifts,  but  should  become  the 
cause  of  everlasting  salvation  to  all  who  obey 
Him." 

Lowly.  Outward  lowliness  of  condition,  is, 
through  the  grace  of  God,  the  best  fosterer 
of  the  inward.  The  word  Inwly  wonderfully 
expresses  the  union  of  both ;  lowness  of 
outward  state  with  lowliness  of  soul.  The 
Hebrew  word  expresses  the  condition  of 
one,    who    is    bowed    down,    brought    low 

1  Ps.  xvi.  10.  '  Aots  ii.  24.  *  Heb.  v.  7. 

<  Ps  xxii.  27,  28.  6  jg.  Hn.  10-12.  »Osor. 

'  Is.  Ixiii.  5.  8  Is.  liii.  4.  »  S.  Matt.  xi.  29. 
w  Dion.  »  3.  Matt.  viii.  20.  i»  2  Cor.  viii.  9. 
18  Jud.  X.  4,  xii.  14.  "  lb.  v.  lo. 

1^1  Kg?-  i.  •«,  .W,  H.        16  2  Sam.  xiii.  29,  xviii.  y. 


and  upon  a  colt  the  foal  of   ^  s^iTi 


an  ass. 


ST 
cir.  487. 


through  oppression,  affliction,  desolation, 
poverty,  persecution,  bereavement ;  but  only 
if,  at  the  same  time,  he  had  in  him  the  fruit 
of  all  these,  in  lowliness  of  mind,  submission 
to  God,  piety.  Thus  our  Lord  pronounces 
the  blessedness  of  "  the  poor  "  and  "  the  poor 
in  spirit,"  i.  e.  poor  in  estate,  who  are  poor 
in  soul  also.  But  in  no  case  does  it  express 
lowliness  of  mind  without  lowness  of  condi- 
tion. One  lowly,  who  was  not  afflicted, 
would  never  be  so  called.  The  Prophet  then 
declares  that  their  king  should  come  to  them 
in  a  poor  condition,  stricken,  stnitten,  ami 
afflicted^,  and  with  the  special  grace  of  that 
condition,  meekness,  gentleness  and  lowliness 
of  soul ;  and  our  Lord  bids  us,  "  Learn  of  Me, 
for  I  am  meek  and  louiy  of  heart.  " '"  He  saith 
of  Himself  in  the  Gospel,  "  The  foxes  have 
holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the 
Son  of  Man  hath  not  ivhere  to  lay  His  Head. 
•2  For  though  He  was  rich.  He  for  our  sa,kes 
became  poor,  that  we  through  His  poverty  might 
be  rich. 

Louiy  and  riding  upon  an  ass.  Kings  of  the 
earth  ride  in  state.  The  days  were  long 
since  by,  when  the  sons  of  the  judges  rode  on 
asses  ^^  Even  then  the  more  distinguished 
rode  on  white  (i.  e.  roan  ")  asses.  The  mule, 
as  a  taller  animal,  was  used  by  David  i*  and" 
his  sons'^  while  asses  were  used  for  his 
household  ",  and  by  Ziba,  Shimei,  Mephibos- 
heth,  Ahitophel  '^  and,  later,  by  the  old  pro- 
phet of  Bethel  i».  David  had  reserved  horses 
for  100  chariots '"',  after  the  defeat  of  the 
Syrians,  but  he  himself  did  not  use  them. 
Absalom  employed  chariots  and  horses'^^  as 
part  of  his  pomp,  when  preparing  to  dis- 
place his  father;  and  Solomon  multiplied 
them  '^'\  He  speaks  of  it  as  an  indignity  or 
reverse  ;  ^^  /  have  seen  servants  upon  horses,  and 
princes  walking,  as  servants,  upon  the  earth. 
The  burial  of  an  ass  became  a  proverb  for  a 
disgraced  end^*.  There  is  no  instance  in 
which  a  king  rode  on  an  ass,  save  He  Whose 
kingdom  was  not  of  this  world.  The  pro- 
phecy, then,  was  framed  to  prepare  the  Jews 
to  expect  a  prophet-king,  not  a  king  of  this 
world.  Their  eves  were  fixed  on  this  pas- 
sage. In  the  Talmud,  in  their  traditional 
interpretations,  and  in  their  mystical  books, 
they  dwelt  on  these  words.  The  mention  of 
the  ass,  elsewhere,  seemed  to  them  typical  of 
this  ass,  on  whicli  their  Messiah  sliould  ride. 
"  If   a  man  in  a  dream  seeth  an  ass,"  says 

nib.  xvi.  2.  ,^      .. 

18  lb.  xvi.  1,  xvii.  23,  xix.  20,  1  Kgs  ii.  40. 

i»  1  Kgs  xiii.  13,  23,  27.  «>  2  Sam.  Tbi.  i. 

21  lb.  XV.  1.  .       , 

•^1  Kes  iv.  26,  x.  26,  2  Chr.  i.  14,  ix.  2o. 

■a  EeH.  x.  7.  '*  -^er.  xxii.  10. 


404 


ZECHARIAH. 


the  Talmud  ',  "  he  shall  see  salvation."  It 
is  an  instance  of  a  prophecy  which,  humanly 
speaking,  a  false  Messiah  could  liave  ful- 
filled, but  which,  from  its  nature,  none  would 


1  Berachoth  f.  5G.  2  (in  Schottgen  ad  loc).  There 
was  a  general  consent  among  the  Jews,  that  this 
prophecy  related  to  the  Messiah.  R.  Joseph  (prob- 
ably "the  pious,"  the  disciple  of  Jochanan,  the  dis- 
ciple of  Hillel,  Wolf,  Bibl.  Hebr.  ii.  848,  844)  used  it 
as  an  argument  against  K.  Hillel,  who  disbelieved 
in  any  >Tessiah.  "  R.  Hillel, '  Israel  has  no  Messiah, 
for  tliey  enjoyed  him  in  the  days  of  Hozekiah.'  R. 
Josi^ph  said, '  Lord,  forgive  R.  Hillel!'  When  did 
Hezekiah  live?  In  [the  time  of]  the  first  temple. 
But  Zechariah  propnesied  in  [the  time  of]  the 
second  temple  ;  '  Rejoice  greatly,  daughter  of  Zion, 
behold,  thy  king  cometh  unto  thee,  righteous  and 
vosha\"  lie  said  also,  "O  that  he  may  come,  and 
that  I  may  be  worthy  to  sit  in  the  shadow  of  the 
dung  of  his  ass"  Sanhedrin,  f.  99.  1.  "ij.  Alex- 
andri  said,  that  It.  Joshua  ben  Levi  set  against  each 
other  the  Scriptures,  'Lo  there  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man,' 
and  that, '  lowly  and  riding  on  an  ass.'  Deserve  he 
[Israel], 'with  "the  clouds  of  heaven;'  deserve  he 
not,  '  lowly  and  riding  on  an  ass.'  "  lb.  f.  98.  "  All 
these  goods,  which  I  will  do  to  them  through  the 
merits  of  the  Jlessiah,  shall  be  extended  in  all 
those  years."  R.  Jannai  (about  A.  D.  KJu)  said  from 
Raf,  "whoever  looketh  for  salvation,  God  will  give 
hiih  rest  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  according  to  that, '  I 
will  feed  my  Hock  and  cause  them  to  lie  riown '  (Ezk. 
x.xxiv.  15.) 'Just  and  nosha.'  This  is  the  Messiah, 
whojustineth  his  judgment  against  Israel  because 
they  mocked  him,  because  he  sat  in  prison,  so  he 
is  called  'just.'  But  why  ^'B'lJ,  but  that  he  justifieth 
the  judgment  upon  them.  He  says  to  them, 'ye 
are  my  sons ;  are  ye  not  all  to  be  saved  only  by  the 
mercy  of  the  Holy  One,  blessed  be  He?'  'Afflicted 
and  riding  on  an  ass.'  This  is  the  Blessiah.  But 
why  is  his  name  called  'J_J,%  'afflicted?'  Because 
he  was  afflicted  all  those  years  in  prison,  and  the 
transgressors  of  Israel  mocked  him,  because  he 
rideth  upon  an  ass  on  account  of  the  wicked  who 
have  no  desert."  (a  dislocated  passage,  Schottg. 
says,  of  the  Pesiktn  Rabhathi  f.  01.  1.  2.  in  .Schottg. 
de  Messia,  loci  gen.  n.  xcvii.  p.  l.'JO.  The  Hebrew 
of  the  latter  part  is  given  by  Wunsche  d.  Leiden 
des  .Messias  p.  06.)  And  in  a  remarkable  passage 
on  Cant.  i.  4,  "  Let  us  exult  and  rejoice  in  thee." 
"  The  Matrona  is  like  a  royal  bride,  whose  husban<i 
the  king,  her  sons  and  sons-in-law,  were  gone 
beyond  sea.  When  they  brought  her  word  that  her 
sons  were  returned,  she  said. '  What  cause  of  joy 
have  I  ?  Let  my  danghters-in-law  rejoice  !'  Another 
messengercanie,  that  hersons-in-law  were  returned, 
she  answered, '  What  cause  of  joy  have  I  ?  Let  my 
daughters  rejoice !'  But  when  they  told  her  that 
the  king,  her  husband,  was  returned,  she  said, '  This 
is  perfect  joy,  a  joy  above  all  joys!'  So  also  in  the 
time  to  come,  the  time  of  the  Messiah,  the  prophets 
shall  come  to  Jerusalem  and  say,  (Is.  Ix.  4)  'thy 
sons  shall  come  from  far;'  she  will  answer, '  Wha"t 
<'ause  of  joy  have  I  ?'  The  prophets  will  a<ld, '  Thy 
daughters  shall  be  nurtured  by  thy  side  ;  'she  will 
answer  in  like  way.  But  when  they  shall  say  to 
her,  'Behold,  thy  king  cometh  unto  thee,  just  and 
a  .Saviour,'  then  she  shall  say, '  Tliis  is  perfect  joy;' 
its  in, '  Exult  greatly,  daughter  of  Zion,'  and  else- 
where, 'Sing  and  rejoice,  O  daughter  of  Zion."  Then 
she  shall  sav, '  I  will  greatly  rejoice  in  the  Lord, 
my  soul  shafi  be  joyful  in  niy  (rod  (Is.  Ixi.  10.)"' 
Shir  hasshiriiii  Rnbba  fol.  7.  'i  (in  Schottg.  loc.  gen. 
n.  v.,  ."Martini  f.  512).  They  quote  the  prophecy  also 
as  to  the  union  of  the  royal  and  priestly  offiees  of 
the  Messiah.  The  Bereshilh  Rabhn  had  on  CJen.  xiv. 
18,  "'.\nd  Melchizedec,  king  of  Salem.'  This  is 
the  na'ne  of  Shem,  the  son  ot  Noah.  What  would 
that  te:i''h,  •  he  brought  forth  bread  and  wine  ?'  R. 
Samuel  Hm-  Xuchman  said,  He  delivered  tc>  him  the 
ways  of  the  priesthood,  and  he  odereil  bread  and 
wine  lo  0'>>\,  as  it  is  said, 'He  was  piiest  of  the 


fulfill,  save  tlie  True.  For  their  minds  were 
set  on  earthly  glory  and  worldly  greatness : 
it  would  have  been  inconsistent  wiih  the 
claims  of  one,  whose  kingdom  was  of  this 

most  High  God,  king  of  Salem.'— Otherwise ;  Mel- 
chizedec ;  this  is  what  Scripture  saith, '  The  Lord 
sware  and  will  not  repent.  Thou  art  a  Priest  for 
ever  after  the  order  ol  Melchizedec'  And  who  is 
he?  This  is  the  king,  righteous  and  J.'U'IJ.  the 
king  Messiah,  according  to,  '  Behold  thy  king 
cometh  unto  thee,  righteous  and  _^^tyij.'  And  what 
would  that  teach,  'He  brought  forth  bread  and 
wine?'  It  is  as  is  said, '  Be  there  a  handful  of  corn 
upon  the  earth.'  (Ps.  Ixxii.  10.)  This  is  what  is 
written,  '.\nd  he  was  a  priest  of  the  most  High 
God.' "  (in  Mart.  f.  054  end.)  Or  they  argue  from 
i'tyiJi  as  to  the  free  mercy  of  God,"  God  says  to 
Israel,  If  your  merit  is  not  of  such  account,  I  do  it 
for  my  own  sake ;  for  day  by  day,  when  you  are  in 
trouble,  I  am  with  you,  as  "in, 'I  am  with  him  in 
trouble,'  (Ps.  xci.  15);  and  so  I  deliver  myself, 'And 
he  saw  that  there  was  no  one,  and  wondered  '  (Is. 
lix.  16.);  and  elsewhere, '  Exult  greatly,  daughter 
of  Zion — behold  thy  king  cometh  unto  thee,  just 

and  ^'tyU.'  It  is  not  written  j^'tJ^IOI  ["and  .saving"] 
but  _J'K'1J1  ["and  saved"];  whereby  it  is  hinted 
that,  though  your  merits  are  not  of  such  account, 
God  will  act  for  His  own  sake,  according  to, '  For 
my  salvation  is  near  to  come.' "  (Shemoth  Rnbba 
sect.  30..fol.  129.  1.  Schottg.  loc.  gen.  n.  ix.)  Martini 
quotes  a  like  saying  from  the  Bereshith  Rabba  on 
Gen.  xlix.  8.  "  R.Berachiah  the  priest,  son  of  Rabbi, 
said,  See  what  is  written, '  Rejoice  greatly  &c.'  It 
is  not  written,  'Just  and  _i''iyiO,  a  Saviour,'  but 
'Just  and  ^'tyij  saved,'  and  thus  he  says,  (Is.  Ixii. 
11.)  'Say  ye  to  the  daughter  of  Sion— it  is  not 
written, '  thy  Saviour  ("I^'-iyiO)  ccmeth,'  but,  •  Be- 
hold thy  salvation  (1>'C')  cometh.'  As  if  one 
might  so  speak, '  Israel  was  redeemed,  and  it  is  as 
if  God  were  redeemed,'  and  this  is  one  of  the  iiard 
Scriptures,  that  the  .salvation  of  Israel  is  the  .salva- 
tion of  God."  fol.  518.  Martini  quotes  also  from  a 
comment  on  Isaiah  ivii.  1.  "  The  righteous  perish- 
eth."  "  This  is  Messiah,  of  Whom  it  is  said, '  Just 
and  saved.'  "  f.  334. 

In  other  places,  the  riding^npon  the  ass  is  dwelt 
upon.  Midrash  Coheleth  on  feed.  i.  9.  f.  73.  .3.  "ft. 
Berachiah  said  from  R.  Isaac,  As  was  the  first  re- 
deemer, so  al.so  shall  be  the  last  redeemer.  What 
did  the  first  redeemer?  (Ex.  iv.  20.)  'And  Moses 
took  his  wife  and  his  sons  and  placed  them  on  an 
ass  ; '  the  second,  as  is  written, '  lowlv  and  riding  on 
an  ass.'"  (Martini  f. 380, and  0!io, Sehdttg.  Hor.  Hebr. 
on  S.  Matt.  xxi.  5.)  In  the  Midrash  Shemuel  f.  66. 1. 
the  saying  is  ascribed  to  7?.  Z<ei>i  (Schotter.  on  this 
place).  And  the  Pirke  R.  Eliezer  c.  31,  of  .•Vbraham's 
ass,  "This  is  the  ass,  on  which  the  son  of  David 
shall  ride,  according  to,  'Rejoice  greatly,  dauirhter 
of  Zion.'"'  nb.)  The  Zohar  owm*  that  the  prophecy 
relates  to  the  Messiah,  but  apologizes  for  it.  "It  is 
I  not  thecustomthat  thekingand  his  Matrona  .should 
j  ride  on  an  ass,  but  rather  on  horses,  as  in  (Hab.  iii. 
]  7.)  'For  thou  shalt  ride  on  thy  horses,  and  thy 
I  chariots  are  salvation.'  For  they  do  not  esteem  a 
matronasosllghtly,  that  she  shoufdride  onan  ass, as 
the  king  wonteth  not  to  ride  on  an  ass,  like  one  of 
the  people.  And  therefore  it  is  said  of  the  Messiah, 
'  Poor  and  rirling  upon  an  ass.'  .\nd  he  is  not  there 
called  king,  until  lie  ride  upon  his  horses,  which 
are  the  people  of  Israel."  (on  Levit.  f.  .38.  col.  MM.  in 
.Schottg.  de  Mess.  vi.  213.  p.  .54.{.)  Or  thev  say  great 
things  of  the  ass.  "This  ass  is  son  of  tne  .she-ass, 
which  was  create<l  within  the  six  days  in  the  twi- 
light. This  is  the  ass,  which  Abraham  saddled,  when 
he  purposed  to  sacrifice  Isaac.  This  is  the  ass,  on 
which  .Moses  was  carried  when  he  went  to  Egypt. 
This  is  the  ass,  on  which  the  son  of  David  shall  rid* 
hereafter."     Vnlkut  Rrubeni  (f  79,3,4  on  Ex"d.  It. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


405 


world.  It  belonged  to  the  character  of  Him, 
Who  was  buffeted,  mocked,  scourged,  spit 
upon,  crucified,  died  lor  us,  and  rose  again. 
It  was  Divine  humiliation,  which,   in   the 

20  in  Schottg.  on  S.  Matt.  xxi.  5.)  They  couuect  it 
with  Balaam's  ass.  "  This  is  the  ass  destined  foi* 
the  Messiah,  as  it  is  written, '  Poor  and  riding  on  an 
ass.""  (Zohar  Num.  f.  83.  col.  ,332.)  Or  they  speak 
of  his  reigning  thereon.  'This  is  the  as.s, on  which 
the  Messiah  shall  reign,'  as  it  is  written,  '  Poor  and 
riding  on  an  ass.' '.'  Zohar  Kum.  f.  83,  col.  332  (on 
Deut.  xxii.  10.)  in  Schottg.  de  Messia  vi.  2.  12.  p. 
."jiS.  The  mention  of  an  'ass'  in  Holy  Scripture 
suggests  the  thought  of  this  prophecj',  as  relating 
to  tne  Son  of  David.  '"And  I  have  oxen  and 
asses.'  Messiah  son  of  David  is  hinted  at  liere,  of 
whom  it  is  written, '  Meek  and  riding  upon  an  ass '  " 
Tanchuma  on  Gen.  xxxii.  G.  f.  12.  2.  (in  Schottg.  on 
S.  Matt.  xxi.  ft).  And  the  Bereshith  RahbaonGen.  xlix. 
14,  had,  "By  the  foot  of  the  o.x  (Is.  xxxii. 20.)  is  un- 
derstood Messias  son  of  Joseph,  according  to  Deut. 
xxxiii.  17.  'His  glory  is  of  the  firstling  of  a  bul- 
lock.' But  by  the  foot  of  the  ass,  Messiah  son  of 
David,  as  in  Zath., 'Meek  and  riding  on  an  ass.' " 
(in  Mart.  f.  330.  See  also  Schottg.  loc.  gen.  n.  liii.  and 
Lxxiv.)  "  When  he  shall  come,  of  Whom  it  is  writ- 
ten, "JJ?  and  riding  upon  an  ass,'  he  will  wash  his 
garments  in  wine,  i.  e.  make  clear  to  them  the  words 
of  the  law,  and  his  clothes  in  the  blood  of  grapes,  i.e. 
cleanse  them  from  their  errors."  lb.  f.  95.  col.  4. 
And  in  the  Bereshith  ketanna  on  Gen.  xlix.  11."  bind- 
ing his  foal  unto  the  vine  and  his  ass's  colt  unto  the 
choice  vine."  "This  is  he  of  whom  it  is  written, 
"Jj!  and  riding  Ac'  and  he  it  is  who  plantetli 
Israel  as  a  choice  vine  (Jer.  ii.  21) :  and  how  will  he 
do  it?  As  it  is  written,  I  will  sprinkle  clean  water 
&c.  Ezek.  xxxvi.  21."  Zohar  Deut.  f.  118.  col.  471.  in 
Schottg.  Horse  H.  on  Hab.  ii.  3.  p.  215.  "  After  that 
depth  (of  the  fulfillment  of  the  vision,  Hab.  ii.  3.) 
was  opened,  whoever  fell  into  it,  never  came  up. 
The  Messiah  Ben  David  fell  into  it,  with  the  Mes- 
siah ben  Joseph,  of  whom  one  is  '  poor  and  riding 
upon  an  ass,'  the  other, '  the  firstling  of  his  bullock' 
(Deut.  xxxiii.  17.),  viz.  the  Messiali  ben  Joseph. 
And  this  is  alluded  to  in  (Ex.  xxi.  23.)  '  If  any  one 
dig  a  pit  and  cover  it  not,  and  an  o.x  or  an  ass  fall 
therein.'  And  therefore  the  Messiah  is  called  '  Bar 
naphli'  'son  of  the  fallen."  The  Bereshith  Sabha 
quoted  the  prophecy  also  in.  proof  of  His  meek- 
ness. "When  the  king  Messias  shall  come  to 
Jerusalem  to  save  Israel,  he  shall  bind  his 
ass  and  ride  upon  it  and  come  to  Jerusalem, 
that  lie  mav  conduct  nimself  in  lowliness,  as 
it  is  saidj  '  lowly  and  riding  upon  an  ass.'  And 
his  ass's  toal  unto  the  choice  vine,  when  he  shall 
come  to  gather  the  congregation  of  Israel,  ["  which 
is  called  a  vine  in  that.  Thou  hast  brought  a  vine 
out  of  Egypt,"  added  in  Schottg.  loc.  gen.  n.  lix.l  as 
in  Zech.  x.  8.  'I  will  hiss  to  them  and  will  gather 
them,'  then  he  shall  ride  on  the  foal  of  his  ass,  as 
in  Zech.  ix.  9.  '  Rejoice  great!ii&c.'  And  is  it  not  of 
old  said  of  the  Messiah, '  And  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven  cometh  one  like  the  Son  of  man?' (Dan. 
vii.  13.)  If  Israel  deserveth, '  He  cometh  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven,'  and  if  he  deserveth  not, '  lowly 
and  riding  on  an  ass.'  on  Gen.  xlix.  11  in  Martini  f. 
656  (or  latter  part  as  in  Sanhedrin above).  In  times 
not  far  from  our  Lord,  the  Messiah  seems  to  be 
mentioned,  as  under  a  well-known  name,  "  he  who 
is  borne  upon  an  ass."  The  Zohar  quotes  a  revela- 
tion to  R.  Eliezer  and  R.  Abba,  "  Did  I  not  say  to  vou 
tliat  the  precept  of  the  king  lasts,  until  he  shall 
come  who  is  borne  on  an  ass?"  (Zohar  Gen.  in 
Schottg.  loc.  gen.  n.  xxxi.  7  p.  79.)  And  'Jj; 
"afflicted  "  becomes  an  indication  that  the  passage 
relates  to  the  Messiah.  Thus  'the  steps  of  the 
needy,'  ''J^',  (Is.  xxvi.  6.)  is  explained  '  This  is  the 
Messiah,  "'Jj;  and  riding  on  an  ass.'  (Bereshith 
R.  on  Gen.  xlix.  10.  Mart.  f.  CoC.)  The  Midrash 
TehiUim  explains  Ps.  xc.  15,  " '  according  to  the  davs 
of  the  Messiah.'    The  word,  IJiTJ^  'hast  afflict,  il 


purpose  of  God,  was  t<i  be  compensated  by 
Divine  power.  In  itself  it  would,  if  insulated, 
have  been  unmeaning.  The  Holy  Ghost 
prophesied  it,  Jesus  fulfilled  it,  to  shew  the 

us'  corresponds  to  the  other,  "Jj;  afflicted  and 
riding  on  an  ass,'  as  if  he  would  say  'according  to 
the  days  of  our  afflicted. '"  (in  Schottg.  ad  loc.  p. 
242.)  and  the  Zohar  Chadash  on  Eccl.ix.  14.  sqq. 
"  A  little  city  is  Zion  ;  '  and  a  few  men  in  it : '  these 
are  the  six  days  of  the  creation ;  and  there  came  a 
great  king  against  it,' this  is  a  certain  one;  'and 
there  was  found  in  it  a  poor  wise  man.'  This  is 
Messiah  Ben  David,  as  it  is  said, '  'Jj*  and  riding 
upon  an  ass '  and  '  the  righteous  perishetb  '  (Is. 
Ivii.  1.)  so  long  as  the  overflowing  cometh  not  upon 
him,  it  is  said, '  the  river  shall  be  wasted  and  dried 
up.'  (Is.  xix.  5.)  '  The  ass,'  that  is  Samael,  and  the 
wise  man,  that  is  Messiah  Ben  David,  and  of  him 
it  is  said, '  and  he  delivered  the  city  by  his  wisdom.' 
And  he  shall  be  the  deliverer  of  Messiah  ben  Eph- 
raim.  And  this  is  a  redemption  from  above."  (f. 
63.  2.  in  Schottg.  loc.  gen.  n.  103.  filled  up  from 
Wiinsche  Leiden  d.  IViess.  p.  105.)  Schottgeu  ad 
loc.  quotes  also  from  the  Zohar  Deut.  117.  col.  465. 

The  name  Tion  is  understood  as  indicating  tlie 
Messiah.  "By  the  word  "IIDITI,  'ass 'is  indicated 
the  king  Messiah,  according  to  that,  'poor  and 
riding  on  an  ass.' "  Bereshith  Rabba  sect.  75,  f.  74. 
2.  in  Schottg.  ad  loc. 

In  later  times,  R.  Saadiah  Gaon  said  on  Daniel 
vii.  13;  "'And  behold  with  the  clouds  of  heaven 
one  came  like  a  Son  of  man.'  This  is  the  Messiah 
our  righteousness,  and  is  it  not  written  of  the  Mes- 
siah, "JJ^  and  riding  upon  an  ass?'  i.  e.  he  shall 
come  with  meekness,  for  he  shall  not  come  o'a 
horses  with  pride ;  and  '  the  clouds  of  lieaven  '  they 
are  the  Angels  of  the  heavenl.y  host.  This  is  the 
exceeding  greatness,  which  the  Creator  shall  give 
to  the  Messiah."  And  Rashi  saj's,  "This  cannot  be 
explained,  except  of  king  Messiah ;  for  it  is  said  of 
him,  'and  his  dominion  shall  be  from  sea  to  sea; ' 
but  we  do  not  find  that  such  an  one  ruled  over  Is- 
rael in  the  time  of  the  second  house ; "  and  (on 
Exod.  iv.  20)  "  On  an  ass  the  Messiah  will  reveal 
himself,  according  to  'Meek  and  riding  on  an  ass.'" 
(in  Schottg.  ad  loc^  The  first  who  referred  it  to 
any  other  was  R.  Mosch  Haccohcn  (A.  D.  1148),  whom 
Ihii  Ezra  quotes,  as  explaining  it  of  "Nehemiah, 
the  Tirshatha,  because  of  him  it  was  said, '  There 
is  a  king  in  Judah;'  and  that  there  was  no  men- 
tion of  a  horse,  because  he  was  poor;  "  which,  Ibn 
Ezra  says,  was  contrary  to  the  fact  in  Nehemiah, 
and  also  tiie  mention  of  the  Greeks  did  not  suit 
his  times.  Ibn  Ezra  says  that,  as  far  as  he  knows, 
"  it  was  the  king  Judas  the  Hasmonsean,  whose 
might  suited  that,  '  I  have  made  thee  like  the 
sword  of  a  mighty  man,'  and  his  hand  was  mighty 
against  the  Greeks,  and  at  first  he  had  not  wealth 
or  horses."  These  were  private  opinions ;  for  Ibn 
Ezra  says,  "  The  expositors  are  divided  about  it; 
some  say,  this  king  is  Messiah  ben  David,  and  some 
say,  Messiah  ben  Joseph."  Both  then  agreed  that 
ho  was  a  Messiah.  Abarbanel  says  of  Ibn  Ezra;  "I 
wonder  that  his  ill  intent  blinded  his  understand- 
ing ;  for  lo,  Judas  the  Hasmonrean  was  never  called 
king,  all  his  days,  much  less  of  Zion  ;  that  had  he 
prophesied  of  the  Hasmonsean,  what  had  he  to  do 
with  Ephraim,  since  the  kingdom  of  Ephraim  was 
not  in  the  second  temple ;  also  he  did  not  speak 
peace  to  all  nations,  and  did  not  rule  from  sea  to  sea." 
(On  his  own  exposition  see  below.)  Even  R.  Isaac. 
(Chizz,  Emunah  c.  35  p.  293  Wagenseil),  denying  it. 
as  to  our  Lord,  insists  upon  it  as  relating  to  their 
Messiah  whom  they  looked  for.  R.  Bechai  says 
that  "Jacob  (Gen.  xlix.  11)  used  the  words  n^'J,' 
'  his  ass '  and  IJirX  '331  'the  foal  of  his  ass,'  be- 
cause it  is  written  of  him  (the  king  Messiah)  'and 
upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass  '  (the  same  words  be- 
ing used,  r\1JiriK  p  TJ.^.  Binat-hatthorah  ad  loc. 
f.  r\!0  col.  3.  Amst.)  R.  Tanchum  admits  the  diffi- 
culty of  supposing  it  to  relate  to  a  future  Messiah, 


406 


ZECHARIAH. 


Jews,  of  what  nature  Hi?  kin'-'<lom  was. 
Hence  the  challenge  ;  "  ^  Let  us  look  at  the 
prophecy,  that  in  words,  and  that  in  act. 
What  is  the  prophecy  ?  Lo,  thy  kiiuj  cometfi 
unto  thee,  meek,  and  i^itting  upon  an  as.?,  and 
upon  a  colt;  not  driving  chariots  as  other 
kings,  not  in  pomp  nor  attended  by  guards, 
but  shewing  herein  also  all  gentleness.  Ask 
the  Jew  then.  What  king,  riding  on  an  ass, 
came  to  Jerusalem  ?  lie  could  name  none, 
save  this  One  alone."  An  ancient  writer 
says,  "  ■■'  The  Greeks  too  "  (not  the  Jews  only) 
"  will  laugh  at  us,  saying,  that  '  The  God  of 
the  Christians,  Who  is  called  Christ,  sat  u[)on 
an  ass.'"  The  same  mockery  was  probably 
intended  by  Sapor*  king  of  Persia,  which 
the  Jews  met  with  equal  pride.  The  taunt 
continues  till  now.  "  *  It  is  not  hid  from 
you,  O  congregation  of  Christians,  that  '  rider 
upon  an  ass '  indicates  Christ."  The  Moham- 
medans appropriate  the  title  "  rider  upon  a 
camel"  to  Mohammad,  as  the  grander  animal  ^ 
The  taunt  of  worshiping  "  Him  Who  sat  upon 
an  ass  "  Avas  of  the  same  class  as  those  of  the 

or,  since  as  a  Jew,  he  could  not  interpret  it  of  Jesus, 
of  interpreting  it  of  any  one  in  the  time  of  the 
second  temple.  "Some  of  the  interpreters  make 
■  this  consolation  an  announcement  of  the  Ex- 
pected (mav  he  soon  be  revealed  !)  and  this  is  found 
in  most  of' the  Midrashoth  of  the  ancient  wise 
(blessed  be  their  memory  !)  and  the  obvious  mean- 
ing of  his  words,  'and  his  dominion  is  from  sea  to 
sea  and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  ths  earth  ' 
supports  this;  and  some  of  them  think,  that  from 
the  context  it  relates  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
second  house,  and  this  is  supported  by  his  words 
in  the  passage,  'And  I  will  raise  thy  sons,  U  Ziou, 
against  thy  sons,  O  Greece,'  which  was  in  the  sec- 
ond house,  through  the  Hasmonwans,  and  now  the 
empire  of  Greece  is  dispersed  and  gone.  How  then 
should  he  promise  help  against  it  in  the  future? 
And  altogether  the  word  ol  the  prophecies  admits 
of  the  interpretation.  And  many  vary  therein 
from  one  meaning  to  the  other.  And  therefore  we 
will  mention  how  the  language  can  be  explained 
according  to  each  opinion.  And  God,  most  high, 
knows  what  is  hidden  !  The  meaning  then  of '  "J^ 
and  riding  upon  an  ass'  is,  in  my  opinion,  in  the 
first  way,  beautiful ;  that  'jj;  means  one  who  hum- 
bles himself,  like  (Is.  Ixvi.  2) '  And  to  this  man  will 
1  look,  to  the  humble  ('JJ?)  and  contrite  of  spirit," 
not  weak  in  condition  ;  on  account  then  of  his  low- 
liness he  will  ride  upon  an  ass."  (He  compares 
the  reduplication  to  that  in  Gen.  xlix.  11.)  "Or," 
he  .says,  "the  whole  of  this  may  be  a  metaphor  for 
self-abjection,  not  an  actual  history;  and  what  is 
known,  is  that  this  is  his  condition  at  first  for  his 
weakness  and  lowness  ;  afterward  he  will  attain  his 
later  condition  in  strength  and  felicity.  And  so  for 
the  .second  wav,  this  points  to  the  return  of  the 
kingdom  to  Israel  through  the  Hasmomeans,  and 
his  saving  '  meek  and  riding  upon  an  ass '  indicates 
their  first  king,  Judas  the  Ilasmonman,  and  he,  at 
the  outset,  was  weak,  because  he  followed  upon  the 
oppression  of  Greece,  according  to  what  has  been 
transmitted  of  that  history;  and  that,  'his  domin- 
ion shall  be  from  sea  to  sea  Ac'  this  is  the  kingdom 
to  which  he  attained  at  last,  and  the  extension  of 
liis  house;  and  In-  means  by  this,  'from  the  red 
sea  to  the  sea  of  the  Philistines  and  from  the  river 
to  the  end  of  the  habitable  land  ; '  and  this  is, '  .\nd 
from  the  river  Ac'  and  thus  words, '  I  will  raise  up 
thy  sons,  O  Zion,  against  thy  sons,  0  Greece,'  will 
fit.  And  in  the  first  way  ;  •  from  sea  to  sea  '  will  be 
the  encircling  sea  [theOcean]  and  from  the  river 
which  is  the  bound  of  the  land  of  Israel  to  the  fur- 


worshiji  of  the  Crucified;  "^one  dead  and 
crucified,  who  could  not  save  himself;"  ''a 
crucified  Man,"  "  that  great  Man,"  or  lif  it 
suited  them  so  to  speak  I  "  tluit  great  sopliist 
who  was  crucified,"  but  Who  now,  for  above 
181)0  years,  reigns,  "  to  all,  the  King  ;  to  all, 
the  Judge  ;  to  all.  Lord  and  (jod."  " '  Christ 
did  not  only  fidfiU  prophecies  or  plant  the 
doctrines  of  truth,  but  did  thereby  also  order 
our  life  for  us,  everywhere  laying  down  for 
us  rules  of  necessary  use  and,  by  all,  correct- 
ing our  life."  Even  Jews,  having  rejected 
our  Lord,  saw  this.  "  Not  from  poverty," 
says  one*,  "for  behold  the  whole  world  shall 
be  in  his  power — but  from  humility  he  will 
ride  upon  an  ass ;  and  further  to  shew  that 
Israel  [vi/..  the  establishment  of  His  kingdom 
or  Church]  shall  not  want  horse  nor  chariot : 
therefore  it  is  added,  And  I  wilt  cut  off  the 
chariot /row  Ephraim  and  the  horse  from  Jern- 
salem."'  And  another";  "He,  i.  e.  thy  true 
king  David,  shall  come  to  thee  ;  and  he  men- 
tions of  his  qualities  that  he  shall  be  righteous 
and  nosha'  ^"in  his  wars;  but  his  salvation 

thest  habitable  earth."  He  answers  the  reference 
to  Kehemiah,  but  ends  by  leaving  the  other  two 
open.  JJosM  ben  ydch man  quotes  it  in  illustration 
of  the  contempt  of  the  Messiah  spoken  of  in  Isaiah 
lii.  1.3.  liii.  a.  7.  "  Tiieirs  [the  kings']  astonishment 
was  shewn  by  mocking  him,  when  he  first  arrived, 
and  by  asking,  liow  one 'despised,  meek  and  riding 
upon  an  ass,'  could  conciuer  all  the  kings  of  the 
world  who  had  laid  hold  on  Israel?— He  was 'de- 
spised,' for  he  had  no  army  and  no  people,  but  was 
'meek  and  riding  on  an  ass,'  like  the  first  redeem- 
er Moses  our  master,  when  he  entered  in  Egypt 
with  his  wife  and  children  riding  upon  an  ass.  (Ex. 
iv.  20.)  '  He  was  oppressed  and  he  was  afflicted,' 
for  when  he  first  comes  '  meek  and  riding  upon  an 
ass,'  the  oppressors  and  officers  of  every  city  will 
come  to  him,  and  afflict  him  with  revilings  and  in- 
sult, reproaciiing  both  him  and  the  God  in  whose 
name  he  appears,  like  Moses  our  master,  who,  when 
Pharaoh  said,  I  know  not  the  Lord,  answered  him 
not."  In  Jewish  Commentaries  on  Is.  liii.  p.  80,  81. 
The  modern  school,  which  rids  itself  of  defini  e 
prophecy,  would  liave  this  relate  to  "the  ideal  Mes- 
siah." One  does  not  see,  how  a  literal  prophecy, 
fulfilled  to  the  letter,  can  relate  to  an  ideal  king; 
unless  on  the  implied  assumption,  "  There  cnn  be 
no  prophecy  of  a  definite  event."  '  S.  Chiys.  in 

S.  Matt.  Hom.  Gfi.  p.  656  marg.  Ed.  Oxou. 

2  Author  of  the  Hom.  in  S.  Matt.  xxi.  2.  in  the  Du- 
biaof  S.  Athan.  n.  C.  0pp.  ii.  77. 

3  "  King  Sapor  said  to  K.  Samuel, '  Ye  say  that  the 
Messiah  comes  upon  an  ass,  I  will  send  him  ahor.se 
[epithet  uncertain]  which  I  have,  He  answered, 
'Hast  thou  one  with  luo  colors'  (so  Rashi)  or,  'with 
1000  qualities.'  (Aruch  and  Reland  Diss.  ix.  T.  i.288, 
2(t8.)  Sanhedr.  f.  08.  1.  "  In  the  deep  humility  of 
the  Messiah,"  subjoins  Lightfoot,  "they  dream 
of  pride  even  in  his  ass."  Hor.  Hebr.  on  S.  Matt. 
x.\i.  5. 

<  Epist.  Mohammedan.  Anon,  inserted  by  Hack- 
span  Nizzach.  pp.  ;»7-401. 

6  The  titles  "rider  on  an  ass,"  "rider  on  a  camel," 
are  derived  from  Is.  xxi.  14. 

•  See  Lucian  de  morte  Peregrini  c.  11, 1,3.  Trjrpho 
in  S.  Justin  Dial.  n.  14.  p.  8.3.  Oxf  Tr.  Celsus  in 
Origen  c.  Cels.  viii.  12.  14. 1.^.  and  others  in  Pusey'a 
Lenten  Sermons  pp.  454,  4.55.  Liddon's  Bampton 
Lectures  pp.  392-297.  ed  2.  Kortholt  de  calumniis 
Pagan,  c.  4  pp.  31-3r>. 

7  S.  Chrys.  1.  c.  p.  0,5.5.  »  Kimchl. 
•Abarbanel  in  his  Mashm'a  Yeshu'ah  p.  73. 

">  I  leave  the  word  nosha'  untranslated,  in  order 
not  to  give  any  possible  color  to  his  words,  thouglx 


CHAPTER  IX. 


407 


,^ll(TcT        10  And  I  'will  cut  off 

c"'-  *^'^-      the  chariot  from  Ephraim, 

SL^l'ii  '        and  the  horse  from  Jerusa- 

Mic.  5.  10. 
Hag.  2.  22. 


lem,  and   the   battle  bow 


shall  not  be  from  strength  of  his  wai*s,  for  he 
shall  come  loidy  and  riding  upon  an  ass^. 
And  riding  on  an  ass,  this  is  not  on  account 
I  if  his  want,  but  to  shew  that  peace  and  truth 
shall  be  in  his  days ;  and  therefore  he  says 
forthwith,  And  I  icill  cut  off  the  chariot  from 
Ephraim  and  the  horse  from  Jerusalem ;  viz. 
that  such  shall  be  the  peace  and  stillness  in 
the  world,  that  in  Ephraim  (i.  e.  the  tribes) 
and  in  Jerusalem  (i.  e.  the  kingdom  of 
Judah)  they  shall  trust  no  more  in  horse  and 
in  rider,  but  in  the  name  of  God.  And 
because  it  is  the  way  of  princes  and  chiefs  to 
take  example  from  the  life  of  tlieir  kings, 
and  to  do  as  they,  therefore  he  saith,  that 
when  the  king  JNIessiah  rideth  upon  an  ass, 
and  has  no  pleasure  ni  the  strength  of  a  horse, 
there  will  be  no  otlier  in  Jerusalem  or  the 
lands  of  tlie  tribes,  who  will  have  pleasure  in 
riding  on  a  horse.  And  therefore  he  says, 
And  IvAll  cut  off  the  chariot  from  Ephraim  and 
the  horse  from  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  assigns  the 
reason  for  this,  when  he  says,  Aiul  the  battle- 
bow  shall  be  cut  off,  and  he  shall  speak  peace 
among  the  nations,  i.  e.  there  shall  be  no  more 
war  in  the  world,  because  he  shsdl  speak  peace 
unto  the  nations,  and  by  the  ivorcl  of  his  lips  ^  he 
.shall  dispose  peace  unto  them." 

And  upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  a,s.s.  The 
word  rendered  colt,  as  with  us,  signifies  the 
young,  as  yet  unbroken  animal.  In  the  ful- 
fillment, our  Lord  directed  His  disciples  to 
find  ^an  ass  tied,  ami  a  colt  with  her,  whereon 
never  man  sat.  The  prophet  foretold  that  He 
Avould  ride  on  both  animals ;  our  Lord,  by 
commanding  both  to  be  brought,  shewed  that 
the  prophet  had  a  special  meaning  in  nam- 
ing both.  S.  Matthew  relates  that  both 
were  employed.  "  They  brought  the  ass  and 
the  colt,  and  put  on  them  their  clothes,  and 
they  set  Him  thereon."  The  untrained  colt, 
an  appendage  to  its  mother,  was  a  yet  humb- 
ler animal.  But  as  the  whole  action  was  a 
picture  of  our  Lord's  humility  and  of  the  un- 
earthliness  of  His  kingdom,  so,  doubtless, 
His  riding  upon  the  two  animals  was  a  part 
of  that  picture.  There  was  no  need  of  tM^o 
animals  to  bear  our  Lord  for  that  short  dis- 
tance. S.  John  notices  especially,  *  These 
things  understood  not  His  disciples  at  the  first. 
The  ass,  an  unclean  stupid  debased  ignoble 
drudge,  was  in  itself  a  picture  of  unregener- 
ate  man,  a  slave  to  his  passions  and  to  devils, 


he  seems  from  the  context  to  take  it  actively  "Sav- 
iour." 1  He  says  here  that  ^ JU  is  like  1 J y. 

2  Is.  xxvl,  12. 

»S.  Matt.  xxi.  2,  S.  Mark  xi.  2,  S.  Luke  xix.  30. 


shall  be  cut  off:  and  he 
shall  speak  'peace  unto  the. 
heathen :  and  his  dominion 
shall  be  "  from  sea  even  to ' 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

Eph.  2.  14, 17. 

'Ps.  72.8. 


toiling  under  the  load  of  ever-increasing  sin. 
But,  of  man,  the  Jew  had  been  under  the 
yoke  and  was  broken  ;  the  Gentiles  were  the 
wild  unbroken  colt.  Both  were  to  be  brought 
under  obedience  to  Christ. 

10.  And  I  will  cut  off  the  chariot.  The  horse 
is  the  symbol  of  worldly  powei',  as  the  ass  is 
of  meekness.  Some,  says  the  Psalmist,  ^put 
their  trust  in  chariots,  and  some  in  horses;  but 
we  will  remember  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God. 
®  A  horse  is  but  a  vain  thing  to  save  a  man.  '  He 
delighteth  not  in  the  strength  of  a  horse.  In 
scarcely  any  place  in  Holy  Scripture  is  the 
horse  spoken  of  in  relation  to  man,  except 
as  the  instrument  of  war.  It  represents 
human  might,  which  is  either  to  be  conse- 
crated to  the  Lord,  or  destroyed  by  Him  ". 
As  the  ^  stone,  cut  out  without  hands,  broke  in 
pieces  and  absorbed  into  itself  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world,  so  here  He,  Whose  King- 
dom should  not  be  of  this  world,  should 
supersede  human  might.  His  kingdom  was  to 
begin  by  doing  away,  among  His  followers, 
all,  whereby  human  kingdoms  are  estab- 
lished. He  first  cuts  ofl['the  chariot  and  the 
horse,  not  from  His  enemies,  but  from  His 
own  people  ;  His  people,  not  as  a  civil  polity, 
but  as  the  people  of  God.  For  the  prophet 
speaks  of  them  as  Ephraim  and  Jtidah, 
but  Ephraim  had  no  longer  a  distinct  exist- 
ence. 

Aiul  He  shall  speak  peace  unto  the  heathen,  as 
the  Apostle  says,  *"  He  came  and  preached  peace 
to  you  which  were  afar  off,  and  to  them  that  were 
nigh.  He  shall  speak  it  to  them,  as  He  Who 
hath  power  to  give  it  to  them,  peace  with 
God,  peace  in  themselves,  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  God  and  man,  and  the  remission  of 
their  sins. 

"  ^^  At  His  birth  the  heavenly  host  an- 
nounced peace  to  men  ;  all  His  doctrine  has 
peace  for  its  end ;  when  His  death  was  at 
hand.  He  especially  commended  peace  to 
His  disciples,  that  peace  which  the  world 
knoweth  not,  which  is  contained  in  tranquil- 
lity of  mind,  burning  zeal  for  charity.  Di- 
vine grace.  This  same  peace  He  brought  to 
all  who  gathered  themselves  to  His  empire 
and  guidance,  that,  emerging  from  intestine 
wars  and  foul  darkness,  they  might  behold 
the  light  of  liberty,  and,  in  all  wisdom  keep 
the  grace  of  God." 

And  His  dominion  shall  be  from  sea  to  sea. 


*S.  John  xii.  16. 
Bib.  xxxiii.  17. 

8  See  Mi.  v.  10. 

9  Dan.  ii.  34. 


>  Eph.  ii.  17. 


6  Ps.  XX.  7. 
'  lb.  cxlvii.  10. 


n  Oaor. 


408 


ZECHAKIAH. 


^  Before       gga    and   from   the  river 

CHKISI  ni 

cir.  4S7.      even  to   the  ends   of  the 


I  Or,  whose  cove-         ,•, 
nant  U  by  earth. 

Ex' 24. 8.  1 1  As  for  thee  also,  \  \  by 

A  Is.'  20.  ^'     the  blood  of  thy  covenant 


The  bounds  of  the  promised  land,  in  its  ut- 
most range,  on  the  West,  were  the  Mediter- 
ranean sea ;  on  the  East,  the  cjreat  nver,  the 
Euphrates.  The  prophet  pictures  its  exten- 
sion, so  as  to  embrace  the  whole  world, 
taking  away,  first  the  one  bound,  then  the 
other.  From  sea  to  sea  is  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  the  extremest  East,  where  the 
Ocean  encircles  the  continent  of  Asia  ;  from 
the  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  is  from  the 
Euphrates  to  the  extremest  West,  embracing 
the  whole  of  Europe  ;  and  whatever  may  lie 
beyond,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  where  earth 
ceaseth  to  be^  It  is  this  same  lowly  and 
afUicted  king.  Whose  entry  into  Jerusalem 
is  on  a  despised  animal,  Who  shall,  by 
His  mere  will,  make  war  to  cease,  Who 
shall,  by  His  mere  word,  give  peace  to  the 
heathen. 

11.  As  for  thee  also.  The  Prophet  turns 
from  the  deliverance  of  the  whole  world  to 
the  former  people,  the  sorrows  which  they 
should  have  in  the  way,  and  the  protection 
which  God  would  bestow  upon  them  for  the 
sake  of  Him,  Who,  according  to  tiie  flesh, 
was  to  be  born  of  them.  Thou  too  ;  he  had 
spoken  of  the  glories  of  the  Church,  such  as 
her  king,  when  He  should  come,  siiould  ex- 
tend it,  embracing  earth's  remotest  bounds : 
he  turns  to  her,  Israel  after  the  flesh,  and 
assures  her  of  the  continued  protection  of 
God,  even  in  her  lowest  estate.  The  deliver- 
ance under  the  Maccabees  was,  as  those  under 
the  judges  had  been,  an  image  of  the  salva- 
tion of  Christ  and  a  preparation  for  it.  They 
were  martyi-s  for  the  One  God  and  for  the 
faith  in  the  Resurrection,  and,  whether  by 
doing  or  by  suffering,  preserved  the  sacred 
line,  until  Christ  should  come. 

By  the  blood  of  thy  covenant.  "  *  Not  by  the 
blood  of  those  victims  of  old,  but  by  the  blood 
of  thy  covenant,  wilt  thou  be  united  to  the 
empire  of  Christ,  and  so  obtain  salvation.  As 
tlie  Lord  Himself  says,  IViis  is  the  blood  of 
covenant,  which  is  shed  for  you."  '  The  gifts 
and  calling  of    God    are    without  repentance. 

1  See  "  Daniel  the  Prophet."  p-  483.  »  Osor. 

8  Rom.  xi.  29.  Exod.  xxiv.  8. 

6  As  in  Gen.  xxxvii.  24.  «P.s.  xl.2. 

1  Lam.  iii.  53, 55,  5G.        8  8.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei.  xviii. 

35.  3.  •  jny3  is  arr.  Acy. 

'0  Ps.  xxvii.  1.  add  xxxi.  5,  xxxvii.  30,  xliii.  2,  Iii.  9. 
n  Joel  iv.  10.  [iii.  Ifi  Eng.]  >»  Nah.  i.  7. 

"Ty  SlJ'D  Ps.  ixi.  3.  >«Pr.  xviii.  10. 

"  Ps.  xxxi.  3,  5.  [2,  4,  Eng.]  ••  Kim. 

"mpPn.    The  only  place,  where  it  has  the  art. 


I  have  sent  forth  thy  'pris-    ^  h  r°i"  t 
oners  out  of  the  pit  where-      '''*'•  •*^'^- 
in  is  no  water.  » isai.  42. 7. 

12  ^  Turn   you   to  the  4ci!i.' 
strong  hold,  ^ye  prisoners  ^  isai.  49. 9. 


That  symbolic  blooil,  by  which,  fore-signify- 
ing the  new  Covenant,  He  made  them  His 
own  people,  *  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant, 
which  the  Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning 
all  these  ivords,  endured  still,  amid  all  their 
unfaitlifulness  and  breaches  of  it.  By  virtue 
of  it  God  would  send  forth  her  imprisoned 
ones  out  of  the  deep,  dry  pit,  the  dungeon 
wherein  they  could  be  kept  securely,  because 
life  was  not  threatened'.  Out  of  any  depth 
of  hopeless  misery,  in  which  they  seemed  to 
be  shut  up,  God  would  deliver  them ;  as 
David  says,  "  He  brought  me  up  also  out  of  a 
horrible  pit,  out  of  the  miry  clay,  and  set  my  feet 
upon  a  rock  and  estahlished  my  goings ;  and 
Jeremiah,  '  Tlwy  have  cut  off  my  life  in  the 
dungeon,  and  cast  a  stone  upon  me.  I  called 
upon  Thy  Name,  0  Lord ;  out  of  the  low  dun- 
geon Thou  hast  heard  my  voice.  "*The  dry 
and  barren  depth  of  human  misery,  where 
are  no  streams  of  righteousness,  but  the  mire 
of  iniquity." 

12.  Turn  ye  to  the  stronghold  ",  i.  e.  Almighty 
God  ;  as  the  Psalmists  so  often  say  '",  The  Lord 
is  the  defence  of  my  life  ;  and  Joel  '^,  The  Lord 
shall  be  a  stronghold  of  the  children  of  Israel ; 
and  Nahum  *^,  The  Lord  is  a  stronghold  in  the 
day  of  trouble  ;  And,  David  said,  '^  Thou  hast 
been  a  shrlter  for  me,  a  strong  tower  against  the 
enemy  ^* ;  the  Name  of  the  Lord  is  a  strong  tower, 
the  righteous  runneth  into  it  and  is  safe;  and 
again,  ^^  Be  Thou  to  nu  a  rock  of  strength,  a 
house  of  defence  to  save  me — Bring  me  forth  out 
of  the  net  that  they  have  laid  privily  for  me;  for 
Thou  art  my  stronghold.  The  stronghold,  "  cut 
off"  from  all  approach  from  an  enemy,  stands 
in  contrast  with  the  deep  dungeon  of  calam- 
ity. The  return  must  be  a  willing  return, 
one  in  their  own  power  ;  return  to  the  strong- 
hold, which  is  Almighty  God,  must  be  by 
conversion  of  heart  and  will.  Even  a  Jew- 
ish commentator'*  paraphrases,  "Turn  ye  to 
God  ;  for  He  is  a  stronghold  and  tower  of 
strength." 

Ye  prisoners  o/[<Ae]  hope  "  not,  accordingly, 
any  hope,  or  generally,  hope,  but  the  special 

It  is  used  12  timos  with  different  pronouns;  r.  times 
with  the  gen.,  of  him  whose  expectation  is  spoken 
of;  it  is  used  absolutely  13  times,  viz.  5  times  of  a 
hope  which  will  not  fail,  in  the  idiom  HIpH  t!^' 
Ruth  i.  12.  Jer.  xxxi.  17.  .n  15'''  'D  Job  xi.  18,  xiv.7, 
Pr.  xix.  18,  modified  by  'SlK  Lam.  iii.  29,  with  \a, 
.Bolid  expectation  which  a  person  has.  Job.  v.  16,  Pr. 
xxvi.  12,  xxix.  20:  given  by  God,  Hos.  ii.  17,  Jer. 
xxix.  11;  twice  with  the  nog.,  the  absence  of  oW 
hope,  Job  vii.  C,  Pr.  xi.  7.  [all.] 


CHAPTER  IX. 


409 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

« Isai.  61.  7. 


of  hope :  even  to  day  do  I 
.  declare  that '  I  will  render 
double  unto  thee ; 

13  When  I  have  bent 
Judah  for  me,  filled  the 


hope  of  Israel,  the  hope  which  sustained  them 
in  all  those  years  of  patient  expectations,  as 
S.  Paul  speaks  of  '  the  hope  of  Israel,  for  which 
he  says,  lam  bound  with  this  chain.  '^I  stand 
to  be  judged  for  the  hope  of  the  promise  niade  by 
God  unto  our  fathers,  unto  lohich  promise  our 
twelve  tribes,  serving  God  instantly  day  and 
night,  hope  to  come  ;  for  which  hope's  sake,  King 
Agrippa,  I  am  accused  of  the  Jews.  And  in 
his  Epistles,  ^the  hope  laid  up  for  you  in 
heaven;  *  the  hope  of  the  Gospel;  and,  ^looking 
for  the  blessed  hope  and  the  glorious  appearing  of 
the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 
He  writes  also  of  "^keeping  the  rejoicing  of 
the  hope  firm  unto  the  end;"  of  "  Uhe  full 
assurance  of  the  hope  unto  the  end ; "  of 
"^fleeing  to  lay  hold  on  the  hope  set  before 
us  ;  which  hope  we  have  as  an  anchor  of  the 
soul,  both  sure  and  steadfast."  He  does  not 
speak  of  hope  as  a  grace  or  theological  virtue, 
but,  objectively,  as  the  thing  hoped  for.  So 
Zechariah  calls  to  them  as  bound,  held  fast 
by  the  hope,  bound,  as  it  were,  to  it  and  by  it, 
so  as  not  to  let  it  go,  amid  the  persecution  of 
the  world,  or  weariness  of  expectation  ;  as  S. 
Paul  also  says,  ^before  faith  came,  we  were 
guarded,  kept  in  ward,  under  the  law,  shut 
up  unto  the  faith  ^"  which  was  about  to  be  re- 
vealed. 

Even  to-day,  amid  all  contrary  appearances, 
do  I  declare,  that  I  will  render  doiMe  unto  thee  ; 
as  He  had  said  by  Isaiah  ",  For  your  shame 
ye  shall  have  double. 

13.  When,  or  For  I  have  bent*^  Judah  for 
me,  as  a  mighty  bow  which  is  only  drawn  at 
full  human  strength,  the  foot  being  placed  to 

[    iActsxxviii.20.         ,  2Ib.xxvi.6  7. 

'     8Col.i.5.  "lb.  23.  ^Tit-i.\\3- 

«Heb.  iii.6.  „J'^-T.*--y^ 

8Ib.  18, 19.  .     9Gal.  m.  23. 

10  i(j>povpoviie9a,  (TuyKeKkfianevoi  «is. 

n  Is.  Ixi.  7.    The  same  word,  njtJ'p. 

12  ;^typ  -t-n,  ill  different  inflections  is  too  com- 
mon an  idiom  to  leave  any  ambiguity,  though  the 
word  Pi^p  occurs  in  the  following  clause  only. 

The  idiom  occurs  Ps.  vii.  13,  xxxvii.  14,  Is.  y.  28, 
xxi.  15.  Jer.  xlvi.  9,  1.  14,  29,  li.  3,  Lam.  ii.  4  in.  12, 
1  Chr.  v.  18,  viii.  40,  2  Chr.  xiv.  7.  ^\^^'^  is  used  twice 
in  the  same  sense,  when  the  arrow  is  made  the 
object,  Ps.  Iviii.  8,  Ixiv.  4.  i^  It  is  the  common 

construction  of  t^Ho  with  a  double  ace,  "  fill  a 
thing  with  ;"  which,  in  different  idioms,  occurs  38 
times  beside.  [Gen.  xxi.  19.  xxvi.  15,  xlii.  25,  Ex. 
xxviii.  3,  xxxi.  3,  xxxv.  31,  .35, 1  Sam.  xvi.  1, 1  Kgs 
xviii.  35,  2  Kgs  xxiii.  14,  xxiv.  4,  2  Chr.  xvi.  14, 
Job  iii.  15,  viii.  21,  xv.  2,  xxii.  18.  xxui.  4,  Ps.  xvu. 
14  Ixxxiu.  17,  evil.  9,  cxxix.  7.  Pr.  i.  13,  Is.  xxxui.  5, 


bow   with    Ephraim,  and    chr'^iIt 

raised  up  thy  sons,  0  Zion, cii\_487^ — 

against  thy  sons,  0  Greece, 
and  made  thee  as  the 
sword  of  a  mighty  man. 


steady  it.  It  becomes  a  strong  instrument, 
but  only  at  God's  Will.  God  Himself  bends 
it.  It  cannot  bend  itself.  And  filled  the  bow 
with  Ephraim  '*.  The  bow  is  filled,  when  the 
arrow  is  laid  upon  it.  God  would  employ 
both  in  their  different  offices,  as  one.  And 
raised  up  ^*thy  sons,  0  Zion,  against  thy  sons,  O 
Greece.  Let  men  place  this  prophecy  where 
they  will,  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  world 
was"  more  contradictory  to  what  was  in  hu- 
man sight  possible.  "  '^  Greece  was,  until 
Alexander,  a  colonizing,  not  a  conquering, 
nation.  The  Hebrews  had  no  human  know- 
ledge of  the  site  or  circumstances  of  Greece. 
There  was  not  a  little  cloud,  like  a  man's 
hand,  when  Zechariah  thus  absolutely  fore- 
told the  conflict  and  its  issue.  Yet  here  we 
have  a  definite  prophecy  later  than  Daniel, 
fitting  in  with  his  temporal  prophecy,  ex- 
panding part  of  it,  reaching  on  beyond  the 
time  of  Antiochus,  and  fore-announcing  the 
help  of  God  in  two  definite  ways  of  protec- 
tion ;  1)  ivithout  war,  against  the  army  of 
Alexander  ^^ ;  2)  in  the  war  of  the  Maccabees ; 
and  these,  two  of  the  most  critical  periods  in 
their  history  after  the  captivity".  Yet, 
being  expansions  of  part  of  the  prophecy  of 
Daniel,  the  period,  to  which  they  belong, 
becomes  clearer  in  the  event  by  aid  of  the 
more  comprehensive  prophecies.  They  were 
two  points  in  Daniel's  larger  prediction  of 
the  3d  empire." 

And  I  will  make  thee  as  the  sword  of  a  mighty 
man.  The  strength  is  still  not  their  own.  In 
the  whole  history  of  Israel,  they  had  only 
once  met  in  battle  an  army  of  one  of  the 

Jer.  xiii.  13,  xv.  17,  xxxiii.  5,  xli.  9,  li.  14,  34,  Ezek. 
iii  3  ix.  7,  X.  2,  xi.  7,  xxxii.  5,  xxxv.  8.  Nah.  ii.  13, 
Zeph.  i.  9,  Hagg.  ii.  7.]  It  is  therefore  entirely  un- 
idiomatic  to  render  with  Ges.  &c.,  "  pulled  with  full 
strength  a  bow,  Ephraim."  The  Arab.  "3  xSdX 
DIPSh  does  not  bear  this  out,  being  for  K70K 
D1p'?«'i?  Wi^.«-  The  Syr.  xhtyp,  iSo  Ps.  xi.  2. 
K'boT  XnC/p  Is.  xxi.'  15,  probably  mean, "  filled 
the  bow  "  "  the  bow  filled  "  viz.  with  the  arrow. 

"Since  "ni^  occurs  of  rousing  a  person,  Cant.ii. 
7  iii  5  viii.  4,  5,  Is.  xiv.  9,  or  living  thing,  Job  iii.  8, 
or  His  might,  (of  God)  Ps.  Ixxx.  3,  it  would  be  un- 
idiomatic'to  interpret  it  here,  "  lift  up  as  a  .spear,' 
on  the  ground  of  the  idioms  in'jn  r\K  111;^,  2 
Sam.  xxiii.  18, 1  Chr.  xi.  11,  20,  t^W  TllJ?,  Is.  x.  26, 
since  here  no  instrument  is  mentioned,  but  a  per- 
son, and  "ni;;  is  not  used  of  any  one  instrument, 
nor,  by  itself,  signifies  "  wave." 

16  Pusey's  "  Daniel  the  Prophet "  pp.  282,  283. 

i9Zech:ix.l-8.  "lb.  9-16. 


410 


ZECHAEIAH. 


r.,?oTc,        1-1  And  the  Lord  shall 

'_-  Jcl  it  1  o    I 

oil-.  4-i7.      |-)e   gggjj   Qygr   them,   and 
•  Ps.  18. 14.        *  his  arrow  shall  go   forth 

&  77.  17.  .  . 

A- 144. 6.  as  the  lightning :  and  the 

Lord  God  shall  blow  the 

» isai.  21. 1.       trumpet,  and  shall  go  "  with 

whirlwinds  of  the  south. 

15  The   Lord  of  hosts 

world-Empires  and  defeated  it,  at  a  time, 
when  Asa's  whole  population  Mhieh  could 
l)ear  arras  were  580,000  \  and  he  met  Zerah 
the  Ethiopian  with  his  million  of  combat- 
ants, besides  his  500  chariots,  and  defeated 
him.  And  this,  in  reliance  on  the  ■'  Lord  hin 
God,  to  Whom  he  cried,  Lord,  if  is  nothing  to 
Thee  to  help,  whether  with  mumj,  or  tcith  them 
that  have  no  power  ;  help  iif<,  0  Lord  our  God; 
for  we  rest  on  Thee,  and  in  Thy  Name  i':e  go 
against  this  multitude.  Asa's  words  found  an 
echo  in  Judas  Maccaba^us^,  when  the  "small 
company  with  him  asked  him.  How  shall  we 
be  able,  being  so  few,  to  fight  against  so  great 
a  multitude  and  so  strong  ?  "  "  It  is  no  hard 
matter,"  Judas  answered,  "  for  many  to  be 
shut  up  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  with 
Heaven  it  is  all  one  to  deliver  with  a  great 
multitude  or  a  small  company.  For  the 
victory  of  battle  standeth  not  in  the  multi- 
tude of  an  host;  but  strength  cometh  from 
Heaven."  But  his  armies  were  but  a  hand- 
ful; 3000,  on  three  occasions*,  on  one  of 
which  they  are  reduced  by  fear  to  800  ^ ; 
10,000  on  two  occasions®;  on  another,  two 
Armies  of  8000  and  3000,  with  a  garrison,  not 
trusted  to  fight  in  the  open  field ' ;  on  one, 
•20,000  » ;  once  only  40,000,  which  Tryphon 
treacherously  persuaded  Jonathan  to  dis- 
perse*; these  were  the  numbers  with  wliich, 
always  against  "great  hosts,"  God  gave  the 
victory  to  the  lion-hearted  Judas  and  his 
brothers.  But  Who  save  He,  in  -Whose 
hands  are  the  hearts  of  men,  could  foresee 
that  He,  at  that  critical  moment,  would  raise 
up  that  devoted  family,  or  inspire  that  faith, 
through  which  they  ^"oK^  of  weakness  were  made 
strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the 
armies  of  the  aliens  * 

14.  And  the  Lord  Mhall  be  seen  over  fhem^^, 
"  "  He  will  reveal  Himself,"  protecting  them. 
"  "  He  says  plamly,  that  the  Lord  God  will 

1  Chr.  xiv.  8-10  sqq.      « lb.  11.      8  1  Mace.  iii.  10-19. 

*  1  Mftcc.  iv.  0,  vii.  40.  ix.  t,.  6  lb.  ix.  (>. 

•  lb.  iv.  2i),  X.  74.        '  lb.  V.  17-20.        »  ib.  xvi.  4. 
»Ib.  xii.  41-47.    See  more  in  detail  in  "Daniel 

tlie  Prophet  "  p.  371.  note  5.  '"  lleb.  xi.  34. 

»  ^_j;  as  with  the  word  pj,  HOD.  ]3D.  ilD;?. 
IS  Jon.  »3.q.  Cyr.  ».S.  Mark  xvi.  20. 

i5Hab.  iii.  11.  The  arrows  of  God,  and  the  liKht- 
nJnes,  stand  in  parallel  or  connected  clauses,  Ps. 


shall  defend  them;   and    chrTst 
they  shall   devour,  and       cir.  487. 


lines,  St 
Lviil.  14, 


Ixxvii.  17,  18.  exliv.  0. 


1 1  subdue  with  sling  stones ;  ||  Or,  subdue  the 

,      ,  1     1 1     1    •    1  7    stO'ies  of  the 

and  they  shall  drmk,  and  siuig. 

make  a  noise  as  through 

wine;  and  they  1 1  shall  be  II  Or. «'"'"/" 

J     Ti        11  7  >>oththe6oiot^, 

nlled   like   bowls,   and  as  <t<- 

„     ,  ,  c  Lev.  4.  18, 25. 

'^  the  corners  oi  the  altar.      Deut.  12. 27. 


be  with  them  and  will  fight  in  serried  array 
with  them  and  will  with  them  subdue  those 
who  resist  them."  It  is  as  if  he  would  say, 
"  When  tiiey  go  forth  and  preach  every- 
where, ^*the  Lord  shall  tcork  with  them  and 
confirm  the  word  with  signs  following  J'  And  His 
arrow  shall  go  forth  as  the  lightning.  Habak- 
kuk  directly  calls  the  lightnings  the  arrows 
of  God'*:  at  the  light  of  Thine  arrows  they 
went.  Here  it  is  probably  of  an  invisible 
agency,  and  so  compared  to  that  awful  sym- 
bol of  His  presence,  the  lightning. 

And  the  Lord  God  shall  blou:  with  the  trumpet, 
as  their  Commander,  ordering  their  goings. 
The  blowing  oi  the  trumpet  by  the  priests  in 
war  was  commanded,  asa  reminiscence  of  them- 
selves before  God,  "*  If  ye  go  to  war  in  your 
land  against  the  enemy  that  oppresseth  you,  then 
ye  shall  blow  an  alarm  with  the  trumpets,  and  ye 
shall  be  remembered  before  the  Lord  your  God, 
and  ye  shall  be  saved  from  your  enemies.  Abijah 
said,  "  God  Hiinself  is  ^vith  us  for  our  captain, 
and  His  priests  with  sounding  trumpets  to  cry 
alann  against  you. 

And  shall  go  with  whirlwinds  of  the  south,  as 
being  the  most  vehement  and  destructive. 
So  Isaiah,  "*  As  ivhirlwinds  in  the  south  sweep 
by.  He  cometh  from  a  desert,  from  a  terrible  land. 
Such  smote  the  four  coraei-s  of  the  house 
where  Job's  children  were  '*,  and  they 
perished. 

15.  The  Lord  of  hosts  shall  defend  them. 
As  God  says  ■■"•,  I  will  defend  this  cUy  to  save  it, 
for  Mine  ovm  sake  and  for  My  servant  David's 
sake.  The  word  is  u.sed  by  Isaiah  only  before 
Zechariah,  and  of  the  protection  of  Almighty 
God.  Tiie  image  of  the  complete  protection 
on  all  sides  stands  first  in  God's  words  to 
Abraham  ^',  I  am  thy  shield  ;  David  thence 
says  to  God,  ''■'^  Thou,  0  Lordy  art  a  shield 
around  me. 

And  they  shall,  devour,  and  subdue,  or  more 

i«  Nil.  X.  9.  "  2  Chr.  xiii.  12. 

•Ms.  xxi.  1. 

i».J(>b  i.  19.  In  Job  xxxvii.  9,  E.  V.  has  followed 
Kim.  who  explains  "nnH  TD  by  JOTl  'lin  J"h 
ix.  9  ;  but  in  this  case  the  chief  characteristic  word 
would  be  omitted. 

«"Is.  xxxvii.  3.'"j,  2  Krs  xix.  34.  Is.  xxxviii.  6,  2 
Kks  XX.  G.    It  occurs  again  Zeeh.  xii.  8. 

*>  Gen.  XV.  1,  J Jr3  from  the  same  root. 

!»P9.  iii.  4.  (3Eng.) 


CHAPTER  IX. 


411 


cir.  487.      God   shall  save  them  in 


*  Isai.  62.  3. 
Mai.  3.  17. 


that  clay  as  the  flock  of  his 
people:    for  ^they  shall  be 


probably  ^,  shall  tread  on,  the  stones  of  the  sling, 
as  in  the  image  of  leviathan  in  Job,  ^  The 
son  of  the  bow  will  not  make  him  flee;  sling- 
stones  are  to  him  turned  into  dnbbk  ;  clubs  are 
counted  as  stubble  ;  he  laugheth  at  the  shaking  of 
a  spear.  Their  enemies  shall  fall  under  them, 
as  harmless  and  as  of  littleaciouiit  asthesling- 
stones  which  have  missed  their  aim,  and  lie 
as  the  road  to  be  passed  over.  It  is  not  ex- 
pressed what  they  shall  devour,  and  so  the 
image  is  not  carried  out,  but  left  indefinite, 
as  destruction  or  absorption  only ;  as  in  that, 
^ihou  shalt  consume  [lit.  eat]  all  the  people 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  shidl  deliver  thee ;  and, 
*they  are  our  bread;  and  in  that,  °  they  shall 
devour  [lit.  eat]  all  the  people  round  about, 
where  the  image  is  of  lire,  not  of  eating. 
The  one  thought  seems  to  be,  that  their 
enemies  should  cease  to  be,  so  as  to  molest 
them  any  more,  whether  by  ceasing  to  be 
their  enemies  or  by  ceasing  to  be.  There  is  no 
comparison  here,  (as  in  Balaam)  with  the 
lion ;  or  of  eating  flesh  or  drinking  blood, 
which,  apart  irom  the  image  of  the  wild 
beast,  would  be  intolerable  to  Israel,  to  whom 
the  use  of  blood,  even  of  animals,  was  so 
strictly  forbidden.  They  should  disappear, 
as  completely  as  fuel  before  the  fire,  or  food 
before  the  hungry.  The  fire  was  invigorated, 
not  extinguished,  by  the  multitude  of  the 
fuel :  the  multitude  of  the  enemies  but 
nerved  and  braced  those,  whom  they  sought 
to  destroy. 

And  they  shall  be  filled  like  bowls,  like  the 
corners  of  the  alta  r.  Th  ey  shall  be  consecrated 
instruments  of  (iod  ;  tliey  shall  not  prevail 
for  themselves,  but  for  Him ;  they  shall  be 
hallowed  like  the  bowls  of  the  temple,  from 
which  the  sacrificial  blood  is  sprinkled  on 
His  altar,  or  as  the  corners  of  the  altar  which 
receive  it. 

16.  And  the  Lord  their  God  shall  save  them  in 
that  day.  Still  all  should  be  God's  doing  ;  they 
themselves  were  but  as  a  flock,  as  sheep 
among  wolves,  ready  for  the  slaughter ;  but 
they  were  the  flock,  His  people^,  as  He  says, 
'  /  will  increase  them  like  the  flock,  men,  as  the 
flock  of  holy  things,  as  the  flock  of  Jeruscdem 


Before 


1  As  in  margin. 

2  Job  xli.  20,  21  (28,  29  Eng.) 
*  Nu.  xiv.  9. 


3  Deut.  vii.  16. 
sZech.  xii.  6. 


*1DJ^  t^^^  '°  apposition, as  in  Ezek.  DIX  'tii^3. 

J  Ezek.  xxxvi.  37,  38.      «  Kim.      »  Ps.  Ixxvii.  20. 

10 The  etymology  implies  thi.s,  properly  "conse- 
cration," then  the  diadem  of  one  consecrated,  as 
the  U?"lpn  1IJ  Ex.  xxix.  G,  xxxix.  30,  Lev.  viii.  9. 
or  the  "IJJ  of  the  king. 


as  the  stones  of  a  croAvu,    ch^ist 

'lifted   up   as    an    ensign ''"'•  ^^~- 

upon  his  land.  *  i«ai-  "•  i-- 

17  For  4io\v  great  l^  his  fPs.  3i.  i9. 


in  her  solemn  feasts  ;  so  shcdl  the  waste  cities  be 
filled  with  fiocks,  men.  "^As  a  man  saves  his 
flock  with  "all  his  strength,  so  He  will  save 
His  people  ;  for  they  are  His  flock."  As  in, 
9  Thou  leddest  Tliy  people  like  sheep  by  the  hawJ 
of  Moses  and  Aaron. 

They  shall  be  as  the  stones  of  a  crown.  While 
God's  enemies  shall  be  trampled  under  foot, 
as  a  common  thing  which  has  failed  its  end, 
these  shall  be  precious  stones  ;  a  consecrated 
1" diadem  of  king  or  priest,  raised  aloft^^,  so 
that  all  can  see.  On  His  land.  It  was  laid 
down,  as  the  title-deed  to  its  Avhole  tenui-e, 
'•^  the  land  is  Mine,  and  much  more  our  Chris- 
tian land,  bought  and  purified  by  the  blood 
of  Christ. 

17.  For  how  great  is  His  goodness.  For  it  is 
unutterable !  As  the  Psalmist  said,  ^^  0  Lord, 
our  Lord,  how  excellent  is  Thy  Name  in  all  the 
earth!  and  Jacob,  ^* How  awful  is  this  place! 
and  the  Psalmist,  How  cmful  are  Thy  doings  ! 
The  goodness  and  the  beauty  are  the  good- 
ness and  beauty  of  God,  Whose  great  doings 
had  been  his  theme  throughout  before.  Of 
the  goodness  the  sacred  writers  often  speak  '*, 
since  of  this  we  have  extremest  need.  And 
this  He  shewed  to  Moses,  ^^  I  tall  cause  all  My 
goodness  to  pass  before  thy  face.  Of  this  we 
know  somewhat  personally  in  this  life ;  for 
beside  the  surpassing  amazingness  of  it  in  the 
work  of  our  redemption,  we  are  surrounded 
by  it,  immersed  in  it,  as  in  a  fiithomless, 
shoreless  ocean  of  infinite  love,  which  finds 
entrance  into  our  souls,  whenever  we  bar  it 
not  out. 

Goodness  is  that  attribute  of  God,  where- 
by He  loveth  to  communicate  to  all,  who  can 
or  will  receive  it,  all  good  ;  yea.  Himself, 
"  "  Who  is  the  fullness  and  universality  of 
good.  Creator  of  all  good,  not  in  one  way,  not 
in  one  kind  of  goodness  only,  but  absolutely, 
without  beginning,  without  limit,  with- 
out measure,  save  that  whereby  without 
measurement  He  possesseth  and  embraceth 
all  excellence,  all  perfection,  all  blessedness, 
all  good."  This  Good  His  Goodness  be- 
stoweth  on  all  and  each,  according  to  the 
capacity  of  each  to  receive  it,  nor  is  there 

11  Comp.  Ar.  5f  J  "  lifted  on  high,"  i"V3  "  throne 
exalted." 

12  Lev.  XXV.  23.     13  Ps.  viii.  1.    "  Gen.  xxviii.  17. 
w^ltO   "the  goodness"  of  the  Lord,  Ps.  xxv.  7, 

xxvii.  13,  xxxi.  20,  cxlv.  7,  Is.  Ixiii.  7,  Jer.  xxxi.  12, 
14.  Hos.  lii.  5. 

I6yj3  ^y  '3it3  Sj  T'^J.'X  Ex.  xxxiii.  19. 

17  Blaise  Palma  In  "Paradise  of  the  Christian 
soul,"  P.  I.  c.  vi.  n.  4.  pp.  9Q,  91. 


412 


Zl-X'IIAIU  ATT. 


c  H  rTs  t    goo^J^6S6,  and  how  great  is 
cir.  487.      hig  beaut  v! '  com  shall  make 


8  Joel  3.  18.  Amos  9.  14. 


any  limit  to  His  giving,  save  His  creature's 
capacity  of  receiving,  which  also  is  a  good 
gift  from  Him.  "  From  Him  all  things 
sweet  derive  their  sweetness  ;  all  things  fair, 
their  beauty ;  all  things  briglit,  their  splen- 
dor ;  all  things  that  live,  their  life  ;  all  things 
sentient,  their  sense ;  all  that  move,  their 
vigor ;  all  intelligences,  their  knowledge ; 
all  things  perfect,  their  perfection  ;  all  things 
in  any  wise  good,  tlieir  goodness." 

The  beauty  of  God  belongs  rather  to  the 
beatific  vision.  Yet  David  speaks  of  the 
Beauty  of  Christ  ^,  Thou  art  exceeding  fairer 
fhnn  the  children  of  men;  and  Isaiah  says, 
^  T/iine  eyes  shall  behold  the  King  in  His  beauty. 
But  the  Beauty  of  God  "  eye  hath  not  seen 
nor  ear  heard  nor  can  heart  of  man  conceive." 
Here,  on  earth,  created  beauty  can,  at  least 
when  suddenly  seen,  hold  the  frame  motion- 
less, pierce  the  soul,  glue  the  heart  to  it, 
entrance  the  affections.  Liglit  from  heaven 
kindles  into  beauty  our  dullest  material  sub- 
stances ;  the  soul  in  grace  difiuses  beauty 
over  the  dullest  human  countenance ;  the 
soul,  ere  it  has  psisseT  from  the  body,  has 
been  known  to  catch,  through  the  half-opened 
portals,  sucli  brilliancy  of  liglit,  that  the  eye 
even  for  some  time  after  death  has  retained 
a  brightness,  beyond  anything  of  earth '. 
"*The  earth's  form  of  beauty  is  a  sort  of 
voice  of  the  dumb  earth.  Doth  not,  on  con- 
sidering the  beauty  of  this  universe,  its  very 
form  answer  thee  with  one  voice,  '  Not  I 
made  myself,  but  God '  ?  "    Poets  have  said, 

"^Old  friends  ....  shall  lovelier  be. 
As  more  of  heaven  in  each  we  see," 
or, 

"^  When  he  saw, 
" — God  within  him  light  his  face." 

and  Holy  Scripture  tells  us  that  when  S. 
Stephen,  full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
was  about  to  sj^eak  of  Jesus  to  the  council 
which  arraigned  him,  ''all  that  sat  in  the 
council,  looking  stea/1  fasti y  at  him,  saw  his  fare 
as  it  had  been  the  face  of  an  Angel.  It  has 
been  said,  that  if  we  could  see  a  soul  in  grace, 
its  beauty  would  so  pierce  us,  that  we  should 
die.  But  the  natural  beauty  of  the  soul 
transcends  all  corjioreal  beauty  wliicli  so 
attracts  us ;  the  natural  beauty  of  the  last 
Angel  surpas-seth  all  natural  beauty  of 
soul.  If  we  could  a.scend  from  the  most 
beautiful   form,  which   the   soul  could  here 

»Ps.  xlv.  2.     2  1.1.  xxxiii.  17.     'This  I  saw  once. 
*S.  Auk.  in  P.s.  cxliv.  n.  1.3. 
6  Chri.stlan  Year.    Morning  Hvmn. 
••Tennyson,  In  rnemoriam.    T .  has  "  Tlie  God." 
I  Acts  vl.  6, 15. 


the  youug  men  ||cheerfiil, 
and  new  wine  the  maids. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

II  Or,  grow,  or,  speak. 


imagine,  to  the  least  glorious  body  of  the 
beatified,  on  and  on  through  the  countless 
thonsiuids  of  glorious  bodies,  compared  where- 
with heaven  would  be  dark  and  the  sun  lose  its 
siiining ;  and  yet  more  Irom  the  most  beautiful 
deified  soul,  as  visible  here,  to  the  beauty  of  the 
disembodied  soul,  whose  image  would  scarce 
be  recognized,  because  "  •*  the  bodily  eyes 
gleamed  witli  angelic  radiancy  ;  "  yea,  let  the 
God-enlightened  soul  go  on  and  on,  through 
all  those  choirs  of  the  heavenly  hierarchies, 
clad  with  the  raiment  of  Divinity,  from  choir 
to  ciioir,  from  hierarchy  to  hierarchy,  admir- 
ing the  order  and  beauty  and  harmony  of  the 
house  of  God  ;  yea,  let  it,  aided  by  divine 
grace  and  light,  ascend  even  higher,  and 
reach  the  bound  and  term  of  all  created 
beauty,  yet  it  must  know  that  the  Divine 
power  and  wisdom  could  create  other  crea- 
tures, far  more  perfect  and  beautiful  than  all 
wiiich  He  hath  hitherto  created.  Nay,  let 
the  highest  of  all  the  Seraphs  sum  in  one  all 
the  beauty  by  nature  and  grace  and  glory  of 
all  creatures,  yet  could  it  not  be  satisfied  with 
that  beauty,  but  must,  because  it  was  not  sat- 
isfied with  it,  conceive  some  higher  beauty. 
Were  God  forthwith,  at  every  moment  to  create 
that  higher  beauty  at  its  wish,  it  could  still 
conceive  something  beyond ;  for,  not  being 
God,  its  beauty  could  not  satisfy  its  concep- 
tion. So  let  liim  still,  and  in  hundred 
thousand,  hundred  thousand,  thousand  yeare 
with  swiftest  flight  of  understanding  multiply 
continually  those  degrees  of  beauty,  so  that 
each  fresh  degree  should  ever  double  that 
preceding,  and  the  Divine  power  should,  with 
like  swittness,  concur  in  creating  that  beauty, 
as  in  the  beginning  He  said,  let  there  be  light 
and  there  was  light  ;  aiter  all  those  millions 
of  yeai-s,  he  would  be  again  at  the  beginning, 
and  there  would  be  no  comparison  between 
it  and  the  Divine  Beauty  of  Jesus  Christ, 
God  and  Man.  For  it  is  the  bliss  of  the 
finite  not  to  reach  the  Infinite*.  That  city 
of  the  blest  which  is  lightened  by  the  glory 
of  God,  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof, 
sees  It,  enabled  by  God,  as  created  eye  can 
see  It,  and  is  held  fast  to  God  in  one  jubilant 
exstacy  of  everlasting  love. 

"'"'The  Prophet,  borne  out  of  himself  by 
consideration  of  the  Divine  goodnes.s,  stands 
amazed,  while  he  contemplates  tlie  beauty 
and  Deity  of  Christ:  he  bursts  out  with  un- 
wonted admiration  !  How  great  is  His  good- 
ness,  Wiio,  to  guard  Ills   flock,  shall   come 

"S.  FIftvinn,  of  Siioccssus  a  martyr,  whom  he 
saw  ftftor  (loatli.  Passio  S9.  Montani,  Lueii  Ac. 
cxxxi.  In  Ruinart,  Acta  martyr,  sincera  p.  241. 

»  abriil^ed  I'rom  Joannes  a  Jesu  Mnrin.  ars  amandl 
Deum  c.  3.  0pp.  ii.  301-304.  wOsorius. 


CHAPTER  X. 


413 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1  God  is  to  be  sought  unto,  and 
not  idols.  5  As  he  visited  his 
flock  for  sin,  so  he  vrUl  save  and 
restore  them. 


down  on  earth  to  lay  down  His  life  for  the 
salvation  of  His  sheep !  How  great  His 
beauty,  Who  is  the  brightness  of  the  glory  and 
the  Image  of  the  Father,  and  comprises  in  His 
Godhead  the  measure  of  all  order  and  beauty  ! 
With  what  firm  might  does  He  strengthen, 
with  what  joy  does  He  overwhelm  the  souls 
which  gaze  most  frequently  on  His  beauty, 
and  gives  largely  and  bountifully  that  corn, 
by  whose  strength  the  youths  are  made 
strong.  He  supplieth  abundantly  the  wine, 
whereby  the  virgins,  on  fire  with  His  love, 
are  exhilarated  and  beautified.  But  both 
are  necessary,  that  the  strength  of  the  strong 
should  be  upheld  by  the  bread  from  heaven, 
and  that  sound  and  uncorrupt  minds,  melted 
with  the  sweetness  of  love,  should  be  re- 
created with  wine,  i.  e.  the  sweetness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  be  borne  aloft  with  great 
joy,  in  the  midst  of  extreme  toils.  For  all 
who  keep  holily  the  iaith  of  Christ,  may  be 
called  youths,  for  their  unconquered  strength, 
and  virgins  for  their  purity  and  integrity  of 
soul.  For  all  these  that  heavenly  bread  is 
prepared,  that  their  strength  be  not  weak- 
ened, and  the  wine  is  inpoured,  that  they  be 
not  only  refreshed,  but  may  live  in  utmost 
sweetness." 

X.  1.  Ask  ye  of  the  Lord  rain.  Ask  and  ye 
shall  receive,  our  Lord  says.  Zechariah  had 
promised  in  God's  name  blessings  temporal 
and  spiritual :  all  was  ready  on  God's  part ; 
only,  he  adds,  ask  them  of  the  Lord,  the  Un- 
changeable, the  Self-same,  not  of  Teraphim 
or  of  diviner,  as  Israel  had  done  aforetime  ^. 
He  had  promised,  '^  If  ye  shall  hearken  dili- 
gently unto  My  commandments,  to  love  the  Lord 
your  God,  I  will  give  you  the  rain  of  your  land 
in  his  due  season,  the  first  rain  and  the  latter 
rain,  and  I  will  send  grass  in  thy  field  for  thy 
cattle.  God  bids  them  ask  Him  to  fulfill  His 
promise.  The  latter  rain  *  alone  is  mentioned, 
as  completing  what  God  had  begun  by  the 
former  rain,  filling  the  ears  before  the  har- 

1  Hos.  ii.  5-12,  Jer.  xliv.  15-28.    2  Dent.  xi.  13-15. 

*  It  is  mentioned  alone  in  Pr.  xvi.  15. 

*See  vol.  i.  on  Hos.  vi.  3,  p.  64;  Jo.  ii.  23.  pp.  190, 
191.  ^Osorius. 

*  D'l'jn,  Its  etymologj'  is  unknown,  its  meaning 

is  determined  by  the  idiom  HI  7lp  TTD  Job  xxviii. 

t6,  xxxviii.  25.    The  Arab.  Tn  only  signifies  "  made 

incisions,  notches,  cut  the  heart,"  (of  misgivings 
of  conscience.) 

'  Jer.  X.  13,  li.  16.  e  Ps  cxxxv.  7. 

» As  the  words  are  transposed  in  Job  xxxvii.  6, 
n;'  map  DS'JI  "^OO   DK'JI.     DB'J  occurs,  de- 


J^SK  ye  'of  the  Loed    c^^r'TIt 

''rain  "in  the  time  of      cir. 487. 

the   latter  rain ;   so  the  *  Deut.  ii.*'i4. 
Lord  shall  make  ||  bright  joei2.'23.' 
clouds,   and   give  them  jJr.  lo.  ^"3."^*' 


vest.  Both  *  had  been  used  as  symbols  of 
God's  spiritual  gifts,  and  so  the  words  fit  in 
with  the  close  of  the  last  chapter,  both  as  to 
things  temporal  and  eternal.  "^  He  exhorts 
all  frequently  to  ask  for  the  dew  of  the  di- 
vine grace,  that  what  had  sprung  up  in  the 
heart  from  the  seed  of  the  word  of  God, 
might  attain  to  full  ripeness." 

jf'/ie  Lord  maketh  bright  clouds,  [rather] 
lightnings^,  into  rain,  as  Jeremiah  says,  ''He 
causeth  the  vapors  to  ascend  from  the  ends  of  the 
earth  ;  He  maketh  lightnings  into  rain;  and  the 
Psalmist,  ^He  maketh  lightnings  into  rain,  dis- 
appearing as  it  were  into  the  rain  which  fol- 
lows on  them.  Andgiveth  them.  While  man  is 
asking,  God  is  answering.  Showers  of  rain% 
"rain  in  torrents,"  as  we  should  say,  or  "in 
floods,"  or,  inverted,  "floods  of  rain."  To 
every  one  grass,  rather,  the  green  herb,  in  the  field, 
as  the  Psalmist  says,  '"  He  causeth  the  grass  to 
grow  for  the  cattle,  and  green  herb  for  the  service 
of  men.  This  He  did  with  individual  care,  as 
each  had  need,  or  as  should  be  best  for  each, 
as  contrariwise  He  says  in  Amos,  ^'^  I  caused  it 
to  rain  upon  one  city,  and  caused  it  not  to  rain 
upon  another  city  ;  one  piece  was  rained  upon, 
and  the  piece,  whereon  it  rained  not,  withered. 
The  Rabbins  observed  these  exceptions  to 
God's  general  law,  whereby  He^^  sendeth  rain 
on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust,  though  expressing 
it  in  their  way  hyperbolically ;  "^^In  the 
time  when  Israel  doeth  the  will  of  God,  He 
doeth  their  will ;  so  that  if  one  man  alone, 
and  not  the  others,  wants  rain,  He  will  give 
rain  to  that  one  man ;  and  if  a  man  wants 
one  herb  alone  in  his  field  or  garden,  and  not 
another.  He  will  give  rain  to  that  one  herb  ; 
as  one  of  the  saints  used  to  say.  This  plot  of 
ground  wants  rain,  and  that  plot  of  ground 
wants  not  rain"."  Spiritually  the  rain  is 
divine  doctrine  bedewing  the  mind  and  mak- 
ing it  fruitful,  as  the  rain  doth  the  earth. 
So  Moses  saith,  ^^  My  doctrine  shall  drop  as  the 
rain,  my  speech  shall  distill  as  the  dew,  as  the 

fined  by  Snj  1  Kgs  xviii.45;  by  e^tJItJ/  Ezek.  xiii. 
11,  13,  xxxviii.  22;  by  m^lj  Ps.  Ixviii.  10,  pon 

DlS'Jn  1  Kgs  xviii.  41.  "The  clouds  are  full  of 
□ti/J,"  Eccl.  xi.  3.  The  waters  of  the  flood  are 
called  Dt^jn  Gon.  vii.  12,  viii.  2.  Kim.  compares 
the  two  synouymes,  "1£3t*  nrjIX  (Dan.  xii.  2)  JO'D 

jrn  p«.  xi.  3. 

»"  Ps  civ.  14.   See  also  Gen.  i.  30,  iii.  18. 

"Am.  iv.  7.   See  note  vol.  i.  p.  284. 

»«8.  Matt.  V.  49. 

"Taanith  f  Ix.  2  in  Kim.  Me.  Caul  pp.  HI,  112. 

"  S.  Cyril.  w  Deut.  xx:jcll.  2, 


414 


ZECHARTAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

i  Jer.  10.  8. 

Hab.  2. 18. 
t  Heb.  tera- 

phirns. 

Judg.  17.  5. 


•  Job  13.  4. 

)  Or,  answered 
that,  &c. 


showei-s  of  rain,  to  every 
.  one  grass  in  the  field. 

2  For  the  ^  f  i^^o^^  ^^"^'6 
spoken  vanity,  and  the 
diviners  have  seen  a  lie, 
and  have  told  false  dreams ; 
they  •  comfort  in  vain: 
therefore  they  ^vent  their 
way  as  a  flock,  they  1|  were 


imoll  rain  upon  the  tender  herb  and  as  the 
showers  upon  the  grass.  " '  The  law  of  Moses 
and  the  prophets  were  the  former  rain." 

2.  For  the  teraphim  have  spoken  vanity, 
rather,  spake  vanity.  He  appeals  to  their 
former  experience.  Their  fathers  had  sought 
of  idols,  not  of  God ;  therefore  they  went  into 
captivity.  Tlie  teraphim  were  used  as  in- 
struments of  divination.  They  are  united 
with  the  ephod,  as  forbidden,  over  against 
the  allowed,  means  of  enquiry  as  to  the 
future,  in  Hosea,  ^without  an  ephod  and-  with- 
out teraphim  ;  they  were  united  in  the  mingled 
worship  of  Micah*;  Josiah  pnt  them  away  \ 
together  with  *  the  workers  with  familiar  spirits 
and  the  wizards,  to  which  are  added,  the  idols. 
It  was  probably,  a  superstition  of  Eastern 
origin.  Racherbrought  them  with  her  from 
her  father's  house,  and  Nebuchadnezzar 
used  them  for  divination*.  Samuel  speaks 
of  them,  apparently,  as  things  which  Saul 
himself  condemned.  ®  Rebellion  is  as  the  sin 
of  divination,  and  stubbornness  as  iniquity  or 
idolatry,  and  teraphim.  For  it  was  probably 
in  those  his  better  days,  that '  Said  had  put 
away  those  that  had  familiar  spirits  and  wizards 
out  of  the  land.  Samuel  then  seems  to  tell 
him,  that  the  sins  to  which  he  clave  were  as 
evil  as  those  which  he  had,  in  an  outward 
zeal,  like  Jehu,  condemned.  Anyhow,  the 
teraphim  stand  united  with  the  divination 
which  was  expressly  condemned  by  the  law". 
The  use  of  the  teraphim  by  Rachel"  and 
Michal '"  (for  whatever  purpose)  implies  that 
it  was  some  less  offensive  form  of  false  wor- 
ship, though  they  were  probably  the  strange 
gods^^  which  Jacob  bade  his  household  to  put 
away,  or,  anyhow,  among  them,  since  Laban 
calls  them,  ^'*  my  gods. 

1 S.  Cyril. 

s  Ho9.  iii.  4.  Every  fresh  attenii)i  In  HmJ  mi  otv- 
mology  lor  D'S'in  attests  the  unsatisfactorines-sof 
those  before  it,  without  finding  anything  better. 
•'.Iiid.  xvii.  .""),  xviii.  14,  17,18,  20. 
<  J  Kgs  xxiii.  24.  6Ezek.  xxi.  21. 

"  1  Sam.  XV.  23.  '  lb.  x xviii.  ,3. 

'  IH:  xviii.  13, 14.  »Gen.  xxxi.  l!t,  34,3.1. 

10 1  Sam.  xix.  13, 16.  "  Gen.  xxxv.  2,  4. 

"lb.  xxxi.  3i>,  32.    "Jer.  xxvli.9.    '*Ib.  xxix.  8. 
If-  Ezek.  XXI.  29  ;  add  xxii.  28. 
"  The  etym.  meaning  of  ^'OJ. "  plucked  up  "  pegs 
of  tent,  in  i.rderto  n>iri<ivnl,  must  have  boon  lo«t  in 


troubled,  ' because  there    c  h  r  i  s  r 
was  no  shepherd. 


Before 
H  RIS 
cir.  487. 


3  Mine  anger  was  kin- 'Ezek.  34.  .5. 
died  against  the  shepherds, 
«and  I  tpunished  the « Ezek. 34. 17. 

'  ^  +Heb.  visited 

goats :  for  the  Lord  of  upon. 
hosts  ''hath  visited  his »> Luke  1. es. 
flock  the  house  of  Judah, 
and  '  hath  made  them  as '  Cant.  1. 9. 


Zechariah  uses  anew  the  words  of  Jeremiah 
and  Ezekiel,  "  Hearken  ye  not  to  your  prophets, 
nor  to  your  diviners,  nor  to  your  dreamers,  nor 
to  your  enchanters,  nor  to  your  sorcerers  ;  and, 
^*  let  not  your  prophets  and  your  diviners,  that  be 
in  the  mitlst  of  you,  deceive  you,  neither  hearken 
to  your  dreams,  which  ye  cause  to  be  dreamed  ; 
and  Ezekiel,  ^°  While  they  see  vanity  unto  thee, 
whiU  they  divine  a  lie  unto  thee.  The  words 
not  only  joined  on  the  Prophet's  warning 
with  the  past,  but  reminded  them  of  the  sen- 
tence which  followed  on  their  neglect.  The 
echo  of  the  words  of  the  former  prophets 
came  to  them,  floating,  as  it  were,  over  the 
ruins  of  the  former  temple. 

Therefore  they  went  their  way  as  a  flock, 
which,  having  no  shepherd,  or  only  such  as 
would  mislead  them,  removed  ^®,  but  into  cap- 
tivity. They  were  troubled^''.  The  trouble 
lasted  on,  though  the  captivity  ended  at  the 
appointed  time.  Nehemiah  speaks  of  the 
exactions  of  former  governors,  "*  The  former 
governors  which  were  before  me,  laid  heavy 
iveighisupon  thepeople^^,  and  took  from  them  in 
bread  and  wine,  after  forty  shekels  of  silver  ;  al.'io 
their  servants  used  dominion  over  "^^  the  people; 
and  I  did  not  so,  because  of  the  fear  of  God. 

Because  there  teas  no  shepherd.  As  Ezekit-l 
said  of  those  times,  *'  They  were  scattered,  be- 
cause there  is  710  shepherd;  and  they  became 
meat  to  all  the  beasts  of  the  field,  ivhen  tliey  were 
scattered :  My  flock  was  scattered  upon  all  the 
face  of  the  earth ;  and  none  did  search  or  seek 
after  them. 

3.  Mine  anger  was  kindled  against  the  shep- 
herds. As  Ezekiel  continued,  ^^  Thus  saiih 
the  Lord  God ;  Behold  I  am  against  the  shep- 
herds, and  I  will  require  My  flock  at  their  hand. 

I  punished  the  he-goats.     The  evil  powerful 

the  idiom.  The  captivity  is  spoken  of  as  past,  and 
the  idolatry  as  before  the  captivity,  which  was  its 
punisliment. 

"HH'  "f^"'*  '"  ♦his  sense  Ps.  cxvi.  10,  oxix.  f", 
ol  man;  with  2  of  wonrisome  labor  Eocl.  1.  13,  iii. 
HI;  of  the  linn,  Is.  xxxi.  4;  of  the  song  of  tlie  ter- 
rible, Ih.  XXV.  5  [4  Kng.]  all.  '^Xeh.  v.  1.1. 

"n'3Dn  with  bj,'  P-.  like  "  made  our,  your,  yok« 

heavy,"  1  Kgs  xii.  10, 14,2  Chr.  x.  10,14.  "thy  yoke,"l9. 
xlvii.  0.  "mychflin"Lam.  iii.  7.or  £3'£33i*Hab.  ii  6. 

■•»Si'  IdSk'        "  Ezek.  xsxiv.  .l,  ll.         "  lb.  10, 


CHAPTER  X. 


415 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


*  Num.  24.  17. 

1  Sam.  14.  38. 

Isai.  19.  ^.^ 
>  Isai.  22.  23. 


his  goodly  horse  in  the 
.  battle. 

4  Out  of  him  came  forth 
"the  corner,  out  of  him  'the 
nail,  out  of  him  the  battle 
bow,  out  of  him  every  op- 
pressor together. 

5  ^  And  they  shall  be  as 


are  called  the  he-goats  of  the  earth  ^ ;  and  in 
Ezekiel  God  says,  ''/  ivill  judge  between  cattle 
and  cattle,  between  rams  and  he-goats  ;  and  our 
Lord  speaks  of  the  reprobate  as  goats,  the 
saved  as  sheep  *.  God  visited  upon  *  these  in 
His  displeasure,  because  He  visited  His  flock, 
the  people  ofJudah,  to  see  to  their  needs  and  to 
relieve  them. 

And  hath  made  them  as  the  goodly  horse,  as, 
before.  He  said,  *  /  made  thee  as  the  sword  of 
a  mighty  man.  Judah's  might  was  not  in 
himself;  but,  in  God's  hands,  he  had  might 
like  and  above  the  might  of  this  world  ;  he 
was  fearless,  resistless  ;  as  S.  Paul  says,  *  the 
weapons  of  our  ^carfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty 
through  God  to  the  pulling  doum,  of  strongholds. 

4.  Out  of  him''  came  forth,  or  rather.  From 
him  is  the  corner,  as  Jeremiah  *,  Their  nobles 
shall  be  from  themselves,  and  their  governor 
shall  go  forth  from  the  midst  of  them.  Her 
strength,  though  given  by  God,  was  to  be  in- 
herent in  her,  though  from  her  too  was  to 
come  He  Who  was  to  be  the  head-corner-stone, 
the  sure  Foundation  and  Crowner  of  the 
whole  building. 

From  thee  the  nail,  an  emblem  of  fixedness 
in  itself,  (as  Isaiah  says,  ®  /  xdtl  fasten  him  a 
nail  to  a  sure  place)  and  of  security  given  to 
others  dependent  on  Him,  as  Isaiah  says 
further,  ^^  And  they  shall  hang  upon  him  all 
the  glory  of  his  father's  house,  the  offspring  and 
the  issue,  from  the  vessels  of  cups  to  the  vessels  of 
flagons;  all,  of  much  or  little  account,  the 
least  and  the  greatest.  ""Christ  is  the 
corner-stone ;  Christ  is  the  nail  fixed  in  the 
wall,  wliereby  all  vessels  are  supported.  The 
word  of  Christ  is  the  bow,  whence  the  arrows 
rend  the  king's  enemies." 

1  Is.  xiv.  9.  s  Ezek.  xxxiv.  17. 

3  S.  Matt.  XXV.  32. 

<7^»  lp3,  as  oommouly,  of  chastisement;  '\p3, 

like  67r6crKe'i|»aTo,  of  visiting  to  shew  favor. 

^is.  13.  6  2Cor.  X.  4. 

i  The  word  X3f'  does  not  .^uit  HJi)  or  HjT  un- 
le.<.«  (which  is  not  probable  as  to  Iji')  the  metaphor 
was  lost.  "  Jer.  XXX.  21.  »Isxxii.  23. 

10  lb.  24.  "  Osor.  12  Zech.  ix.  8. 

13  I9.  xiv.  2.  K'J  J  is  no  where  used  of  a  ruler  or 
king,  as  in  .Sthiopic.  The  idea  of  "  oppressors  " 
remains  in  Is.  iii.  12,  (comp.  jyjj  lb.  iii.  5)  xiv.  2. 

add  Is.  Ix.  17,  where  the  contrast  is  of  change  of 
the  inferior  for  the  better; /o/-  brass  I  will  hrivg 


mighty  me7i,  which  "  tread 
down  their  enemies  in  the. 
mire  of  the  streets  in  the 
battle :  and  they  shall  fight, 
because  the  Lord  is  with 
them,  and  ||the  riders  on  i 
horses  shall  be  confounded. 
6  And  I  will  strengthen 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

Ps.  18.  42. 


Or,  they  shall 
make  tkeriders 
on  horses 
ashamed. 


From  it  every  exactor  shall  go  forth  together. 
God  had  promised  ''^  that  no  oppressor,  or  kt- 
actor  *^,  shall  pass  through  them  any  more.  He 
seems  to  repeat  it  here.  From  thee  shall  go 
forth  every  oppressor  together ;  go  forth,  not  to 
return :  as  Isaiah  had  said,  "  Thy  children 
shall  make  haste  to  return ;  thy  destroyers  and 
they  that  made  thee  ivasie  shall  go  forth  of  thee. 
"  From  it,  its  corner-stone ;  from  it,  the  sure 
nail ;  from  it,  the  battle  bow  ;  from  it," — he 
no  longer  unites  closely  with  it,  that  which 
should  be  from  it,  or  of  it,  hut— from  it  shall 
go  forth  every  oppressor  together  ;  one  and  all, 
as  we  say  ;  a  confused  p^le-mele  body,  as 
Isaiah,  ^*  cdl  that  arefound  of  thee  are  bound  to- 
gether ;  ^®  together  shall  they  all  perish ;  or,  in 
separate  clauses  ",  they  are  all  of  them  put  to 
shame  ;  togetlier  they  shall  go  into  confusion. 

5.  And  they  [the  house  of  Judah  '*,  of 
whom  he  had  said,  He  hath  made  them  as  the 
goodly  horse  in  the  batilel  shall  be  as  mighty 
men,  trampling  on  the  mire  of  the  streets.  Micah 
had  said,  ^^she  shall  be  a  trampling,  as  the 
mire  of  the  streets,  and  David,  ^"/  did  stamp 
them  as  the  mire  of  the  street.  Zechariah,  by  a 
yet  bolder  image,  pictures  those  trampled 
upon,  as  what  they  had  become,  the  mire  of 
the  streets,  as  worthless,  as  foul ;  as  he  had 
said,  ^'  they  shall  trample  on  the  sling-stones. 
And  they  shall  fight,  because  the  Lord  is  with 
them,  not  in  their  own  strength,  he  still  re- 
minds them  ;  they  shall  have  power,  because 
God  empowers  them  ;  strength,  because  God 
instrengthens  them  ^^ ;  in  presence  of  which, 
the  goodly  war-horse  of  God,  human  strength, 
the  riders  on  horses,  sfiall  be  ashamed. 

6.  /  v.'ill  bring  them  again  to  place  them. 
Zechariah  seems  to  have  condensed  into  one 

gotd  &c.    It  is  summed  up  and  it  ends  in.  /  uili 
make  their  exactors  righteousness,    [all  allegea.] 
i<Is.  xlix.  17.  IN}?"'  ^'Sp.  as  here  X^'  UOD 
i»  With  the  same  idiom,  nni  npX  Ij^KVOJ  S^ 
nn'  Sd  ;  Is.  xxii.  3. 

i«is.  xxxi.  3,  jvbD'  0^73  nn". 

1-  lb.  xiv.  iG,  rtohDi  oSn  nn"  ubj  idSdj  dji. 

18  They  are  th6  main  subject  in  v.  3.  The  words 
in  V.  4.  could  not  be  the  subject  r  for  neither  eor- 
ner-.stone,  nor  nail,  nor  bow,  can  be  said  to  be  like 
mighty  men  &c. 

18 Mic.  vil.  10.         »2  Sam.  xxii.  43.         «  ix.  IS. 

^  e'l'  Tuj  ei'Swi'ttnoCcTi  ne  xpiofTcu,   Pllij.  iv.  13, 


41G 


ZECHARIAH. 


chrTst    the  house  of  Judah,  and  I 
cir-  4>j"-      will  save  the  house  of  Jo- 


«jer. 3. 18.        seph,   and  °I  will  bring 

Ezek.  37.  21.     ,,  •      x        1  ti, 

them  again  to  place  them  ; 


•  Hos.  1.  7. 


Pch.l3.  9. 


for  I  "have  mercy  upon 
them :  and  they  shall  be 
as  though  I  had  not  cast 
them  off:  for  I  am  the 
Lord  their  God,  and  "will 
hear  them. 


word  two'  of  Jeremiali,  ^/  ivill  bring  them 
again  unto  this  place,  and  /  ^cill  cause  them  to 
dwell  safely.  "  ^  The  two  ideas  are  here  both 
implied,  he  will  cause  them  to  return  to  their 
land,  and  will  cause  them  to  dwell  there  in 
peace  and  security." 

For  I  will  have  mercy  upon  them.  "*For  tlie 
goodness  and  lovingkindness  of  God,  not  any 
merits  of  our's,  is  the  first  and  principal 
cause  of  our  whole  salvation  and  grace. 
Therefore  tlie  Psalmist  says,  *  neither  did  their 
oxen  arm  save  them;  but  Thy  right  hand  and 
Thine  arm.  and  the  light  of  Thy  countenance, 
because  Thou  hadst  a  favor  unto  them. 

And  they  shall  be,  as  though  I  had  not  cast 
them  off.  (etymoloffically,  "loathed,"  "cast 
off  as  a  thing  abhorrent^".)  God  is  ever 
"the  Go!  of  the  present."  He  does  not 
half-forgive.  '  Their  sins  and  their  iniquities 
I  will  remember  no  more.  God  casts  off  the 
sinner,  as  being  what  he  is,  a  thin:^  abhorrent, 
as  penitence  confesses  of  itself  that  it  is  "  ®  a 
dead  dog,  a  loathsome  worm,  a  putri  1  corpse." 
God  will  not  clothe  with  a  righteousness, 
which  He  does  not  impart.  He  restores  to 
tlie  penitent  all  his  lost  graces,  as  though  he 
had  never  forfeited  them,  and  cumulates 
them  with  the  fresh  grace  whereby  He  con- 
verts him".  It  is  an  entire  re-creation. 
They  shall  be,  as  though  I  had  not  cast  them  off. 
'"  /  K'(7/  settle  you  as  in  your  old  estates,  and  will 
do  good,  more  than  at  your  beginnings,  and  ye 
shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord. 

For  I  am  the  Lord  their  God,  and  will  hear 
them,  as  He  says  by  Milachi ",  I  am  the 
Lord ;  I  change  not.  His  unchangeableness 
belongs  to  His  Being ;  /  Am ;  therefore  ye 
Konx  of  Jacob  are  not  consumed  ;  and  by  Hosea, 
"  The  Lord  of  hosts.  The  Lord  is  His  memorial, 
therefore  turn  thou  to  thy  God.  Because  (iod 
was  their  God,  and  as  surely  as  He  was  their 

1  D'nncin  from  D'n^an,  »nd  D'r»3'u^n. 

»  Jer.  xxxii.  .37. 

>Kim.    It  is  not  a  confusion  of  forms,  but  the 
blending  of  two  words  into  one.    So  also  Ibn  E. 
*Dion.  *Ps.  xliv.  3. 

'tlJT.  Arab  useti  of  "rancid"  oil.  Obeerv* 
\T3T«n  Is.  xix.  e. 


7  And  they  of  Ephraim    ^  Befo^re  ^^ 
shall  be  like  a  mighty  man,      cir.  487. 


and  their  "i  heart  shall  re- <»  Ps.  104.  i5. 

,11.  ch.  9.  16. 

joice  as  through  wine :  yea, 
their  children  shall  see  it, 
and  be  glad ;  their  heart 
shall  rejoice  in  the  Lord. 

8  I  will  '  hiss  for  them, '  isai.  5. 26. 
and   gather  them;  for  I 

,  =>    ,  ,  '  •Isai.49.  19. 

have  redeemed  them:  'and  Ezek. 36. 37. 


God,  He  would  hear  them.  His  Being  was 
the  pledge  of  His  hearing.  '*/,  the  Lord, 
will  hear  them;  I,  the  God  of  Israel,  uill  not 
forsake  them. 

7.  And  Ephraim,  they  shall  be  like  a  mighty 
man.  Prophecy,  through  the  rest  of  the  chap- 
ter, turns  to  Ephraim,  which  had  not  yet  been 
restored.  AVith  regard  to  them,  human 
victory  retires  out  of  sight,  though  doubtless, 
when  their  wide  prison  was  broken  at 
the  destruction  of  tlie  Persian  empire, 
many  were  free  to  return  to  their  native 
country,  as  others  spread  over  the  West  in 
Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Rome,  and  so  some  may 
have  taken  part  in  the  victories  of  the  Mac- 
cabees. Yet  not  victory,  but  strength,  glad- 
ness beyond  natural  gladness,  as  tlirough 
wine,  whereby  the  mind  is  exhilarated  above 
itself;  and  that,  lasting,  transmitted  to  their 
children,  large  increase,  holy  life  in  God, 
are  the  outlines  of  tlie  promise. 

Their  heart  shall  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  "*as 
the  principal  object,  the  first,  highest,  most 
worthy  Giver  of  all  good,  to  Whom  is  to  be 
referred  all  gladness,  which  is  c  nceived 
from  created  goods,  that  ^*  whoso  glorieth  muy 
glory  in  the  Lord,  in  Whom  Alone  the  rational 
creature  ought  to  take  delight." 

8.  I  will  hiss  for  them.  Formerly  God  had 
so  spoken  of  Ilis  summoning  the  enemies  of 
His  people  to  ciiastise  them.  ''//  shall  be  in 
that  day,  that  the  Lord  sh(dl  hm  for  the  fl;/,  that 
is  in  the  utlermo.^t  port  of  the  rivers  of  Egypt, 
and  for  the  6e?  that  is  in  the  land  of  Ass'p-ia, 
end  they  sh<dl  come,  and  shall  rest  all  of  them  in 
thi'  desolate  valleys,  and  in  the  hols  of  the  rocks, 
and  upon  all  thorns  and  upon  all  b'/shes.  '*//(? 
will  hi.'fs  unto  them  from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  ind 
behold  they  shall  come  with  speed  suifdy ;  no  e 
slmll  be  weary  or  stumble  among  ihem.  He 
would  gather  them,  like  tlic  countless  num- 

»Heb.  viii.  12. 

8  Bp.  Andrewes'  devotions.    Morn.  Pr. 

9 See  vol.  i.  on  Joel  ii.  25  pp.  192,  I9». 
10  E/.ek.  xxxvi.  11.  "  Mai  iii.  fi. 

"Hos.  xii.  5,  C.  [n,  7  Heb.]  See  vol.  i.  pp.  110,  l-'O. 
>»l9.  xli.  17.        i*2Cor.  X.  17.        '*  Is.  vii.  l*,  10. 
1*  lb.  V.  26, 27.  The  word  is  only  u»ed  in  this  sam* 
sense  In  these  three  placet 


CHAPTER  X. 


417 


they  shall  increase  as  they 


Before 
CHRIST 

c'""-  ^^'^-      have  increased. 


•  Hos. 2. 23.  9  And  'I  will  sow  them 

among  the  people:  and 

"Deutso.  1.  they  shall  "remember  me 
in  far  countries ;  and  they 


bers  of  the  insect  creation,  which,  if  united, 
would  irresistibly  desolate  life.  He  would 
summon  them,  as  the  bee-owner,  by  his  shrill 
call,  summons  and  unites  his  own  swarm. 
Now,  contrariwise  God  would  summon  with 
the  same  His  own  people.  The  fulfillment 
of  the  chastisement  was  the  earnest  of  the 
ease  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  mercy. 

For  I  have  redeemed  them.  Then  they  are 
His,  being  redeemed  at  so  dear  a  price. 
"  ^  For  Christ,  as  far  as  in  Him  lay,  redeemed 
all."  God  had  done  this  iu  purpose,  as  S. 
John  speaks  of  '^the  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world. 

And  they  shall  increase  as  they  increased. 
"  *  As  they  increased  in  Egypt,  so  shall  they 
increase  at  that  time."  The  marvels  of  God's 
favor  in  Egypt  shall  be  repeated.  The  in- 
crease there  had  been  promised  beforehand. 
*  Fear  not  to  go  down  into  Egypt ;  for  I  will 
there  make  of  thee  a  great  nation.  The  fulfill- 
ment is  recorded,  °  the  children  of  Israel  were 
fruitful,  and  increased  abundantly,  and  multi- 
plied, and  ivaxed  exceeding  mighty ;  and  the 
land  ivas  filled  ivith  them.  God  appointed  that 
this  should  be  part  of  their  confession  at 
their  yearly  prosperity,  the  ofi'ering  of  the 
basket  of  first-fruits ;  ®  A  Syrian  ready  to 
perish  was  my  father,  and  he  went  into  Egypt 
and  sojourned  there  with  a  few,  and  became  there 
a  nation,  great,  mighty,  and  populous.  The 
Psalmist  dwelt  upon  it.  ^  He  increased  His 
people  greatly,  and  made  them  stronger  than  their 
enemies.  It  became  then  one  of  the  resem- 
blances between  the  first  deliverance  and  the 
last.  " '  For  the  Apostles  and  others  con- 
verted from  Judaism,  liad  more  spiritual 
children,  all  those  whom  they  begat  in  Christ, 
than  the  synagogue  ever  had  after  the  flesh." 

9.  And  I  will  smv  them  among  the  nations. 
Such  had  been  the  prophecy  of  Hosea ;  •*  / 
ivill  sow  her  unto  Me  in  the  earth,  as  the  pre- 
lude of  spiritual  mercies,  and  I  will  have 
mercy  on  her  that  had  not  obtained  mercy,  and  I 
will  say  to  not-my -people.  Thou  art  My  people, 
and  they  shall  say,  my  God.  Hosea's  saying,  I 
icill  soiv  her  in  the  earth  i.  e.  the  whole  earth, 
and  that  to  Me,  corresponds  to,  and  explains 
Zechariah's  brief  saying,  /  u>ill  sow  than  among 

1  Dion.      2Rev.  xiii.  8.      ^Kim.      *Gen.  xlvi.  3. 
6Ex.  i.  7.  eDe.  xxvi.  5.  ^  Ps.  ev.  24. 

8  Hos.  ii.  ult.  See  vol.  i.  pp.  27,  28,  etc. 
•lb.  i.  11.  See  vol.  i.  p.  25.  w  jer.  xxxi.  27. 

i^niT  (Kal  and  Pi.),  "dispersed,"  is  eontrariwiee 
uever  to  "sow." 


shall  live  with  their  chil-    chrTst 
dren,  and  turn  again.  "'''•  ^^"^^ 

10  ^  I  will  bring  them » is.  ii.  ii.  le. 
again  also  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  gather  them 
out  of  Assyria ;  and  I  will 


the  nations.  The  sowing,  which  was  future  to 
Hosea,  had  begun ;  but  the  purpose  of  the 
sowing,  the  hai-vest,  was  wholly  to  come; 
when  it  should  be  seen,  that  they  were 
indeed  sown  by  God,  that  great  should  be  the 
day  of  Jezreel ".  And  Jeremiah  said,  ^"Behold 
the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  sow  the 
house  of  Israel  and  the  hoioic  of  Judah,  with  the 
seed  of  man  and  with  the  seed  of  beast.  The 
word  is  used  of  sowing  to  multiply,  never  of 
mere  scattering  ". 

And  they  shall  remember  Me  in  far  cmintries. 
So  Ezekiel  had  said,  ^'^  And  they  that  escape  of 
you  shall  remember  Me  among  the  nations, 
whither  they  shall  be  carried  captive — and  they 
shall  loath  themselves  for  the  evils  which  they  have 
committed  in  all  their  abominations,  ami  they 
shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord. 

And  shall  live.  As  Ezekiel  again  says, 
^^Ye  shall  know  that  lam  the  Lord,  when  I  open 
your  graves,  and  bring  you  up  out  of  your  graves, 

0  3Iy  people,  and  shall  put  My  Spirit  in  you, 
and  ye  shall  live.  With  their  children.  A  con- 
tinuous gift,  as  Ezekiel,  '■*  they  and  their  chil- 
dren, and  their  children's  children  for  ever:  and 
My  servant  David  shall  be  their  prince  for  ever. 

And  shcdl  turn  again  to  God,  being  con- 
verted, as  Jeremiah  had  been  bidden  to  ex- 
hort them ;  '*  Go  and  proclaim  these  words 
toward  the  North,  the  cities  of  the  Medes 
whither  they  were  carried  captive,  and  say. 
Return,  thou  backsliding  Israel,  and  /  ^vill  not 
cause  Mine  anger  to  fall  upon  you;  ^®  Turn,  0 
backsliding  children — and  1  will  take  you,  one  of 
a  city,  and  two  of  a  family,  andwdl  bring  you  to 
Zion,  and  Iivill  give  you  pastors  according  to 
Mine  heart.    ^'  Return,  ye  backsliding  children  ; 

1  will  heal  your  backslidings.  And  they 
answer.  Behold,  we  come  unto  Thee  ;  for  Thou 
art  the  Lord  our  God.  So  Isaiah  had  said, 
^^  A  remnant  shall  return,  the  remnant  of  Jacob, 
unto  the  mighty  God.  "  ^  They  shall  return 
by  recollection  of  mind  and  adunation  and 
simplification  of  the  affections  toward  God 
so  as  ultimately  to  intend  that  one  thing, 
which  alone  is  necessary." 

10.  /  will  bring  them  again  also  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt.  Individuals  had  fled  to  Egypt  ^* ; 
but  here  probably  Egypt  and  Assyria  stand, 

»-'  Ezek.  vi.  9.       13  ib.  xxxvii.  13, 14.       "  lb.  25. 
16  Jer.  iii.  12.  lo  Ib.  14, 15.  "  Ib.  22. 

18  Is.  X.  21.  comp.  iT'J^^'  "  h®i"  converts,"  la.  i.  27, 
and  1315^1  in  Solomon's  prayer,  2  Chr.  vl.  H. 
18  See'  Hos.  viii.  13,  vol.  i.,  p.  86,  Ix.  3,  p.  88. 


418 


ZECIIARIAII. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

1 1sai.  49.  20. 


»Isai.  11. 
16. 


bring  them  into  the  land  of 
Gilead  and  Lebanon  ;  and 
"^ place  shall  not  be  found 
for  them. 

11  'And  he  shall  pa.ss 
through  the  sea  with  afflic- 
tion, and   shall   smite  the 


as  of  old,  for  the  two  great  conflicting  em- 
pires, between  which  Israel  lay,  at  whose 
hands  she  had  surtered,  and  who  represent 
the  countries  which  lay  beyond  them. 
Hosea  unites,  '  ihe  ITtw/,  Ansyria,  Egiipt,  the 
three  then  known  divisions  of  the  world, 
Europe,  Asia,  Africa'^.  Asshur,  after 
Nineveh  perished,  stands  clearly  for  tlie 
world-empire  of  the  East  at  Babylon'',  and 
then  in  Persia*.  B;ilaain  includes  under 
Asshur,  first  Babylon,  tlien  the  third  world- 
empire*.  Babylon,  wliicli  was  fiist  subject 
to  Xineveli,  tlicn  sulyocted  it,  was  at  a  later 
period  known  to  (xreek  writers  (wiio  proba- 
bly had  their  information  from  Persian 
sources)  as  part  of  Assyria  **. 

And  I  wilt  bring  them  into  the  land  of  Gilead 
and  Lebanon,  their  old  dwellings.  East  and 
West  of  .Jordan.  And  place  shall  not  befomid 
for  them ',  as  Isaiah  says,  *  The  children  of 
thy  bereaved  estate  shall  yet  say  in  thine  ears, 
The  place  k  too  strait  for  me:  give  place,  that 
I  may  dwell. 

11.  And  He,  i.  e.  Almighty  God,  shall  puss 
through  the  sea,  affliction  ',  as  He  says,  '*'  When 
thou  walkesl  through  the  waters,  I  will  be 
tvith  thee ;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not 
overflow  thee.  And  shall  smite  the  waves  in  the 
sea,  as  in  Isaiah,  '^  The  Lord  shaU  utterly  de- 
stroy the  tongue  of  the  Egyptian  sea.  The 
image  is  from  the  deliverance  of  Egypt :  yet 
it  is  said,  that  it  should  not  be  any  exact 
repetition  of  the  miracles  of  Egypt ;  it  would 

>Ho3.  xi.  10,11,1s.  xi.  15,1(1;  add  lb.  xix.  23-25, 
xxvii.  13,  lii.  4,  Mio.  vii.  12.    See  ah.  p.  9G. 

'-•Seft  on  Hos.  xi.  11.  vol.  i.,  p.  115. 

*2  Kgs  xxiii.  20,  Lam.  v.  6;  and,  unless  it  refers 
to  earlier  history,  .Jer.  ii.  18;  also  .Judith  i.  5,  ii.  1, 
V.  1  Ac. 

*  Ezra  vi.  22.      »  Nu.  xxiv.  22-24.  coll.  Dan.  xi.  30. 

•Thus  Herodotus,  in  the  familiar  passa^^es, 
speaks  of  "Assyria,  all  hut  the  Babylonian  por- 
tion." i.  lor..  "Those  Assyrians,  to  whom  Nineveh 
belongs."  lb.  102.  "  .Assyria  possesses  a  vast  num- 
ber of  cities,  whereof  the  strongest  at  this  time  was 
B.ibylon,  whither  after  the  fall  of  Nineveh  the  scat 
of  government  wa**  removed."  lb.  178.  "many 
sovereigns  have  ruled  over  this  city  of  Babylon, 
and  lent  their  aid  to  tho  building  of 'its  walls  and 
the  adornment  of  its  tempU-s;  of  whom  I  shall 
make  mention  in  mv  Assyrian  history."  lb.  184. 
"Babylon  supplies  food  during  foiir.'the  other 
regions  of  Asia  during  eight  months  (to  the  great 
kine]  by  which  it  appears  that  Assyria  in  respect  of 
resources  is  \4  of  the  whole  of  Asia."  lb.  192. 
"I^ittle  rain  falls  in  Assyria.  The  whole  of  Baby- 
lonia is,  like  Egypt,  intorsepted  with  canals.  Tlie 
largest  is  carried  from  the  Ku]>hrates  into  another 


oil  Before 

CHRIST 
cir.  487. 


waves  in  the  sea,  and 

the  deeps  of  the  river  shall 

dry  up:  and  'the  pride  of»isai. u.2.5. 

Assyria   shall  be  brought 

down,    and    "the    sceptre b Ezek. 30. is. 

of   Egypt    shall    depart 

away. 

be  as  the  Red  Sea'^,  which  would  as  eflfectu- 
ally  shut  them  in,  and  in  presence  of  whicli 
they  might  again  think  themselves  lost, 
through  which  (nxl  would  again  bring  them. 
But  it  would  not  be  the  He(l  sea  itself;  for 
the  sen  through  whicli  they  should  be 
brought,  would  be  affliction  ;  as  our  own  poet 
speaks  of  "  taking  arms  against  a  .sea  of 
troubles."  "^^Tlie  promise  of  succor  to 
those  who  believe  in  Christ  is  under  tlu- 
likeness  of  the  things  given  to  those  of  old  ; 
for  as  Israel  was  conveyed  across  the  Red 
sea,  braving  the  waves  in  it ;  '*/o/-  the  water.-< 
stood  upright  as  an  heap,  God  bringing  this  to 
pass  marvellously;  and  as  '^they  passed  tlie 
Jordan  on  foot,  so  he  says,  those  wlio  are 
called  through  Moses  to  tlie  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  have  been  saved  by  the  ministries 
of  the  holy  Apostles,  they  shall  pass  the 
waves  of  this  present  life,  like  an  angrily 
foaming  sea,  and,  being  removed  from  the 
tumult  of  this  life,  shall,  undisturbed,  worship 
the  true  God.  And  they  shall  pass  through 
temptations,  like  sweeping  rivers,  saying  with 
great  joy,  in  like  way,  '"  Unless  the  Lord  had 
beenfoj'  us,  may  Israel  now  say,  the  waters  had 
drowned  u.%  the  stream  had  gone  over  our  soids." 
lie  sitall  smite  the  ivaves  in  the  sea.  There, 
where  the  strength  of  the  powers  of  this  work! 
is  put  forth  against  His  people,  there  He 
will  bring  it  down.  All  the  deeps  of  the  river, 
i.  e.  of  the  Nile ",  shall  be  dried  up.  The 
Nile  as  a  mighty  river  is  substituted  for  the 

stream  called  the  Tigris,  upon  which  the  city  Nine- 
veh formerly  stood."  lb.  193.  so  Straho  xiv.  init., 
Arrian  E.xp.  AI.  vii.  2.  6.  Ammian  xxiii.  20. 

'OnS  1XV0  XS  .lud.  xxi.  14,  is,  "they  found 
not  (encnigh)  for  themselves ;"  thence  here,  Nif. 
"there  was  not  found  for  them." 
8  la.  xlix.  20. 

*mX  is  in  appos.  to  D'3.  Against  the  render- 
ing of  the  LXX  ei'  fia\a.(T<Tri  o-Tec jj,  1)  Q',  as  the  sea, 
no  where  occurs  as  fcm.;  in  2  Kgs  xvi.  17.  it  is  "the 
brazen  sea"  which  is  spoken  of;  2)  the  narrownes-* 
of  the  sea,  if  physieal,  would  facilitate  the  crossing, 
not  aggravate  "it;  .i)  omitting  the  art.,  n^if  DO 
would  be  "in  a  sea  of  attiiction,"  but  would  drop 
the  reference  to  the  sea,  or  "the  red  sea,"  "sea  ' 
becoming  a  mere  metaphor. 

10  Is.  xliii.  2.        >'  lb.  xi.  1.5.        '»  Ex.  xiv.  10,  IJ. 

"  S.  Cyr.  "  Ex.  xv.  8.  «  Josh.  iii.  17. 

"  Ps.  cxxiv.  1-5. 

"  *)1X',  always  the  Nile,  except  Dan.  xii.  5,  where 

it  is  part  of  his  revival  of  words  of  the  Pentateuch. 
So  Gesenius  also.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  a 
canal  now  connecting  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


419 


c  H  R°i  8  T        1  ^  -"^"^  ^  ^^'^^^  streugthen 
cir.  487.      tlip.m    in   the  Lord;   and 


xMic. 4. 5.  "they  shall  walk  up  and 
down  in  his  name,  saith 
the  Lord. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

1  The  destruction  of  Jerumleiii. 
The  elect  being  cared  for,  the 


rest  are  rejected.  lU  The  slaves     „  ^^°J?,  „, 
C  XI  R  I  o  U 


eir.  487. 


Jordan,  symbolizing  the  greater  putting 
forth  of  God's  power  in  the  times  to  come. 

And  the  pride  of  Asshur  shall  be  brouyht 
down.  "HVhen  the  good  receive  their  re- 
ward, tlien  their  enemies  shall  have  no  power 
over  them,  but  shall  be  punished  by  Me, 
because  they  injured  My  elect. — By  the  Assyr- 
ians and  Egyptians  he  understands  all  their 
enemies." 

12.  I  tvi II  strengthen  them  in  the  Lord,  as  our 
Lord  said  to  S.  Paul,  My  strength  is  made  per- 
fect in  iveaknens,  and  S.  Paul  said  in  turn, 
When  I avi  uralc,  then  am  I  strong.  And  in 
His  Name  shall  they  icalh  }(p  and  down,  have 
their  whole  conversation  "  '^  in  Him  accord- 
ing to  His  will,  and  diligent  in  all  things  to 
.speak  and  act  in  His  grace  and  Divine  hope." 
"  ^  Christians  walk  in  the  Name  of  Christ, 
and  there  is  written  on  the  new  white  stone 
given  to  them  «  new  name*,  and  under  the 
dignity  of  a  name  so  great,  they  walk  with 
God,  as  ^  Enoch  walked  and  pleased  God  and 
was  translated." 

Saith  the  Lord.  "'■'Again  the  Lord  (Jod 
speaks  of  the  Lord  God,  as  of  Another,  hint- 
ing the  plurality  of  Persons  in  the  Godhead." 

XL  "^All  the  ways  of  the  Lord  are  mercy 
and  truth,  saith  the  Psalmist '',  and,  *  /  will 
sing  to  Thee  of  mercy  and  judgment.  So  is  this 
prophecy  divided.  Above  *,  almost  all  were 
promises  of  mercy,  which  are  now  fulfilled  in 
deed ;  and  from  this,  '°  Open,  0  Lebanon,  thy 
doors,  all  are  terrible  edicts  of  truth  and 
tokens  of  just  judgment.  How  much  sweet- 
ness and  softness  and  pleasantness  is  therein, 
Rejoice  greatly,  daughter  of  Zion:  shout,  0 
daughter  of  Jerusalem;  what  bitterness  and 
acerbity  and  calamity  to  those,  to  whom 
he  says.  Open,  0  Lebanon,  thy  doors,  that  the  fire 
may  devour  thy  cedars;  howl,  0  fir  tree;  howl,  0  ye 
oaks  ofBasan.  As  then,  before,  we  beheld  His 
mercy  in  those  who  believed  and  believe  ;  so 
now  let  us  contemplate  His  just  judgment  on 


called  5a/!/-f(-iV(/,  nniy  have  had  that  name  in  the 
time  (if  Daniel  and  been  the  river  in  his  vision 
(Stanley  Jewish  Church  iii.  12).  1)  The  Bahr-el-Nil  is 
only  the  modern  Arabic  name  for  the  Nile.  2)  Had 
the  canal  been  so  called  in  Daniel's  time  and  had 
he  meant  it  (which  is  unlikely)  he  would  naturally 
have  called  it  by  its  name,  not  have  translated  it 
into  the  old  Egyptian  and  Hebrew  name. 
'  Rib.  2  Dion.  3  s.  jer.  *  Rev.  n.  17. 


'ch.  10. 10. 


of  Beauty  and  Bands  broken 
by  the  rejection  of  Christ.  15 
The  type  and  curse  of  a  foolish 
shepherd. 

QPEN  nhy   doors,   O 
Lebanon,  that  the  fire 
may  devour  thy  cedars. 


those  who  believed  not."  Gilead  and  Leb- 
anon "  had  been  named  as  the  restored  home 
of  Ephraim  ;  but  there  remained  a  dark  side 
of  the  picture,  which  the  prophet  suddenly 
presents,  with  the  names  of  those  self-same 
lands,  "  Open  thy  doors,  0  Lebanon  ;  howl,  O 
ye  oaks  of  Bamn." 

1.  Open  thy  doors,  0  I^ebunon.  Lebanon, 
whose  cedars  had  .stood,  its  glory,  for  centuries, 
yet  could  offer  no  resistance  to  him  who  felled 
them  ;md  were  carried  of!"  to  adorn  the  pal- 
aces of  its  conquerors  '^,  was  in  Isaiah  "  and 
•Jeremiah  '•^  the  emblem  of  the  glory  of  the 
Jewish  state  ;  and  in  Ezekiel,  of  Jerusalem, 
as  the  prophet  himself  explains  it ''' ;  j^lori- 
ous,  beauteous,  inaccessible,  so  long  as  it  was 
defended  by  (iod ;  a  ready  prey,  when  aban- 
doned by  Him.  The  centre  and  source  of 
her  strength  was  the  worship  of  God  ;  and 
so  Lebanon  has  of  old  been  understood  to  be 
the  temple,  which  was  built  with  cedars  of 
Lebanon,  towering  aloft  upon  a  strong  sum- 
mit ;  the  spiritual  glory  and  the  eminence 
of  Jerusalem,  as  Lebanon  was  of  the  whole 
country,  and  "  "  to  strangers  who  came  to  it, 
it  appearefl  from  afar  like  a  mountain  full  of 
snow  ;  for,  where  it  was  not  gilded,  it  was  ex- 
ceeding white,  being  built  of  marble."  But 
at  the  time  of  destruction,  it  was  "*  a  den  of 
thieves,  as  Lebanon,  amidst  its  beauty,  was  of 
wild  beasts. 

"  ®  I  suppose  Lebanon  itself,  i.  e.  the  temple, 
felt  the  command  of  the  prophet's  words, 
since,  as  its  destruction  approached,  its  doors 
opened  without  the  hand  of  man.  Josephus 
relates  how  "  ^*  at  the  passover,  the  Eastern 
gate  of  the  inner  temple,  being  of  brass  and 
very  firm,  and  with  difficulty  shut  at  eventide 
by  twenty  men  ;  moreover  with  bai-s  strength- 
ened with  iron,  and  having  very  deep  bolts, 
which  went  down  into  the  threshold,  itself 
of  one  stone,  was  seen  at  six  o'clock  at  night 
to  open  of  its  own  accord.     The  guards  of  the 


SGen.  V.  24.  «Rup. 

7Ps.  XXV.  11.  8ib.  ci.  ]. 

9  "  viii.  19-x.  end."  i"  "  all  c.  xi." 

11  X.  10.  12  xi.  1,  2. 

13  See  ab.  on  Zeph.  ii.  14.  and  note  2.  p.  276. 
n  Is.  xiv.  8,  xxxvii.  24.  16  jer.  xxii.  6,  7. 

16  Ezek.  xvii.  3, 12.    "  Joseph,  de  Bello  J.  5.  5,  C. 

18  S.  Matt.  xxi.  13. 

19  de  Bell.  J.  6.  5.  :i  quoted  by  Rup. 


420 


ZECHARIAH. 


chrTst         2  ^"^^■^'   ^^    ^^®^'    ^^^ 
cir.  487.      the  cedar  is  fallen ;  be- 


I  Or,  gallants,     cause  the  1 1  m  i  g  h  t  y  are 

spoiled :   howl,  O  ye  oaks 
visai32i9.    ^of  Bashan;  M'or   lithe 

II  Or,  t/ie  de/enced  '         .         "      . 

forest.  forest  of  the  vintage  is 

come  down. 

3  ^  There  is  a  voice  of 


temple  running  told  it  to  the  officer,  and  he, 
going  up,  with  difficulty  closed  it.  This  the 
uninstructed  thought  a  very  favorable  sign, 
that  God  opened  to  them  the  gate  of  all 
goods.  But  those  taught  in  the  Divine 
words,  understood  that  the  safety  of  the 
temple  was  removed  of  itself,  and  that  the 
gate  opened."  A  saying  of  this  sort  is  still 
e.xstant.  " '  Our  fathers  have  lianded  down, 
forty  yeare  before  the  destruction  of  the 
house,  the  lot  of  the  Lord  did  not  come  up 
on  the  rigiit  hand,  and  the  tongue  of  splendor 
did  not  become  white,  nor  di<l  the  liglit  from 
the  evening  burn,  and  the  doors  of  the  tem- 
ple opened  of  their  own  accord,  until  Kabban 
.Jolianan  ben  Zaccai  rebuked  them,  and  said, 
'(J  temple,  why  dost  thou  affright  thyself  ?j  I 
know  of  thee  that  thy  end  is  to  be  destroyed, 
and  of  this  Zechariah  prophesied.  Open  thy 
iloors,  0  Lebanon,  and  let  tke  fire  devour  thy 
ri'dnrs.' "  The  "forty  years  "  mentioned  in 
this  tradition  carry  back  the  event  exactly  to 
the  Deatli  of  Christ,  the  temple  having  been 
Imrned  A.  \).  7S'\  Josephus  adds  that  they 
(jpened  at  the  passover,  the  season  of  His  Cru- 
cifixion. On  the  other  hand,  the  shutting  of 
the  gates  of  the  temple,  when  they  liad  ■^seized 
Paul  and  dragged  him  out  of  the  temple,  seems 
miraculous  and  significant,  that,  having  thus 
violently  refused  tliepreacliing  of  the  Gospel, 
and  cast  Paul  out,  they  themselves  were  also 
shut  out,  denoting  that  an  entrance  was 
afterward  to  be  refused  ihem. 

And  let  afire  devour  thy  cedars.  Jerusalem, 
or  the  temple,  were,  after  those  times,  burned 
by  the  Romans  only.  Tlie  destruction  of 
j/ride,  opposed  to  Christ,  was  prophesied  by 
Isaiah  in  connection  with  His  Coming  *. 

2.  Hold,  0  cypres'^,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen. 
Jerusalem  or  tiie  temi)le  having  been  likened 
to  Lebanon  and  its  cedai-s,  the  prophet  car- 
ries on  the  image,  speaking  of  the  priests 

>  Yoma  f.  39  Ij.  quoted  by  Mart.  Pne.  tid.  f.  297. 
Eusebiu.s  (Dem.  Evanjj.  vii.  4)  say.",  "  He  calN  the 
temple  Lebaiiiiii,  as  i.s  hi.s  wont,  sinoe  in  other 
prophecie.s  it  has  been  shewn  tliat  the  temple  itself 
Ts  called  Lebanon.  This  the  Jew.s  themselves  still 
confess." 

■i  Euseb.  Chron.  *  Acts  xxi.  3u. 

*  Is.  X.  34,  xi.  1.  'S.  Luke  xxiii.  31. 

•  13.  Pet.  iv.  IS. 

'As  in  E.  M.  The  E.  V.  has  followed  the  Kri, 
curr'-cting  -I'XDn   1;''  f"''  "(1i"3n  l;'',    pp.bahly 


the  howling  of  the  shep- 
herds ;  for  their  glory  is 
spoiled  :  a  voice  of  the  roar- 
ing of  young  lions ;  for  the 
pride  of  Jordan  is  spoiled. 
4  Thus  saith  the  LoRi> 
my  God  ;  "Feed  the  flock "ver.?. 
of  the  slaughter ; 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


princes  and  people,  under  the  title  of  firs, 
cypresses  and  oaks,  trees  inferior,  but  magnifi- 
cent. He  shews  that  it  is  imagery,  by  as- 
cribing to  them  the  feelings  of  men.  The 
more  glorious  and  stately,  the  cedars,  were 
destroyed.  Woe  then  to  the  rest,  the 
cypress;  as  our  Lord  says,  ^ If  they  do  these 
things  in  the  green  tree,  ivhat  shall  be  done, 
in  the  dry  f  and  S.  Peter,  '^  If  the  righteous 
scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall  the  ungodly  ami 
the  sinner  appear  ? 

For  the  defencexV  forest  is  come  down;  that 
which  was  closed  and  inaccessible  to  the 
enemy.  All  which  was  high  and  lifted  up 
was  brought  low,  came  down,  even  to  the 
ground  *. 

3.  A  voice  uf  the  howling  of  the  shepherd.<, 
for  their  glory  I'.s  spoiled.  It  echoes  on  from 
Jeremiah  before  the  captivity,  ''Howl,  ye 
shepherds — .1  rokc  of  the  cry  of  the  shepherd.'^, 
and  an  howling  of  the  principal  of  the  flock  ;  for 
the  Lord  hath  spoiled  their  pasture.  There  is 
one  chorus  of  desolation,  tlie  mighty  and  the 
lowly;  the  shepherds  and  the  young  lions; 
what  is  at  otlier  times  opposed  is  joined  in 
one  wailing.  The  pride  of  Jordan  are  the 
stately  oaks  on  its  banks,  which  shroud  it 
from  sight,  until  you  reach  its  edges,  and 
which,  after  the  captivity  of  the  ten  triljcs, 
l)e(ame  the  liaunt  of  lions  and  their  chief 
abode  in  Palestine,  "  on  account  of  the  burn- 
ing heat,  and  tiie  nearness  of  the  desert,  and 
the  breadth  of  the  vast  solitude  and  jun- 
gles'"." 

4.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  my  God,  Feed  the 
flock  of  the  .^slaughter.  The  fuliillment  of  the 
whole  propliecy  shews,  that  the  person  ad- 
dressed is  the  propiiet,  not  in,  or  for  himself, 
but  (as  belongs  to  symbolic  prophecy)  as  rej)- 
resenting  Another,  our  Lord.  It  is  addressed, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  Zechariah.  For 
Zechariah  is  bidden,  "  take  unto  thee  yet  the 

in  order  to  substitute  the  common  nom.  and  pen. 
for  the  less  usual  construction  of  the  subj.  and  adj. 
being  defined  by  the  art.  of  tlie  adj.  as  in  Zech. 
himself,  iv.  7,  xiv.  lo. 
s.\s  in  Is.  xx.\ii.  19,  ii.  I2,si|q.  'Jer.  xxv.,34,.3G. 
loS.  .ler.  See  Jerem.  xlix.  19,  1.44,  2Kgs  xvii.  2j. 
The  lion  lingered  there  even  to  the  close  of  the 
Xllth  cent.  Fhoeas  in  Reland  Palie.*t.  i.  274.  S. 
Cyril  says  in  the  present,  "there  are  very  many 
lions  there,  roaring  horribly  and  strikinu  lear  into 
the  inhabitants."  .      "  *•  '•'•. 


CHAPTER  XT. 


421 


c  H  r7s  t        ^  Wliose  possessors  slay 
cir.  487.      thera,  and  ■*  hold  themselves 


«Jer.  2.3.  4  50.7. 


histruments  of  a  foolish  shepherd,  in  words  ad- 
dressed to  himself,  personally  ;  And  the  Lord 
said  unto  me.  But  he  who  was  to  represent 
the  foolish  shepherd,  had  represented  the 
True  Shepherd,  since  it  is  said  to  him, 
"  Take  unto  thee  yet."  But  He,  the  Shep- 
herd addressed,  who  does  the  acts  com- 
manded, speaks  with  the  authority  of  God. 
He  says,  '  1  cut  off  three  shepherd.^  in  one  month; 
*  /  broke  My  covenant  which  I  had  made  %nth 
all  the  peoples;  ^the  poor  of  the  flock  waited 
upon  Me ;  *  I  cut  asunder  Mine  other  staff, 
Bands,  that  I  might  break  the  brotherhood  be- 
tween Judah  and  Israel..  But  in  Zechariah's 
time,  no  three  shepherds  were  cut  oflj  the 
covenant  made  by  God  was  not  broken  on 
His  part,  there  was  no  such  visible  distinc- 
tion between  those  who  waited  on  God,  and 
those  who,  outwardly  too,  rejected  Him. 

Feed  the  flock  of  the  slaughter^,  those  who 
were,  even  before  the  end,  slain  by  their  evil 
shepherds  whom  they  followed,  and  who  in 
the  end  would  be  given  to  the  slaughter,  as 
the  Psalmist  says,  ^we  are  counted  as  sheep  for 
the  slaughter,  because  they  would  not  hear  the 
voice  of  the  True  Shepherd,  and  were  not 
His  sheep.  They  were  already,  by  God's 
judgment,  a  prey  to  evil  shepherds ;  and 
would  be  so  yet  more  hereafter.  As  a  whole 
then,  they  were  sheep  of  the  slaughter.  It  is  a 
last  charge  given  to  feed  them.  As  our  Lord 
says,  ^  Last  of  all.  He  sent  unto  them  His  Son, 
saying,  They  will  reverence  My  Son.  This  fail- 
ing, nothing  remained  but  that  the  flock 
would  be  given  up,  as  they  themselves  say, 
"  He  vjill  miserably  destroy  those  wicked  men,  and 
will  let  out  His  vineyard  unto  other  husbandmen, 
which  shall  render  Him  the  fruits  in  their  sea.^ons, 
i.  e.  our  Lord  explains  it,  ®  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  shall  be  taken  from  them,  and  given  to  a 
nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof.  Yet  a 
remnant  should  be  saved,  for  whose  sake  the 
larger  flock  was  still  to  be  fed  :  and,  as  our 
Lord,  as  Man,  wept  over  Jerusalem,  whose 
sentence  He  pronounced,  so  He  still  feeds 
those  who  would  not  turn  to  Him  that  they 
might  be  saved,  and  who  would  in  the  end  be  a 
flock  of  slaughter,  '"  Death  their  shepherd,  since 
they  chose  death  rather  than  Life. 

5.  Whose  possessors  ^buyers  ^^]  slay  them  and 
hold  themselves  not  guilty,  rather,  are  not  guilty, 

iv.  8.  2V.  10.  3v.  11.  *v.U. 

^njinn  |xy,  as  .nn  K'j  Jer.  vu.  32,  xix.  e. 

n  Dv'ib.'xii.  3. 

6  Ps.  xliv.  22.  nn3£3  JKV.        '  S.  Matt.  xxi.  37. 

8  lb.  41.  9  lb.  43.  10  Ps.  xlix.  14. 

"  in'Jp  stands  opposed  to  |n'")3b.  as  in  Is. 
xxiv.  2.  ^^D^r2?  n^ip3. 


uoi  guilly :  and  they  thai 
sell  them  *  say,  Blessed  be . 


Befon* 

(•  H  R  I  8  r 

cir.  487. 


'  Deut.  2y.  19.  Hos.  12. 8. 


either  in  their  own  eyes,  or  in  the  sight  of 
God,  since  He  gave  them  up  and  would  no 
more  avenge  them.  They  contract  no  guilt. 
Aforetime  God  said ;  ^'^  Israel  was  holiness  to 
the  Lord,  the  first-fruits  of  His  increase  ;  all  that 
devour  him  shcdl  be  guilty  '* :  cHl  shall  come  upon 
them,  saith  the  Lord.  Now  God  revei-sed  this, 
as  He  said  by  the  same  prophet,  "  3Iy  people 
hath  been  lost  sheep  ;  their  shepherds  have  caused 
them  to  go  astray ;  they  have  turned  them  away 
on  the  mountains  ; — all  that  found  them  have  de- 
voured them;  and  their  adversaries  say,  We  are 
not  guilty  '^ ;  because  they  have  sinned  against 
the  Lord,  the  habitation  of  justice,  yea,  the  hope 
of  their  fathers,  the  Lord.  The  ofience  of  in- 
juring Israel  was  that  they  were  God's  peo- 
ple :  when  He  cast  them  forth,  they  who 
chastened  them  were  His  servants'*^.  His  in- 
struments, and  ofl^ended  only  when  through 
pride  they  knew  not  in  Whose  hands  they 
themselves  were",  or  through  cruelty  ex- 
ceeded their  ofiice'*,  and  so  they  became 
guilty. 

And  they  that  sell  them  say.  Blessed  be  the 
Lord,  for  I  am  rich.  Even  Sennacherib  felt 
himself  in  part,  or  thought  best  to  own  him- 
self, to  be  an  instrument  in  God's  hand  ^*. 
But  Titus  when  he  "  '^°  entered  Jerusalem, 
marveled  at  the  strength  of  the  city  and  its 
towers,  which  'the  tyrants'  in  phrensy  aban- 
doned. When  then  he  had  beheld  their 
solid  strength  and  the  greatness  of  each  rock, 
and  how  accurately  they  were  fitted  in,  and 
how  great  their  length  and  breadth,  he  said 
'By  the  help  of  God  we  have  warred;  and 
God  it  was  Who  brought  down  the  Jews 
from  those  bulwarks :  for  what  avail  the 
hands  of  man  or  his  engines  against  such 
towers?'  Much  of  this  sort  he  said  to  his 
friends."  The  Jews  also  were  sold  in  this 
war,  as  they  had  not  been  in  former  cap- 
tures ;  and  that,  not  by  chance,  but  because 
the  Roman  policy  was  different  from  all, 
known  by  "experience"  in  the  time  of 
Zechariah.  Into  Babylon  they  had  been  car- 
ried captive,  as  a  whole,  because  it  was  the 
will  of  God,  after  the  seventy  years  to  restore 
them.  In  this  war,  it  was  His  will  to  destroy 
or  disperse  them;  and  so  those  above  17 
were  sent  to  Egypt  to  the  works ;  those  below 
17  were  sold.     "^^The  whole  number  taken 

12  Jer.  il.  3.    "  lOtyN'  vSjX  hz.     •*  Jer.  I.  «,  7. 

iSQi^j^j  jtS.    The  same  word. 

16  Jer.  XXV.  9,  xxvii.  6,  xliii.  10. 

"  Is.  X.  7.  DiyNI  Hab.  i.  11. 

18 Is.  xlvii.  6,  Zech.  i.  18.  "Is.  xxxvl  10. 

MJos.  deB.  J.  6.  9. 1. 

21  Jo.s.  lb.  g  2.  3. 


422 


ZECHAKIATI. 


Beforo 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


f  Heb.  make  to 
be  found. 


the  Lord  ;  for  I  am  rich : 
and  their  own  shepherds 
pity  them  not. 

6  For  I  will  no  more 
pity  the  inhabitants  of  the 
land,  saith  the  Lord  :  but, 
lo,  I  will  t  deliver  the  men 


prisoners  during  the  wars  were  1,100,000," 
beside  those  who  perished  elsewhere. 
'•'Read  we  the  ancient  liistories  and  the 
traditions  of  the  mourning  Jews,  that  at  the 
Tabernaculum  Abrahii?  (where  now  is  a  very 
thronged  mart  every  year)  after  the  last  de- 
struction, which  they  endured  from  Adrian, 
many  thousands  were  sold,  and  wliat  could 
not  be  sold  were  removed  into  Egypt,  and 
destroyed  byshipwreckor  famine  and  slaugh- 
ter by  the  people.  No  displeasure  came  upon 
the  "Romans  for  the  utter  destruction,  as 
tliere  had  upon  the  Assyrians  and  Chal- 
dteans." 

And  their  own  shepherds  (in  contrast  to  those 
who  bought  and  sold  them,  who  accordingly 
were  not  their  own,  temporal  or  spiritual) 
they  to  whom  God  had  assigned  them,  who 
should  have  fed  them  with  the  word  of  God, 
'strengthened  the  diseased,  healed  the  sick, 
bound  up  the  broken,  and  souglit  the  lost, 
pity  them  not.  He  says  what  tliey  should 
have  done,  in  blaming  them  for  what  they 
did  not  do.  They  owed  them  a  teuder  com- 
passionate love  ^ ;  they  laid  aside  all  mercy, 
and  became  wolves,  as  S.  Paul  says ;  *  After 
my  departure  shall  grievous  ivolves  enter  in 
among  you,  not  sparing  the  flock.  Ako  of  your 
own  selves  shall  men  arm,  speaking  perverse 
things,  to  draw  away  disciples  after  them.  They 
who  owed  them  all  love,  shall  have  none. 
"  '  No  marvel  then,  lie  says,  if  enemies  shall 
use  the  right  of  conquest,  when  their  very 
shepherds  and  teachers  spared  them  not, 
and,  through  their  fault,  the  flock  was  given 
over  to  the  wolves."  All  were  corrupted. 
High  Priest,  priests,  scribes,  lawyers,  I'har- 
isees,  Sadducees.  No  one*  had  pity  on 
them. 

6.  For  I  will  no  more  pity.  Therefore  were 
they  a  flock  of  the  slaughter,   because  God 

» S.  Jer.  2  Ezek.  xx.xiv.  4. 

*  iSdIT.  *  Acts  XX.  23,  .30. 

5  This  is  expre.iscd  by  the  Hebrew  idiom,  "their 
shepherds  [plnr.]  one  bv  one,  pity  [.'<in.n.l  Miem 
not.^'  "S.  Luke  xi.  :V2.  "DJX  empfiatio. 

8  Acts  iii.  V.i,  14.  «S.  Jolin  xix.  15. 

'OQf  which  rtr\2  is  used,  Is.  xxx.  14;  of  the 
golden  calf,  De.  ix.  21.  So  n03.  of  the  brazen 
serpent,  2  Kgs  xviii.  4;  the  idols,  2  Chr.  xxxiv.  7. 

"'7''^D  rX  Jud.  xviii.  28,  2  Sam.  xlv.  6,  Job  v.  4, 
Ps.  vii.  3,  1.  22,  Ixxl.  U,  Is.  V.  29,  xlii.  22,  Hos.  v.  14, 
Mic.  V.  7,8. 


every 

bor's 

hand 

they 

land, 

hand 

them. 


one  into  hi.'?  neigh- 
hand,  and  into  the. 
of  his  king:  and 
shall  smite  the 
and  out  of  their 
I   will    not    deliver 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


would  have  no  pity  on  those  who  went  after 
shepherds  who  hud  no  pity  upon  them,  but 
corrupted  them;  who  '^entered  not  in  them- 
selves, and  those  who  were  entering  in,  they  hin- 
dered. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  land,  "  that  land,  of 
which  he  had  been  speaking,"  Judfea.  And 
lo.  God,  by  this  word,  lo,  always  commands 
heed  to  His  great  doings  with  man ;  I,  I, 
Myself,  visibly  interposing,  will  deliver  num, 
the  whole  race  of  inhabitants,  every  one  into 
his  tieighbor's  hand,  by  conl'usion  and  strife 
and  hatred  within,  and  into  the  hand  of  his 
king,  him  whom  they  chose  and  took  as  their 
own  king,  when  they  rejected  Christ  as  their 
King,  repudiating  the  title  which  Pilate 
gave  Him,  to  move  their  pity.  Wliereas 
He,  their  Lord  and  God,  was  their  King, 
they  formally  ^denied  Him  in  the  presence  uf 
Pilate,  when  he  tvas  determined  to  let  Him  go; 
they  denied  the  Holy  One  and  the  Just,  and 
said,  "  We  have  no  king  but  Ccesar. 

And  they,  the  king  without  and  the  wild 
savages  within,  shall  smite,  bruise,  crush  iu 
pieces,  like  a  broken  vessel '",  the  land,  and 
out  of  their  hand  I  will  not  deliver  them. 
Their  captivity  shall  Ije  without  remedy  or 
end.  Holy  Scripture  often  says,  there  is  no 
deliverer  '\  or  ^'^  none  can  deliver  out  of  My 
hand,  or,  since  God  delighteth  in  doing 
good,  I''',  He'*,  will  deliver,  or  delivered'^ 
from  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  or  their 
slavery,  or  their  own  fears,  or  afllictions,  or 
the  like.  God  nowhere  else  says  absolutely 
as  here,  I  will  not  deliver  ^^.  "  Hear,  O  Jew," 
says  S.  Jerome,  "  who  boldest  out  to  thyself 
hopes  most  vain,  and  liearest  not  the  Lord 
strongly  asserting,  /  will  not  deliver  them  out 
of  their  hands,  that  tliy  captivity  among  the 
Romans  shall  have  no  end."  In  the  threat- 
ened captivity  before  they  were  carried  to 

J2  De.  xxxii.  .39,  Job  x.  7,  Ps.  1.  22,  Ixxi.  11.  Is.  xliii. 
13.  Dau.  viii.  4,  7. 

18  Ex.  vi.  G,  2  Kgs  XX.  f>,  Jer.  xv.  21,  xxxix.  17, 
Ezek.  xxxiv.  27. 

»  1  Sam.  vii.  3,  Ps.  xviii.  16,  Ixxii.  12,  2  Kgs  xvii. 
39,  Is.  xix.  20,  xxxi.  5,  Job  v.  19. 

i»  Ex.  xviii.  10,  Josh.  xxiv.  10,  Jud.  vi.  9, 1  Sam.  x. 
18,  xiv.  10,  2  Sam.  xxii.  1,  Ps.  xxxiv.  5, 18,  liv.  9,  Ezr. 
viii.  31,  Jer.  xx.  13. 

»«  Once  only  on  one  of  the  brief  repentances  in 
the  Judges,  Giod  answers  their  prayer,  7  will  not  save 
iioit ;  go  and  cry  to  the  cjods  which  ye  have  chosen  :  let 
them  save  you:  but  only  to  save  them  on  their 
renewed  repentance  and  prayer.  Jud.  x.  13-10. 


CHAPTER  Xr. 


42.^ 


cir.  487.      flock  of  slaughter,    \\even 


Yor^ verily  the     YOU,  ^O  pOOr   of  the  flock. 


poor. 


;eph.  3.  12. 
.Matt.  11.  5. 


And  I  took  unto  me  two 


Babylon,  the  prophet  foretold  the  restora- 
tion:  here  'only  it  is  said  of  Judah,  as  Hosea 
had  said  of  Israel,  that  there  should  be  no 
deliverer  out  of  the  hand  of  the  king  whom 
they  had  chosen. 

7.  The  prophetic  narrative  which  follows, 
differs  in  its  form,  in  some  respects,  from  the 
symbolical  actions  of  the  prophets  and  from 
Zechariah's  own  visions.  The  symbolical 
actions  of  the  prophets  are  actions  of  their 
own:  thin  involves  acts,  which  it  would  be 
impossible  to  represent,  except  as  a  sort  of 
drama.  Such  are  the  very  central  points, 
the  feeding  of  the  flock,  which  yet  are  intel- 
ligent men  who  understand  God's  doings: 
the  cutting  off  of  the  three  shepherds ;  the 
asking  for  the  price;  the  unwouthy  price 
offered  ;  the  casting  it  aside.  It  diflers  from 
Zechariah's  own  visions,  in  that  they  are  for 
the  most  part  exhibited  to  the  eye,  and 
Zechariah's  own  part  is  simply  to  enquire 
their  meaning  and  to  learn  it,  and  to  receive 
further  revelation.  In  one  case  only,  he 
himself  interposes  in  the  action  of  the 
vision  1 ;  but  this  too,  as  asking  that  it 
might  be  done,  not,  as  himself  doing  it. 
Here,  he  is  himself  the  actor,  yet  as  repre- 
senting Another,  Who  alone  could  cut  off 
shepherds,  abandon  the  people  to  mutual  de- 
struction, annulling  the  covenant  which  He 
had  made.  Maimonides,  then,  seems  to  say 
rightly ;  "  ^  This,  /  fed  the  flock  of  the  daugh- 
ter, to  the  end  of  the  narrative,  where  he  is 
said  to  have  asked  for  his  hire,  to  have  re- 
ceived it,  and  to  have  cast  it  into  the  temple, 
to  the  treasurer,  all  this  Zechariah  saw  in 
prophetic  vision.  For  the  command  which 
he  received,  and  the  act  which  he  is 
said  to  have  done,  took  place  in  prophetic 
vision  or  dream."  "This,"  he  adds,  "  is  be- 
yond controversy,  as  all  know,  who  are  able 
to  distinguish  the  possible  from  the  im- 
possible." 

"  3  The  actions,  presented  to  the  prophets 
are  not  always  to  be  undei-stood  as  actions 
but  as  predictions.  As  when  God  commands 
Isaiah,  to  make  the  heart  of  the  people 
dull*  L  e.  to  denounce  to  the  people  their 
future  blindness,  through  which  they  would. 


» iii.  15. 

2  More  Neboch.  ii.  4fi,  p.  123,  6.  Biixt.  Tr.  p.  326. 
Abarbanel  (ad  loe.)  regards  the  act  as  real,  but 
symbolic.  "God  commanded  him  to  do  an  act,  in 
deed  and  awake,  which  was  a  declaration  and  a 
sign  of  what  should  be  in  God's  guidance  of  Israel. 
See  at  length  in  McCaul's  transl.  of  Kimchi  on 
Zech.  pp.  198-208. 


staves  ;   the   one   I   called    (.  jf  r^/I  t 
Beauty,  and   the   other   I__^ilii!L_ 
called  II  Bands;  and  I  fed  n or, 6inder«. 
the  flock. 


with  obstinate  mind,  reject  the  mercies  of 
Christ.  Or  when  He  says,  that  He  ap- 
pointed Jeremiah  °  to  destroy  and  to  build ; 
to  root  out  and  to  plant.  Or  when  He  com- 
manded the  same  prciphet  to  cause  the  na- 
tions to  drink  the  cup,  whereby  they  should 
be  bereft  of  their  senses",  Jeremiah  did 
nothing  of  all  this,  but  asserted  that  it  would 
be.     So  here." 

And  I  icill  feed  the  flock  of  the  daughter, 
rather  And  [our,  .so]  /  fed '.  The  prophet 
declares,  in  the  name  of  our  Lord,  that  He 
did  what  the  Fatlier  commanded  Him.  He 
fed  the  flock,  connnitted  to  His  care  by  the 
Father,  Avho,  through  their  own  obstinacy, 
became  the  flock  of  daughter.  "What  could  be 
done,  He  did  for  them  ;  so  that  all  might 
see  that  they  perished  by  their  own  fault. 
The  symbol  of  our  Lord,  as  the  Good  Shep- 
herd, had  been  made  prominent  by  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  ^Behold  the  Lord  will 
come,  as  a  Mighty  One — He  shall  feed  His  flock 
like  a  shepherd :  He  shall  gather  the  lambs  with 
His  arm  and  carry  them  in  His  bosom:  He 
shall  gently  lead  those  that  are  with  young. 
And  Jeremiah,  having  declared  God's  judg- 
ments on  the  then  shepherds",  ^'^  I  will  gather 
the  remnant  of  My  flock  out  of  all  countries 
whither  I  have  driven  them,  and  will  bring  them 
again  to  their  fold;  and  they  shall  be  fruitful 
and  increase.  And  I  unll  set  up  shepherds  over 
them  ivhich  .sAo/Z  feed  them.  Behold  the  days 
come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  raise  unto  Da- 
vid a  righteous  Branch,  and  a  king  shall  reign 
and  prosper — and  this  is  tlie  name  ichereby  He 
shall  be  called,  the  Lord  our  Righteousness. 
And  Ezekiel  with  the  like  context '' ;  ^^  There- 
fore will  I  save  My  flock  and  they  shall  be  no 
more  a  prey  ;  and  I  will  judge  between  cattle  and 
cattle.  And  I  will  set  One  Shepherd  over  them, 
and  He  shall  feed  them:  My  servant  David,  He 
shall  feed  them;  and  He  shall  be  their  Shepherd; 
and,  uniting  both  offices,  ^^  David,  My  servant, 
shall  be  king  over  them,  and  they  shall  all  have 
One  Shepherd.  It  was  apparent  then  before- 
hand. Who  this  Shepherd  was  to  be,  to 
Whom  God  gave  the  feeding  of  the  flock. 

"Even  you,  or  for  you,  ye  poor  of  the  flock; 
or,  therefore,  being  thus  commanded,  [fed  l] 

3  0sor.    *Is.  vi.  10.    6Jer.  i.  10.    « Id.  xxv.  15  sqq. 

7  n  retained  in  n;?.1X1  as  in  verbs  T]h  in  1  Sam. 
i.  7,  2  Sam.  xxiii.  15, 1  Kgs  xiv.  9,  2  Kgs  ii.  8, 14  [bi8] 
Jer.  XX.  2.  .  ,^,, 

8  Is.  xl.  10, 11.  »Jer.  xxni.  2.  w  lb.  3-6. 
"  Ezek.  xxxiv.  1-21.  "  ib.  22,  23, 
w  lb.  xxxvii.  24. 


424 


ZECHARIAH. 


Beforo 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

»  Ho9.  5.  7. 


8  Three  shepherds  also  I 
cut  off  "  in  one  month ;  and 


my  soul  t  loathed  them,  and 
their  soul  also  abhorred  me. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


t  Heb.  tens  straitened  for  them. 


the  poor  of  the  flock  ^.  The  whole  flock  was 
coiuniitted  to  llini  to  feed.  He  had  to  seek 
out  all  '■'  the  loM  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel. 
"  ^  He  fed,  for  the  time,  the  Jews  destined  to 
death,  until  their  time  should  come ; "  the 
fruit  of  His  labor  was  in  the  *  little  flock, 
"the  faithful  Jews  who  believed  in  Him, 
out  of  the  people  of  the  flock  aforesaid,  or 
the  synagogue.  Who  in  tlie  primitive  Church 
de.spised  all  earthly  things,  leading  a  most 
pure  life."  So  He  says,  *  /  icitl  feed  My  flock 
aiul  I  ivill  cause  them  to  lie  dotcn,  saith  the  Lord 
God :  I  will  seek  that  which  was  lost,  and  hnng 
again  that  which  was  driven  away,  and  will  bind 
that  which  was  broken,  and  icill  strengthen  that 
which  was  sick :  but  I  will  destroy  the  fat  and 
the  strong,  I  will  feed  them  with  judgment. 

The  elect  are  the  end  of  all  God'y  dispen- 
sations. He  fed  all ;  yet  the  fruit  of  His 
feeding,  His  toils,  His  death,  the  travail  of 
His  soul,  was  in  those  only  who  are  saved. 
So  S.  Paul  says,  •"  Therefore  I  endure  all  things 
for  the  elects  sakcs,  that  they  may  also  obtain  the 
salvation  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  with  eternal 
glory.  He  fed  all ;  but  the  poor  of  the  flock 
alone,  those  who  were  despised  of  men,  be- 
cause they  would  not  follow  the  pride  of  the 
High  Priests  and  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  be- 
lieved on  Him,  as  they  themselves  say, 
'  Have  any  of  the  rulers  or  the  Pharisees  be- 
lieved on  Him  f  and  S.  Paul  says,  ®  Not  many 
wise  mtn  after  the  fle.^h,  not  many  mighty,  not 
many  noble  are  called;  but  God  hath  chosen  the 
foolish  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  wise  ; 
and  God  hath  chosen  the  tveak  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  things  that  are  miqhty  ; 
and  base  things  of  the  world,  and  things  de- 
spised, hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and  things  which 
are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  that  are. 

And  I  took  unto  Me  two  [shepherd's]  staves, 
as  David  says,  *  Thy  rod  and  Thy  staff  they 
comfort  me.  The  one  I  called  Beauty  or  Loveli- 
ness^'^, as  the  Psalmist  longs  to  behold  the 
beauty  or  loveliness  of  God  in  His  temple  ", 
and  says ;  let  "  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God 
be  upon  us. 

And  the  other  I  called  Bands,  lit.  Binders^^. 
The  one  staff"  represents  the  full  favor  and 
loving-kindness    of   God ;    when    this    was 

•  The  masora  parva  says  that  "  the  jpS  is  a  femi- 
nine," i.  e.  so  punctuated  for  ?37,  as  in  the  .3d  pers. 
Dn3  2  Sam.  xxiv.  3,  Eccl.  ix.  12;  rn3  Gen.  xix. 
29,  XXX.  26.     Yet   07   being,  so  often,  some  00 

times,  illative,  therefore,  it  would  be  arbitrary  to 
take  itotherwi-e  here,  since  even  J3  itself  nowhere 

occurs  as  a  pronoun. 

»S.  Matt.  X.  6,  XV.  24.  »  Dion. 

•  8.  Luke  xii.  32.  »  Ezek.  xxxiv.  15, 16. 

•  2  Tim.  IL  10.  1 8.  John  xii.  48. 


broken,  there  yet  remained  the  other,  by 
which  they  were  held  togctlier  as  a  people 
in  covenant  wit  li  CJod.  And  I  fed  the  flock. 
This  was  the  use  of  his  staves;  He  tended 
them  with  both,  ever  putting  in  exercise 
toward  them  tlie  loving  beauty  and  grace  of 
God,  and  binding  them  together  and  with 
Himself. 

8.  And  I  cut  off  three  .shepherds  in  one 
month.  "  '*  I  have  read  in  some  one's  com- 
mentary, that  the  shepherds,  cut  ofl'  in  the 
indignation  of  the  Lord,  are  to  be  under- 
stood of  priests  and  false  prophets  and  kings 
of  the  Jews,  who,  after  the  Passion  of 
Clirist,  were  all  cut  off"  in  one  time,  of  whom 
Jeremiah  speaketh,  **  The  priests  said  not. 
Where  is  the  Lord  f  and  they  that  handle  the 
laiv  knew  Me  not ;  the  pastors  cdso  transgressed 
against  Me,  and  the  prophets  prophesied  by 
Ba/d,  and  walked  after  things  which  do  not 
proflt,"  and  again,  ^^  As  the  thief  is  ashamed 
ivhen  he  is  found,  so  is  the  house  of  Israel 
ashamed;  they,  their  kings,  their  princes,  and 
their  priests  and  their  prophets;  and  ^''  they  said. 
Come,  let  us  devise  devices  against  Jeremiah ; 
for  the  law  shall  not  perish  from  the  priest,  n/)r 
counsel  from  the  wine,  nor  the  ivord  from  the  pro- 
phet. " '"  He  speaks  of  the  kings  of  the 
Jews,  and  prophets  and  priests  ;  for  by  tlie 
three  orders  they  were  shepherded."  " '"  The 
true  and  good  Sliepherd  having  been  al- 
ready pointed  out,  it  was  right  and  necessary 
that  the  hirelings  and  false  shepherds  should 
be  removed,  the  guides  of  the  Jews  in  the 
law.  The  three  shepherds  were,  I  deem, 
those  who  exerci.sed  the  legal  priesthood, 
and  those  appointed  judues  of  the  people, 
and  the  interpreters  of  Scripture,  i.  e.  the 
lawyers.  For  these  too  fed  Israel.  Those 
who  had  the  glory  of  the  priesthood  were  of 
tiie  tribe  of  Levi  only ;  and  of  them  Mala- 
chi  says,  *°  The  priest's  lips  sh/dl  keep  knowledge, 
and  they  shall  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth.  But 
tho.se  who  received  authority  to  judge  were 
also  selected,  yet  were  appointed  out  of  every 
tribe.  In  like  way  the  hiwycrs,  who  were 
ever  assessors  to  the  judges,  and  adduced  the 
words  of  tlie  law  in  proof  of  every  matter. — 
But  we  shall  find  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 

8 1  Cor.  i.  26-28.  »  Ps.  xxiii.  4. 

lOxaAAot,  d;  evrrpeirtia,  Aq.  Svm.     (Theodot.  also, 
see  Field  He.xapl.  on  v.  10.)  "decus."  S.  Jer. 
n  "  Q^tj  p.s.  xxvii.  4.  "  Ps.  xc.  17. 

"From  the  common  i2r\  "rope;"  in  Arab,  verb, 

"bound  fast  as  with  rope,"  "made  covenant;" 
noun,  "band  of  marriage,  friendship,  covenant  of 
God  or  man,  personal  security,"  Lane.  axoivKriio., 
6  .\q.  Sym. ;  fnniciilos,  S.  Jer. 

>«  S.  Jer.     «  Jer.  ii.  8.     "e  lb.  26.     "  Ih.  xviii.  18. 

"Theodoret.  >»S.  Cyr.  iWMal.il.  7. 


CHAPTER  Xr. 


425 


c'r-  487.      feed  you  :  '  that  that  dieth, 
let  it  die  ;  and  that  that  is 


i  Jer.  15.  2. 
&  43.  11. 


to  be  cut  oft',  let  it  be  cut  oft'; 


Himself  expres-sly  pronounced  woe  on  the 
Pharisees  and  scribes  and  lawyers.  For  He 
said,  ^  Woe  unto  yoa  scribes  and  Pharisees. 
And  when  one  of  the  lawyers  hereupon  an- 
swered Him  saying,  ^  Master,  so  sayimj  Thou 
reproaehest  us  also,  He  said,  Woe  unto  you  also, 
ye  lawyers  !  for  ye  laie  men  with  burdens  griev- 
ous to  be  borne,  and  ye  yourselves  touch  not  the 
burdens  with  one  of  your  Jinr/ers.  These  three 
Shepherds  then,  priests  and  judges  and  law- 
yers ^,  who  remained  in  their  own  orders  and 
places,  until  the  coming  of  Christ,  were  very 
justly  taken  away  in  one  month.  For  since 
*  they  killed  the  Prince  of  life,  thereby  also  are 
they  mown  down,  and  that  in  the  month  of 
the  first  fruits,  in  which  Emmanuel  endured 
to  be  slain  for  us.  They  remained  indeed 
administering  Israel,  even  after  the  Saviour's 
Cross,  through  tlie  Inng-sufiering  and  com- 
passion of  Almighty  God  calling  them  to  re- 
pentance ;  but,  in  the  sentence  passed  by 
God,  they  were  taken  away,  at  that  time, 
when  they  delivered  to  the  Cross  the  Sa- 
viour and  Redeemer  of  all.  They  were 
taken  away  then  in  one  month  ;  "  Nisan.  A.  D. 
33.  The  tliree  offices.  King,  Divine  Teacher, 
Priest,  were  to  be  united  in  Christ :  they 
might  have  been  held  under  Him:  those 
who  rejected  them  in  Him,  forteited  them 
themselves.  These  then  He  made  to  disap- 
pear, effiiced  them  from  the  earth  ^ 

And  My  soul  was  straightened  for  them®. 
It  is  used  of  the  Divine  grief  at  the  misery 
of  His  people  '.  And  their  soul  abhorred  Me, 
nauseated  ille*.  "'When  it  is  said.  Their  soul 
alsoabhorreth  Me,  the  meaning  is, '  My  soul  did 
not  loathe  them  first,  but  their  soul  first 
despised   Me,  therefore  My  Soul   abhorred 

IS.  Luke  xi.  44.  2  lb.  4.5,  46. 

» No  other  explanation  of  the 'three  shepherds' 
seems  to  me  at  all  to  recommend  itself.  The  Jews 
made  them  Moses  Aaron  and  Miriam  (Taanith  f. 
9a.)  and  from  them,  S.  Jerome ;  J.  Kim.  and  (as  one 
solution)  Ibn  Ezra,  suggested  Haggai,  Zechariah, 
Malachi ;  " '  After  whorn,'  the  rabbis  say, '  prophecy 
departed  from  Israel'"  ("on  account  of  the  cutting 
off  of  prophecy  at  their  death,"  opinion  in  •Tan- 
chum.)  Abraham  Lev.  "the  principality  of  the 
sons  of  David,  and  the  monarchy  of  the  Hasmo- 
neeans,  and  that  of  their  servants."  D.  Kim.,  "the 
throe  sons  of  Josiah,  Jehoahaz,  Jehoiakim  and 
Zedekiah:"  Abarbanel,  "the  Maccabees,  Judas 
Jonathan  and  Simon  :  "  Rashi,  "  the  house  of  Ahab 
and  the  house  of  Ahaziah,  and  his  brethren  and  all 
the  posterity  of  the  kingdom  of  David  (except 
Joash)  slain  by  Ahab  and  Athaliah:"  Tanehum. 
"Joshua  the  high-priest  and  the  second  priest  ana 
the  anointed  for  war:"  (Buxtorf  refers  for  his 
office  to  Maimonides,  Hilcnos  melachinumilchama 
c.  7.  and  massecheth  Sola  c.  8.  Lex.  Chald.  col. 
1267).  "And  it  is  said,  Joshua,  Zerubbahel  and 
Nehemiah,"  Tanehum.  Theodorus  of  i^Iops.  in- 
terpreted it  of  "the  priests"  generally,  not  of  any 


Before 

C  H  R  J  S  T 

cir.  487. 


aud  let  the  rest  eat  every 
one  the  flesh  f  of  another.    . 

10  fFAnd  I  took  my  fHeb. of  his  fei- 

"•      low,  or,  neigh- 
staff,  even  Beauty,  and  cut   bor. 


tliem.'  "  The  soul  which  drives  away  God's 
good  Spirit,  comes  at  last  to  loathe  Him  and 
the  thought  and  mention  of  Him. 

9.  And  I  said,  I  uill  not  feed  you.  God,  at 
last,  leaves  the  rebellious  soul  or  people  to 
itself,  as  He  says  by  Moses,  '**  Then  My  anger 
shall  be  kindled  against  them  in  that  day,  and 
I  will  forsake  than,  and  ivdl  hide  My  Facefrmn 
them,  and  they  shall  be  devoured,  and  many  evils 
and  troubles  shall  find  them :  and  our  Lord 
tells  the  captious  Jews  ;  ^^  I  go  My  way,  and 
ye  shall  seek  Me  and  shall  die  in  your  sins. 

That  which  dieth,  let  it  die.  Zechariah  seems 
to  condense,  but  to  repeat  the  abandonment 
in  Jeremiah  ;  '^  Cast  than  out  of  My  sight,  and 
let  them  go  forth.  And  it  shall  be,  if  they  shall 
say  unto  thee.  Whither  shall  we  go  forth  ?  then 
thou  shall  tell  them,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Such 
as  are  for  death,  to  death  ;  and  such  as  are  for 
the  sword,  to  the  sword  ;  and  such  as  are  for  the 
captivity,  to  the  captivity.  First,  God  gives 
over  to  death  without  violence,  by  famine  or 
pestilence,  those  whose  lot  it  should  be ; 
another  portion  to  violent  death  by  the 
sword  ;  that  which  is  cut  off  shall  be  cid  off ;  and 
the  rest,  the  flock  of  slaughter,  would  be 
turned  into  wolves;  and,  as  in  the  awful 
and  horrible  siege  of  Jerusalem,  those  who 
had  escaped  these  deaths,  the  left-ova;  shall 
eat  every  one  of  the  flesh  of  his  neighbor,  every 
law  of  humanity  and  of  nature  broken.  "  '^  So 
should  they  understand  at  last,  how  evil  and 
bitter  a  thing  it  is  for  all  who  lived  by  My 
help  to  be  despoiled  of  that  help." 

10.  And  I  took  my  staff  Beauty,  and  cut  it 
asunder.  Not,  as  aforetime,  did  He  chasten 
His  people,  retaining  His  relation  to  them : 
for  such  chastening  is  an  austere  form  of  love. 

three  classes  of  persons.  Three  classes,  Priests, 
Pharisees  and  Saddueees,  were  adopted  by  some 
older;  Pharisees  Saddueees  and  Essenes  by  Light- 
foot  (Horee  Hebr.  on  S.  John  x.).  On  the  abortive 
guesses  of  a  German  school,  see  ab.  Introd.  to 
Zechariah  p.  509.  *  Acts  iii.  15. 

*  ^1^0^  Ut.  "  hid,"  Job  XX.  12,  as  '^'^2  uniformly 

(15  times),  thence  ac^ai-i'^o).  It  is  used  of  numbers  ; 
the  7  nations,  Ex.  xxiii.  23;  of  Israel,  in  the  inten- 
tion of  their  enemies,  from  being  a  nation, 'IJOi 
Ps.  Ixxxiii.  5;  of  the  house  of  Jeroboam  from  the 
face  of  the  earth,  1  Kgs  xiii.  34;  of  Sennacherib's 
army,  2  Chr.  xxxii.  21. 

6  As  in  E.  M. 

'  Jud.  X.  16  also  with  3  p.  Gesenius'  comparison 
of  Arab.  JJTJ  is  wrong.  Its  primary  meaning  is 
"cut  off  from,"  See  Lane  p.  419. 

8 Such  is  the  traditional  meaning  of  '7n3. 
"loathed  My    worship,"    Ch. ;    "loathed,"    Abulw. 

Tanch.  coll.  Syr.  HTTl?.  "one  so  nauseating  as  to 
vomit  his  food." 

«  Kim.       i»  De.  xxxi.  17.        "S.  John  viii.  21. 
12  Jer.  XV.  1,  2,  and  similarly  xliii.  11.        i«  Osor. 


42G 


ZECHARIAH. 


chr'^ist    ^^   a«uuder,  that   I    might 
cir-  487.      break  my  covenant  which 
I  had  made  with  all  the 
people. 

11  And  it  was  broken 
the  no^T^c!  in  that  day  :  and  1 1  so  "  the 
^new. °'"  ''  poor  of  the  flock  that 
ver.  7.  "  "'      waited  upon  me  knew  that 


By  breaking  the  staff  of  His  tender  love,  He 
signified  that  this  relation  was  at  an  end. 

That  I  miyht  dissolve  My  covenant  which  I  had 
made  ivith  all  the  people,  rather,  with  all  the 
peoples,  i.  e.  with  all  nations.  Often  as  it  is 
said  of  Israel,  tliat  they  brake  the  covenant 
of  God ',  it  is  spoken  of  God,  only  to  deny 
that  He  would  break  it  '^,  or  in  prayer  that 
He  would  not  ^.  Here  it  is  not  absolutely 
the  covenant  with  His  whole  people,  which 
He  brake ;  it  is  rather,  so  to  speak,  a  cove- 
nant with  the  nations  in  favor  of  Israel,  allow- 
ing thus  nuK'h  and  forbidding  more,  witli  re- 
gard to  His  people.  vSo  God  had  said  of  the 
times  of  Ciirist  *  ;  In  that  day  I  will  make  a  cove- 
nant fur  them  with  the  beasts  of  the  field  ami  vnth 
the/owls  of  the  heaven,  and  with  the  creeping  things 
of  the  ground;  and,  '^  I  will  make  with  them  a 
covenant  of  peace,  and  will  cause  the  evil  beasts  to 
cease  out  of  the  land  ;  and  in  Job  ®  thou  shall 
be  in  league  with  the  stones  of  the  field,  and  the 
beasts  of  the  field  shall  be  at  peace  with  thee. 
This  covenant  He  willed  to  anniiiilate.  He 
would  no  more  interpose,  as  He  had  before 
said,  "^  I  will  not  deliver  from  their  hand.  Who- 
ever would  might  do,  what  tliey  would,  as  the 
Romans  first,  and  well  nigh  all  nations  since, 
have  inflicted  on  the  Jews,  what  they  willed  ; 
and  Mohammedans  too  have  requited  to 
them  their  contumely  to  Jesus. 

11.  And  so  the  poor  of  the  flock  that  waited 
upon  iV/e"  knew.  The  rest  were  blinded; 
those  who  listened  to  God's  word,  observed 
His  Prophet,  waited  on  Him  and  observed  His 
words,  knew  from  the  fulfillment  of  the 
beginning,  that  the  whole  was  God's  word. 
Every  darkening  cloud  around  the  devoted 
city  was  an  earnest,  that  the  storm,  wliich 
should  destroy  it,  was  gathering  upon  it.  So 
our  Lord  warned,  "  When  ye  slmll  see  Jerusa- 
lem compassed  with  armies,  then  know  that  the 
desolation  thereof  is  nigh.  Then  let  them  ivhich 
are  in  Judcea  flee  to  (he  mountains;  and  let 
them  ivhich  are  in  the  midst  of  it  depart.     The 

iLev.  xxvi.  15,  De.  xxxi.  10,20,  Is.  xxiv.  5,  Jer. 
xi.  10,  xxxi.  32,  Ezek.  xvi.  59,  xliv.  7. 

■•iLev.  xxvi.  44,  Jud.  ii.  1.  and,  strongly,  Jer. 
xxxiii.  20,  21. 

a  Jer.  xiv.  21.  ♦  Hos.  ii.  18,  [20  Hcb.] 

»  Ezek.  xxxi V.  25.  «  Job  v.  23. 

'v.  6. 

•'PN  D"^'3ti5'n.  Tr3ty  opnurs  more  commonly  v. 


it  was 
Lord. 
12  And 


the    word    of  the 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  4S7. 


I   said   unto 


them,  t  If  ye  think  good,  t  Heb.  //  it  bo 

1    .  ^  good  in  your 

give  me  my  price;  and  it  eyes. 
not,   forbear.     So  they 
'weighed  for  my  price 

.  .       ^  «     ■,  'Matt.  26.  15. 

thirty  pieces  oi  silver.  See  Ex.  21.  32. 


little  flock  ivhich  waited  upon  the  Good  Shep- 
herd, obeyed  the  warning,  and,  fleeing 
to  Pella,  escaped  the  horrible  judg- 
ment wliich  fell  on  those  who  remained. 
"  *"  They  remembered  tliat  it  had  been  pre- 
dicted many  centuries  before,  and  that  the 
Lord,  by  Who.se  Sjiirit  the  prophet  spake, 
foretold  that  in  that  city  "  one  stone  should  not 
be  left  upon  another." 

12.  And  I  said  unto  them.  If  ye  think  good, 
give  Me  My  price.  God  asks  of  us  a  return, 
not  having  any  proportion  to  His  gifts  of 
nature  or  of  grace,  but  sucli  as  we  can  render. 
He  took  the  Jews  out  of  tiie  whole  human 
race,  made  them  His  own,  a  peculiar  people, 
freed  them  from  the  bondage  ami  the  iron  fur- 
nace of  Egypt,  gave  tliem  the  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  fed  and  guarded  them  by  His 
Providence,  taught  them  by  His  Prophets. 
He,  the  Lord  and  Creator  of  all,  was  willing 
to  have  them  alone  for  His  inheritance,  and, 
in  return,  asked  them  to  love  Him  with  their 
whole  lieart,  and  to  do  what  He  commanded 
them.  ^'^  He  sent  His  servants  to  the  hu.'iband- 
men,  that  they  might  receive  the  fruits  of  the  vine- 
yard ;  and  the  husbandmen  took  His  sermnls, 
and  beat  one,  and  killed  another,  and  stoned 
another.  Loit  of  all,  He  sent  unto  them  His  Son, 
to  ask  for  those  fruits,  the  return  for  all  His 
bounteous  care  and  His  unwearied  acts  of 
power  and  love.  "  '*  Give  Me,"  He  would 
sav,  "some  fruits  of  piety,  and  tokens  of 
faith." 

"  '"  What  ?  Does  He  speak  of  a  price  ?  Did 
the  Lord  of  all  let  out  His  toil?  Did  He 
bargain  with  those,  for  whom  he  expended  it 
for  a  certain  price?  He  did.  He  condes- 
cended to  serve  day  and  night  for  our 
salvation  and  dignity ;  and  as  one  hired, 
in  view  of  the  reward  which  He  set 
before  Him,  to  give  all  His  care  to 
adorn  and  sustain  our  condition.  So  Ho 
complains  by  Isaiah,  that  He  had  undergone 
great  toil  to  do  away  our  sins.     But   wliat 

ace.  of  tlig.,  commandments  &c.  but  w.  ace.  pers.,  in 
good  .sense,  VJT  lOtt*  "he  tliat  observeth  his 
master,"  Pr.  xxvii.  18;  also  of  God,  Hos.  iv.  10;  of 
idols,  Ps.  xxxi.  7  ;  and  of  observing  for  evil,  ISam. 
xix.  11,  Job  X.  14. 

«S.  Luke  xxl.  -20,  21.  wQsor. 

"  S.  .Matt.  xxiv.  2.  >»S.  Matt,  xxl  34-.37. 

"  Eus.  Dem.  Ev.  x.  4.    So  Theod. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


42; 


13  And  the  Lord  said 


Before  1,^    ry 

CHRIST  A<3   ^j 

^''r-  487.      unto  me,  Cast  it  unto  the 


reward  did  He  require  ?  Faith  and  the  will 
of  a  faithful  heart,  that  thereby  we  might 
attain  the  gift  of  righteousness,  and  might  in 
lioly  works  pant  after  everlasting  glory. 
For  He  ueedeth  not  our  goods ;  but  He  so 
bestoweth  on  us  all  things,  as  to  esteem  His 
labor  amply  paid,  if  He  see  us  enjoy  His 
gifts.  But  He  so  asketh  for  tliis  as  a  reward, 
as  to  leave  us  free,  either  by  faith  and  the 
love  due,  to  embrace  His  benefits,  or  faith- 
lessly to  reject  it.  This  is  His  meaning, 
when  He  saith," 

And  if  not,  forbear.  God  does  not  force  our 
free-will,  or  constrain  our  service.  He  places 
life  and  death  before  us,  and  bids  us  choose 
life.  By  His  grace  alone  Ave  can  choose  Him  ; 
but  we  can  refuse  His  grace  and  Himself. 
^  Thou  shall  say  unto  them,  He  says  to  Ezekiel, 
Thv^  saith  the  Lord  God,  He  that  heareth,  let 
him  hear,  and  he  that  forheareth,  let  him  forbear. 
This  was  said  to  them,  as  a  people,  the  la*it 
offer  of  grace.  It  gathered  into  one  all  the 
past.  As  Elijah  had  said,  *  If  the  Lord  be  God, 
follow  Him ;  but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him. ;  so 
He  bids  them,  at  last  to  choose  openly,  whose 
they  would  be,  to  whom  they  would  give 
their  service ;  and  if  they  would  refuse  in 
heart,  to  refuse  in  act  also.  Forbear,  cease, 
leave  oflf,  abandon  ;   and  that  for  ever. 

So  they  weighed  for  My  price  thirty  pieces  of 
silver  ;  the  price  of  a  slave,  gored  to  death  l)y 
an  ox*.  Whence  one  of  themselves  says, 
"*you  will  find  that  a  freeman  is  valued, 
moi*e  or  less,  at  60  shekels,  but  a  slave  at 
thirty."  He  then.  Whom  the  prophet  rep- 
resented, was  to  be  valued  at  thirty  pieces  of 
.•silver.  It  was  but  an  increase  of  the  con- 
tumely, that  this  contemptuous  price  was 
given,  not  to  Him,  but  for  Him,  the  Price  of 
His  Blood.  It  was  matter  of  bargain. 
*  Judas  said,  What  unll  ye  (jive  me,  and  I  will 
deliver  Him  tmto  you?  The  High  Priest, 
knowingly  or  unknowingly,  fixed  on  the 
price,  named  by  Zechai'iah.  As  they  took 
into  their  mouths  willingly  the  blasphemy 
mentioned  in  the  Psalm ;  ^  they  .'^hoot  oid  the 
lip,  they  shake  the  head,  saying,  He  trusted  in 
the  Lord,  that  He  would  deliver  Him  ;  let  Him 
deliver  Him,  seeing  that  He  delighted  in  Him;  so 
perhaps  they  fixed  on  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver, 

1  Ezek.  iii.  27 ;  add  ii.  5,  7,  iii.  11. 

21  Kgs  xviii.  21.  ^Ex.  xxi..32. 

<Maimonides  More  Neboeh.  e.  40.  P.  3. 

°S.  Matt.  XX vi.  15.  «  Ps.  xxii.  7,  8. 

'  Ex.  xxii.  31. 

8  Is.  xiv.  19,  .xxxiv.  3,  Jer.  xxiv.  16,  xii.  19,  xxvi. 
23,  xxxvi.  30. 

»2  Sam.  xviii.  17.  •02  Kgs  xxiii.  12. 

ni9.  ii.  20,  add  Ezek.  xx.  8. 
i''!2  Kgs  xili.  23,  xvii.  20,  xxlv.  21,  Jer.  iii.  3. 
18  De.  xxix.  27  [28  Eng.]  ><Jer.  xxii.  28. 


'potter:  a  goodly  price    ^  ^f^s  t 


that   I  was  prized  at  of_ 


cir.  487. 


'  Matt.  27.  9,  1((. 


because  Zechariah  had  named  them  as  a  sum 
ofl^'ered  in  contumely  to  him,  who  offered  to 
be  a  shepherd  and  asked  for  his  reward. 

13.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  me.  Cant  it,  as  a- 
thing  vile  and  rejected,  as  torn  flesh  was  to 
be  cast  to  dogs',  or  a  corpse  was  cast  un- 
buried**,  or  the  dead  body  of  Absalom  was 
cast  into  the  pit",  or  the  dust  of  the  idol- 
altars  into  the  brook  Kedron  by  Josiah '",  or 
the  idols  to  the  moles  and  the  bats  '^ ;  or 
Judah  and  Israel  from  the  face  of  God  '^  into 
a  strange  land  ^* ;  Coniah  and  his  seed,  a 
vessel  in  which  is  no  pleasure  ",  into  a  land 
which  they  knew  not ;  or  the  i-ebels  against 
God,  said,  ^^let  us  cast  away  their  cords  fomus; 
or  wickedness  was  cast  into  the  Ephah '® ; 
once  it  is  added ",  for  loathing. 

Unto  the  potter.  The  Mords  exactly  cor- 
respond with  the  event,  that  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver  were  cast  or  flung  away  '" ;  that  their 
ultimate  destination  Avas  the  potter,  whose 
field  was  bought  M'ith  them  ;  but  that  they 
were  not  cast  directly  to  him,  (which  were  a 
contemptuous  act,  such  as  would  not  be  used 
whether  for  a  gift  or  a  purchase),  but  were 
cast  to  him  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  They 
•were  fiwng  away  by  the  remorse  of  Judas,  and, 
in  God's  Providence,  came  to  the  potter. 
Whether  any  portion  of  this  was  a  direct 
symbolic  action  of  the  prophet,  or  whether  it 
was  a  prophetic  vision,  in  which  Zechariah 
himself  was  an  actor,  and  saw  himself  in  the 
character  which  he  described,  doing  what 
he  relates,  cannot  now  be  said  certainly, 
since  God  has  not  told  us.  It  seems  to  me 
more  probable,  that  these  actions  belonged  to 
the  vision,  because  in  other  symbolic  actions 
of  the  prophets,  no  other  actors  take  part ; 
and  it  is  to  the  last  degree  unlikely,  that 
Zechariah,  at  whose  preaching  Zerubbabel 
and  Joshua  and  all  the  people  set  them- 
selves earnestly  to  rebuild  the  temple,  should 
have  had  so  worthless  a  price  offered  to  him  ; 
and  the  casting  a  price,  which  God  con- 
demned, into  the  house  of  God,  at  the  com- 
mand of  God,  and  so  implying  His  accept- 
ance of  it,  Avere  inconsistent.  It  Avas  fulfilled, 
in  act  consistently,  in  Judas'  remorse  ;  in  that 
he  flung  ^^  away  the  pieces  of  silver,  Avhich  had 
stained  his  soul  with  innocent  blood,  in  the 

16  Ps.  ii.  3.  leZech.j.  18.  "  Ezek.  xvi.  5. 

18  pixj/a^  Ta  apyvpia  iv  tw  faiji  S.  Matt.  XXVii.  5. 

19  Tliis  ia  in  itself  (as  Keil   observed)  decisive 

against  tlie  substitution  of  "IViX  for  li'V,  as  Jon. 

and  tlie  Syr.  have,  if  it  be  interpreted  of  any  act  of 
Zechariah.  If  it  were  taken  only  of  the  result  of 
the  ordering  of  God's  Providence,  the  man  sub- 
stance of  the  prophecy  would  eoually  remain,  that 
the  Good  Shepherd  was  valued  at  this  contempt- 
uous price;  and  that  the  money  itself  was  flung 


428 


ZECHARIAH. 


Beloie 

CHRIST 

eir.  487. 


them.       And    I   took   the 
.  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and 


cast  them  to  the  potter  iu 
the  house  of  the  Lord. 


Before 

CHRIST 

eir.  487. 


temple,  perhaps  remembering  the  words  of 
Zechariah  ;  perhaps  wishing  to  give  to  pious 
uses,  too  late,  money  which  was  the  price  of 
Ills  soul;  whereas  God,  even  through  the 
Chief  Priests,  rejected  it,  and  so  it  came  to 
the  potter,  its  ultimate  destination  in  the 

into  the  treasury ;  only  in  this  case  the  second 
clause  "  to  the  treasury" in  the  house  of  tlie  Lord" 
would  add  nothing  to  the  first,  whereas,  if  1>;V  be 
rendered  iu  its  natural  sense  "potter,"  this  ac- 
(•ouiits  for  the  use  of  the  word  "flin^,"  and  con- 
tains what  was  brought  about  by  the  joint  agency 
of  Judas  and  the  Pharisees.  But  i)  no  two  words 
in  any  language,  are  more  distinct  than  "12flX  and 
T}fV,  both  of  them  also  being,  in  their  several 
senses,  common  words.  lyiX,  "treasure,"  or  at 
times,  "  treasury,"  occurs  79  times  in  the  O.  T. ; 
1VV,  lit.  "  former,"  occurs  41  times  beside  these 

verses.  There  is  not  the  slightest  approxima- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  the  two  roots;  "lyx  is 
"treasured  up;"  iy,  "  made."  Since  then,  apart 
from  inspiration,  every  writer  wishes  to  be  under- 
stood, it  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  absurd  to  sup- 
pose, that,  had  Zeehariah  meant  to  say,  "cast  into 
the  treasury,"  he  should  not  have  used  the  word, 
which  everywhere  else,  79  times,  is  used  to  express 
it,  but  should  liave  used  a  word,  which  is  always, 
viz.  41  times,  used  of  something  else.  The  particu- 
lar form  moreover,  with  the  art.  occurs  11  times  in 
the  O.  T.  as  "the  potter;"  once  in  Isaiah  (xxix. 
Ill),  seven  times  in  2  chapters  of  Jeremiah,  xviii.  2, 
3,  4  (his)  0  (bis)  xix.  11,  of  "the  potter,"  once  only 
of  Almighty  God,  (Ps.  xxxiii.  Iu)  and  that,  in  a  dif- 
ferent idiom.  Of  God,  it  is  never  used  as  a  sub- 
stantive, "  the  Creator."  It  remains  a  part.,  "  Maker 
of,"  it  being  added,  of  what  He  is  the  Maker.  '  He 
that  maketli  the  eye,'  Ps.  xciv.  9,  the  hearts,  lb. 
xxxiii.  If),  light.  Is.  xlv.  7;  the  earth,  lb.  18;  the 

universe, '7JDn  Jer.  x.  15,  li.  19;  mountains,  Amos 

iv.  1.3;  grasshoppers,  lb.  vii.  1;  the  spirit  of  man, 
Zech.  xii.  1;  or  with  pronouns,  my  Maker  Is.  xlix. 
.5;  thy  Maker  Is.  xliii.  1 ;  our  Maker  xliv.  2,  24,  his 
Maker  Is.  xxvii.  11,  xxix.  16,  xlv.  9.  11.  The  ren- 
dering then  of  the  Jews  in  S.  Jerome's  time,  D. 
Kim.,  .\braliam  of  Toledo  apparently,  Abarb..  Al- 
sheikh,  "the  Creator,"  is  unidiomatic,  as  welt  as 
that  of  Rashi,  J.  Kim.  Taneh.,  Isaac  (xvii.  cent.) 
Chizzuk  Emunah  (VVagnseil  Tel.  ign.  Sat.  p.  146.), 
"treasury,"  which  the  modern  Anti-Messianic  in- 
terureters  follow.  Aquila  has  rbr  irKaaT-qv  ;  the  LXX 
and  .Symm.  xiavivrripiov,  "  foundry  ;  "  in  that  TV  is 
used  with  regard  to  metals.  Is.  xliv.  12,  liv.  17,  Hab. 
ii.  18,  as  well  as,  more  commonly,  of  clay,  lyi'  is 
used  of  the  "potter"  2  Sam.  xvii.  28,  1  Chr.  iv.  23, 
Ps.  ii.  9,  Is.  XXX.  14,  xli.  2.5,  Ixiv.  7,  Jer.  xix.  1,  Lam. 
iv.  2  (beside  the  use  of  IJ^Vn  above) ;  also  "  the 
former  thereof"  contrasted  with  the  clay.  Is.  xlv. 
9.    The  Hebrew-Arabic  translation,  which  Pococke 

80  much  valued  (12th  cent.)  has  twice  J'KvSk, 
(used  chiefly  of  a  gold-smith).  Abulwalid  does  not 
notice  it  in  either  lexicon,  nor  Saadyah  Ibn  Danan 
nor  Parchon.  They  must  therefore  have  had  noth- 
ing to  remark  on  it,  interpreting  it  as  elsewhere, 
'  potter.' 

It  is  not  then  necessary  even  to  say,  that  the 
rlicta  as  to  the  interchange  of  K  and  '  in  Hebrew 
are  much  too  vague,  the  instances  heterogeneous. 
All  the  words,  in  which  X  and  '  occur  as  the  first 
letter,  are  allied  words  of  the  same  meaning,  not 
interchanged.  Such  are  ^^X  and  HIT,  ^CN  and 
-\I5'\  (whence  the  Proper  Names  n^K^D'X  1  Chr. 
XXV  2.  and  nSxiC'  lb.  14.).  inK  and  ip'  iff-  A«Y- 


Providence  of  God.  "  '  He  saith,  cast  it  unto 
the  potter,  that  they  might  understand 
that  they  would  be  broken  as  a  pottei-'s 
vessel." 

A  fjoodhj  price,  that  I  was  prized  at  of  them, 
lit.  the  magnificence  of  the  value  ^,  at  which  I  was 

(2  Sam.  XX.  5)  are  again  allied,  the  Maltese  also 
having  a  root  wacchar  (Vassali  Lex.  melit.  pp.  82, 
651,  iu  Ges.  V.  "Ml').  |0X  "was  stable"  was,  prob- 
ably, the  basis  of  po'-     The  use  of  the  on-.  \ey. 

lyOXn  for  1  J'D'n  "  turn  to  the  right "  Is.  xxx.  21, 
would  have  been  anyhow  a  substitution  of  the  gut- 
tural for  the  ",  not  the  '  for  the  X,  and  any  ambig- 
uity is  precluded  by  the  contrast  of  1^'XOtyP 
"turn  to  the  left."  The  Kri  D'JfVO  (Jer.  v.  8)  is 
only  a  bad  correction  for  the  Ch.  D'JHD,  and  so  not 
Bililical  Hebrew.  These  are  all  the  instances  collect- 
ed by  Bottcher  (Lehrb.  n.  430.)  In  like  way  in  the 
middle  radical  nK1(Lev.  x.  14)  and  H'T  Deut.  xiv. 

13.  Bottch,  1103,  4'  adds  nOTin,  which  Saad.  and 
Rashi,  more  probably,  derive  from  T0%  Jer.  ii.  11. 
In  Ezek.  vi.  6,  Diy  and  Dt-'X  both  occur,  as  varia- 
tions, not  of  each  other,  but  of  W3'C/,  vi.  4. 

Other  cases  are  simple  omissions  of  the  X,  not  an 
interchange  at  all ;  as  yp  from  X'p  (med.  i.  Arab. 

^th.)  Jer.  XXV.  27,  ri'l^  for  nK'"^D  Ez.  xxxiv.  20. 
T3  Jer.  vi.  7  is  a  mere  correction  for  113.  and  so, 
again,  not  Biblical  Hebrew.    y\'\  (1  Sam.  xxii.  18, 
22  Ch.)  is  a  mere  corruption  of  JXl,  as,  in  all  lan- 
guages proper  names  are  the  most  easily  corrupt- 
ed.   (See  Daniel   the  prophet  p.  405  ed.  2).  {^K  (2 
Sam.  XX.  5.  Mic.  vi.  19)  and  the  common  jy',  each 
lose  one   letter  of  the  original   form,  which   has 
both.    (See  on  Daniel  the  prophet  p.  50  note.  ed.  2) 
/There  is  not  then  the  slightest  countenance  for**^ 
I  assuming  that  li'TTI  is  not,  what  according  to  its 
Vform  it  is,  "  the  potter."  >  Osor.   ■  ■ 

2Tnx  occurs  in  this  sense,  here  only.  In  Mi.  ii. 
8,  it  is  used  of  a  wide  garment  i.  q.  n^lK-lp',  "of 
value"  only  occurs  else  in  Ip' '73  "a  vessel  of 
value  "  Pr.  xx.  15;  1p'-73  "  every  precious  thing  " 
Job.  xxviii.  10;  HTp'  73  "all  its    magnificence," 

Jer.  XX.  5;  "costlines.s,"  Ez.  xxii.  23;  not  directly  a 
"  price." 

"  Jewish  writers  who  could  satisfy  themselves 
that  the  '  thirty  pieces  of  silver '  were  anything  but 
what  they  are,  some  thirty  precepts  given  to  the 
sons  of  r^oah  (mystical  interpretation  in  the  TJ 
I  ntyjn  ap.  Abarb.'ad  loe.  p.  219.  v.),  or  thirty  digni- 
ties of  royalty  ("the  wise  of  blessed  memory,"'  in 
Abarb.  lb.  p.  292.  v.)  or  the  thirty  righteous  in  eaeti 
generation,  promised  fas  they  say)  by  God  to  Abra- 
ham (Midrash  Aggadan  in  ftashi),  or  the  thirty  in 
that  generation  (Kim.),  or  who  went  up  with  Nehe- 
miah,  or  were  priests  in  his  time  [Tanchum  has 
It  is  said,  that  perhaps  it  is  an  image  of  the  thirty 
righteous  or  priests,  who  were  the  nolilest  of  the 
followers  of  Zerubhahel  orNehemiah."]  Ibn  E.,  or 
thirty  days  of  imperfect  repentance  (Kim.),  or 
thirty  years  of  the  reigns  of  tne  Icings  nf  the  pious 
Hasmonteans  (Abiah.  Toled.  in  Me(_'aul  on  Zech.  ad 
loc),  or  who  scrupled  not  to  own  tliat  they  could 
note.xplain  them  at  all  (Rashi); — Jewish  writers, 
who  could,  in  any  of  these  ways, escape  from  think- 
ing of  those  thirty  pieces  of  -silver,  at  which  their 
forefathers  priced  the  Blood  of  Jesus,  doubt  not 
that  the  Good  Shepherd  Who  fed  them.  Whom 


CHAPTER  XL 


429 


r,M°rar^        l-i  Then  I  cut  asunder 
cir.  487.       mine   other  staff,   even 


^  Or,  Binders.     ||Bands,   that  I  might 


valued  of  them .'  The  strong  irony  is  carried 
on  by  the,  at  which  I  was  valued  of  them,  as  in 
the  idiom,  thou  tvert  precious  in  my  sight  ^ 
Precious  the  thought  of  God  to  David 2; 
precious  the  redemption  of  the  soul  of  man  ^ ; 
and  precious  was  the  Shepherd  Who  came  to 
them ;  precious  was  the  value,  whereat  He 
was  valued  by  them  *.  And  yet  He,  Who 
was  so  valued,  was  Almighty  God.  For  so 
it  stands :  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Cast  it  unto 
the  potter,  the  goodly  price  that  I  was  prized  at 
of  them.  The  name,  the  potter,  connects  the 
prophecy  with  tliat  former  prophecy  of  Jere- 
miah*, denouncing  the  judgment  of  God  for 
the  shedding  of  innocent  blood,  whereby 
they  had  defiled  the  valley  of  the  son  of  Hin- 
noin,  which  «cas  at  the  entry  of  the  gate  of  the  pot- 
tery %  and  which,  through  the  vengeance  of 
God  there,  should  be  called  the  valley  of 
slaughter ''.  The  price  of  this  innocent  Blood, 
by  the  shedding  of  wliich  the  iniquities  of 
their  fathers  were  filled  up,  should  rest  on 
that  same  place,  for  whose  sake  God  said, 
"  /  will  b'-eak  this  people  and  this  city,  as  one 
breaketh  a  potter's  vessel,  that  cannot  be  made 
whole  again.  So  then  S.  Matthew  may  have 
quoted  this  prophecy  as  Jeremiah's,  to  sig- 
nify how  the  woes,  denounced  on  the  sins 
committed  in  this  same  place,  should  be 
brought  upon  it  through  tliis  last  crowning 
sin,  and  all  the  righteous  blood  which  had  been 
shed,  should  come  upon  that  generation^. 

14.  And  I  cut  asunder  mine  othei'  staff,  Bands, 

they  rejected,  Who  gave  them  up,  Who  speaks  of 
Himself,  "  the  goodly  price  that  /  was  prized  at  of 
them '  (liowever  they  may  have  distorted  these 
words  too)  was  Almighty  God."  Pusey's  University 
Sermons  pp.  151, 152. 
*  £3  'y;^3  "^p'  1  Sam.  xxvi.  21,  Ps.  Ixxii.  14,  2  Kgs 

i.  13, 14,  Is.  xliii.  4.    2  Ps.  cxxxix.  17.    sib.  xlix.  9. 

4  Dn'''7J?0  "lp\  See  Ewald  Lehrb.  n.  219a.  p.  573. 
ed.  8.  6jer.  xix. 

*n^O"inn  "^^^.^  it.  2.  see  Ges.  Thes.  sub  v.  p. 
522.        '  '  Jer.  xix.  6.  8  ib.  11. 

9S.  Augustine  suggests  that  S.  Matthew  wished 
to  lead  the  reader  to  connect  the  prophecy  of 
Zechariah  with  Jerem.  xxxii.  9.  "  All  copies,"  he 
says,  "have  not  'Jeremiah  '  but  only 'by  the  pro- 
phet;' but  more  Mss.  have  the  name  of  Jeremiah; 
and  those  who  have  considered  the  Gospel  care- 
fully in  the  Greek  copies,  say  that  they  have  found 
it  in  the  older  Greek  (copies) ;  and  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  the  name  should  be  added,  so  as  to  occa- 
Bion  a  fault;  but  there  was  a  re;\son  why  it  should 
be  removed  from  some  copies,  this  being  done  by  a 
t)olduuskillfiilness  [iiuperitiii]  being  distracted  by 
the  question,  that  this  testimony  wsis  not  found  in 
Jeremiah."  "S.  Mattliew,"  he  says  further,  "would 
iiave  torrected  it  in  his  life-time  at  least,  when  ad- 
monished by  others  who  could  read  this,  while  he 
was  yet  in  the  flesh,  unless  he  thought  that  one 
name  of  a  prophet  instead  of  another  did,  not  with- 
out reason,  occur  to  his  memory,  which  was  ruled 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  thai  the  Lord  aj  pointed  that 


break    the    brotherhood    tHiiTsT 
between     Judah     and      ^''•-  '^^'^- 
Israel. 


to  dissolve  the  brotherhood  between  Judah  and 
Israel.  Hitherto  prophecy  had  spoken  of  the 
healing  of  the  great  breach  between  Israel 
and  Judah,  in  Christ.  The  Lord,  Isaiah  said, 
^•^  shall  assemble  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  and  gather 
together  the  dispersed  of  Judah  from  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth.  The  envy  of  Ephraim  shall 
depart,  and  the  adver-'iaries  of  Judah  .shall  be  cut 
off:  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and  Judah 
shall  not  vex  Ephraim  ;  and  Hosea,  "  Then 
shall  the  children  of  Judah  and  the  children  of 
Israel  be  gathered  together  and  shall  appoint 
themselve.'i  one  Head  ;  and  Jeremiah,  ^^  In  those 
days  the  house  of  Judah  shall  walk  with  the 
house  of  Israel.  And  Ezekiel,  in  the  midst 
of  the  captivity,  in  a  symbolic  action  the 
counterpart  of  this,  is  bidden,  '^  Take  thee  one 
stick,  and  write  upon  it,  For  Judah,  and  for  the 
children  of  Israel  hk  companions;  then  take 
another  stick,  and  write  upon  it,  For  Joseph,  the 
stick  of  Ephraim  and  all  the  house  of  Israel  his 
companions,  and  join  them  one  to  another  into 
one  stick,  and  they  shall  become  one  in  thy  hand  ; 
and,  when  asked  the  meaning  of  this  act,  he 
was  to  say.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  "  /  will 
take  the  stick  of  Joseph,  which  is  in  the  hand  of 
Ephraim,  and  the  tribes  of  Israel  his  fellows, 
and  will  put  them  with  him,  even  with  the  stick 
of  Judah,  and  will  make  them  one  stick,  and  they 
shall  be  one  in  Bline  hand.  And  dropping  the 
symbol ;  ^^Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold,  I 
ivill  take  the  children  of  Israel  from  among  the 
heathen,  whither  they  begone — and  I  will  make 

it  should  be  so  written,"  1)  to  shew  that  all  the  pro- 
phets, speaking  by  the  Spirit,  agreed  together  by 
a  marvelous  consent,  which  is  much  more  than  if 
all  the  things  of  the  prophets  were  spoken  by  the 
mouth  of  one  man,  and  so  that,  whatever  the  Holy 
Spirit  said  by  them,  should  be  received  undoubt- 
ingly,  and  each  belonged  to  all  and  all  to  each  &c. 
2)  to"  combine  it  with  the  selling  the  field  of  Hana- 
neel,  of  which  the  evidence  was  put  in  an  earthen 
vessel,  de  Cons.  Evang.  L.  iii.  n.  30,  31.  T.  iii.  2.  p. 
114-110. 

None  of  the  other  cases  of  mixed  quotation  come 
up  to  this.  S.  Mark  quotes  two  prophecies,  of  Mal- 
achi  and  of  Isaiah  as  Isaiah's  (S.  Mark  i.  2.  3).  S. 
Matthew  blends  in  one,  words  of  Isaiah  (Ixii.  l)and 
Zechariah  (ix.  9)  as  "the  prophet"  (S.  Matt,  xxi 
4,  5).  Our  Lord  unites  Is.  Ivi.  7,  and  Jer.  vii.  11, 
with  the  words,  "  It  is  written." 

Of  earlier  fathers  TertulUan  simply  quotes  the 
prophecy  as  Jeremiah's  (adv.  Marc.  iv.  40).  Origen 
says,  "Jeremiah  is  not  said  to  liave  prophesied 
this  anywhere  in  his  books,  either  what  are  read 
in  the  Churches,  or  reported  (referuntur)  among 
the  Jews.  I  suspect  that  it  is  an  error  of  writing, 
or  that  it  is  some  secret  writing  of  Jeremiah  where- 
in it  is  written."  (in  S.  Matt.  p.  iilfi.)  Eti^ebius  says, 
"  Consider  since  this,  is  not  in  the  Prophet  Jere- 
miah, whether  v;e  must  think  that  it  was  removed 
from  it  by  some  wickedness,  or  whether  it  was  a 
clerical  error  of  those  who  mmle  the  copies  of  the 
Gospels  carelessly."    Dem.  Ev.  x.  p.  481. 

Jois.  xi.  12, 13.         "Hos.  i.  11.      •   12  Jer.  iii.  18. 

13 Ezek.  xxxvii.  16, 17.    "  lb.  19.    "  lb. 21,  22,  23,  ^ii 


t.jO 


ZECHAKIAII. 


C  H  rTs  T  ^^   ^ -"^"^  ^^^^  '^^^'^  ^^^^ 

<^''"-  •*^^-       unto  me,  "  Take  unto  thee 
•  Ezek.34.2,3,4.  yet  the  instruments  of  a 
foolish  shepherd. 

16  For,  lo,  I  will  raise 
up  a  shepherd  in  the  land, 
which  shall  not  visit  those 


that  be    ||cut  off,  neither    chrTst 
shall  seek  the  young  one,      ^"-  *®'^- 


them  one  nation  in  the  land  upo7i  the  mountaim 
of  Israel :  and  one  king  shall  be  king  to  them  all  : 
and  they  shall  be  no  more  two  iwtions,  neither 
shall  they  be  divided  intotivo  kingdonu<  any  more 
at  all — /  uill  cle(tnse  them,  and  they  shall  be  My 
jjeople  and  I  irill  be  their  God,  and  David  My 
servant  shall  be  king  over  them,  and  (hey  all  shall 
have  one  Shepherd.  Such  should  be  the  unity 
of  those  wlio  would  be  gathered  under  the 
One  Shepherd.  And  so  it  was.  '  The  multi- 
tude of  them  that  believed  were  of  one  heart  and 
(f  one  soul ;  and  long  afterward  it  was  a 
proverb  among  the  Heathen-,  "See  how 
these  Christians  love  one  another."  Zechariah 
is  here  speaking  of  those  who  had  rejected 
tiie  (jood  Shepherd,  the  Israel  and  Judah 
after  the  flesh,  who  shut  themselves  out  from 
the  promises  of  God.  This  had  its  first  ful- 
lillment  in  the  terrible  dissolution  of  every 
liaud  oi  brotherhood''  and  of  our  common  na- 
ture, which  made  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  a 
proverb  for  liorror,  and  precipitated  its  de- 
struction. "  *  Having  thus  separated  the  be- 
lieving from  the  unbelieving,  He  bared  the 
rest  of  His  cai'c.  And  what  we  now  see  bears 
witness  to  the  prophecy.  For  the  Jews,  be- 
ing deprived  of  prophets  and  priests  and 
kings  and  temple  and  ark  and  altar  and 
mercy-seat  and  candlestick  and  table  and  the 
rest,  through  which  the  legal  worship  was 
])erformed,  have  come  to  be  deprived  also  of 
the  guardianship  from  above;  and,  scattered, 
exiled,  removed,  serve  against  their  will 
those  who  preach  Christ :  denying  Him  as 
Lord,  they  yield  service  to  His  servants. 
Tiie  prophet  having  foretold  these  things 
of  Christ,  our  God  and  Saviour,  and  re- 
proved the  obstinacy  of  the  Jews,  naturally 
turns  his  prophecy  straight  to  the  (iod-op- 
posed  christ  whom  they  expect,  as  they  say. 
So  said  the  Lord  in  the  holy  Gospels  to 
them,  ^  /  am  come  in  My  Father's  name,  and 
ye  receive  Me  not ;  anotlier  will  come  in  his  oim 
name,  and  him  ye  will  receive.  This  the  blessed 
Paul  also  prophesied  of  them, '^  Because  they 

'Acts  iv.  .32. 

2Tert.  Apol.  n.  .'lO.  p.  82.  and  notes,  Oxf.  Tr. 

"mnK  The  word  occurs  only  hero,  but  i.s  in 
Arab.  .Syr.  Ch.  Zab. 

<Theod.  6  .S.  .John  V.  43. 

«2Thes9.  ii.  10-12. 

'  Ezekiel  has  the  idiom,  "his  in.'strninont  of  de- 
-II  nation,"  mniyp ''73  Ix.  I;  "hi.«  instrument  of 


nor  heal  that  that  is  broken,  1  Or,  hidden. 
nor  1 1  feed  that  that  stand- 1  Or.  &««'•• 
eth  still :  but  he  shall  eat 
the   flesh  of  the  fat,  and 
tear  their  claws  in  pieces. 


received  not  the  love  of  the  truth,  that  they  might 
be  saved,  God  shall  send  them  strong  delusion 
that  they  should  believe  a  lie,  that  all  might  bn 
damned,  who  believe  not  the  truth,  but  have 
pleasure  in  unrighteousness.  The  like  does  the 
olessed  Zechariah  prophesy,  having  received 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

15.  Take  to  thee  yet  tlie  instrument''  of  a 
foolish  ^shepherd.  "^  Yet.  He  had  enacted 
one  tragedy,  in  which  he  clearly  set  forth 
the  future  guilt  of  Judas;  now  another  is  sci 
forth,  the  accumulated  scoffing  through 
Anti-Christ.  For  as  Paul  said,  because  they 
receive  not  the  Spirit  of  truth,  the  All- 
righteous  Judge  shall  send  them  a  spirit  of 
delusion,  that  they  should  believe  a  //e'".  Hi- 
calls  him  a  foolish  shepherd,  for  since  the 
extreme-st  folly  consists  in  the  extrcmest 
wickedness,  he  will  be  the  most  foolish,  who 
reached  tlie  highest  impiety,  and  this  he  will 
do  by  arrogating  to  himself  divinity  and 
claiming  divine  honors^'. 

This  is  the  only  action,  which  the  prophet 
had  to  enact  or  to  relate.  If  it  was  a  visible 
act,  the  instrument  might  be  a  .staff  which 
should  bruise,  an  instrument  which  should 
bear  a  .semblance  to  that  of  the  good  shep- 
herd, hut  which  should  be  pernicious. 
"  ''^  Good  shepheixis,  who  understood  thei  r 
business,  had  slight  staves,  that,  if  there 
should  be  occasion  to  strike,  the  stricken 
sheep  might  not  be  bruised ;  but  one  who 
undei-standeth  not,  beats  them  with  thicker 
clubs."  Or  it  may  mean  also,  whatever  he 
would  use  for  the  hurtful  treatment  of  the 
sheep,  such  as  he  proceeds  to  speak  of.  He 
is  sjjoken  of  as,  in  fact,  foolishly  sinful":  for 
sin  is  the  only  real  folly,  and  all  real  folly 
has  sin  mingled  in  it.  The  short-lived  wis- 
dom of  the  foolish  shepherd  for  his  own  ends 
should  also  be  his  destruction. 

IG.  /  will  raise  up.  God  supplies  the 
strength  or  wisdom  which  men  abuse,  to  sin. 
He,  in  His  Providence,  dispo.seth  the  circum- 
stances, of  which  the  ambitious  avail  them- 

slaugiiter,"  1^30  .Dih.  2;  I.«aiah,  "  for  liis  work," 
int^i'D^  'Sj  liv.  10. 

8  'T1K  oT.,7'1K  being  often  a  9ub8t.,7'1K  is  n  sin- 
ful fool,  job.  V.  2,  3,  and  throughout  the  Proverbs, 
thougli  more  marked  in  some  places,  Pr.  vii.  22, 
xiv.3,  XV.  5,  XX.  ^^,  xxiv.  7,  xxvii.  22;  and  in  tli« 
plural,  Ps.  cvii.  17.  Pr.  i.  7.  x.  21,  xiv.  9. 

»Osor.     >"2Thcss.  ii.  10,  11.     »  lb.  4.    "«S.  Cvr. 


CHAPTER  XL 


431 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

•  Jer.  23.  1. 

Ezek.  34.  2. 
John  10. 12, 13 


17  "Woe  to  the  idol 
shepherd  that  leaveth  the 
flock !  the  sword  shall  he 
upon  his   arm,  and   upon 


selves.  Anti-Christ,  whom  the  Jews  look 
for,  will  be  as  much  an  instrument  of  God 
for  the  perfecting  the  elect,  ns  tlie  C'haldees  ^ 
or  the  Assyrians  '■'  whom  God  rait-ed  up,  for 
the  chastisement  of  His  former  people,  or  the 
Medes  against  Babylon^. 

Which  shall  not  visit  them  that  be  cut  of. 
Zechariah  uses  the  imagery,  yet  not  the  ex- 
act words  of  Jeremiah  *  and  Ezekiel  ^  Ne- 
glect of  every  duty  of  a  sliejjherd  to  liis  flock, 
to  the  sick,  the  broken,  the  sound  ;  direct  in- 
jury of  them,  preying  upon  them,  make  up 
the  picture. 

Which  shall  not  visit,  or  tend,  that  which  is 
cut  off:  fulfilling  God's  judgment",  that  which 
is  to  be  cut  off,  kt  it  be  cut  off. 

Neither  shall  seek  the  young  one,  better,  the 
scattered '',  dispersed,  as  the  Good  Shepherd 
^came  to  seek  and  to  H<ive  that  which  was  lost. 
Nor  heal  that  which  is  broken  ;  bound  not,  Eze- 
kiel says  *.  "  '"  The  broken  legs  of  sheep  are 
healed  no  otherwise  than  those  of  men ; 
rolled  in  wool  impregnated  with  oil  and 
wine,  and  then  bound  uj)  with  splinters 
placed  round  about  it." 

Nor  feed  that  which  standeth  still,  better,  the 
whole  ",  as  the  word  always  means,  "  in  its 
good  estate,"  like  our  prayer,  "that  Thou 
wouldest  strengthen  those  who  do  stand." 

17.  Wo  to  the  idol  shepherd,  (a  shepherd  of 
nothingness,  one  who  hath  no  quality  of  a 
shepherd  '-';)  ivho  leaveth  the  flock.  The  con- 
demnation of  the  evil  sliepherd  is  complete 
in  tlie  abandonment  of  the  sheep ;  as  our 
Lord  says,  '■'  He  that  is  an  hireling  and  not  the 
Shepherd,  whose  own  the  sheep  are  not,  seeth  the 
wolf  coming  and  leaveth  the  sheep  and  fleeth: 
and  the  wolf  catcheth  them  and  sccUtereth  the 
sheep.  The  hireling  fleeth,  because  he  is  an  hire- 
ling and  careth  not  for  the  sheep. 

Or  it  may  equally  be.  Shepherd,  '*  thou  idol, 
including  the  original  meaning  of  nothing- 
ness, such  as  Anti-Christ  will  be,  "^^  while 
he  calleth  himself  God,  and  willeth  to  be 


>  D'pD  'Jjn  Hab.  i.  6. 


2  Am.  vi.  14. 


a^-J^D 'Jjn.   Is.  xiii.  17.  ■•Jer.  xxiii.  1,  2. 

*Ezek.  xxxiv.  3,  4.  Sab.  v.  9. 

"to  e<TKop7ri<7(xe>'oi',  d;   dispersuiTi,  S.  Jer.  "who 
have  wandered  or    gone  astray,"  Syr.  "He  who 

hireth  a  flock  is  forbidden  HIJ^jS.  What  is  this! 
To  lead  it  from  place  to  place."  Talm.  Hieros.  Tr. 
Sheviith  c.  3,  in  Burt.  Lex.  p.  1363.    Arab.  J'K  m 

XJ'Sx  ^\'^pi  "Whence  earnest  thou  to  us?"  e.  '9, 
"traversed  country"  (Kam.).  Ij^J  is  not  used  of 
young  of  animals. 

8S.  Luke  xix.  in,  S.  Matt,  xviii.  11. 

»  Ezek.  xxxiv.  4.  ">Colrrm.  de  re  rust.  viii.  5. 


his  right  eye  :  his  arm  shall 
be  clean  dried  up,  and  his . 
right  eye  shall  be  utterly 
darkened. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


worshiped."  "  '^  This  shepherd  shall  there- 
fore arise  in  Israel,  because  the  true  Sliep- 
lierd  had  said,  T  will  not  feed  you.  He  is  pro- 
piiesied  of  l)y  auuther  name  in  Daniel  the 
Prophet '",  and  in  the  Gospel  ^',  and  in  the 
Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Thessaloniaus  "^,  :is 
the  abomination  of  desolation,  who  shall  sit  in 
the  temple  of  tlie  Lord,  and  make  himself 
as  God.  Lie  couietii,  not  to  heal  but  to  de- 
stroy the  flock  of  Israel.  This  .shepherd  the 
.Jews  shall  receive,  whom  tlie  Lord  Jesus 
shall  slag  with  the  breath  of  His  wouth,  and  de- 
stroy with  the  brightne.-^s  if  His  coming." 

The  sword  shall  be  upon  [against]  his  arm 
and  right  eye.  His  boast  shall  be  of  intelli- 
gence, and  might.  The  punishment  and  de- 
struction shall  be  directed  against  the  instru- 
ment of  each,  the  eye  and  the  arm.  "  '^The 
eye,  whereby  he  shall  boast  to  behold  acutely 
the  mysteries  of  God,  and  to  .see  more  than 
all  prophets  heretofore,  so  that  he  shall  call 
himself  son  of  God.  But  the  word  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  upon  his  arm  and  upon  his 
right  eye,  so  that  his  strength  and  all  his 
boast  of  might  sliall  be  dried  up,  and  the 
knowledge  which  he  promised  himself  falsely, 
shall  be  obscured  in  everlasting  darkness." 
"'^  Above  and  against  the  power  of  Anti- 
Christ,  shall  be  the  virtue  and  vengeance 
and  sentence  of  ('hri,st,  Who  shall  .s/a;/  him 
with  the  breath  of  His  mouth."  The  right 
arm,  the  symbol  of  might,  and  the  right  eye 
which  was  to  direct  its  aim,  should  fail  to- 
gether, through  the  judgment  of  God  against 
liim.  He,  lately  boastful  and  persecuting, 
shall  become  blind  and  powerless,  bereft 
alike  of  wisdom  and  strength. 

The  "right"  in  Lloly  Scripture  being  so 
often  a  symbol  of  what  is  good,  the  left  of 
wliat  is  evil,  it  may  be  also  imagined,  that 
"  '^^  the  left  eye,  i.  e.  the  acumen  and  cunning 
to  devise  deadly  frauds,  will  remain  unin- 
jured :  while  the  right  eye,  i.  e.  counsel  to 
guard  against   evil,  will   be  sunk   in   thick 

11 "  Which  was  set  tirm,  or  set  himself  firm."  Nif 
as  in  Ps.  xxxix.  6,  "  Every  man  in  his  firm  e.state 
(2^i)  is  all  vanity."  to  oAo/cAr/pof,  o.  "  id  quod  stat," 

S.  Jer.  So  Syr.  The  Arab,  "y^i  was  weary"  (quoted 

C.  B.  Mich.  Ges.)  has  only  this  force  as  intrans.; 
3VJ  c.  ace.  r.,  and  3^njX  agree  with  Heb.    Yet 

Jon.  renders  as  Eng. 

i^S-'SkH  "jri,  as  SSk  'Xa^,  "  physicians  of  no 
value,"  Job  xiii.  4.  13  g.  John  x.  12, 13. 

i*''JT'1,  as  a  form  for  'np\  occurs  in  Is.  xxxviii. 

>5S.  Jer.'  '»nan.  ix.  "S.Mark  xiii. 

i8  2Thess.  ii.  I'Dion.  »Opor. 


-l;i2 


ZECHAKIAII. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  4S7. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Jerusalem  a  cup  of  trembling 
to  herself,  3  and  a  burdensome 
stone  to  her  adversaries.  6 
STie  victorious  restoring  of  Ju- 
dah.  9  The  repentance  of  Je- 
rusalem. 


darkness.  And  so,  the  more  lie  employs  his 
ability  to  evil,  the  more  frantically  will  he 
bring  to  bear  destruction  upcm  himsell'." 

XII.  "^From  'I  will  make  Jerusalem' 
to  'Awake,  O  sword,'  there  is  a  threefold  ex- 
position. For  some  of  the  Jews  say  that 
these  things  have  already  been  fulfilled  in 
part  from  Zorobabel  to  Cn.  Pompey  who, 
iirst  of  the  Romans,  took  Juda?a  and  the 
temple,  as  Josephus  relates.  Others  tliink 
that  it  is  to  be  fulfilled  at  the  end  of  the 
world,  when  Jerusalem  shall  be  restored, 
which  the  miserable  Jewish  race  promiseth 
itself  with  its  anointed,  of  whom  we  read 
aljove  as  the  foolish  shepherd.  But  others, 
i.  e.  we  who  are  called  by  the  name  of 
Christ,  say  that  these  things  are  daily  ful- 
filled, and  will  be  fidfilled  in  the  Church  to 
the  end  of  the  world." 

1.  lite  burden  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  for, 
rather,  xpon^  Israel.  If  this  prophecy  is  a 
continuation  of  the  last,  notwithstanding  its 
fresh  title,  then  Israel  must  be  the  Christian 
Church,  formed  of  the  true  Israel  which  be- 
lieved, and  the  Gentiles  who  were  grafted 
into  them.  So  S.  Cyril ;  "  Having  spoken 
sutticiently  of  the  Good  Shepherd  Christ, 
and  of  the  foolish,  most  cruel  shepherd  who 
butchered  the  sheep,  i.  e.  Anti-Christ,  he 
seasonably  makes  mention  of  the  persecu- 
tions which  would  from  time  to  time  arise 
against  Israel ;  not  the  Israel  according  to 
the  flesh,  but  the  spiritual,  that  Jerusalem 
which  is  indeed  holy,  ^the  Church  of  the 
Living  God.  For  as  we  say,  that  he  is  spirit- 
ually a  Jew,  wlio  hath  the  *  circumcision  in 
the  heart,  tliat  through  the  Spirit,  and  not  in 
the  flesh  through  the  letter  ;  so  also  may  Israel 
be  conceived,  not  that  of  the  blood  of  Israel, 
but  rather  that,  which  lias  a  mind  beholding 
God.  But  such  are  all  who  are  called  to 
sanctification  through  the  faith  in  Christ, 
and  who,  in  Him  and  by  Him,  know  of  God 
the  Father.  For  this  is  the  one  true  elected 
way  of  beholding  God." 

» S.  Jer.  , 

».See  on  Nah.  i.  1,  p.  129.    The  ly  cf  the  title  is 

repeated  in  the  DSiyn"'-S>'  min'-Sj?  ver.  2. 

»1  Tim.  iii.  15.  ■•  Uom.  ii.  29. 

6  See  at  length,  ab.  on  Mio.  iii.  12,  pp.  Mt-r<f). 

•So  Lap.  ''ThatZechariahspealtn  literally  of  the 
times  of  the  Maccabees  which  wore  shortly  to 
follow,  appears  both  from  the  sequence  of  the 
tunes,  and  the  connection  and  congruency  of  these 
oracles  with  the  deeds  of  the  Maccabees,  as  also 


JHE  burden  of  the  word    ch  rTst 

of  the  Lord  for  Israel,      cir.  487. 
saith   the  Lord,  ' which •  isai. 42. s. 
stretcheth  forth  the  heav-  &  45!  12,' is. 
ens,  and   layeth  the  foun- 
dation of  the  earth,  and 


Since  the  Good  Shepherd  was  rejected  by 
all,  except  the  poor  of  the  florf:,  the  little  flock 
which  believed  in  Him,  and  thereupon  the 
band  of  brotherhood  was  dissolved  between 
Israel  and  Judah,  Israel  in  those  times  could 
not  be  Israel  after  the  flesh,  which  then  too 
wiis  the  deadly  antagonist  of  the  true  Israel, 
and  thus  early  also  chose  Anti-Christ,  such 
as  was  Bar-Cochba,  with  whom  so  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  perished.  There  was 
no  war  then  against  Jerusalem,  since  it  had 
ceased  to  be  *. 

But  Zechariah  does  not  say  that  this  pro- 
phecy, to  which  he  has  annexe  I  a  separate 
title,  follows,  in  time,  upon  the  last ;  rather, 
since  he  has  so  separated  it  by  its  title,  he 
has  marked  it  as  a  distinct  prophecy  irom 
the  preceding.  It  may  be,  that  he  began 
again  from  the  time  of  the  Macciibees  and 
took  God's  deliverances  of  the  people  Israel 
then,  as  the  foreground  of  the  deliverances 
to  the  end  *.  Yet  in  the  times  of  Antioehiis, 
it  was  one  people  only  which  was  against 
the  Jews,  and  Zechariah  himself  speaks 
only  of  the  Greeks ' ;  here  he  repeatedly 
emphasizes  that  they  were  all  nations^.  It 
may  then  rather  be,  that  the  future,  the 
successive  efforts  of  the  world  to  crush  the 
people  of  God,  and  its  victory  amid  suflering, 
and  its  conversions  of  tlie  world  through  the 
penitent  looking  to  Jesus,  are  exhibited  in 
one  great  perspective,  according  to  the  man- 
ner of  prophecy,  which  mostly  exhibits  the 
prominent  events,  not  their  order  or  se- 
quence. "'The  penitential  act  of  contrite 
sinners,  especially  of  Jews,  looking  at  Him 
Whom  they  pierced,  dates  from  the  Day  of 
Pentecost,  and  continues  to  tlie  latter  days, 
when  it  will  be  greatly  intensified  and  will 
produce  blessed  results,  and  is  here  concen- 
trated into  one  focus.  The  rising  up  of 
God's  enemies  against  Christ's  Church, 
which  commenced  at  the  same  time,  ami  has 
been  continued  in  successive  pei"secutions 
from  Jews,  Gentiles,  and  other  unbelievers 

because  v.  10.  ends  in  the  Passion  of  Clirist.  For 
this  followed  the  times  of  tlie  Maccnbces.  As  then 
Isniah,  .lercmiah,  Hosca,  Daniel,  Ezckicl  *c.  fore- 
told wliat  was  shortly  to  fiefall  the  .Jews  from  Sal- 
manassar,  Nelmchacinezzar,  Cyrus,  liarins,  so  Zech- 
ariah foretells  what  should  presently  befall  them 
from  Antiocluis  under  the  Maccabees."     Synops. 

c.  xii.     '  Zech.  ix.  1.1.      e  Q^r^yTt  Sd  xii.  2,  3,  6,  9. 

»Bp.  C.  Wordsworth  here,  and  the  like  in  Keiloii 
xiv.  2(1.  p.  0(il. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


V,  ^^^°.^%  -r    ^  formeth  the  spirit  of  man 

C  H.  K  1  o  i  ^ 

cir-  487.      within  him. 


"Ses'iti       2  Behold,  I  will  make 

Isai.  57. 16.  Heb.  12.  9. 


Before 


in  every  age,  and  which  will  reach  its  cli- 
max in  the  great  Anti-Christian  outbreak  of 
the  last  times,  and  be  confounded  by  the 
Coming  of  Christ  to  judgment,  is  here 
summed  up  in  one  panoramic  picture,  ex- 
hibited at  once  to  the  eye." 

Which  slretcheth  forth  the  heavens.    God's 
creative  power  is  an  ever-present  working, 
as  our  Lord  says,  ^  3Iy  Father  worketh  hitherto 
and  I  work.    His  preservation  of  the  things 
which  He  has  created  is  a  continual  re-crea- 
tion.    All  "  forces "  are  supported  by  Him, 
Who  Alone  hath  life  in  Himself.     He  doth 
not  the  less  uphold  all  things  by  the^  word  of 
His  power,  because,  until  the  successive  gene- 
rations, with  or  without  tlieir  will,  with  or 
against  His  Will  for  them,  shall  have  com- 
pleted His  Sovereign  Will,  He  upholds  them 
uniformly  in  being  by  His  Unchanging  Will. 
Man   is  ever   forgetting  this,  and   because, 
2  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue 
as  from  the  beginning  of  the  a-eatio)i,  they  rele- 
gate the  Creator  and  His  creating  as  far  as 
they  can  to  some  time,  as  far  back  as  they 
can  imagine,  enough  to  fill  their  imagina- 
tions, and  forget  Him  Who  made  them,  in 
Whose  hands  is  their  eternity,  Who  will  be 
their  Judge.     So  the  prophets  remind  them 
and  us  of  His  continual  working,  which  men 
forget   in   the  sight   of  His  works;    »  37ms 
saith  the  Lord ;  He  that  createth  the  heavens, 
and  slretcheth  them  out;  He  that  spremleth  forth 
the  earth  and  its  produce,  Who  giveth  breath  to 
the  people  %ipon  it,  and  spirit  to  them  that  walk 
therein  ;  and,  *  /  am  the  Lord  Who  maketh  all 
things,    Who  stretcheth   out   the   heavens   alone. 
Who  spreadeth   abroad   the   earth   by^  Myself; 
speaking  at  once  of  that,  past  in  its  begin- 
ning yet   present   to  us  in  its  continuance, 
but   to  Him  ever-present  present;    and   of 
things  actually  present  to  us,  ^that  frustraieth 
the  tokens  of  the  liars  ;  and  of  things  to  those 
of  that  day  still  future,  ^  thai  confirmeth  the 
word  of  His  servant,  and  performeth  the  counsel 
of  His  messengers ;  tlie  beginning  of  which 
was  not  to  be  till  the  taking  of  Babylon. 
And  the  Psalmist  unites  past  and  present  in 
one,  ^  Donning   light   as   a  garment,  stretching 
oui  the   hejivens  as  a  curtain ;   Who  layeth  the 
beams  of  His   chambers   on   the   waters,    Who 
maketh  the  clouds  His  chariot ;   Who  walketh  on 
the  wings  of  the  wind  ;   Who  maketh  His  angels 


»2S.  Pet.  ill.  4.       8  1s.  xlii.  5. 

» lb.  25.  *  lb.  26. 

8  Am.  It.  13.  add  v.  8. 

JO  9.  Cyr. 

u^y'l    an.   in   thla   sense.     The  form   n'7;-''^n 

28 


1  9.  John  V.  17. 
4  lb.  xliv.  24. 
I  Ps.  civ.  2-5, 
»  Ps.  11. 10. 


Jerusalem  "a  cup  of  c h  r  i  s t 
1 1  trembling  unto  all  the SEiJ^- 

1  J     1,       .1    II      1         "Isai.  51.  17,  22, 

people  round  about,  1 1  when  23. 

II  Or,  slumber,  or,  poison.    ||  Or,  and  also  against  Jvdah 
shall  he  be  which  shall  be  in  siege  ugaitmt  Jerusalem. 


spirits.  His  ministers  a  flame  of  fire  ;  He  foun- 
ded the  earth  upon  its  base.  And  Amos,  **  He 
that  foi-meth  the  mountains  and  a-eateth  the 
ivinds,  and  deelareth  unto  man  his  thoughts ; — 
adding  whatever  lieth  nearest  to  each  of  us. 
And  formeth  the  spirit  of  man  within  him, 
both  by  the  unceasing  creation  of  souls,  at 
every  moment  in  some  spot  in  our  globe,  or 
by  the  re-creation,  for  which  David  prays, 
'  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  0  God,  and  renew 
a  right  spirit  ii-ithin  me.  He  Who  formed  the 
hearts  of  men  can  overrule  them  as  He 
wills.  "  ^°  But  the  spirit  of  man  is  formed 
by  God  in  him,  not  by  being  called  to  the 
beginnings  of  being,  although  it  was  made 
by  Him,  but,  as  it  were,  transformed  from 
weakness  to  strength,  from  unmanliness  to 
endurance,  altogether  being  transelemented 
from  things  shameful  to  better  things." 

"  !<•  It  is  the  wont  of  the  holy  Prophets, 
when  about  to  declare  beforehand  things  of 
no  slight  moment,  to  endeavor  to  shew 
beforehand  the  Almightiness  of  God,  that 
their  word  may  obtain  credence,  though 
they  should  declare  what  was  beyond  all 
hope,  and  (to  speak  of  our  conceptions) 
above  all  reason  and  credibility." 

2.  /  will  make  Jerusalem  a  cup  of  trembling  ". 
For  encouragement,  He  promises  the  victory, 
and  at  fii-st  mentions  the  attack  incidentally. 
Jerusalem  is  as  a  cup  or  basin,  which  its 
enemies  take  into  their  hands ;  a  stone, 
which  they  put  forth  their  strength  to  lift ; 
but  they  themselves  reel  with  the  draught 
of  God's  judgments  which  they  would  give 
to  others,  they  are  torn  by  the  stone  which 
they  would  lift  to  fling.  The  image  of  the 
cup  is  mostly  of  God's  displeasure,  which  is 
given  to  His  own  people,  and  then,  His 
judgment  of  chastisement  being  exceeded, 
given  in  turn  to  those  who  had  been  the 
instruments  of  giving  it  ^^.  Thus  Isaiah 
speaks  of  the  cup  of  trembling.  "  Thou,  Jent- 
salem,  hast  drunk  the  dregs  of  the  cup  of  trem- 
bling, hast  wrung  them  out.  Therefore  hear  thou 
this,  thou  afflicted  and  drunken  but  not  with  wine. 
Thus  saith  thy  Lord,  the  Lord,  and  thy  God 
that  pleadeth  the  cause  of  His  people.  Behold,  I 
have  taken  out  of  thine  hand  the  cup  of  trem- 
bling, the  dregs  of  the  cup  of  My  fury  ;  thou 
sluiit  no  more  drink  it  again:  but  I  will  put  it 
into  the  hand  of  them,  that  afflict  thee.      Jere- 

oecurs  in  the  like  idioms,  n'7;?in  DD.  Is.  li.  17, 

22;  n^;?"ir\  p  Pa.  Ix.  5. 

i29ee  on  Obad.  16,  vol.  1.  pp.  362-366. 
"19.11.17,21-23, 


434 


ZECHAEIAH. 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  487. 
«  ver.  4,  6,  8,  9. 
11.  &  ch.  13.  1. 
&  14.  4,  6,  8, 9. 
13. 


they  shall  be  in  the  siege 
both  against  Judah  and 
against  Jerusalem. 

3  %  *  And  in  that  day  will 


miah  speaks  of  the  cup  of  God's  anger,  as 
given  by  God  first  to  Jerusalem,  then  to  all 
■whom  Nebuchadnezzar  should  subdue,  then 
to  Babylon  itself  ;  and  as  pa.-<i>ing  thronyh  to 
Edom  also"'';  Ezekiel,  of  ^/(oi/6aA*  (Jerusa- 
lem) drinking  the  cup  of  Samaria.  In  Jere- 
miah alone,  Babylon  is  herself  the  cup. 
*  Babylon  is  a  golden  cup  in  the  Lord's  hand, 
that  made  all  the  nations  drunken  ;  the  nations 
have  drunken  of  the  ivine ;  therefore  the  nations 
are  mad.  Now  Jerusalem  is  to  be,  not  an  or- 
dinary cup,  but  a  large  basin  *  or  vessel,  from 
which  all  nations  may  drink  what  will 
make  them  reel. 

And  also  upon  Judah  uill  it  be  in  the  siege 
against  Jerusalem,  i.  e.  the  burden  of  the  word^ 
of  the  Lord  which  teas  on  Israel  should  be 
upon  Judah,  i.  e.  upon  all,  great  and  small. 

3.  /  will  make  Jerusalem  a  burdensome  stone 
to  all  nations.  What  is  a  stone  to  a(l  nations  f 
It  is  not  a  rock  or  anything  in  its  own  nature 
immovable,  but  a  stone,  a  thing  rolled  up 
and  down,  moved,  lifted,  displaced,  piled  on 
others,  in  every  way  at  the  service  and  com- 
mand of  men,  to  do  with  it  what  they  willed. 
So  they  thought  of  that  ''stone  cut  out 
without  hands  ;  that  "  tried  stone  and  sure  foun- 
dation, laid  in  Zion ;  thsft  stone  which,  God 
said  in  Zecliariah^,  /  have  laid;  of  which 
our  Lord  says,  '"  the  stone,  which  the  builders 
rejected,  is  become  the  head  of  the  comer  ;  "  who- 
soever shidl  fall  on  this  stone  shall  be  broken,  but 
on  whmnsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will  grind  him  to 
powder.    The  Church,  built  on   the  stone, 

ijer.  XXV.  15-26.         ^Lam.  iv.  21.  Jer.  xlix.  12. 
8  Ezek.  xxiii.  31-33.  ■•  Jer.  li.  7. 

s  riQ  is  the  basin,  which  received  the  blood  of  the 

Paschal  lamb,  Ex.  xii  22;   D'SD.  with   beds  and 

earthen  vessels,  were  brouight  to  David  by  Barzill.ai 
and  the  others,  2  Sam.  xvii.  28.    Else  they  are  only 
mentioned  as  instruments  of  the  temple-services. 
1  Kgs  vii.  50,  2  Kgs  xii.  14,  Jer.  Hi.  19. 
*XLyp  is  the  only  natural  subject,  as  in  ix.  1,  the 

burden  of  the  Lord  is  on  the  land  of  Hadrach,  but  it 
is  subjoined,  Damascus  is  the  resiinfi  place  thereof, 
tic.  'The  E.  V.  does  not  seem  grammatical.  The 
E.  M.  is  too  elliptical,  as  also  that  other,  "  it  will  be 
laid  upon  .Jerusalem  to  be  in  the  sieee  against  Jeru- 
salem."   Had  "the  cup  of  trembling"  been  the 

subject,  it  had  probably  been  min'S,  as  iji. 
D'DJ/'n.  Nor  can  HI^O  be  the  subject;  for  coun- 
tries, as  Judah,  are  not  the  objects  of  siege. 

'Dan.  ii.45.         «  Is.  xxviii.  16.         »Zech.  iii.  9. 

>08.  Luke  XX.  17. 

"S.  Matt.  xxi.  44.  S.  Luke  xx.  18. 

1*  Baronius  speaks  of  two  inscriptions  as  still  ex- 
isting at  Clunia  (Corunna  dal  Concle)  in  Spain.  The 
one  had,  "amplificatoper  Orientem  et  Occid.  Impe. 
Rom.  et  nomine  Christianor.  deleto  qui  romp, 
evertebant ; "  the  other,  "superstitjone  Christi 
ublq.  deleta.  Tultu  [>eorum  propagato."    A.  304.  n.  I. 


I  make  Jerusalem  *  a  bur-    ^  h  R°f  I  t 
densome  stone  for  all  peo-      ^^^-  •^'^- 


pie ;  all  that  burden  them- « Jiatt.  21. 44. 
selves  with  it  shall  be  cut  in 


seems  a  thing  easily  annihilated  ;  ten  perse- 
cutions in  succession  strove  to  efiace  it ;  Dio- 
cletian erected  a  monument,  commemorating 
that  the  Christian  name  was  blotted  out  ''■'. 
It  survived ;  he  perished.  The  image  may 
have  been  suggested  by  the  custom,  so  widely 
prevailing  in  Judtea,  of  trying  the  relative 
strength  of  young  men,  by  lifting  round 
stones  selected  for  that  end  '*.  " "  The 
meaning  tlien  is,  I  will  place  Jerusalem  to 
all  nations  like  a  very  heavy  stone  '*  to  be 
lifted  up.  They  will  lift  it  up,  and  accord- 
ing to  their  varied  strength,  Mill  waste  it ; 
but  it  must  needs  be,  that,  while  it  is  lifted, 
in  the  very  strain  of  lifting  the  weight,  that 
most  heavy  stone  sliould  leave  some  scission 
or  rasure  on  the  bodies  of  those  who  lift  it. 
Of  the  Church  it  may  be  interpreted  thus  ; 
tliat  all  persecutors,  who  fought  against  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  are  inebriated  with  that 
cup,  which  Jeremiah  gives  to  all  nations,  to 
drink  and  be  inebriated  and  fall  and  vomit 
and  be  mad.  Whosoever  would  uplift  the 
stone  shall  lift  it,  and  in  the  anger  of  the 
Lord,  whereby  He  chastens  sinners,  will  hold 
it  in  his  hands ;  but  he  himself  will  not  go 
unpunished,  the  sword  of  the  Lord  fighting 
against  him." 

All  that  burden  themselves  with  it  will  be  cut  to 
pieces  "^^y  more  exactly,  scarified,  lacerated; 
shall  bear  the  scars.  Though  (rather,  and) 
all  the  people  [^peoples,  nations^  of  the  earth shidl 
be  gathered  together  against  it.  The  prophet 
marshals  them  all  against  Jerusalem,  only  to 

1*  "  It  is  the  custom  in  the  cities  of  Palestine,  and 
that  old  usage  is  kept  up  to  this  day  throughout 
Judasa,  that  in  villages  towns  and  forts,  round 
■stones  are  placed,  of  very  grc.it  weight,  on  which 
young  men  are  wont  to  practise  themselves,  and  ac- 
cording to  their  varying  strength,  lift  them,  some 
to  the  knees,  others  to  the  navel,  others  to  the 
shoulders  and  head  ;  others  lift  the  weight  above 
the  head,  with  tlieir  two  hnnds  raised  straight  up, 
shewing  the  greatness  of  their  strength.  In  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens,  I  saw  a  brass  globe,  of  very 
groat  weight,  which  I,  with  my  little  weak  body, 
could  scarceiv  move.  When  I  asked  its  object,  I 
WHS  told  by  the  inhabitants,  that  the  strength  of 
wrestlers  was  proved  by  that  mass,  and  that  no  one 
wont  to  a  match,  until  it  was  ascertained  by  the 
lifting  of  that  weight,  who  ought  to  be  set  again-t 
whom."    S.  Jer. 

US.  Jor. 

IS  lit.  "a  stone  of  lading,"  which  whoso  lifteth 
would  be  laden  or  burthened.  It  is  the  only  noun 
formed  from  DOJ,';  and  the  root  itself  existed  only 
in  Hebrew. 

'«J3"^ty  is  a  root,  revived  by  Zechariah  from  llie 
Pentateuch.  It  occurs  only  Lev.  xix.  28,  xxi.  ."i,  of 
the  forbidden  incisions  for  the  dead.  Arab.  t5"lty 
and  Syr.  tO"'D,  "scarified"  9yr.  DTDHN  "  wtw 
branded." 


CHAPTEK  XIL 


435 


c  H  rTs  t    V^^^>  though  all  the  peo- 
cir-  ^87.      pie  of  the  earth  be  gath- 
ered together  against  it, 

4  In  that  day,  saith  the 
Lord,  'I  will  smite  every 
horse  with  astonishment, 
and  his  rider  with  mad- 
ness: and  I  will  open  mine 
eyes  upon  the  house  of  Ju- 
dah,  and  will  smite  every 


'Ps.  76.  6. 
Ezek.  38. 4. 


say  how  they  should  perish  before  it.  So  in 
Joel  God  says,  ^  I  will  also  gather  all  nations, 
and  will  bring  them  down  to  the  valley  of  Jeho- 
shaphat,  speaking  of  that  last  closing  strife  of 
Anti-Christ  against  God.  Wars  against 
Israel  had  eitlier  been  petty,  though  Anti- 
theistic,  wars  of  neighboring  petty  nations, 
pitting  their  false  gods  against  the  True,  or 
one,  though  world-emjiire  wielded  by  a 
single  will.  The  more  God  made  Himself 
known,  the  fiercer  the  opposition.  The 
Gospel  claiming  ^  obedience  to  the  faith  among 
all  nations,  provoked  universal  rebellion. 
Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate  became  friends 
through  rejection  of  Christ ;  the  Roman 
Cresar  and  the  Persian  Sapor,  Goths  and 
Vandals,  at  war  with  one  another,  were 
one  in  persecuting  Christ  and  the  Church. 
Yet  in  vain ; 

4.  In  that  day,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  smite 
every  horse  ivith  astonishment,  stupefying.  Ze- 
chariah  revives  the  words  concentrated  by 
Moses,  to  express  the  stupefaction  at  their 
ills,  which  God  would  accumulate  upon  His 
people,  if  they  perseveringly  rebelled  against 
Him.  Each  expresses  the  intensity  of  the 
visitation '.  The  horse  and  his  rider  had, 
tlirough  Moses'  song  at  the  Red  Sea,  become 
the  emblem  of  worldly  power,  overthrown. 
That  song  opens ;  *  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord  ; 
for  He  hath  triumphed  gloriously  :  the  horse  and 
his  rider  hath  He  cast  into  the  sea.  The  scared 
cavalry  throws  into  confusion  the  ranks,  of 
which  it  was  the  boast  and  strength. 

And  on  the  house  of  Judah  I  vfill  open  My 
eyes,  in  pity  and  love  and  guidance,  as  the 
Psalmist  says,  ^  I  will  counsel,  with  Mine  eye 

ijo.  iii.  2.  See  vol.  i.  pp.  200,  201,  and  p.  207  on 
Jo.  iii.  9.  .  2  Rom.  1.  5. 

*Deut.  xxvii.  28,  ?'in?3ri  (the  only  noun  derived 

from  non)  (and  with  the  same  word,  T^2')  p'^1^* 
occurs  only  there  beside;  jlJ^JK',  beside,  only  in 
2  Kg8  ix.  20.  Only  22h  is  omitted  after  pnOH 
since  it  stands  in  connection  with  the  horse  in  the 
parallelism.  ♦Ex.  xv.  1.  spg.  xxxii.  8. 

*  nyOK  aw  . ;  as  is  the  form  vpN,  Job  xvii.  19, 
VOtja  lb.  xxxvi.  19.  '  Zech.  i.'l7,  ii.  12.  iii.  2. 

*"1VJ3,  in  1  9fim.  ii.  14,  is  'a  vessel,  in  which  the 


horse  of  the  people  with    chrTst 
blindness.  c'r-  487. 

5  And  the  governoi-s  of 
Judah  shall  say  in  their 

heart,  ||The  inhabitants  of||Or,  There  is 

J  -I  7     77  7  strenqtk  to  me 

erusalem  shall  be  my  aud  to  the  in- 

,  .^1       •        xi         T  f   habitants,  dc. 

strength  in  the  Lord  of  joeis.  le. 
hosts  their  God. 

6  ^In  that  day  will  I 
make  the  governors  of  Ju- 


upon  thee,  in  contrast  with  the  blindness  with 
which  God  would  smite  the  powers  arrayed 
against  them. 

5.  And  the  princes  of  Judah.  He  pictures 
the  onemindedness  of  the  Church.  No  one 
shall  assume  anything  to  himself;  each  shall 
exalt  the  strength  which  the  other  was  to 
him  ;  but  all,  in  the  Lord.  The  princes  of 
Judah  shall  say  in  their  heart,  not  outwardly 
or  politically,  but  in  inward  conviction, 
strength  to  me  *  (all  speak  as  one)  are  the  inhab- 
itants of  Jerusalem  in  the  Lord  of  hosts  their 
God.  The  highest  in  human  estimation 
acknowledge  that  their  strength  is  in  those 
who  are  of  no  account  in  this  world ;  as,  in 
fact,  the  hearts  of  the  poor  are  evermore  the 
strength  of  the  Church  ;  but  that,  in  the  Lord 
of  hosts;  in  Him,  in  Whose  hands  are  the 
powers  of  heaven  and  earth,  over  against  the 
petty  turmoil  on  earth.  God  had  chosen 
Jerusalem^;  therefore  she  was  invincible. 
"  That  most  glorious  prince  of  Judah,  Paul, 
said,  '/  can  do  all  things  in  Christ  Who  in- 
strengthenelh  me.' " 

6.  I  will  make  the  goi'crnors  of  Judah  like  a 
hearth  or  cauldron^  of  fire,  large,  broad,  deep, 
and  full  of  fire,  among  the  wood  which  is  pre- 
pared for  burning^,  and  like  a  torch  of  fire  in  a 
sheaf.  The  fire  could  not  kindle  the  wood 
or  the  sheaf,  of  itself,  unless  applied  to  it. 
All  is  of  the  agency  of  God  :  /  will  make. 

"^°Ke  foretells  tlie  increase  of  the  Church, 
which  by  such  persecutions  shall  not  be 
diminished,  but  shall  be  marvelously  in- 
creased. The  preachers  of  the  Church  shall 
raise  up  all  the  peoples  round  about,  shall 
destroy  all   unbelief,  and   sliall   kindle   the 

food  is  cooked;'  in  2  Chr.  vi.  1.3  'a  pulpit; '  so  that 
the  vessel,  to  which  it  is  likened,  must  have  been 
large  ;  as  must  have  been  the  brazen  laver  of  the 
tabern.icle  (Ex.  Lev.)  or  temple  (2  Kgs),  of  which 
the  word  is  elsewhere  used.  Each  laver  of  Solo- 
mon's temple  contained  forUj  baths,  or  about  3(iii 
gallons,  and  was  four  cubits  (1  Kgs  vii.  38)  square 
apparently  (coll.  27.). 

'D'yj?  (pi.)  is  used  of  wood  cut  up,  1)  for  burning, 
especially  on  an  altar,  or  2)  for  btiildiiig,  unless  it 
is  plain  from  the  context,  that  they  are  living  trees, 
as  in  Jos.  x.  26,  Jud.  ix.  48,  in  Jotham's  fable  lb, 
9-15,  or  Ps.  xcvl.  12,  civ.  16,  Cant.  iv.  14,  Is.  vii.  2. 
4c,  10  Rib. 


436 


ZECHARIAH. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

■  Obad.  18. 


dah  *  like  an  hearth  of  fire 
among  the  wood,  and  like 
a  torch  of  fire  in  a  sheaf; 
and  they  shall  devour  all 
the  people  round  about,  on 
the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left:  and  Jerusalem  shall 
be  inhabited  again  in  her 
own  place,  even  in  Jerusa- 
lem. 

7  The  Lord  also  shall 


hearts  of  hearers  with  the  fire  of  the  Divine 
word."  On  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left. 
" '  He  indicates  the  strength  and  success  of 
the  preachers,  whom  no  one  can  resist  nor 
lunder,"  as  our  Lord  says,  ^  I  icill  give  you,  a 
mouth  and  wisdom,  which  all  your  adversaries 
shall  not  be  able  to  gainsay  nor  resist. 

And  Jerusalem  shall  again,  rather,  yet,  be 
inhabited.  "  Yet"  is  a  sort  of  burden  in  Ze- 
chariah's  prophecies^.  "*They  at  once 
burned  up  by  the  flame  all  the  defilement  of 
vices,  and  kindled  the  minds  of  men  with  the 
torch  of  Divine  love  ;  at  once  consumed  the 
enemy  and  cast  a  heavenly  fire  into  the  hu- 
man heart :  yet ;  in  despite  of  all  appear- 
ances, of  all  which  is  against  her.  She  shall 
yet  dwell  in  her  oum,  place  in  Jerusalem  ;  for, 
however  the  waves  of  this  world  chafe  and 
lash  themselves  into  foam  against  her,  they 
break  themselves,  not  her ;  as  soon  as  they 
have  reached  their  utmost  height,  they  fall 
back  ;  if  they  toss  themselves,  and,  for  a 
moment,  hide  her  light,  they  fall  down  at 
all  sides,  and  the  ray  shines  out,  steady 
as  before ;  for  she  is  Joumled  on  a  rock, 
against  which  *  the  gates  of  hell  should  not 
prevail. 

7.  The  Lord  also  shall  save  the  tents  of  Judah 
first.  Still  it  is,  the  Lord  shcdlsave.  We  have, 
on  the  one  side,  the  siege,  the  gathering  of  all 
the  peoples  of  the  earth  against  Jerusalem,  the 
horse  and  his  rider.  On  the  other,  no  human 
strength  ;  not,  as  before,  in  the  prophecy  of 
the  Maccabees,  the  bow,  the  arrow,  and  the 
sword,  though  in  the  hand  of  God  *.  It  is 
thrice,  I  will  make ' ;  /  will  smite^  ;  and  now, 
Tlie  Lord  sfudi  save.  By  the  tents,  he  probably 
indicates  their  defencelessness.  God  would 
save  them  first ;   that  the  glory '  of  the  house 

iRib.  «8.  Luke-xxi.  15. 

»  See  reff.  note  2.  ■•  Osor. 

»S.  Matt.  xvi.  18.  'Zech.  ix.  V.i. 

'  ver.  2,  3,  (1.  *  ver.  4  bis. 

•n^KOn  is  nowhere  "glorintio,"  as  Ges.,  but 
.timply  "nl'Oy,"  "beauty,"  thou^rh,  raiely,  it  is  im- 
plied in  tb.-  context,  that  ho  who  has  it,  f-  proud  of 
it,  as  Is.  111.  IS.  X.  K,  xlli.9. 

w  Jer.  ix.  •-'»,  1  Cor.  i.  31,  2  Cor.  x  17. 


save  the  tents  of  Judah 
first,  that  the  glory  of  the . 
house  of  David  and  the 
glory  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  do  not  magnify 
themselves  against  Judah. 

8  In  that  day  shall  the 
Lord  defend  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Jerusalem ;  and 
"  he  that  is  1 1  f  feeble  among 
them  at  that  day  shall  be 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


kJoela.  10. 

II  Or,  abjeci. 
iHeh.'fallen. 


of  David — be  not  great  against  or  over  Judah, 
may  not  overshadow  it ;  but  all  may  be  as 
one  ;  for  all  is  the  free  gift  of  God,  the  mere 
grace  of  God,  that  '"  he  that  glorieth  may  glory 
in  the  Lord,  and  both  "  "  may  own  that,  in 
both,  the  victory  is  the  Lord's." 

"  '^/»  Christ  Jesus  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek  ; 
neither  bond  nor free^^,  neither  rich  nor  poor  ; 
but  all  are  one,  viz.  a  new  creation  ;  yea  in 
Christendom  the  poor  are  the  highest,  both 
because  Christ  '*  preached  to  the  poor,  and  pro- 
nounced the  ^'^  poor  blessed,  and  He  made  the 
Apostles,  being  poor,  nobles  in  His  kingdom, 
through  whom  He  converted  kings  and 
princes,  as  is  written,  ^^  ye  see  your  calling, 
brethren,  that  not  many  tcise  men  after  the  flesh, 
not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble  are  called,  but 
God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  ivorld  to 
confound  the  wise,  and  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  things  ivhich  are  mighty 
&c. ;  and,  "  Hath  not  God  called  tlie  poor  in 
this  ivorld,  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the  king- 
dom., which  God  has  promised  to  them  that  love 
Him*  The  rich  and  noble  have  greater 
hindrances  to  humility  and  Christian  virtues, 
than  the  poor.  For  honors  puff  up,  wealth 
and  delights  weaken  the  mind ;  wherefore 
they  need  greater  grace  of  Christ  to  bui-st 
their  bonds  than  the  poor.  Wherefore,  for 
the  greater  grace  shewn  them,  they  are 
bound  to  give  greater  thanks  unto  Christ." 

8.  //(  that  day  the  Lord  shall  defend  the 
inhabitants  of  Jei-usalem  ;  and  fie  that  is  feeble, 
rather,  he  that  stumbleth  among  them,  shall  be 
as  David.  The  result  of  the  care  and  the 
defence  of  God  is  here  wholh'  spiritual,  "the 
strengthening  of  such  as  do  stand,  and  the 
raising  up  of  such  as  fall."  It  is  not  simply 
one  feeble,  but  one  stumbling  "*  and  ready  to 


»S.  Jer.  isi..ap.  "Gal.  iii.  28. 

»«S.  Luke  iv.  18.       « lb.  vi.  2ti.       >»1  Cor.  i.  2G. 
"S.  James  ii.  5. 
"1  Sam.  ii.  4,  is  the  only  case  alleged  by  Grcs.,  in 

which  7iy3J  is  to  signify  "  weak."    Yet  here  too 

"  stumble  "  as  in  the  E.  V.,  is  the  natural  rendering. 
In  the  otner  19  cases  it  is  confe-ssedly  stumbliug, 
though  in  some  It  is  stuin)>ling,  so  as  to  fall. 


CHAPTER  XTT. 


437 


c  H  rTs  t    *^^  David  ;  and  the   house 
<^''^-  ■'g'^-      of  David  shall  he  as  God, 
as  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
before  them. 

9  ^  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass  in  that  day,  that  I 


fall,  who  becomes  as  David,  the  great 
instance  of  one  who  fell,  yet  was  raised. 
Daniel  says  of  a  like  trial-time,  '  And  some  of 
those  of  understanding  shall  stumble,  to  try 
them  and  to  purge  and  to  make  them  white,  to 
the  time  of  the  end.  "^Such  care  will  God 
have  of  protecting  the  sons  of  the  Church, 
when  it  shall  be  infested  with  persecutions, 
that  he  who  shall  have  fallen  through  human 
infirmity,  either  deceived  by  heretics  or 
overcome  by  fear  of  tortures,  shall  arise  the 
more  fervent  and  cautious,  and  with  many 
tears  shall  make  amends  for  his  sins  to  God, 
as  did  David.  He  who  stumbled  shall  be  as 
David,  because  the  sinner  returneth  to  re- 
pentance. This  is  not  said  of  all  times,  nor 
of  all  (for  many  have  stumbled,  who  never 
rose)  but  chiefly  of  the  first  times  of  the 
Church  and  of  men  of  great  sanctity,  such  as 
were  many  then." 

And  the  house  of  David  shall  be  as  God. 
They  who  stumbled  became  really  like 
David ;  but  he,  though  mighty  and  a  great 
saint  of  God,  though  he  once  fell,  was  man. 
How  then  could  the  house  of  David  be  really 
like  God  ?  Only  fully  in  Him,  Who,  ^  being 
in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be 
equal  with  God;  Who  said,  *  He  who  hath  seen 
Me,  hath  seen  My  Father  also;  */  and  the 
Father  are  one.  And  this  the  prophet  brings 
out  by  adding,  as  the  A  ngel  of  the  Lord  before 
them,  i.e.  that  one  Angel  of  the  Lord,  in 
whom  His  very  Presence  and  His 
Name  was;  Who  went  before  them, 
to  guide  them®.  Else,  having  said,  like 
God,  it  had  been  to  lessen  what  he  had 
just  said,  to  add,  lihe  the  Angel  of  the  Lord. 
Our  Lord  prayed  for  those  who  are  truly 
His,  '  As  Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me  and  I  in 
Thee,  that  they  may  be  one  in  Us  ;  that  they  may 
be  one  as  We  are  one,  I  in  them,  and  Thou  in  Me, 
that  they  may  be  perfect  in  one ;  and  S.  Paul 
saith,  ®  Christ  is  formed  inus  ;  ®  Christ  dicelleth 

1  Dan.  xi.  35.  *  Rib.  3  Phil.  ii.  6. 

*  S.  John  xiv.  9.  6  lb.  x.  30. 

6 See  "  Daniel  the  prophet"  pp.  519-523. 

7  S.  John  xvii.  21,  22,  23.  8  Gal.  iv.  19. 

»Eph.  iii.  17.  lOGal.  ii.  20. 

"  Rom.  viii.  10. 

«  Col.  iii.  4.  13  lb.  11.  h  Eph.  iv.  15. 

«  Rom.  xvi.  7,  2  Cor.  v.  17,  Gal.  i.  22. 
i«  2  Pet.  i.  4.      "  1  S.  John  iv.  17.       is  Gal.  iv.  14. 
i«  iyp3  with  S  and  inf.  "  Pharaoh  sought  to  slay 

Moses."  Ex.  ii.  15;  "Saul,  my  father,  seeketh  to 
glay  thee,"  1  Sam.  xi.  2;  "Saul  souglit  to  smite 


will  .-^cek  to  '  destroy  all  the    ^  §'f'l%  t 
nations  that  come  against  __£iEii!L_^ 
Jerusalem.  '  Hag.  2. 22.  ver. 

10  "  And   I  will  p  o  u  r  k  j'er.  si.  9.  &  50. 
upon  the  house  of  David,  Ezek.  39. 29. 
and  upon  the  inhabitants 


in  our  hearts  by  faith;  '"  Christ  liveth  in  me; 
^^  Christ  is  in  you;  ^''Christ  is  our  life; 
^^  Christ  is  all  and  in  all;  ^*  we  grow  into  Him 
which  is  the  Head,  even  Ch7'ist;  ^^  we  are  in 
Christ;  and  S.  Peter,  we  are  ^'^ partakers  of 
the  Divine  nature  ;  and  S.  John,  "As  He  is,  so 
are  we  in  this  world.  Then  in  a  degree  the 
glory  of  Christ  passeth  over  to  tliose  who 
dwell  in  Him,  and  in  whom  He  dwells  by 
the  Spirit,  as  S.  Paul  says ;  '**  Ye  received  me, 
as  an  angel  of  God,  as  Christ  Jesus. 

9.  In  that  day,  I  will  seek  to  destroy.  Woe 
indeed  to  those,  whom  Almighty  God  shall 
"  seek  to  destroy  !  "  Man  may  seek  earnestly 
to  do,  what  at  last  he  cannot  do.  Still  it  is 
an  earnest  seeking.  And  whether  it  is  used 
of  human  seeking  which  ftiils '",  or  which 
succeeds  '■"',  inchoate  '^'  or  permitted  '^'^,  it  is 
always  used  of  seeking  to  do,  what  it  is  a 
person's  set  purpose  to  do  if  he  can  ^'.  Here 
it  is  spoken  of  Almighty  God  ^^.  "  ^  He 
saith  not,  '  I  will  destroy '  but  /  wUl  seek  to 
destroy,  i.  e.  it  shall  ever  be  My  care  to 
destroy  all  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  that 
they  may  in  no  way  prevail  against  it: 
this  I  will  do  alway  to  the  end  of  the 
world." 

10.  A7id  I  ivill  pour,  as  He  promised  by 
Joel  ^*,  I  ivill  pour  out  My  Spirit  upon  all  flesh, 
largely,  abundantly,  upon  the  house  of  David 
and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  all,  highest  and 
lowest,  from  first  to  last,  the  Spirit  of  grace  and 
supplication,  i.  e.  the  Holy  Spi7-it  which  con- 
veyeth  grace,  as  "^^the  Spirit  of  ivisdom  and 
understanding  is  the  Spyirit  infusing  ivisdcnn  and 
understanding,  and  the  Spii'it  of  counsel  and 
might  is  that  same  Spirit,  imparting  the  gift 
of  counsel  to  see  what  is  to  be  done  and  of 
might  to  do  it,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  knowledge 
and  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  that  same  Spirit, 
infusing  loving  acquaintance  with  God,  with 
awe  at  Plis  infinite  Majesty.  So  the  Spirit  of 
grace  and  supplication,  is  that  same  Spirit, 

David,"  lb.  20 ;  Solomon,  to  kill  Jeroboani,  1  Kgs 
xi.  40;  "Sought  to  lay  hand  on  the  king,"  Esth.  vi. 
2;  Haman  sought  to  destroy  the  Jews.  lb.  iii.  6. 

The  inf.  without  7,  occurs  Jer.  xxvi.  21. 

■■^1  Sam.  xiv.  4,  x.xiii.  10,  Eecl.  .xi).  10. 

21  "  sought  to  turn  away,"  De.  xiii.  11.  "  seekest  to 
destrov  a  city,"  2  Sam.  xx.  19. 

22 1  Kgs  xi.  22,  Zech.  vi.  7. 

23  In  Ex.  iv.  24  only,  it  is  said,  "  God  sought  to 
slay  Moses,"  i.  e.  shewed  that  He  would,  unless  his 
son  had  been  circumcised. 

"Jo.  ii.  28.    See  vol.  i.  pp.  193, 194.       m  Is.  xi.  2, 


438 


ZECIIARIAH. 


chr'Yst    ^^'  'JcrusaUaii,  tlif  ;spint  of 
rir.  487.      gi'ace  and  of  supplications  ; 


Rev!  1.7.  '    'and  they  shall  'look  upon 


infusing  grace  and  bringing  into  a  state  of 
favor  with  God,  and  a  Spirit  of  supplication  ^ 
is  that  Spiiit,  calling  out  of  the  inmost  soul 
the  cry  for  a  yet  larger  measure  of  the  grace 
already  given.  S.  Paul  speaks  of  '•'  the  love 
of  God  poured  out  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  \ 
Spirit  iL'hich  is  given  unto  us  ;  and  of  ■'  insulting 

^D'JIjnJI  is  chosen  in  allusion  to  jn  "grace." 
D'JUnn  is,  almost  everywhere,  the  cry  to  God  for 
His  grace  and  favor.  It  occurs  mostly  in  the 
Psalms  united  with  71  p.  "the  voice  of  my  suppli- 
cations," Ps.  xxviii.  2,  6,  xxxi.  23,  xxxvi.  G,  cxvi,  1, 
cxxx.  2,  cxi.  7;  also  of  the  cry  to  God,  without  i)p, 

Ps.  cxliii.  1,  Dan.  ix.  .3, 17, 18,  3-3,  Jer.  iii.  21.  xxxi.  9. 
It  is  used  of  man  to  man,  only  Prov.  xviii.  23,  and 
else,  in  ironv,  of  what  leviathan  would  not  do  to 
man,  ,Iob  xl."27,  G.  [xli.  3.  Eng.] 
2  Rom.  v.  5. 

*  Heb.  X.  2!),  TO  wvevna  T^j  \api.TOi  iwfipicai. 

*  Osor. 

'There  is  no  critical  doubt  about  the  reading, 

'bx,  to  Me.  It  is  the  reading  of  all  the  old  Verss., 
Jewish  or  Christian  ;  LXX.  Aq.  Sym.  Theod.  C'hald. 
Syr.  Vulg.    In  the  ixth  cent.,  the  Jews  had  begun 

to  make  a  marginal  correction  into  V^K,  but  did 
not  venture  to  change  the  text.  "Where  we, 
according  to  the  faith  of  Holy  Scripture,  read,  in 
the  Person  of  God,  'and  they  shall  look  to  Me 
Whom  thev  pierced,'  though,  in  the  text  itself  of 
the  book,  they  were  deterred  by  God's  Providence 
from  makinga  change,  yet  without,  in  the  margin, 
they  liave  it  noted,  '  tney  shall  look  to  him  whom 
they  pierced.'  And  so  they  hand  down  to  their 
disciples,  that  they  should  transcribe,  as  it  is  con- 
tained in  the  text,  and  read,  as  they  have  noted, 
outside;  so  that  they  may  hold,  according  to  their 
phrensy,  that  the  Jews  look  to  him,  whom  Gog  and 
Magog  pierced."  Rabanus  Maurus  e.  Jud.  n.  12. 
In  the  13th.  cent.  Martini  says,  that  "all  the  old 

MSS.  of  the  Jews  have  'iK  :"  and  that  the  "  perfidy 
of  some  modern  Jews,  unable  to  deprave  so  evident 
a  testimony  to  the  divinity  of  the  Messiah,  saj',  that 

it  is  not  ''"7S  but  vSk."  f.  666.  In  f.  .328,  he  again 
says,  "some  Jews  falsify  the  text ;"  and  (f.  .329)  that 
"now  (jam)  in  many  MSS.  they  have  corrupted 
their  text,  but  that  they  are  refuted  by  the  Targum, 
the  Talmud,  and  6;/  ynany  ancient  MSS.,  in  which  this 
text  is  not  )iet  corrupted,  and  by  the  exposition  of 
Rashi."    R.  Isaac,  at  the  end  of  "the  IGth.  cent.  A.  D. 

1593,  quoted  the  reading  '^K  without  doubt,  though 
)ie  was  expressly  controverting  the  Christian  argu- 
ment. "They  say, that  hereafter  the  sons  of  Israel 
shall  mourn,  because  they  pierced  and  slew  the 
Messiah  sent  to  them,  Jesus  who  is  compounded 
of  Godhead  and  Manhood,  and  they  say,  that  this 
is  (the  meaning  of ) 'they  shall  look  to  me  whom 
they  pierced.'"  (Chizzuk  Emunah  in  Wngenseil 
Tela  ign.  Sat.  pp.  303,  304.)  He  explains  it  of  the 
wars  of  Goi;  and  Magog.  '  If  thev  shall  see  that 
they  [their  enemies]  shall  pierce  through  even  one 
of  them,  they  shall  he  amazed  and  shall  look  to  me, 
eth  asher  dakaroo,  i.e.  on  account  of  him,  whom 
thoy  pierced— So  that  the  Nazarenes  have  no  help 

from  the  words  ^'y^'\  'Wi/H  HK  'Sk  ID'^ni;'  (lb. 

pp.  307,  308;)  and  he  subjoins,  that  If  he  who  was 
wounded  had  been  the  same  as  he  to  whom  they 
Hhould  look,  it  ought  to  have  gone  on  in  the  first 


me    whom    they    have     chr^st 
pierced,    and    they    shall      cir.  487. 
mourn   for  him,   "as   one^Amos's. ib. 


the  Spint  of  grace,  rudely  repulsing  the  Spirit, 
Who  giveth  grace.  "  *  When  God  Himself 
says,  '/  will  pour  out,'  He  sets  forth  the 
greatness  of  His  bountifulness  whereby  He 
bestoweth  all  things." 

And  they  shall  look;  with  trustful  hope  and 
longing,  (Ml  3Ie%  Almighty  God,  Whom  they 

person,  "S;'  n£3D,  and  'Sj?  lOHl,  like  1t3'3ni 
■"Sk.  lb.  309.  R.  Lipmann  (A.  D.  1399)  uses  the 
same  argument,  "He  should  have  said,  and  the;i 
nhall  mourn  for  me,  as  he  began,  theij  shall  look  to 
me."  p.  144  ed.  Haclcsp.  Ihn  JEzra  agrees  with  this, 
for  he  explains  it  in  the  first  person,  "Then  shall 

all  nations  look  to  me  ("Sx)  to  see  what  I  shall 
do  to  those  who  have  slain  Messiah  b.  Joseph." 
Alshcikh\t  con)mentary  requires  the  same,  "And  I 
will  j'et  do  a  third  thing.    And  this  that  they  shall 

look  ''^H,  is  that  they  shall  hang  their  eyes  on  Me 
in  perfect  repentance  when  they  see  &c."  and  /?. 
Obadiah  Siporno,  (Bibl.  Rabb.)  "and  they  shall  looii 
to  Me  in  their  urayer."  Rashi  also  gives  the  Targ. 
"and  they  shall  se"ek  of  Me''  ''Olp  |0  as  the  inter- 
pretation of  '7K  IW^m  "they  shall  look  to  me." 
R.  Tanchum  of  Jerusalem,  "  a  learned  son  of  a 
learned  father,"  in  the  latter  part  of  the  13th  cent. 
(Griitz  vii.  144,  14.'i)  knew  in  the  East  of  no  other 
reading.  He  explains  it;  "They  shall  flee  to  Me, 
when  they  see  the  slaying  ol'  those  whom  the 
enemy  had  slain  of  them""  (Poc.  344).  His  contem- 
porary, Parclion,  in  his  lexicon  Mechabberoth,  cites 

the  passage  with  '  7K,  and  explains  the  word 
"piercing  of  a  sword  in  the  body,"  v.  'IpH.    The 

Heb.  Arab,  version,  so  often  quoted  by  Pocoeke 
(Hunt.  206)  renders,  "And  they  turned  to'me,  whom 
they  rent  0J^3  the  word,  used  by  Abuhvalid,  only 
Abulwalid  further  explains  this  by  pty.)  Abulwalid 

does  not  notice  the  reading  in  either  of  his  lexiea, 
nor  Menahem  b.  .Sarug,  nor  David  b.  Abraham. 

With  regard  to  M.SS.,  even  in  later  times  Peter 
Niger  [Schwarz]  (a  learned  Benedictine  of  the  17th 
cent.)  wrote,  "some  false  and  lying  Jews  say  that  it 
is  not  written, 'And  they  shall  look  on  me  whom 
they  have  pierced,'  but  'they  shall  seek  to  him 
whom  they  have  pierced' — I  "answer,  that  on  my 
conscience  and  on  the  Christian  truth  1  say,  I  have 
seen  many  Jewish  Bibles  [Spanish,  doubtless,  since 
he  studied  Hebrew  in  Spain]  and  I  never,  in  any 
Bible,  found  it  written  other  tlian  vehibbitu  elai  'and 
they  shall  look  to  me,'  and  not  vehibbitu  clav,  'and 
they  shall  look  to  him,'  as  I  will  shew  any  one  who 
desires  to  see."  .Stella  .Messisv  Tract,  ii.  c.  2.  A.I). 
1477  in  Wolf  Bibl.  Hcbr.  iv.  p.  54,3.    Norzi,  a  Jewish 

critic,  says  that  V/X  is  not  found  in  the  Scriptures, 
only  in  Iia.<ihi  and  the  Qemara.    The  codex  Babyl. 

Petropol.  (I  am  told,  of  the  ixth  cent.)  has  ''Sk. 
In  the  collated  I\ISS.  there  is  the  variation,  common 
where  there  is  a  real  or  virtual  kri,  33  Kenn.  MSS. 

and  6  de  R.  have  V 7X ;  3  have  V7K  maiked  on  the 
marg.,  one  as  a  kri;  7  K.  and  5  de  R.  had  ''7X  cor- 
rected into  VIH;  4  K.,  5  de  R.  had  VlX  corrected 
into  •'SX:  11  K.,  5  de  R.  had  a  kri  in  marg.  vSx. 
"The  most  and   best  MSS  have    "Sx."  De    R.  . 

Ewatd's  ground  for  rejecting  the  reading  '7X  Illus- 
trates the  Jewish.     "  TpT   Is,  from  the  context 

which  speaks  of  mourning  for  the  dead,  and  the 


CHAPTER  Xir. 


439 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


mourneth  for  his  only  son, 
and  shall  be  in  bitterness 


have  pierced  ^ ;  the  Head  with  the  thorns,  the 
Hands  and  Feet  with  the  nails,  the  Side  with 
the  soldier's  lance.  The  prophecy  began  to  be 
fulfilled  as  soon  as  the  deed  was  completed, 
and  Jesus  had  yielded  up  His  Spirit :  when 
-  cUl  the  people  that  came  together  to  that  dykt. 
beholding  the  things  which  tvere  done,  smote  their 
breasts  ami  returned.  "  ^  When  they  had  nailed 
the  Divine  Shrine  to  the  Wood,  they  who 
had  crucified  Him,  stood  around,  impiously 
mocking. — But  when  He  had  laid  down  His 
life  for  us,  *the  centurion  and  they  that  were 
with  him,  ivatching  Jesus,  seeing  the  earthquake 
and  those  things  which  were  done,  feared  greatly, 
saying.  Truly  this  ims  the  Son  of  God."  As  it 
ever  is  with  sin,  compunction  did  not  come 
till  the  sin  was  over :  till  then,  it  M'as  over- 
laid ;  else  the  sin  could  not  be  done.  At  the 
first  conversion,  the  three  thousand  ivere 
pricked^  in  the  heart,  when  told  that  He 
•"  Whom  they  had  taken  and  with  wicked  hands 
had  crucified  and  slain,  is  Lord  and  Christ. 
This  awoke  the  first  penitence  of  him  who 
became  S.  Paul.  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecufest 
thou  Mef  This  has  been  the  centre  of 
Christian  devotion  ever  since,  the  security 
against  passion,  the  impulse  to  self-denial, 
the  parent  of  zeal  for  souls,  the  incentive  to 
love ;  this  has  struck  the  rock,  that  it  gushed 
forth  in  tears  of  penitence :  this  is  the 
strength  and  vigor  of  hatred  of  sin,  to  look  to 
Him  Whom  our  sins  pierced.  Who  S.  Paul 
says,  loved  me  and.  gave  Himself  for  me.  " '  We 
all  lifted  Him  up  upon  the  Cross  ;  we  trans- 
fixed with  the  nails  His  Hands  and  Feet ;  we 
pierced  His  Side  with  the  spear.  For  if  man 
had  not  sinned,  the  Son  of  God  would  have 
endured  no  torment." 

And  they  shall  mourn  for  Him,  as  one  mourn- 
eth fm  an  only  son,  and  shall  be  in  bitterness  for 
Him,  as  one  that  is  in  bitterness  for  a  first-born. 
We  feel  most  sensibly  the  sorrows  of  this  life, 

language  of  the  prophet  (xiii.  3)  clear;  but  for  'IX, 

we  must,  with  many  MSS.,  read  vSx.  The  first 
person  were  wholly  unsuited  here.  It  is  at  variance 

with  the  following  V7J?  n£3D1,  and  introduces  into 
the  Old  Testament  the  senselessness,  that  one  is  to 
weep  over  Jahve,  (for  Jahve  [Almighty  ftod]  must 
be  the  subject,)  as  over  one  dead,  (who  should 
never  come  back  again  !)."  De  Rossi  suggests  that 

the  V?a  came  in  accidentally,  the  scribe  having 
in  his  mind  Ps.  xxxiv.  6,  V7X  ItO'^H. 

1  There  can  equally  be  no  question  about  the 
meaning  of  npi  (as  even  Ew.  and  Hitz.  admit)  or 

about  the  construction.  *1pT  (which  occurs  11 
times,  is  everywhere  "thrust  through."  In  one 
place  only,  Lam.  iv.  9.  C^DHD.  "thrust  through," 
occurs  as  a  synonyme  of  ^J.^^  w/H  "those 
wounded  by  hunger  "  and  that,  in  contrast  with 


for  him,  as  one  that  is  in    ,,  h  r"/!  x 
bitterness  for  his  firstborn,       ^'''-  ^^'^- 


passing  as  they  are  ;  and  of  these,  the  loss  of 
an  only  son  is  a  proverbial  sorrow.  *  0 
daughter  of  My  people,  gird  thee  with  sackcloth 
and  wallow  thyself  in  ashes,  God  says;  make 
thee  the  mourning  of  an  only  son,  most  bitter  lamen- 
tation. ^  I  will  make  it  as  the  mourning  of  an  only 
son.  The  dead  man  carried  out,  the  only  son 
of  his  mother  and  she  was  a  widow,  is  recorded 
as  having  touched  the  heart  of  Jesus. 
"^**And  our  Lord,  to  the  letter,  was  the 
Only-Begotten  of  His  Father  and  His 
mother."  He  was  '^  the  first-begotten  of  every 
creature,  and  ^"^  we  saw  His  glory,  thegloryas  of  the 
Only-Begotten  of  the  Father, fuU  of  grace  andtruth. 
This  mourning  for  Him  Whom  our  sins 
pierced  and  nailed  to  the  tree,  is  continued, 
week  by  week,  by  the  pious,  on  the  day  of 
the  week,  when  He  sufiered  for  us,  or  in  the 
perpetual  memorial  of  His  Precious  Death 
in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  and  especially  in 
Passion-Tide.  God  sends  forth  anew  the 
Spirit  of  grace  and  supplication,  and  the  faith- 
ful mourn,  because  of  their  share  in  His 
Death.  The  prophecy  had  a  rich  and 
copious  fulfillment  in  that  first  conversion  in 
the  first  Pentecost;  a  larger  fulfillment  awaits 
it  in  the  end,  when,  after  the  destruction  of 
Anti-Christ,  ^^  cdl  Israel  shall  be  converted 
and  be  saved.  There  is  yet  a  more  awful 
fulfillment ;  when  ^*  He  cometh  ivith  clouds, 
and  every  eye  shall  see  Him,  and  they  which 
pierced  Him,  ami  cdl  kindreds  of  the  earth  shall 
wail  because  of  Him.  But  meanwhile  it  is 
fulfilled  in  every  solid  conversion  of  Jew 
Heathen  or  careless  Christian,  as  well  as  in 
the  devotion  of  the  pious.  Zechariah  has 
concentrated  in  few  words  the  tenderest 
devotion  of  the  Gospel,  They  shcdl  look  on  Me 
Whom  they  pierced.  "'^Zechariah  teaches 
that  among  the  various  feelings  which  we 
can  elicit  from  the  meditation  on  the  Pas- 
sion of  Christ,  as  admiration,  love,  gratitude, 

3Tn  wbn  "  wounded  by  the  sword."  So  also  the 
noun,  3Sn  r^nplp.  "the  piercings  of  the  sword," 

Ps.  xii.18.  In  regard  to  the  construction,  1iyj<  TX 
occurs  in  97  places  in  the  Bible,  and  in  every  place 
in  the  meaning  "he  who,"  "that  which,"  "this 
that."  In  one  place  only  Dent.  xxix.  13,  14,  flX 
liaving  been  previously  used  as  a  preposition,  "and 
not  with  you  only,  (DDriN)  do  I  make  this  cove- 
nant," the  nx  is  again  used  as  a  preposition,  carry- 
ing on  the  construction,  "but  with  him  who,  f)J< 
'lE'X.  Frischmuth  (de  Messia  confixo)  mentions 
14  ways,  by  which  "because  "  might  without  ambi- 
guity have  been  expressed  (see  Pusey's  Univ. 
Sermons  p.  142).  There  is  then  no  excuse  for  the 
renderings  av9'  uv,  LXX.  or  Aq.  <tvv  w.  Theod.  has 
Trpb?  fxf  eis  ov  e^eKevTr)<Tai'. 

2S.Luke  xxiii.48.    8  8.  Cyr.    ^S.  Matt,  xxvii.  54. 

6  KaTfvvyriaav  Acts  ii.  37.        «  lb.  23,  3G.        ?  Osor. 

B  Jer.  vi.  26.  «  Amos  viii.  10.  i"  Alb. 

"  Col.  i.  15.        w  S.  John  i.  14.         i3  Rom.  xi.  26. 

"  Rev.  i,  7.  "  Lap. 


440 


i^ECHAKIAK. 


chrTst        ^1  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^y  shall 
cir.  487.       there  be  a  great  "mourn- 

» Acts  2. 37        ing  in  Jerusalem,  °  as  the 

0  2  Kia  23.  29.  .  p     tt    i    j    • 

chr.  35. 24.      mourning    oi    Hadadrim- 
mon  in  the  valley  of  Me- 
giddon. 
pMatt.  24. 30.         12  •"  And  the  land  shall 

Rev.  1. 7.  ,  jy  •  1 

iReb. families,  moum,  J every    lamily 

**""  '"■  apart ;    the  family   of  the 

house  of  David  apart,  and 

their  wives  apart ;  the  fam- 


compunction,  fear,  penitence,  imitation, 
patience,  joy,  hope,  the  feeling  of  compas- 
eion  stands  eminent,  and  that  it  is  this,  which 
we  peculiarly  owe  to  Christ  suffering  for  us. 
For  who  would  not  in  his  inmost  self  grieve 
with  Christ,  innocent  and  holy,  yea  the  Only- 
Begotten  Son  of  God,  when  he  sees  Him 
nailed  to  the  Cross  and  enduring  so  lovingly 
for  him  sufierings  so  manifold  and  so  great? 
Who  would  not  groan  out  commiseration,  and 
melt  into  tears  ?  Truly  says  S.  Bonaventure 
in  his  '  goad  of  Divine  love  : '  '  What  can 
be  more  fruitful,  what  sweeter  than,  with  the 
•whole  heart,  to  suffer  with  that  most  bitter 
suffering  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? '  " 

11.  As  the  mourning  of  Hudadrhnmon  in  the 
valley  of  Megiddon.  This  was  the  greatest 
sorrow,  which  had  fallen  on  Judali.  Josiah 
was  the  last  hope  of  its  declining  kingdom. 
His  sons  probably  shewed  already  their 
unlikeness  to  their  father,  whereby  they  pre- 
cipitated their  country's  fall.  In  Josiah's 
death  the  last  gleam  of  the  sunset  of  Judah 
faded  into  night.  Of  him  it  is  recorded,  that 
his  pious  acts,  according  to  tvhat  was  writ- 
ten in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  were  written  in  his 
country's  history ' ;  for  him  the  prophet 
Jeremiah  wrote  a  dirge " ;  all  the  minstrels  of 
his  country  spake  of  him  in  their  dirges^.  The 
dirges  were  made  an  ordinance  which  sur- 
vived the  captivity ;  to  this  day  '^,  it  is  said  at 
the  close  of  the  Chronicles.  Among  the 
gathering  sorrows  of  Israel,  this  lament  over 
Josiah  was  written  in  the  national  collection 
of  dirges\  Hadadrimmon,  as  being  com- 
pounded of  the  name  of  two  Syrian  idols,  is, 
in  its  name,  a  witness  how  Syrian  idolatry 
penetrated  into  the  kingdom,  when  it  was  de- 
tached from  the  worshii)  of  God.  It  was  ""a 
city  near  Jezreel,  now  called  Maximinianopo- 
lis  in  the  plain  of  Megiddon,   in   which   the 

»  2  Chr.  XXXV.  26,  7.  «  lb.  25,  8  s.  jer. 

♦Itin.  Hieros.  In  Relnnd  p.  891. 

*"  About  ?^  of  an  hour  to  the  S,  of  Meeiddo  lies 
a  small  viflage  called  RumflnL"  Van  de  Velde 
Travels  1.  365. 

>»  1  Chr.  iii.  6.  I S.  Luke  IIL  31. 


q  2  Sam.  5. 14. 
Luke  3.  31. 


ily   of  the  house   of  'Na-    t;HR°i|T 
than  apart,  and  their  wives      <^'''-  *^'^- 
apart ; 

13  The  family  of  the 
house  of  Levi  apart,  and 
their   wives   apart  ;    the 

family  1 1  of  Shimei   apart,  l  Or,  of  Simeon 

....  as  LXX. 

and  their  wives  apart ; 

14  All  the  families  that 
remain,  every  family  apart, 
and  their  wives  apart. 


righteous  king  Josiah  was  wounded  by 
Pliaraoh  Necho."  This  "*was  17  miles 
from  Cfesarea,  10  from  Esdraelon."  Its 
name  still  survives  in  a  small  village,  south 
of  Megiddon  ^,  and  so,  on  the  way  back  to 
Jerusalem. 

12-14.  This  sorrow  should  be  universal  but 
also  individual,  the  whole  land,  and  that, 
family  by  family ;  the  royal  family  in  the 
direct  line  of  its  kings,  and  in  a  branch  from 
Nathan,  a  son  of  David  and  whole  brother 
of  Solomon®,  which  was  continued  on  in  pri- 
vate life,  yet  was  still  to  be  an  ancestral  line 
of  Jesus  ^ :  in  like  way  the  main  priestly 
family  from  Levi,  and  a  subordinate  line 
from  a  grandson  of  Levi,  the  family  of 
Shimei^;  and  all  the  remaining  families,  each 
with  their  separate  sorrow,  each  according  to 
Joel's  call,  '  let  the  bridegroom  go  forth  of  his 
chamber  and  the  bride  out  of  her  closet,  each  de- 
nying himself  the  tenderest  solaces  of  life. 

" '"  The  ungrateful  and  ungodly,  daily,  as 
far  as  in  them  lies,  crucify  Clirist,  as  S.  Paul 
says,  *'  crucifying  to  themselves  the  Son  of  God 
afresh  and  putting  Him  to  an  open  shame.  And 
on  the.se  Christ,  out  of  His  boundless  pity, 
poureth  forth  a  spirit  of  grace  and  supplica- 
tion, so  that,  touched  with  compunction,  with 
grieving  and  tearful  feeling,  they  look  on 
Christ,  suffering  with  His  suffering,  and  be- 
wailing their  own  impurities." 

"  ''^  The  likeness  is  in  the  sorrow,  not  in  its 
degree.  Josiah  had  restored  religion,  re- 
moved a  dire  superstition,  bound  up  relaxed 
morals  by  healthful  discipline,  recalled  to  its 
former  condition  the  sinking  state.  In  their 
extremest  neeiis  light  shone  on  them,  when 
there  came  his  unlooked-for  death,  There- 
with the  whole  state  seemed  lost.  So  in  the 
Death  of  Christ,  they  who  loved  Him,  saw 
His  Divine  works,  placed  their  whole  hope 

'Nu.  iii.  21.  Had  the  allusion  been  to  the  tribe 
of  Simeon,  as  supplying,  the  teachers  of  Israel,  as 
S.  Jerome  thought,  it  had  been,  not  ^yo^,  but 
'JJ-'OE'  as  in  Nu.  xxv.  14,  Jos.  xxL  4. 1  Chr.  xxvii.  16. 

•Ja'ii.  IG.       lODiou.       » Heb.  vi.  6       nOsor. 


CHAPTER   Xlir. 


441 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


»eh.  12.  3. 
>»  Heb.  9.  14. 

1  Pet.  1.  19. 

Rev.  i.  5. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

■  1  The  fountain  of  purgation  fov 
Jerusalem,,  2  from  idolatry,  and 
false  prophecy.  7  The  death 
of  Christ,  and  the  trial  of  a 
third  part. 

TN  '  that  day  there  shall 

be  ''  a  fountain  opened 

to  the  house  of  David  and 


of  salvation  in  His  goodness,  suddenly  saw 
the  stay  of  their  life  extinct,  themselves  de- 
prived of  that  most  sweet  intercourse,  all 
hope  for  the  future  cut  off.  But  the  grief  in 
the  death  of  Christ  was  the  more  bitter,  as 
He  awoke  a  greater  longing  for  Himself,  and 
had  brought  a  firmer  hope  of  salvation." 

XIII.  1.  In  (hat  day  there  shall  be  a  fountain 
opened.  Zechariah  often  repeats,  in  that  day  ^, 
resuming  his  subject  again  and  again,  as  a 
time  not  proximate,  but  fixed  and  known  of 
God,  of  which  he  declared  somewhat.  It  is 
that  day  which  ^  Abraham  desired  to  see,  and 
saw  it,  whether  by  direct  revelation,  or  in  the 
typical  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  and  ivas  glad :  it  was 
^  that  day  which  many  prophets  and  kings  and 
righteous  men  desired  to  see,  and  in  patience 
waited  for  it :  the  one  day  of  salvation  of  the 
Gospel.  He  had  spoken  of  repentance,  in 
contemplation  of  Christ  crucified  ;  he  now 
speaks  of  forgiveness  and  cleansing,  of  sancti- 
fication  and  consequent  obedience.  The 
fountain  shall  be  not  simply  opened,  but  shall 
remain  open*.  Isaiah  had  already  prophe- 
sied of  the  refreshment  of  the  Gospel. 
*  When  the  pom-  and  needy  seek  water  and 
there  is  none,  and  their  tongue  failethfor  thirst, 
I,  the  Lord,  will  hear  them,  I,  the  God  of  Israel, 
will  not  forsake  them.  Iiuill  open  rivers  in  high 
places  and  fountains  in  the  midst  of  the  valleys; 
here  it  is  added,  for  sin  and  for  undeanness. 
There  were  divers  "  symbolical  washings  under 
the  law ;  the  Levites  were  '  sprinkled  with  the 
water  of  purifying,  lit.  the  water  of  taking  away 
of  sin:  living  wato's*,  put  to  the  ashes  of  an 

1  xii.  3,  4,  6,  8,  9, 11,  xiii.  1,  2,  4,  xiv.  6,  8, 13,  20. 

2  S.  John  viii.  n6. 

3S.  Matt.  xiii.  17,  S.  Luke  x.  24. 

*  Tiie  force  of  nr\i3  J  n'TT.  *  Is.  xli.  17, 18. 

«  Heb.  ix.  10.  7  nXCan  'D  Num.  viii.  7. 

8  lb.  xix.  17. 

'mj  'D  lb.  xix.  9, 13,  20,  21  bis  xxxi.  23. 

'onXtSn  lb.  xix.  9.  "Theod. 

12  Jer.  ii.  13.    The  word  is  the  same,  "llpO,  and 

lb.  xvii.l3. llpD  is,  etymologically.a  place  "dug;  " 

but  a  "mere  well"  could  not  be  "a  fountain  of 
living  water."  They  dug  to  obtain  anyhow  a 
larger  supply  of  water.  Is.  xxxvii.  2.5;  Isaac's  ser- 
vants by  digging  obtained  "a  well  of  living"  i.e. 
flowing  "  water"  Gen.  xxvi.  19.  It  is  parallel  with 
ry^  Hos.  xiii.  15.,  where  cistern  or  reservoir  would 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

t  Heb.  separa- 
tion for 
undeanness. 


to  the  inhabitants  of  Jeru- 
salem for  sin  and  for  f  un- 
cleanness. 

2  ^  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass  in  that  day,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts,  that  I  „ 

'  0  Ex.  23. 13. 

will "  cut  off  the  names  of   i^sh.  23. 7. 

Ps.  16.  4. 

the  idols  out  of  the  land,  Ezek.  30. 13. 

-     ,  ,     „  '    Hos.  2. 17. 

and  they  shall  no  more  be  Mic.  5. 12, 13. 


heifer,  were  appointed  as  a  '  imter  for  (re- 
moving) defilements;  a  cleansing  of  sin^\  Now, 
there  should  be  one  ever-open  fountain  for 
all  the  house  of  David.  "  ^'  Who  that  fountain 
is,  the  Lord  Himself  teacheth  through  Jere- 
miah, ^^  they  have  forsaken  Me,  the  fountain  of 
living  waters;  and  in  the  Gospel  He  says, 
^*  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me  and 
drink ;  and  ^*  The  water  which  I  shall  give  him, 
is  a  fountain  of  living  water,  gushing  up  to  ever- 
lasting life.  This  was  open  to  the  house  of 
David  ;  for  of  that  kindred  He  took  human 
nature.  It  was  opened  also/oc  the  diveUers  of 
Jerusalem,  for  the  sprinkling  of  holy  Bap- 
tism, through  which  we  have  received 
remission  of  sins."  "  ^^  That,  receiving 
Divine  and  holy  Baptism,  we  are  sprinkled 
with  the  Blood  of  Christ  to  the  remission  of 
sins,  who  can  doubt  ?  "  "  '^  Of  tliis  fountain 
much  was  foretold  by  Ezekiel ",  that  a  foun- 
tain should  issue  forth  from  the  temple  of 
the  Lord,  and  go  doim  into  the  desert,  and 
every  soul,  to  ivhom  it  shall  come,  shall  live  ;  and 
Joel,  ^^  A  fountain  shall  come  forth  of  the  house 
of  the  Lord,  and  water  the  valley  of  Shittim.  Of 
this  fountain  Peter  said  to  the  Jews,  when 
pricked  in  the  heart  and  seeking  forgiveness, 
^^  Let  every  one  of  you  be  baptized  in  the  Name  of 
Jesus  Christ  for  the  remissimi  of  sins." 

2.  I  will  cut  off  the  names  of  the  idols.  This 
had  been  a  fence  against  idolatry.  To  name 
evil  is  a  temptation  to  evil.  Wrong  words 
ai'e  the  parents  of  wrong  acts.  To  speak  of 
evil  awakens  curiosity  or  passion  ;  curiosity 
is  one  of  the  strongest  incentives  to  act.     All 

be  unmeaning.  Metaphorically,  fountain  of  living 
waters  Jer.  xxii.  13.  fountain  of  life  Ps.  xxxvi.  10. 
Pr.  X.  11.  xiii.  14.  xiv.  27.  xvi.  22.  of  wisdotn  lb.  xviii. 
4.  of  tears  Jer.  viii.  23.  of  blood  Lev.  xii.  7.  xx.  18.  of 
Israel  Ps.  Ixviii.  17,  are  like  one  fountain  whiich 
supplies  a  stream,  rather  than  a  reservoir,  and 
D^'P  D'D  is  of  running  water,  Gen.  1.  c.  Lev.  xiv. 
6,  6,  50-52.  XV.  13.  Num.  xix.  17.  Cant.  ix.  15.  Zech. 
xiv.  8.  r\r\pD  "^IpO  Pr.  xxv.  28.  is  rather  "a  foun- 
tain corrupted,"  spoiled  from  without,  than  stag- 
nant water  in  a  reservoir,  where  the  spoiling  is 
from  itself.  In  Jer.  Ii.  3f>.  llpO  (sing.)  stands  col- 
lectively for  the  whole  supply  of  water.  Tauehum 
hasK0;?3JD.  13S.  John  vii.  37.  "lb.  iv.  14. 
16S.  Cyr.  i6Dion.  "  Ezek.  xlvii.  1,  8,  9. 

18  Jo.  lii.  18.  See  vol.  1.  pp.  212,  213. 

19  Acts  ii.  37,  38. 


442 


ZEdlARlAH. 


Befoip 

C  H  R  I  S  '1- 

eir.  4t<7. 


remembered :  and  also  I 
^vill   cause   '^  the    prophets 
*2  Pet.  2. 1.       and   the  unclean  spirit  to 
pass  out  of  the  land. 

3  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass,  that  when  any  shall 
yet  prophesy,  then  his  fa- 
ther and  his  mother  that 


public  mention  of  terrible  crime.s  (it  has  been 
observed)  produces  imitation  of  the  specific 
form  of  crime.  Hence  it  was  commanded, 
'  make  no  mention  of  the  name  of  other  gods, 
neither  let  it  be  heard  out  of  thy  mouth.  And 
Joshua  names  it  in  his  dying  charge  to 
Israel,  '^  Be  ye  therefore  very  strong  to  keep  and 
to  do  all  that  is  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  of 
Moses — neither  make  mention  of  the  name  of  their 
gods,  nor  cause  to  swear  by  them.  Hence  tliey 
changed  the  names  of  cities^,  which  bare  idol 
names.  David  speaks  of  it,  as  part  of  fealty 
to  God.  *  I  will  not  take  their  names  upon  my 
lips.  Hosea  prophesies  of  the  times  of 
the  new  covenant ;  "  /  will  take  away  the 
names  of  Baalim  out  of  her  mouth,  and  they 
shall  be  no  more  remembered  by  their  name. 
Isaiah,  ^The  idols  he  shall  utterly  abolish. 
Zechariah  foretells  their  abolition  with  a 
turn  of  words,  formed  apparently  on  those 
of  Hosea';  but  slightly  varied,  because  tlie 
worship  of  Baal,  such  a  plague-spot  in  the 
time  of  Hosea,  one,  which  continued  until 
the  year  before  the  captivity*,  was  gone. 
He  implies  nothing  as  to  his  own  times, 
whether  idolatry  still  existed.  He  predicts 
its  entire  abolition  in  the  whole  compass  of 
the  enlarged  Judah,  i.  e.  of  Christendom. 

And  abio  I  will  cause  the  prophets  and  the  un- 
clean spirit  to  pass  oid  of  the  land.  F'alse  pro- 
phecy sets  itself  to  meet  a  craving  of  human 
nature  to  know  something  of  its  future.  False 
prophets  there  were,  even  in  the  time  of 
Nehemiali",  and  those  in  some  number, 
hired  to  prophesy  against  the  word  of  God. 
Our  Lord  warns  against  them.  ^''Beware  of 
false  prophets,  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing, out  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves. 
"  Many  false  prophets  sfudl  arise  and  shall  deceive 
vmny.  Many  false  prophets,  S.  John  says,  ^'are 
gone  out  into  the  world.      False  prophets  at- 

•  Ex.  xxiii.  13.  « Jos.  xxiii.  6,  7. 

*  Nebo  and  Baftlmeon,  Num.  xxxii.  38. 

♦  Ps.  xvi.  4.  <•  Hos.  ii.  17.  «  Is.  ii.  18. 

'  HoH.  ii.  10.  Heb.  "/  will  romove  the  names  of 
Baalim  out  of  his  month  ;  and  the)/  nhall  be  no  more 

remembered,  ^l^  IIDT'  X71,  by  their  names  "  Zech. 

/  will  cut  off  the  names  of  the  idols  from  the  land, 

and  they  shall  be  no  more  remembered,'^^^  IIOT'  X /V 

'Jer.  xxxii.  19.  The  propiiecy  was  in  the  tenth 
year  of  Zedekiah,  ver.  1.  So  fai-  then  from  its  im- 
plying a  date  before  the  captivity  (Speaker's  Comm. 


begat  him  shall  say  unto    chr°ist 

him,.  Thou  shalt  not   live  ;      c'r-  ^i- 

for  thou  speakest  lies  in  the 

name  of  the  Lord:   and 

his  father  and  his  mother 

that  begat  him  *  shall  thrust '  Deut.  13.  e. 

,  .  ,  °         ,        ,  ,  8.  A  18.  20. 

him  through  when  he  pro- 
phesieth. 

tended  the  decline  of  Judaism.  Such  was  the 
autlior  of  the  Jewish  Sibylline  book,  prophe- 
sying the  destruction  of  the  Romans'*,  and 
fixing  the  mind  of  his  people  on  temporal 
aggrandizement " :  false  prophets  were 
suborned  by  the  Jewish  "tyrants"  and  en- 
couraged the  Jews  in  the  resistance  which 
ruined  the  devoted  city  '^ :  false  prophets 
have  arisen  in  Christianity;  but,  like  the 
Phrygian  women  who  led  Tertullian  astray, 
they  "  went  out,"  were  cast  out  "  from  it,  as 
not'  being  of  it."  "  '** After  that  the  Only- 
Begotten  Word  of  God  appeared  to  us,  the 
dull  and  childish  toys  of  idolatry  perished 
and  were  utterly  destroyed,  and  with  it  were 
taken  away  the  strange  and  impious  devices 
of  the  false  prophets,  who  were  full  of  the 
evil,  unclean  spirit,  and  could  be  readily  de- 
tected as  laboring  under  a  kindred  di.'^ease  to 
the  idolaters.  For  both  had  one  president  of 
impiety,  Satan."  Not  50  yeai-s  after  the 
Crucifixion,  a  heathen  "  wrote  his  work,  "on 
the  failure  of  oracles."  The  outpouring  of 
tlie  Holy  ^^Spirit  of  grace  and  supplication, 
should  sweep  away  **  the  unclean  spirit,  {Zecha- 
riah alone  anticipates  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament  '* )  which  became  '^^  a  lying 
spirit  in  the  mouth  of  the  prophets  of  those  who 
sought  to  them. 

3.  His  father  and  mother  that  begat  him  '■'•  shall 
say  unto  him,  Thou  shall  not  live.  The  prophet 
describes  the  zeal  against  false  prophecy,  with 
reference  to  the  law  against  those  who  se- 
duced to  apostasy  from  God.  "The  nearest 
relations  were  themselves  to  denounce  any 
who  had  secretly  tried  to  seduce  them,  and 
themselves,  as  the  accusers,  to  cast  tlie  first 
stone  at  them.  " '®  Such  shall  in  those  times 
be  tlie  reverence  to  God-wards,  so  careful 
sliall  they  be  of  j)erfect  probity  and  laudable 
life,  that  parents  themselves  shall  be  stimu- 

p.  7.3.').),  there  could  have  been  no  ground  for  the 
change  then. 

«See  Introd.  p.  3.30.  >«S.  Matt.  vii.  1,"). 

»Ib.  xxiv.  11.  »«1  S.  John  iv.  1. 

13 See  Pusey'-s  "Daniel  the  Prophet  "  p.  1G2. 

»«  lb.  pp.  3t;4-.368  16  Jo.s.  B.  J.  vi.  5.  2. 

i«  S.  Cyr.     1'  Plutarch  A.  D.  80.      "  Zech.  xii.  10. 

"nS^ODH  nn   here  only  in  the  O.  T. ;  rrvtina 

oKoflopTor,  in  our  Lord's  words,  S.  Matt.  xii.  43.  S. 
Mark  v.  8.  8.  Luke  viii.  29,  xi.  24.  add  Kev.  xviil.  2, 
xvi.  13.  , 

»n  Kgs  xxii.  21-23.     «ivnT.    "De  xiil.  0-10. 


CHAPTER  Xril. 


443 


CHR°IST  "^    -^^^   ^^    ^^^^^   *-'*^^"®  ^° 

c'r-  487.      pass  in  that  day,  that '  the 

fMic.3. 6,7.      prophets  shall  be  ashamed 

eveiy   one   of    his   vision, 

18       ^vhen  he  hath  prophesied  ; 

isai. 20. 2.       neither  shall    they   wear 

Blatt.  3.  4.  -^ 

f  Reh.a garment « f  a.  rough  garment  tto 

of  hair.  '      .  ®       * 

fHeb.  to  lie.      deceive  : 


lated  against  their  children,  if  they  should 
speak  falsely  anything  from  their  own  heart, 
as  though  God  spake  by  them — How  true 
that  word  is,  and  how  accredited  the  pro- 
phecy! This  indicates  clearly  a  great  ad- 
vance toward  godliness,  God  transforming 
things  for  the  better.  What  aforetime  was 
held  in  great  esteem,  is  now  hated  and  ac- 
cursed and  held  intolerable." 

4.  The  prophets  shall  be  ashamed,  every  one  of 
them.  They  who  before  their  conversion, 
gave  themselves  to  such  deceits,  shall  be 
ashamed  of  their  deeds;  as,  after  the  defeat 
of  the  seven  sons  of  the  chief  priest  Sceva, 
^  fear  fell  on  them  all,  and  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  was  magnified,  and  many  that  believed 
came  and  confessed  and  shewed  their  deeds :  many 
of  them  also  which  used  curious  arts  brought  their 
books  together  and  burned  them  before  all,  and 
they  counted  the  price  of  them,  and  found  it  fifty 
tiiousand  pieces  of  silver.  So  mightily,  S.  Luke 
subjoins,  grew  the  ivord  of  God  and  prevailed. 

Neither  shall  wear  a  rough  garment  to  deceive, 
feigning  themselves  ascetics  and  mourners 
for  their  people,  as  the  true  prophets  were 
in  truth.  The  sackcloth,  which  the  prophets 
wore  *,  was  a  rough  garment  of  hair  ^,  worn 
next  to  the  skin  *,  whence  Elijah  was  known 
to  Ahaziah,  when  described  as  *«  hairy  man, 

1  Acts  xix.  13-20.  2  Is.  XX.  2. 

3  lb.  xxii.  12,  Jer.  iv.  8,  vi.  26. 

*1  Kgs  xxi.  27,  2  Kgs  vi.  30,  .Tob  xvi.  15. 

s  2  Kgs  i.  8. 

^"Ij^tyjmX  occurs  Gen.  xxv.  2.5,  as  describing 
the  whole  appearance  of  the  new-born  Esau ;  mnj< 
alone,  of  Elijah's  mantle,  1  Kgs  xix.  1.3,19,  2  Kgs  ii. 
8, 1.3, 14;  of  the  robes  of  the  king  of  Nineveh  Jon. 
iii.  6.  '^]^W  rmX  is  the  large  Babylonian  gar- 
ment which  incited  Achan's  eovetousness.  Jos.  vii. 
21-24.  [all]  ^  S.  Jer. 

8  The  phrase  HDIX  H^i'  is  from  Gen.  iv.2. 

*rijpn,  occurring  in  this  place  only,  is  uncer- 
tain. Against  the  modern  rendering  "  sold"  (which 
would    be    the    obvious    causative   of    njp),   or 

"bought"  (taking  Hifil  as  Kal)  it  seems  decisive, 
that  this  would  be  contrary  to  the  Levitical  law. 
For  since,  if  bought  or  sold  as  a  slave,  he  would 
have  been  set  free  in  the  7th  year,  he  would  not 
have  been  sold  or  bought  from  his  youth,    njpn 

might  equally  be,  "  made  me  to  possess,"  as  "  made 
another  to  posssrs  me."  In  either  case  it  governs 
a  double  accusative,  of  which  one  only  is  expressed. 


5  •■  But  he  shall  say,  I    ^  g^^^H  ^. 
am   no   prophet,  I  am  an.     <='•■•  •^^''■ 


husbandman  ;    for    m  a  u  t  Amos  7. 14. 
taught   me  to  keep  cattle 
from  my  youth. 

6  And  one  shall  say  unto 
him,  What  are  these 
wounds  in  thine  hands? 


and  girt  with  a  girdle  of  leather  about  his  lains. 
It  was  a  wide  garment,  enveloping  the  whole 
frame  ",  and  so,  afflictive  to  the  whole  body. 
" '  This  was  the  liabit  of  the  prophets,  that 
when  they  called  the  people  to  penitence, 
they  were  clothed  with  sackcloth." 

5.  And  he  shall  say,  repudiating  his  former 
claims,  /  am  a  husbandman  ®  :  for  a  man  hath 
taught^  me  from  my  youth.  There  Avas  no 
room  then  lor  his  having  been  a  false  pro- 
phet, since  he  had  had  from  his  youth  one 
simple  unlettered  occupation,  as  Amos  said 
truly  of  himself;  ^"I^vas  no  prophet,  neither 
was  I  a  prophet's  son:  but  I  was  an  herdsman 
and  a  gatherer  of  sycamore  fruit.  The  prophet 
does  not  approve  the  lie,  any  more  than  our 
Lord  did  the  injustice  of  the  unjust  steward. 
Our  Lord  contrasted  the  wisdom  in  their 
generation  of  a  bad  man  for  his  ends,  with 
the  unwisdom  of  the  children  of  light,  who 
took  no  pains  to  secure  their  God.  Zecha- 
riah  pictures  vividly,  how  men  would  any- 
hoAv  rid  themselves  of  all  suspicion  of  false- 
prophesj'ing. 

6.  And  one  shcdl  say  unto  him.  What  are 
those  wounds  in  thy  hands  f  The  words  are 
simple ;  the  meaning  different  ^',  according 
as  they  are  united  with  what  immediately 
precedes,  or  the  main  subject,  Him  Whom 

Kim.  "made  me  a  shepherd  and  husbandman: 
Rashi,  quoting  Menahem,  "set  me  to  keep  his 
flock.?,"  Ibn  Ezra,  "made  me  to  possess  ground  i.e. 
made  me  a  husbandman."  Tanchum  "  tilled  his 
land,  which  his  father  put  him  in  possession  of  by 
inheritance."  Hunt.  20G.  translates  'JJiDH  by 
UXiriK'X"  bought  me." 

10  Am.  vii.  14. 

"  A  prevalent  modern  explanation  has  been  of 
the  self-inflicted  wounds  of  the  prophets  of  Baal. 
But  1)  the  idolatrous  incisions  nave  a  technical 
name,  Tiun'  "cut  himself;"  De.  xiv.  1,  1  Kgs 
xviii.  28,  Jer.  xvi.  16,  xli.  5,  xlvii.  ,5.  D'HIIJ  Jer. 
xlviii.  37.  2)  7130,  ^130,  D'^O,  are  used  of  fresh 
unhealed  wounds  themselves,  not  of  the  scars.  Pr. 
XX.  30,  1  Kgs  xxii.  3.5,  2  Kgs  viii.  29,  ix.  15,  Is.  i.  0, 
XXX.  26,  Mi.  i.  9,  Nah  iii.  19,  Jer.  vi.  7,  x.  19,  xv.  18, 
XXX.  12,  17.  3)  Self-inflictioc  was  characteristic  of 
the  idolatrous  cuttings.  They  were  probably  to 
appease  the  displeased  god  or  goddess.  The  only 
support  of  it,  that  DOilXD  is  used  of  idolatrou.i, 
and  so  adulterous,  ol)jects  of  love,  is  neutralized  by 
the  fact  that  tlie  metaphor  of  male  and  female  is 
never  dropped.  Of  14  times  in  which  it  occurs,  11 
times,  in  Hosea,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  it  is  united 
with  the  fem.  pronoun,  IjOnXO.  HOnXD  ;  3  times 
in  the  first  pers.  of  the  city  personified. 


444 


ZKcilAlUAll. 


Then  he  shall  answer,  Those 


Before 
CHRIST 

<^'''-  '*^'-       "vvith  which  I  was  wounded 


Before 


in  the  house  of  my  fi-iends. 
7  ^  Awake,   O    sword, 


against '  my  shepherd,  and    c  h  r  i  s  t 
against  the  man  "  that  is  my      «'«"•  ■^^■ 


they  pierced,  for  Wliom  they  were  to  mourn, 
and,  on  their  mourning,  to  be  cleansed,  and 
of  Whom  it  is  said  in  tlie  next  vei-se,  Awake, 
O  swnrd,  aaainst  My  Shepherd.  S.  Jerome 
and  others  "^  explain  it  of  the  punishment 
inllicted  by  parents.  "  These  wounds  and 
bruises  I  received,  condemned  by  the  judg- 
ment of  my  parents,  and  of  those  who  did 
not  hate  but  loved  me.  And  so  will  truth 
I)revail  dissipating  falsehood,  that  he  too, 
who  was  punished  for  his  own  fault,  will  own 
that  he  suffered  rightly."  But  wounds  of 
chastisement  are  not  inflicted  on  the  hands, 
and  the  punishment  of  false  prophecy  was 
not  such  wounds'^,  but  death.  Wounds  in 
the  hands  were  no  punishment,  which  pa- 
rents would  inflict.  They  were  the  special 
punishment  of  the  cross  ^,  after  sustaining 
which,  One  only  lived.  The  most  literal  in- 
terpretation, tlien,  of  the  wounds  in  the 
hands  harmonizes  with  the  piercing  before, 
and  tlie  smiting  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
which  follows,  of  Whom  David  too  prophe- 
siel,  *  They  pierced  My  Hands  and  My  Feet. 
"^What  are  those  wounds  of  Thy  hands? 
How  long,  think  you,  and  how  and  by  whom 
will  this  be  said  to  Him  ?  For  ever  and 
ever,  unceasingly,  and  with  unspeakable  ad- 
miration it  will  be  said,  both  by  God  the 
Father,  ®to  Whom  He  wa.%  obedient  unto  death, 
the  death  of  the  Cross :  it  will  be  said  also 
both  by  the  holy  ^angels  who  desire  to  look 
into  Him,  and  by  men  whom  He  has  re- 
deemed. O  great  miracle,  wonderful  .specta- 
cle, especially  in  the  Lord  of  all,  to  bear 
Avounds  in  the  midst  of  His  Hands!  And 
He  shall  say  ;  With  these  I  vxis  imunded  in 
the  house  of  those  who  loved  Me.  O  great  sac- 
rilege, sacrilegious  homicide,  that  such 
wounds  were  inflicted  in  the  house  of  those 
who  loved.  He  will  not  say,  '  with  these  I 
was  wounded  by  those  who  loved  Me,'  but 
'  in  the  house  of  those  who  loved  Me.'  For 
they  who  inflictrd  them,  loved  Him  not. 
But  they  were  the  house  of  Abraham  and 
Isaac  and  Jacob  and  David,  and  the  rest  like 
them,   who  loved   Me,   and    expected    Me, 

'SoS.  Cyr.  al«<o;  but  S.Cyril  was  niislerl  by  the 
rfnderinK  of  the  LXX,  cru/oiTi-oSioucrii',  whereas  Aq. 
8ymm.  Tlieod.  have  exicei'Tijo-oiKrii'. 

'»Honoe  Kim.  explains  it  of  the  binding  him 
hand  and  foot  to  keep  him  at  home;  Rashi  of 
ncourging  the  back,  which  would  he  the  very  op- 
posite of  D'T  r3,  and  would  not  be  visible.  Ibn 
Ezra  makes  it  refer  to  the  innpHI  ver.  3.  Tan- 
chum  explains  "when  one  asks  as  to  the  marks  of 
beating  which  are  on  his  body,"  and,  paraphrasing 


fellow,  saith  the  Lord  of   Ezek.  k  h. 
hosts  :  '  smite  the  shepherd,  i'^i'.'iai'n. ' 

'Matt.  26.  31.  Mark  14.  27.  Phil.  2.'6. 


Who  was  promised  to  them.  Yet  so  to 
speak  is  not  to  answer  the  question,  what  are 
these  wounds?  For  it  is  one  thing  to  ask, 
what  are  these  wounds,  another  to  say, 
where  they  were  inflicted.  ,  Having  said, 
that  they  were  inflicted  in  the  house  of 
those  Avho  loved  Me,  He  says,  what  they  are, 
the  Cup  which  My  Father  hath  given  Me  to 
drink.  For  what  He  subjoins,  is  the  Voice 
of  the  Father  giving  the  Cup,  Sword, 
awake  &c.  is  as  though  he  said.  Ask  ye,  What 
are  these  wounds  ?  I  say,  '  the  tokens  of 
obedience,  the  signs  of  the  Father's  will  and 
command.  The  Lord  of  hosts,  God  the 
Father  hath  not  spared  Me,  His  own  Son,  but 
hath  given  Me  for  you  all.  And  He  said. 
Awake,  o  sword,  against  My  Shepherd,  and 
against  the  Man  cohering  to  Me,  which  is  as 
much  as,  'O  Death,  have  thou  power  over 
My  Son,  My  good  Shepherd,  the  Man  Who 
cohereth  to  Me,  i.  e.  Who  is  joined  in  unity 
of  Person  with  the  Word  Who  is  consub- 
stantial  with  Me!'  And  then,  as  though 
the  sword  asked,  how  or  how  far  shall  I 
arise  against  this  Thy  Shepherd,  he  subjoins, 
Smite  the  shepherd,  and  the  sheep  shall  be  scat- 
tered. Hence  the  Shepherd  Himself,  when 
about  to  be  smitten,  spake,  *  All  ye  shall  be 
offended  because  of  Me  this  night.  For  it  is 
written,  I  will  smite  the  Shepherd  and  the  sheep 
shall  be  scattered.  So  then  to  those  who  say, 
what  are  those  u'ounds  in  the  midst  of  Thy 
hands  f  is  appositely  subjoined  the  Voice  of 
the  Father,  saying.  Awake,  O  sword,  against 
My  Shepherd  Ax.  in  the  meaning,  '  They  are 
monuments  of  the  Father's  love,  the  to- 
kens of  My  Obedience,  because  He  spared 
not  His  oum  Son,  and  I  became  obedient  to 
Him  for  you  all,  even  unto  death,  and  that,  the 
death  of  the  Cross.' " 

7.  Awake,  0  su-ord.  So  Jeremiah  apostro- 
phises the  sword,  '  0  thou  sword  of  the  Lord, 
when  wilt  thou  be  quiet  f  The  projihets  ex- 
press what  will  be,  by  a  command  that  it 
should  be ;  '"  Make  the  heart  of  this  people 
heavy.  But  by  this  command  he  signifies 
that  human  malice,  acting  freely,  could  do 

TT.pj,  explains  "in  front  of  thee."    The  Arab. 
version  [Hunt.  200]  has  simply  "IJtT  V2. 

'S.  Jerome  makes  the  question  answered  in  the 
words,  "Ttioy  are  the  wounds  Ac."  inconsistently, 
"  Why  hange.st  thou  on  the  Cross  ?  whv  are  thy 
hands  transfixed  by  nails?  Wliat  hast  thou  done, 
to  be  subjected  to  this  punishment  and  torture  ?  " 

<  Ps.  xxii.  16.  &  Rup.  «Phil.  ii.  8. 

'  1  S.  Pet.  i.  12. 

8  8.  Matt.  xxvi.  31.     » Jer.  xlvll.  c.      "Is.  vi.  10. 


CHArTER  XIII. 


Ul 


"  Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


and    the    sheep    shall    be 
scattered:   and  I  will  turn 


no  more  than  ^  His  Hand  cmd  His  counsel  de- 
termined before  to  be  done.  The  envy  and 
hatred  of  Satan,  the  blind  fury  of  the  Chief 
priests,  the  contempt  of  Herod,  the  guilty 
cowardice  of  Pilate,  freely  accomplished 
that  Death,  which  God  had  belore  decreed 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  The  mean- 
ing then  is,  "  ^  the  sword  shall  be  aroused 
against  My  Shepherd,  i.  e.  I  will  allow  Him 
to  be  smitten  by  the  Jews.  But  by  the  sword 
he  designates  death,  persecution,  wounding 
&c.  as  above,  the  ^  sword  upon  his  right  arm, 
and,  where  the  Passion  of  Christ  is  spoken 
of,  *  Deliver  my  soid  from  the  suord.  So  also, 
^  All  the  sinners  of  the  people  shcdl  die  by  the 
sword,"  "  ®  which  cannot  be  taken  literally ; 
for  many  sinners  perish  by  shipwreck,  poi- 
son, drowning,  fire."  Amos  then  "^so  spake, 
because  many  died  by  war,  yet  not  all  by  the 
sword,  but  others  by  pestilence  and  famine, 
all  which  he  includes  under  the  sword.  This 
smiting  began,  when  the  Lord  was  taken, 
and  His  sheep  began  to  be  scattered  ;  but 
the  prophecy  which,  before,  was  being  grad- 
ually fulfilled,  was  fully  fulfilled  in  His 
Death,  and  the  Apostles  were  dispersed  till 
the  day  of  the  Resurrection  at  eventide." 

Against  the  Man,  My  Fellow'',  i.  e.  One 
united  by  community  of  nature.  A  little 
before,  God  had  spoken  of  Himself  as  priced 
at  the  thirty  pieces  of  silvei;  yet  as  breaking 
the  covenant  which  He  had  made  with  all 
nations  for  His  people ;  as  pierced  through, 
yet  as  pouring  the  spirit  of  grace  and  supplica- 
tion on  those  who  pierced  Him,  that  they 
should  mourn  their  deed,  and  as,  thereon, 
ever  cleansing  them  from  sin.  As  Man, 
God  was  sold,  was  pierced.  "  ®  God,  in 
'flesh,  not  working  with  aught  intervening  as 
in  the  prophets,  but  having  taken  to  Him  a 
Manhood  connatural '  with  Himself  and 
made  one,  and  through  His  flesh  akin  to  us, 
drawing  up  to  Him  all  humanity.  What 
was  the  manner  of  the  Godhead  in  flesh  ? 
As  fire  in  iron,  not  transitively  but  by  com- 
munication. For  the  fire  does  not  dart  into 
the  iron,  but   remains  there   and  communi- 

1  Acts  iv.  28.  "  Rib.  3  eh.  xi.  17. 

<Ps.  xxii.  20.  5Am.  ix.  10.  sg.  Jer. 

'The  word  Pi^^^\  in  form,  abstract,  is  alvvay-s 
personal.  It  stands  alone  in  the  dialects,  having 
probably  been  framed  by  Mo.ses,  to  express  more 
than  "  neighbor,"  "  our  common  n.ature,"  as  we 
speak.  It  occurs  11  times  in  Leviticus  (v.  21  bis, 
[vi.  2  Eng.l  xviii.  20,  xix.  11,  15,  17,  xxiv.  19,  xxv.  14 
(bis)  1.5, 17.)  always  with  the  pronominal  affix, "thy" 
or  "his;"  and  always  in  enjoining  things  or  for- 
bidding things  by  virtue  of  our  common  humanity. 
Tliougn  femmine  in  form,  it  is  always  mase.  in 
fact,  as  in,  "  the  wife  of"  ?Tr\'0>'  Lev.  xviii.  20,  and 

vSr,  11>.  xix.  17.    The  word,  being  revived  out  of 


mine  hand  upon  "^  the  little       ^^^^^e 


ones. 


CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

■o  Matt.  18. 10, 14.  Luke  12.  32. 


cates  to  it  of  its  own  virtue,  not  impaired  by 
the  communication,  yet  filling  wholly  its 
recipient."  The  bold  language  of  the  Fa- 
thers only  expressed  the  actuality  of  the 
Incarnation.  Since  the  Manhood  was  taken 
into  God,  and  in  Him  dwelt  all  the  fullness 
of  the  Godhead  bodily,  and  GJod  and  Man 
were  one  Christ,  then  was  it  all  true  lan- 
guage. His  Rody  was  "  i"  the  Bodv  of  God ; " 
His  flesh  "  "  the  flesh  of  the  Word  ;  "  and  it 
was  lawful  to  speak  of  " '"'  the  flesh  of  the 
Deity,"  of  "^Hhe  Passion  of  the  Word," 
""the  Passion  of  Christ,  my  God,"  "  i» the 
Passion  of  God,"  "  ^*  God  dead  and  buried," 
""God  suffered,"  "'"murderers  of  God," 
"  '^  the  Godhead  dwelt  in  the  flesh  bodily, 
which  is  all  one  with  saying  that,  being 
God,  He  had  a  proper  body,  and  using  this 
as  an  instrument.  He  became  Man  for  our 
sakes,  and,  because  of  this,  things  proper  to 
the  flesh  are  said  to  be  His,  since  He  was  in 
it,  as  hunger,  thirst,  suffering,  fatigue  and  the 
like,  of  which  the  flesh  is  capable,  while  the 
works  proper  to  the  Word  Himself,  as  rais- 
ing the  dead  and  restoring  the  blind.  He  did 
through  His  own  Body,"  is  but  a  continu- 
ance of  the  language  of  Zechariah,  since  He 
Who  was  sold,  was  priced,  was  Almighty 
God.  Jesus  being  God  and  Man,  the  suffer- 
ings of  His  Humanity  were  the  sufferings  of 
God,  although,  as  God,  He  could  not  suff^er. 
Now,  conversely,  God  speaks  of  the  Shep- 
herd Who  was  slain,  as  My  Felloiv,  united  in 
Nature  with  Himself,  although  not  the  Man- 
hood of  Jesus  which  suffered,  but  the  God- 
head, united  with  It  in  one  Person,  was 
Consubstantial  with  Himself.  The  name 
might  perhaps  be  most  nearly  represented 
by  "  connatural."  "  ^^  When  then  the  title 
is  employed  of  the  relation  of  an  individual 
to  God,  it  is  clear  that  that  individual  can 
be  no  mere  man,  but  must  be  one,  united 
with  God  by  unity  of  Being.  The  Akin  of 
the  Lord  is  no  other  than  He  Who  said  in 
the  Gospel  ^'  I  and  My  Father  are  One,  and 
Who  is  designated  as  ^'^  the  Only-Begotten  Son, 
Who  is  in  the  Bosom  of  the  Father.     The  word, 

the  Pentateuch  by  Zechariah,  received  no  modifi- 
cation in  the  Hebrew  of  the  intermediate  period. 

8  Hom.  in  Sanct.  Christi  gener.  App.  S.  Basil. 
0pp.  ii.  riW  quoted  in  Newman  on  S.  .\th.ag.  Arian. 
p.  444.  note  k.  Oxf.  Tr. 

9  "  <rv/ii(<)VT  i.  e.  joined  on  to  His  Nature."       lb 
10  S.  Ath.  ag.  Ar'ians  iii.  9.  p.  444.  Oxf.  Tr. 

u  lb.  n.  34  p.  449.  12  S.  Leo,  Serm.  65.  fin. 

isiTert.  de  earn.  Christi,  5.       "  S.  Ignat.  Rom.  6. 
16  Tert.  1.  c.  lb.  16  Vigil,  c.  Eut.  ii.  p.  502. 

"S.  Melito  in  Anast.  Hodeg.  12. 

18  Tert.  1.  e.  all  quoted  on  S.  Ath.  '  c.  note  i. 

19  S.  Ath.  ag.  Ar.  iii.  n.  31  p.  443  O.  T.  See  more 
Ibid.  --uHengat.  Christ,  iii.  530  ed.  2. 

^'  S.  John  x.  30.  « lb.  i.  In, 


446 


ZErHARIAH. 


8   And  it  shall  come  to 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  487.      pass  that  in  all  the  land, 


saith  the  Lord,  tAvo  parts 


it  seems,  was  especially  chosen,  as  being  used 
in  the  Pentateuch,  only  in  the  laws  against 
injuring  a  fellow-man.  Tlie  prophet  thereby 
gives  prominence  to  the  seeming  contradic- 
tion between  the  command  of  the  Lord, 
Awake,  0  sword,  aaahist  Jly  Shepherd,  and 
those  of  His  own  law,  whereby  no  one  is  to 
injure  his  fellow.  He  thus  points  out  the 
greatness  of  that  end,  for  the  sake  of  which 
the  Lord  regards  not  that  relation,  Whose 
image  among  men  He  commanded  to  be 
kept  holy.  He  speaks  after  the  manner  of 
men.  He  calls  attention  to  the  greatness  of 
that  sacrifice,  whereby  He  ^spared  not  His 
own  Son,  bat  freely  gave  Him  up  for  us  all. 
The  word  '  3Ian '  forms  a  sort  of  contrast 
with  My  Fellow.  He  AVhom  the  sword  is  to 
reach  must  unite  the  Human  Nature  with 
the  Divine."  Jews  too  have  seen  that  the 
words.  My  Fellow,  imply  an  equality  with 
God ;  only  since  they  own  not  Him,  Who 
was  God  and  Man,  they  must  interpret  it  of 
a  false  claim  on  the  part  of  man  ^,  overlook- 
ing that  it  is  given  Him  by  God. 

And  I  wUl  turn  My  hand  '  upon  the  little  ones, 
doing  to  them  as  He  had  done  to  the  Shep- 
herd. So  our  Lord  forewarned  them :  *  If 
they  have  persecuted.  Me  they  ivill  cdso  persecute 
you :  ^  If  the  world  hate  you,  ye  know  that  it 
hated  Me,  before  it  hated  you :  *  Ye  shall  be 
hated  of  all  men  for  My  name's  sake:  '  they  will 
deliver  you  up  to  the  councils  and  scourge  you  in 
the  synagogues  ;  and  ye  shcdl  be  brought  before 
governors  and  kings  for  My  name's  sake:  ^they 
shall  deliver  you  up  to  be  afflicted,  and  shall  kill 

1  Rom.  viii.  32. 

*  Ibn  Ezra  interprets  it  in  this  sense.  "  He  pro- 
phesieth  again  many  war.s,  which  shall  he  in  all 
the  earth,  at  the  death  of  Messiah  ben  .Joseph,  and 
the  meaning  of  My  Shepherd,  is  every  king  of  the 
nations,  whom  God  made  to  rule  over  the  earth  ; 
and  he  estimates  of  hnnsolf  that  he  is  as  God; 
therefore  (he  saith)  and  apainst  the  man  my  fel- 
low." Kimchi  adopting  the  interpretation,  adds 
"  i.  e.  who  thinks  himself  my  fellow."  R.  Tsaac 
(Chizzuk  Emnnah,  Wagenseil  Tela  Ignea  Satnnre 
p.  310)  interprets  the  whole  of  the  king  of  Ishmael, 
called  also  the  king  of  Turkey,  and  ruling  over 
Asia  and  Africa,  under  whose  hand  the  majority  of 
the  people  of  Israel  are  in  captivity.  God  callsliim 
my  shepherd,  because  He  has  given  Flis  people  into 
his  hand  to  feed  them  in  their  captivity.  lie  calls 
him  'the  man  my  fellow  and  companion,'  because 
in  the  pride  and  grcutness  of  his  heart  he  account- 
etli  himself  like  God,  like  that.  Behold  man  is  lie- 
come  like  one  of  us  (fk-n.  iii.)."  AbarVmnel  gives, 
as  the  one  of  three  interpr'>tationa  which  he  pre- 
fers, a  modification  of  R.  Isaac's,  explaining  the 
words  "  my  shepherd  "  of  Mohammed,  and  direct- 
ing his  interpretation  of  "  the  man,  my  fellow" 
against  our  Lord.  "  The  words,  'the  man  my  fel- 
low' are  spoken  of  Jesus  the  .Xnzarene,  for  accord- 
ing to  the  sentiment  of  the  children  of  Edom  and 
their  faith,  he  was  the  Son  ol'  God, and  of  the  same 
Hubstancc,  nnd  therefore  he  is  called  accr)rding  to 


therein  shall  be  cut  off  and 
die  ;  "  but  the  third  shall . 
be  left  therein.  ■ 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

Rom.  11.  5. 


you :  and  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for  My 
nam^s  sake  ;  and  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
^  I  send  unto  you  prophets  and  wise  men  and 
scribes,  and  some  of  them  ye  shcdl  kill  and  cru- 
cify, and  some  of  them  shall  ye  scourge  in  your 
synagogues  and  persecute  them  from  city  to  city, 
that  xipon  you  may  come  all  the  righteous  blood 
shed  upon  the  earth. 

The  little  ones  ^*',  as  Jeremiah  speaks  of  "  the 
least  of  the  flock,  and  the  Lord  said,  ''■'/ear  not, 
little  flock,  little  and  weak  in  itself,  but  mighty 
in  Him  and  in  Plis  grace.  Three  centuries 
of  persecution,  alike  in  the  Roman  empire 
and  beyond  it  in  Persia,  fulfilled  the  prophet's 
words  and  deepened  the  foundation  of  the 
Church  and  cemented  its  fabric. 

8.  In  all  the  land,  two  parts  therein  shall  be 
cut  off  and  die.  "  In  all  the  land  of  Israel," 
says  a  Jewish  interpreter  '^ ; — the  land,  in 
which  the  Good  Shepherd  had  been  slain 
and  the  sheep  scattered,  that  upon  you.  our 
Lord  had  said,  7nay  come  all  the  rightemts 
blood.  As  David  punished  Moab,  '*  with  two 
lines  measured  he  to  put  to  decUh,  and  with  one 
full  line  to  keep  alive  ;  and  Ezekiel  prophesied, 
^^  A  third  part  of  thee  shall  die  with  the  pestilence, 
and  with  famine  shall  they  be  consumed  in  the 
midst  of  thee  :  and  a  third  part  shall  fall  by  the 
sivord  round  about  thee ;  so  now,  the  greater 
part  should  be  destroyed,  but  a  remnant 
should  be  saved.  But  the  third  part  shall  be 
left  therein.  Even  so  then  at  this  present  time 
also,  S.  Paul  says  ^®,  there  is  a  remnant  accord- 
ing to  the  election  of  grace.  "  "  The  third  part 
only  shall  be  saved  from  the  common  de- 

their  words, '  The  man,  my  fellow."  Rashi  alone 
has  "  My  shepherd,  whom  I  set  over  the  sheep  of 
my  captivity,  and  the  man  my  fellow  whom  I  asso- 
ciated with  myself,  to  keep  mv  sheep,  even  as  I 
did ; "  but  "  I  smite  the  shepherd,"  he  explains 
"  the  wicked  king  of  Moab,"  or  "king  of  the  border 
of  wickedness  "  |i.  e.  Edom]  or  in  one  MS.  "  the 
wicked  Roman  king,  who  shepherdeth  my  flock." 
R.  Tanchumhm,  "that  they  thmk  in  themselves  on 
account  of  my  setting  them  over  the  creation  that 
they  are  myadministrators  in  the  kingdom  and 
government."    The  Heb.  Ar.  [Hunt.  206]  "against 

tlie  man,  my  companion  "  C^ntO    /J^Sk  ''7>')- 

8Such  is  the  force  of  S|'  y\i}T\  Am.  i.  9,  turning 
the  hand  against  Ekron  or  against  the  other  cities 
of  Philistia;  in  I.s.  i.  2,5,  upon  Judah,  and  thor- 
oughly clean'^ing  her  by  afiiiction  ;  Ezek.  xxxviii. 
12,  of  "Gog  against  the  restored  Israel;  Ps.  Ixxxi. 
l.jof  God's  turning  lipon  its  adversaries.  His  Hand 
which  was  now  upon  her  [all].  It  were  in  itself 
improbtlilc  that  here  alone  should  be  in  a  good 
sense,  as  (ics.  *  S.  .lohn  xv.  20.  ^Ib.  18. 

«S.  .Matt.  X.  22.  .S.  Luke  xxi.  17. 

'S.  Mutt.  X.  17,  18;  add  S.  Luke  xxi.  12. 

8  8.  Matt.  xxiv.  9.  »Ib.  xxiii.  34,  35. 

>'>  D"i;;yn  if-        "  Jer.  xux.  20  |i<ifn  n'^'y 

1! S.  Luke  xll.  32.         »»  Kim.         "  2  Sam.  viii.  2. 
"*  Ezek.  v.  12.  "  Rom.  xi.  .5.  »'Osor. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


447 


chrTst  ^   And  I  will  briug  the 

cir.  487.  third  part  "through  the 

•  isai.  48. 10.  fire,  and  will  ^  refine  them 

pi  Pet.  1.  (.,  7.  ^g  silver  is  refined,  and  will 

try  them  as  gold  is  tried  : 

1  p«.  50. 15.  "« they  shall  call  on  my 

eh.  10. 6.  name,  and  I  will  hear  them : 

'Ps.  144. 15.  'I  will  sav,  It  is  my  peo- 

.ler.  30.  22.  ,                ,   -  '             ,     /,    ^ 

Ezek.  11. 20.  pie  :   and   they  shall   say, 

Hos.  2.  23.  i,,       -r               .              i-,     T 

ch.  8. 8.  The  Lord  is  my  uod. 


struction ;  yet  not  so,  that  they  should  sup- 
pose that  glory  was  to  be  obtained  amid  ease." 
9.  I  will  bring  (he  third  part  through  the  fire. 
Such  is  always  God's  ways.  ^  Thou  hast 
proved  its,  0  God  ;  Thott,  hast  tried  us,  like  as 
silver  is  tried.  Thou  broughtest  us  into  the 
snare,  Thou  laidest  trouble  upon  our  loins:  ive 
went  through  fire  and  water,  and  Thou  brought- 
est tis  out  into  a  wealthy  place.  ^  I  have  refined 
thee,  but  not  with  silver,  I  have  chosen  thee  in  the 
furnace  of  affliction;  and,  '"^  Through  much 
tribulation  we  must  enter  into  the  kingdom^  of  God. 
"  *  In  adversity  virtue  is  most  tried,  and 
it  is  shewn  what  advance  a  person  has  made  ; 
for  patience  hath  a  perfect  work  ^ ;  and  it  is 
called  the  touchstone  of  all  other  virtues,  as 
is  written  ;  '  *  God  tried  His  elect  as  gold  in 
the  furnace  and  received  them  as  a  burnt 
offering; '  and,  ' '  All  the  faithful  who  have 
pleased  the  Lord  have  passed  through  many 
tribulations.'  And  the  angel  Raphael  saith 
to  Tobias,  '  ®  Because  thou  wert  accepted  of 
God,  need  was  that  temptation  should  prove 
thee.'  "  "  Adversities  are  granted  to  the 
elect  of  God,  and  therefore  to  be  rejoiced  in 
with  the  whole  heart."  "Tire,  crosses, 
racks  were  prepared;  swords  executioners 
torturers  were  put  in  action ;  new  forms  of 
sufiering  were  invented,  and  yet  Christian 
virtue  remained  moveless,  unconquered  :  the 
fiercer  the  onslaught,  the  more  glorious  was 
the  triumph."  "i°The  more  suffered,  the 
more  believed  in  Christ."  "  ^  Whose  virtue 
they  admired,  these  they  imitated,  and  shared 
the  suffering,  that  they  might  be  partakers 
^f  the  glory.  This  was  that  fire,  whereby 
Tod  willed  that  His  own  sliould  be  tried  and 
urified,  that,  with  Christ  Whom  they  gave 
hemselves  to  imitate,  they  might  enjoy  ever- 
.asting  glory." 

/  ivill  bless  him  and  ivill  say,  It  is  My  people, 
"*not  only  l)y  creation  as  the  rest,  but  by 
devotion  and  worship,  by  predestination  and 
infusion  of  grace,  by  singular  Providence,  by 
mutual  love ;  and  it  shall  say,  The  Lord  is  my 

1  Ps.  Ixvi.  9-11.      2  Is.  xlviii.  10.  ^  Acts  xiv.  22. 

*  Dion.            6  8.  James  L  4.  «  Wisd.  iii.  6. 
'Judith  viii.  23.  Vulg. 

sTobit.  xii.  13  Vulg.  'Osor. 


CHAPTER  XIV.  chrYst 

1  Tlie  destroyers  of  Jerusalem  de-  cir.  487. 
strayed.  4  The  coming  of 
Christ,  and  the  graces  of  his 
kingdom.  12  The  plague  of 
Jerusalem's  enemies.  16  The 
remnant  shall  turn  to  the  Lord, 
20  and  their  spoils  shall  be  holy. 

BEHOLD,  nhe   day   of » isaL  13. 9. 
r     T  XT-  1    Joel  2. 31. 

the  Lord  cometh,  and  Acts  2. 20. 
thy  spoil  shall  be  divided 
in  the  midst  of  thee. 


God,  Whom  Alone  above  all  things,  I  long 
for,  love,  worship." 

This  promise  is  oftentimes  renewed  through 
the  prophets,  oftentimes  fulfilled  in  Christ, 
whenever  the  Church  is  recalled  from  list- 
lessness  by  fiery  trials,  and  througli  them  her 
children  are  restored  to  deeper  devotedness 
and  closer  union  with  God. 

XIV.  "  The  Jews,"  S.  Jerome  says,  "  say 
that  these  things  are  to  be  fulfilled  under 
Gog;  others  that  they  were  accomplished  in 
part,  in  the  times  of  the  Macedonians,  Egyp- 
tians, and  other  nations.  We,  leaving  the 
truth  of  the  time  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Lord,  would  explain  what  is  written." 
Eusebius^^  points  out  that  it  cannot  be  said  to 
have  been  fulfilled  under  Antiochus  Epipha- 
nes;  "If  any  think  that  these  things  are, 
then  let  him  consider  again  and  again, 
whether  he  can  refer  the  rest  of  the  prophecy 
also  to  the  times  of  Antiochus  ;  as,  that  ^'^  the 
feet  of  the  Lord  stood  on  the  mount  of  Olives, 
that  '^  the  Lord  in  that  day,  became  king  over 
the  whole  earth ;  and  so,  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
prophecy."  And  although  more  was  fulfilled 
in  the  last  siege  by  the  Romans,  still  those  who 
would  explain  it  solely  of  this,  are  obliged  to 
mingle  explanations  partly  literal,  as  that 
Jerusalem  should  be  the  earthly  Jerusalem, 
which  was  destroyed,  partly  metaphorical,  as 
to  the  mount  of  Olives,  its  division  into  two 
parts  &c.  It  seems  then  probable  that,  like 
the  kindred  prophecy  of  Joel ",  it  relates 
chiefly  to  the  time  of  the  end,  and  that  as  our 
Lord  unites  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
with  His  Coming  in  the  Day  of  Judgment, 
so  here  are  united  that  first  destruction  with 
the  last  rebellion  of  man,  in  the  times  of  Anti- 
Christ.  Since  then  much  or  most  may  be 
yet  future,  it  seems  safer,  as  S.  Jerome  sug- 
gests, to  explain  the  Prophet's  symbolic 
language,  leaving  the  times  of  the  fulfillment 
to  Him,  in  Whose  hands  they  are. 

1.  Behold  the  Day  of  the  Lord  cometh,  lit.  a 
day  cometh,  the  Lord's,  in  which  He  Himself 

10 S.  Aug.  in  Ps.  xc.  Serm.  i.  n.  8.    See  more  in 
Tert.  Apol.  e.  ult.  p.  105.  note  a.  Oxf.  Tr. 
II  Dem.  Evaug.  vi.  18.  i-  ver.  4.  >»  ver.  9. 

14  Jo.  it.  30,  iii.  18.    Roe  vol.  1.  pp.  196-212. 


448 


ZECHAEIAII. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

bJoelS.  2. 
•  leai.  13. 16. 


2  For  *•  I  will  gather  all 
.nations  against  Jerusalem 
to  battle  ;  and  the  city  shall 
be  taken,  and  "  the  houses 
rifled,  and  the  women  rav- 
ished ;  and  half  of  the  city- 
shall  go  forth  into  captiv- 


shall  be  Judge,  and  no  longer  leave  man  to 
fultill  his  own  will,  and  despise  God's ;  in 
which  His  glory  and  lioliness  and  the  right- 
eousness of  all  His  ways  shall  be  revealed. 

And  thy  spoil  shall  be  in  tlie  midst  of  tliee. 
"  1  How  great  will  the  strait  be,  that  the 
spoils  should  be  divided  in  the  midst  of  her. 
It  often  happens  that  what,  by  a  sudden 
assault,  is  plundered  in  the  city,  is  divided 
in  the  field  or  in  solitude,  lest  the  enemy 
should  come  upon  them.  But  now  there 
will  be  such  a  heavy  weight  of  ills,  such  will 
be  the  security  of  conquest,  that  the  spoils 
shall  be  divided  in  the  midst  of  the  city." 

2.  /  will  (fcUher  all  mitions  a/jainst  Jerusalem 
to  battle.  This  is  a  feature  which  belongs  to 
the  end.  It  had  been  dwelt  upon  by  JoeP  ; 
Ezekiel  spoke  of  the  ^  many  nations  which 
should  come  under  Gog.  S.  John  foretells 
of  an  universal  strife  at  the  end,  when  *  The 
spirits  of  devils,  ivorking  miracles,  go  forth  unto 
the  kings  of  the  earth  and  of  the  whole  world,  to 
gather  them  to  the  battle  of  that  great  day  of  God 
Almighty  ;  and  *  Satan  .^hall  be  based  out  of  Ais 
prkon  and  sh(dl  go  out  to  deceive  the  nations 
which  are  in  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth,  Gog 
arul  Magog,  to  gather  them  together  to  battle,  th6 
number  of  whom  is  as  the  sand  of  the  sea.  And 
they  went  up  on  the  brea/lth  of  the  earth,  and 
compassed  the  camp  of  the  saints  round  about, 
and  the  beloved  city.  8ince  no  creature  can  do 
aught  but  what  God  wills,  and,  in  his 
phrensy  against  Gods  people,  is  but  His 
instrument,  *  to  try  them  antl  to  purgt  and  to 
make  white  to  tlte  time  of  the  end;  and  the 
strength  of  body  or  intellect,  which  is  abused 
against  His  law,  He  continuously  in  the 
order  of  nature  supplies,  God  may  be  said  to 
do  what  Satan  does  against  Him.  Satan,  in 
his  blind  fury,  crowns  martyrs,  fills  the 
thrones  of  heaven,  works,  against  his  will, 
the  All-wise  Will  of  God. 

And  the  houses  rifled,  and  the  women  &c. 
The  horrors  of  heathen  war  repeat  them- 
selves through  men's  ever-recurring  passions. 
What  was  foretold  as  to  Babylon  is  repeated 
in  the  same  words  as  to  tlie  Church  of  God. 
Seemingly  all  things  come  «/t7ie  to  all :  '  there 
18  07ie  event  to  the  righteous  and  to  tlie  wicked; 

»9.  Jer.     «ili.  2-9, 11.     8Ezek.  xxxvlii.  6, 16,  22. 
♦Rev.xvi.  14.  »Ib.  XX.7,  8,  9. 

•  Dan.  xi.  35.  xii.  10.  '  Eccl.  Ix.  2. 

'See  oil  Mic.  iii.  12.  pp.  46-60.       "2  Kga  xxv.  11. 


ity,  and  the  residue  of  the 
people  shall  not  be  cut  off . 
from  the  city. 

3  Then  shall  the  Lord 
go  forth,  and  fight  against 
those  nations,  as  when  he 
fought  in  the  day  of  battle. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


to  the  good  and  to  the  clean  and  to  the  unclean :  to 
him  that  sacrijiceth  and  to  him  that  sacrijiceth 
not :  as  is  the  good,  so  is  the  sinner.  The  out- 
ward event  is  the  same,  the  hidden  part  is 
known  to  God  Alone.  And  the  residue  of  the 
people  shall  not  be  cut  off  from  the  city,  unlike 
the  lot  of  the  earthly  Jerusalem,  in  the  de- 
struction both  by  Nebuchadnezzar  (which 
was  past)  and  the  Romans'*.  At  the  first, 
^  Nebuzaradan,  the  captain  of  the  guard,  carried 
away  the  rest  of  the  people  left  in  the  city,  and 
the  fugitives  thai  fell  away  to  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon, with  the  remmtnl  of  the  multitude,  so  that 
Jeremiah  mourned  over  it,  ^'^  Because  of  the 
mountain  of  Zvon  which  is  desolate,  foxes  walk 
[habitually]  uponit.  The  Romans  ""effaced 
the  city."  Now  a  remnant  is  not  cut  off, 
because  ^'^for  the  elects  sake  those  days  shall  be 
sho:tened;  for  our  Lord  had  said  ^^  that  the 
gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  His 
Church. 

3.  Tlie  Lord  shall  go  forth  and  shall  fight, 
""is  to  be  taken  like  that  in  Habakkuk, 
'*  Thou  VKntest  forth  for  the  salvation  of  Thy 
people,  for  salvation  with  Thine  Anointed,  and 
in  Micah,  ^^  For  behold,  the  Lord  cometh  forth 
out  of  His  place,  and  will  come  down  and  will 
tread  upon  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  and  the 
mountains  shcdl  be  molten  under  Him,  and  the 
valleys  shall  be  cleft ;  and  Isaiah  also,  "  The 
Lord  shall  go  forth  as  a  mighty  man  ;  He  shiU 
stir  up  jealousy  like  a  man  of  war;  He  sh/dl 
cry  ;  He  shcdl  prevail  over  His  eneiiiics.  "  God 
is  said  to  go  forth,  wlien  by  some  wondrous 
deed  He  declares  His  Presence — His  Deity 
is,  as  it  were,  laid  up,  so  long  as  Pie  holds 
Himself  in,  and  does  not  by  any  token  shew 
His  power.  But  He  goes  forth,  and  bursts 
forth,  when  He  exercises  some  ju<lgment,  and 
worketh  some  new  work,  which  striketh 
terror."  (iod  tlien  will  go  forth  out  of  His 
place,  when  He  is  constrained  to  brealc 
through  His  ([uietness  and  gentleness  an(' 
clemency,  for  the  ainendineni  ol'siniiei-s.  lie 
Who  elsewhere  speaketii  througli  the  pro- 
phet, '" /,  the  Lord,  change  not,  anil  to  Whom 
It  is  said,  '"  Thou  art  the  same,  and  in  the 
Epistle  of  James,  ^^  With  Whmn  is  no  change, 
now  gocth  forth  and  fighteth  as  in  the  day  of 


>OLam.  V.  18. 
»9.  Matt,  xj 
«  Hab.  Iii.  13 


i»  See  on  pp.  46, 47. 
»9.  Matt,  xxlv.32.        "lb.  xvi.  18.        '«S.  Jer. 


»«Mic.  i.  3,  4.         »' Is.  xiii.  13. 
isMal.  iii.  6.       i»Ps-cii.28.       "S  James  1.  17- 


CHAPTER  XIV, 


449 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

«See  Ezek.  11. 
23. 


4  ^  Aud  his  feet  shall 
.  stand  in  that  day  *  upon 
the  mount  of  Olives,  which 
is  before  Jerusalem  on  the 
east,  and  the  mount  of 
Olives  shall  cleave  in  the 
midst  thereof  toward  the 


battle,  when  He  overwlielmed  Pharaoh  in 
the  Red  sea  ;  and  fought  for  Israel."  The 
Lord  shall  fight  for  you,  became  the  watchword 
of  Moses  ^  and  tlie  warrior  Joshua  in  his 
old  age  *,  after  his  life's  experience  ^,  and 
Nehemiah  *.  Be  iwt  afraid  by  reason  of  this 
great  multitude,  said  Jahaziel,  son  of  Za- 
chariah  *,  when  the  Spirit  of  the  Lvrd  cante  upon 
him  ;  for  the  battle  is  not  yowl's,  but  God's. 

As  He  fought  in  the  day  of  battle.  "  '  All 
wars  are  so  disposed  by  the  power  of  God, 
that  every  victory  is  to  be  referred  to  His 
counsel  and  will.  But  this  is  not  seen  so 
clearly,  when  men,  elate  and  confident,  try  to 
transfer  to  themselves  all  or  the  greater  part 
of  the  glory  of  war.  Then  may  the  war  be 
eminently  said  to  be  the  Lord's,  when  no 
one  drew  sword,  as  it  is  written,  '  The  Lord 
shall  fight  for  you,  and  ye  shall  hold  your  peace. 
Of  all  God's  wars,  in  which  human  insolence 
could  claim  no  part  of  the  glory,  none  was 
more  wondrous  than  that,  in  which  Pharaoh 
and  his  army  were  sunk  in  the  deep.  .The 
Lord,  said  Moses",  is  a  man  ofioar:  the  Lord 
is  His  Name.  That  day  of  battle  was  the  im- 
age of  one  much  greater.  In  that,  Pharaoh's 
army  was  sunk  in  the  deep;  in  this,  the 
power  of  evil,  in  Hell :  in  that,  what  could 
in  some  measure  be  conquered  by  human 
strength,  was  subdued ;  in  this,  a  tyranny 
unconquerable  ;  in  that,  a  short-lived  liberty 
was  set  up  ;  the  liberty  brought  by  Christ 
through  subdual  of  the  enemy,  is  eternal.  As 
then  the  image  yields  to  the  truth,  earthly 
goods  to  heavenly,  things  perishable  to  eter- 
nal, so  the  glory  of  that  ancient  victory  sinks 
to  nothing  under  the  greatness  of  the  latter." 

4  And  His  feet  shall  stand  in  that  day  upon 
the  mount  of  Olives,  "  over  against  Jerusalem 
to  the  East,  wherein  riseth  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousnesi?."  The  Mount  of  Olives  is  the  central 
eminence  of  a  line  of  hills,  of  rather  more 
than  a  mile  in  length,  overhanging  the  city, 
from  which  it  is  separated  only  by  the  nar- 
row bed  of  the  valley  of  the  brook  Cedron. 
It  rises  187  feet  above  Mount  Zion,  295  feet 
above  Mount  Moriah,  443  feet  above  Geth- 
semane,  and  lies  between  the  city  and   the 

>  Exod.  xiv.  14.  Deut.  i.  30,  xiii.  22,  xx.  4. 

•  Josh,  xxiil.  10 ;  comp.  x.  14, 42,  xxlil.  3. 

8  lb.  X.  14,  42,  xxiil.  3.  *  Neh.  iv.  20. 

»  2  Chr.  IX.  16.  «  Osor.  '  Ex.  xiv.  14. 

»  lb.  XV.  3.  »  Van  de  Velde,  Memoir  179.- 

29 


east  and  toward  the  west,    ^  ^  r°i  s  t 
'and  there  shall  be  a  very      c'r.  487.   _ 


great  valley  ;  aud  half  of « joei  s.  12, 14. 
the    mountain    shall    re- 
move   toward    the    north, 
and  half  of  it  toward  the 
south. 


wilderness  toward  the  dead  sea :  around  its 
Northern  side,  wound  the  road  to  Bethany 
and  the  Jordan".  There,  probably,  David 
worshiped  ^"j  his  son,  in  his  decay,  profaned 
it^^;  Josiah  desecrated  his  desecrations'''; 
there  ^^upon  the  mountain,  ivhich  is  on  the  East 
side  of  the  city,  the  glory  of  the  Lord  stood,  when 
it  had  gone  up  from  the  midst  of  the  city;  it 
united  the  greatest  glory  of  the  Lord  on 
earth.  His  Ascension,  with  its  deepest  sor- 
row, in  Gethsemane.  Since  the  Angel  said, 
^*  This  same  Jesus,  ivhich  is  taken  up  from  you 
into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye 
have  seen  Him  go  into  heaven,  the  old  tra- 
ditional opinion  is  not  improbable,  that  our 
Lord  shall  come  again  to  judge  the  earth, 
where  He  lett  the  earth,  near  the  place  of 
His  Agony  and  Crucifixion  for  us.  So  shall 
the  Feet  of  God  literally  stand  upon  the  Mount 
of  Olives.  Else  it  may  be  that '"^  the  Feet 
of  the  uncircumscribed  and  simple  God  are 
to  be  understood  not  materially,  but  that  the 
loving  and  fixed  assistance  of  His  power  is 
expressed  by  that  name." 

Which  is  true,  or  whether,  according  to 
an  old  opinion,  the  last  act  of  Anti-Christ 
shall  be  an  attempt  to  imitate  the  Ascension 
of  Christ  (as  the  first  Anti-Christ  Simon 
Magus  was  said  to  have  met  his  death  in 
some  attempt  to  fly '®)  and  be  destroyed  by 
His  Coming  there,  the  event  must  shew. 

And  the  Mount  of  Olives  shall  cleave  [6e 
elefil  in  [from]  the  midst  thereof  toward  the  East 
and  toward  the  West,  i.  e.  the  cleft  shall  be 
East  and  West,  so  as  to  form  a  very  great 
valley  through  it — from  Jerusalem  toward 
the  Jordan  Eastward  ;  and  this  shall  be,  in 
that  half  of  the  mountain  shall  remove  North- 
ward, and  half  thereof  Southward.  If  this  be 
literal,  it  is  to  form  an  actual  way  of  escape 
from  Jerusaleni ;  if  figurative,  it  symbolizes 
how  that  which  would  be  the  greatest  hin- 
drance to  escape,  the  mountain  which  was 
higher  than  the  city,  blocking,  as  it  were, 
the  way,  should  itself  aflbi-d  the  way  of  es- 
cape ;  as  Zechariah  speaks,  ''  0  great  moun- 
tain, before  Zerubbabd  thou  shalt  become  a 
plain  ;  and  Isaiah,'*  Every  valley  shall  be  ex- 

><'2  8am.xv.32.    »lK|KSxi.7.    «2  Kgsxxiii.13. 

"  Ezelc.  xi.  23.  1*  Acts  i.  11.  '6  Dion. 

i«The  evidence  would  be  late,  except  as  seem- 
ingly confirmed  by  a  like  history  In  SuetonlUi 
vi.  12.  1'  Zech.  iv.  7.  "  Is.  xl.  4. 


450 


ZECHARLVH. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

I  Or,  viy  inoun- 

tnins. 
I  Or,  when  he 
shall  touch  the 
vnileii  of  the 
mountnins  to 
the  place  he 
separated. 
cir.  787. 


5  And  ye  shall  flee  to 
the  valley  of  ||  the  moun- 
tains ;  1 1  for  the  valley  of 
the  mountains  shall  reach 
unto  Azal :  yea,  ye  shall 
flee,  like  as  ye   fled  from 


Before 


before  the  '  earthquake  in    (-  ^  ^  j  g  ^ 
the  days  of  Uzziah  king  of      ''■'•■ '"*7- 


Judah  :  *  and   the  Lord  'Amos  1. 1. 

^1       ,      „  ,8  Matt.  16.  27. 

my  God  shall  come,  and  &24. 30,31. 
"  all  the  saints  with  thee.      .jude  14. 
6  And  it  shall  come  to 


(dted  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  brought 
low,  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight,  and 
the  rough  places  plain  ;  i.  e.  every  obstacle 
should  be  removed. 

5.  And  ye  shall  jiee  to  the  valley  of  the  moun- 
tains, rather,  along  '  the  valley  of  My  mmm- 
tains''  viz.  of  those  mountains,  wliich  God 
had  just  formed  by  dividing  the  mount  of 
Olives.  For  the  valley  of  the  mounlaim  shall 
reach  unto  Azal,  i.  e.  Azci,  the  same  word  which 
enters  into  Beth-Azel  of  Micah,  wliere  the 
allusion  probably  is  to  its  firm-rootedness.  It 
is  more  probable  that  the  name  of  a  place 
should  have  been  chosen  with  an  allusive 
meanin,',  as  in  Micaii,  than  that  an  unusual 
appellative  should  have  l)een  chosen  to  ex- 
press a  very  common  meaning.  8.  Cyril  had 
heard  of  it  as  the  name  of  a  village  at  tlie 
extremity  of  the  mountain  *.  Else  it  might 
very  probably  have  been  destroyed  in  the 
destructive  Roman  wars.  The  Roman  camp 
in  the  last  siege  must  have  been  very  near 
it*.  The  destruction  of  villages,  after  the 
frantic  revolt  under  Bar-Chocab,  was  enor- 

HttOUS  '. 

Yea,  ye  shall  flee  like  as  ye  fled  from  before  the 
earthqimke.  An  eartlKpiake  in  the  time  of 
Uzziah,  whose  memory  survived  the  cap- 
tivity to  the  time  of  Zechariah,  nearly  two 
centuries,  must  have  l)een  very  terrible,  but 
no  historical  account  remains  of  it,  Josephus 
having  apparently  described  the  past  earth- 
quake in  the  language  which  Zechariah  uses 
of  the  future®.  Such  an  earthquake  is  the 
more  remarkable  a  visitation  in  Jerusalem, 
because  it  was  out  of  the  line  of  earthquakes. 
These  were  to  the  North  and  East  of  Pales- 
tine :  within  it,  they  were  almost  unknown  ''. 
Interpositions  of  God  even   in  man's,  favor, 

>  According  to  the  principle  of  words  of  motion, 
"|Sn  i<T  "13;?  Ni:}.    See  Ew.  Lehrb.  n.  282»,  1.  pp. 

700,  707,  ed.  8. 

s  E.  vcTM.  has  followed  Kim. ;  yet  there  is  no  need 
to  assume  that  'TH  i»  an  old  plur.  form. 

'  7XK  for  7l>*K,  in  pause,  as  in  the  inaii's  name 

both  forms  occur  I  Chr.  viii.  38,  ix.  44.  The  LXX 
had  '\<Tari\  in  S.  .Ii-romi-'s  time;  \q.  'Acr«Aj  Theod. 
■A<t>jA;  Symm.  alone  translate.^  it,  irpb;  to  vapaxei- 

liivov.    Jon.  retains  7VK.     So  Kim.,  I.  E.,  Abarb. 

The  Syr.  and  Myin.  (whom  iS.  .Ipr')me  follows,)  para- 

{ihrases.  So  Menahoin  and  Rashi, giving  au  impos.si- 
)le  explanation,  "  height."    8.  Cyril  say.i,  "it  is  a 
village,  it  is  "aid.  at  the  extromity  of  the  tunuiilain." 
*fo!f.  B.J.  V.  I.  8. 


are  full  of  awe  and  terror.  They  are  tokens 
of  the  presence  of  the  All-Holy  among  tiie 
unholy.  Fear  was  an  accompaniment  of 
special  miratles  in  the  Gospel,  not  onlv 
among  the  poor  Gadarenes^,  or  the  people  ^ 
but  even  the  .\postles  ^'^ ;  apart  from  the  effiict 
of  the  sight  of  Angels  on  us  who  are  in  th« 
flesh  '^  It  is  then  quite  compatible,  that  the 
valley  so  formed  should  be  the  means  of  de- 
liverance, and  yet  an  occasion  of  terror  to 
those  delivered  tlirough  it.  The  escape  of 
the  Christians  in  Jerasalem  to  Pella,  during 
the  break  of  the  siege,  after  the  withdrawal 
of  Cestius  Gallus  was  a  slight  image  of  this 
deliverance. 

And  tlie  Lord  thy  God  shall  come,  and  all  the 
saints  ivith  Thee,  O  God.  The  prophet,  hav- 
ing spoken  of  God  as  my  God,  turns  sutidenly 
to  speak  to  Him,  as  present.  "  ''^  This  is  mani- 
festly said  of  the  second  Coming  of  the  Sav- 
iour, of  which  John  too  in  his  Apocalypse 
says,  '*  Behold  He  shall  come  with  the  clouds,  ami 
every  eye  shall  see  Him,  and  they  also  which 
pierced  Him.  And  the  Lord  Himself  in  the 
Gospel  declareth,  that  "  the  Son  of  Man  shall 
corns  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  uith  poiver  and 
great  glory.  He  shall  come  with  the  clouds,  i.  e. 
with  the  Angels,  who  are  ministering  spirits 
and  are  sent  for  different  offices,  and  with 
the  Prophets  and  Apostles."  "  '^  Whenever 
Scripture  says  that  the  saints  and  angels 
come  with  Christ,  it  is  always  speaking  of 
His  second  Coming,  as  in  tiiat,  '*  When  the 
Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  His  glory  and  all  Hia 
holy  Angels  with  Him,  and  in  the  Epistle  of 
Jude  ",  Behold  the  Lord  comelh  with  ten  thou- 
sand of  His  saints,  to  execute  judgment." 

6.  The  light  shall  not  be  clear  nor  dark,  or, 
more    probably,  according  to  the    original 

•  "085  very  well  known  villages."  Dio  Cas.*.  Ixix. 
14.    See  ftb.  p.  48.  'See  Introd.  to  Amos  vol.  i. 

pp.  224,  22.1.  '  See  Am.  iv.  11,  vol.  i.  p.  28ri. 

»B.  Mark  t.  l.%  S.  Luke  viii.  2.'). 

»  On  the  restoration  of  Zacharia.^'  speech,  S.  Luk« 
i.  r,5;  of  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain  lb.  vii.  ir,. 

>'At  the  walking  on  the  sea,  S.  Matt.  xiv.  •jr.,  S. 
John  vi.  10  ;  the  rel)iiking  of  the  wind,  .S.  Mark  vi. 
48,  S.  Luki>  viii.  2.5;  tlie  Tran.ifignration,  S.  Matt, 
xvii.  (',,  .s.  Mark  ix.  fi ;  the  draught  of  fishes,  S.  Luk« 
V.  3-10. 

"To  Zachari».\  S.  Luke  i.  12;  the  B.  Virgin,  II.. 
20,  ;W;  the  shepherds,  lb.  ii.  9;  to  the  women  after 
the  Resurrection,  S.  Mark  xvi.  8;  the  Apostleg 
"supposing  they  had  seen  a  spirit."  8.  Luk» 
xxiT.  37.  US.  Jer.  on  VT.  6,  7.  >»  ReT.  I.  7. 

><S.  Matt.  xxiv.  .30.     "Rib,     ws.  Matt.  »xv  31. 

'■.S.  Jud.'  14,  If., 


CHAPTER  XTV. 


451 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


pass  in  that  day,  ||  that  the 
light  shall  not  be  f  clear, 
nor  t  dark : 

7  But  1 1  it  shall  be  '  one 
day  ^  which  shall  be  known 


I  i.  e.  it  shall 
not  be  clear 
in  porr.e 
places,  and 
dark  in  other 
places  of  the 

t  Heb.  precious,  to  the  LoRD,  not  day,  nor 
ness.'   '"^        night:  but  it  shall  come  to 

I  Or,  the  day  shall  be  one.    s  Rev.  22.  5.    ^  JMatt.  24.  36. 


reading  ^,  In  that  day  there  will  be  no  light  ; 
the  bright  ones  '^  will  contract  thomelves,  as  it  is 
said,  ^  The  stars  .^hnll  withclr<m  their  .shining. 

This  is  evermore  the  description  of  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  that,  in  the  presence  of 
God  Who  is  Light,  all  earthly  light  shall 
grow  pale.  8o  Joel  had  said,  *  The  .^iuii  and 
moon  shall  be  darkened,  and  the  stars  shcdl  with- 
draw their  shining.  And  Isaiah,^  The  moon 
shall  be  confounded  and  the  sun  ashamed,  when 
the  Lord  of  hosts  shcdl  reigii  in  Mount  Zion  and 
in  Jerusalem  ami  before  His  ancients  gloriously  ; 
and,  ^Behold  the  day  of  the  Lord  cometh, — The 
■"itars  of  heaven  and  the  constellations  thereof  shall 
not  give  their  light :  the  sun  shall  be  darkened  in 
his  going  forth,  and  the  moon  shidl  not  cause  her 
light  to  shine.  All  know  well  our  Lord's 
words '.  S.  Jolni,  like  Zechariah,  unites  the 
i'ailure  of  the  heavenly  light  **  with  a  greed 
earthquake,  and  the  sun  became  as  sackcloth  of 
hair :  and  the  moon  became  as  blood ;  and  the 
stars  of  heaven  fell  upon  the  earth. 

7.  And  it  .'<hall  be  one  day  :  it  .shall  be  known 
unto  the  Lord :  not  day,  arid  not  night;  and  at 
the  eventide  it  shall  be  light.  One  special  day  ; 
one,  unlike  all  beside  ;  known  unto  God,  and 
to  Him  Alone.  For  God  Alone  knows  the 
day  of  the  consummation  of  all  things,  as  He 
saith,  '  Of  that  day  and  that  hour  knoweth  no 
one,  neither  the  angels  in  Heaven,  nor  the  Son, 
(so  as  to  reveal  it)  but  the  Father  only. 
Neither   wholly    day,   because    overclouded 

•The  E.  V.  follows  Kim.  "The  light  shall  be 
neither  mip'' ' preeiousnesses '  nor  jiKSD  'thick- 
ness.'" '  ' 

'nnp^  as  Job  xxxi.  26.  "the  moon,  IjSh  Tp% 

walking  in  beauty."  tW£3p'  "  shall  contract  them- 

.selves,"  as  it  is  said  in  Ex.  xv.  8,  HlOnn  ^X3p 

"the  depths  (lit.)  coagulated  in  the  heart  of  the 
sfa."    According  to  tlie  Kri,  |1X3p1,  the  meaning 

of  m"^p"  i-'  mere  conjecture.  Kimchi  (Lex.)  Ibn 
Ezra  Rashi  suppose  it  to  be  used  of  "clear  light," 
as  contrasted  with  cloudy,  expressed  by  |1X3p,  so 

tliat  the  irienninf;  of  the  whole  sliould  be  the  same 
as  that  of  V.  7.  Our  version  follows  this.  Abul- 
walid  and  Parchon  explain  it  of  heavy  thick  clouds, 
and  make  the  words  synonymous.  Tauchum  men- 
tirjiis  both.  The  LXX.  seem  further  to  have  read 
r\np\  fa'  >^>5x');  but  it  is  not  supported  by  any 

MH.  or  any  other  ver^'ioll :  for  the  "  but  "  iu  Symm. 


pass,  that  at '  evening  time 
it  shall  be  light. 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


8  And  it  shall  be  in  that '  isai.  30. 26. 

J  ,,,,.•  m  i  &60.  19,  20. 

day,  that  livuig  "waters  Rev. 21. 23. 

,11  ,    /.  T  "Ezek.  47. 1. 

snail  go  out  from  J  erusa-  joei  3.  is. 

lem ;  half  of  them  toward 

the  1 1  lormer  sea,  and  hair    Joel  2. 20. 


with  darkness;  nor  wholly  night,  for  the 
streaks  of  light  burst  through  the  darkness 
chequered  of  both  ;  but  in  eventide,  when  all 
seems  ready  to  sink  into  the  thickest  night, 
there  shall  be  light.  Divine  light  always  breaks 
in,  when  all  seems  darkness ;  but  then  the 
chequered  condition  of  our  mortality  comes 
to  an  end,  then  comes  the  morning,  which 
has  no  evening  ;  the  light  which  has  no  set- 
ting ;  "  perpetual  light,  brightness  infinite ; " 
when '"  the  light  of  the  moon  shallbe  as  the  light  of 
the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sim  shall  be  sevenfold  ; 
and  "  the  glory  of  God  doth  lighten  the  eternal 
city,  a)id  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof;  and 
'^  in  Thy  light  we  shall  see  light.  "  ^'"^  Christ 
shall  be  to  us  eternal  light,  a  long  perpetual 
day." 

And  it  shall  be,  that  living  tvaters.  "  "  This 
is  what  is  said  in  the  prophecy  of  Joel,  •'  yl 
fountain  .shcdl  come  forth  from  the  house  of  the 
Lord;  and  in  that  of  Ezekiel,  ^^And  behold 
there  ran  out  waters."  Zechariah  leaves  to  the 
mind  to  supply  what  the  former  prophets 
had  said  of  the  fertilizing  life-giving  charac- 
ter of  those  waters.  He  adds  that  they 
should  pervade  the  whole  land.  West  as  well 
as  East ;  to  the  former,  rather  the  Eastern  sea '', 
into  which  they  would  by  nature  flow,  and 
toward  the  hinder,  i.  e.  the  Western  sea,  the 
Mediterranean,  which  natural  waters  could 
not  reach.  This  their  flow,  he  adds,  should 
be   perpetual.     "^®  These   streams  shall  not 

Chald.  Syr.  may  only  express  the  contrast  of  the 
sentences ;  "  there  shall  not  be  light ; — and — ,"  as 
Asyndeton.  The  LXX.  however,  "  There  shall  not 
be  light  and  cold  and  ice,"  could  only  mean  to  deny 
the  presence  of  any  of  them,  not  (as  Ewaldj  "there 
shall  be  no  alternation  of  light  with  cold  and  ice." 
Proph.  ii.  62.  Light  too  and  cold  are  not  alterna- 
tives.   The  Kri  pX3p1,  as  always,  occurs  in  some 

MSS.,  8  Spanish  of  De  Rossi,  2  at  first,  15  old  editions. 
The  Jewish  authorities  (as  far  as  I  know)  including 
Abulwalid  Tanchum  Parchon  Ac,  take  no  notice 
of  the  Kethibh. 

4  Joel  iii.  15.        *  Is.  xxiv.  23. 
'  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  29. 
•  S.  Mark  xiii.  32. 

11  Rev.  xxi.  23.  "  Ps.  xxxvi.  9.         i»  S.  Cyr. 

1*  Kim.  15  Joel  iii.  18.  >«  Ezek.  xlvii.  2. 

17  Joel  ii.  20,  where  the  preternaturalness  of  th« 
deliverance  is  pictured  by  the  driving  the  loeuat, 
the  symbol  of  the  enemy,  into  two  opposite  sens. 
The  Eastern  sea,  i.  e.  the  dead  sea,  is  spoken  of 
there  and  Ezek.  xlvii.  18;  the  hinder  sea,  i.e.  th* 
Mediterranean,  Joel  ii.  20,  Deut.  xi.  24.  xxxiv.  -i, 

i^See  ^cn.\  vol.  i.  pp.  212-215. 


«  lb.  xiii.  9, 10. 

•  Rev.  Ti.  12, 13. 

10  Is.  XXX.  26. 


452 


ZECIL\RIAH. 


^  ^^J.°r%  T    of  them  toward  the  hinder 
cir.  487       sea :  in  summer  and  in  win- 


ter shall  it  be. 

9  And  the  Lord  shall 

» D»n.  2. 44.       be  °  king  over  all  the  earth : 
Rev.  11. 15.       .^  ^^^^  ^^y  gj^^^  ^j^g^.g  ^g 

•  Eph.  4. 5,  c.     °  one  Lord,  and  his  name 
one. 


dry  up  and  their  waters  shall  not  fail '  ; " 
therefore  drought  shall  not  lessen  them,  nor 
winter-cold  bind  them.  "  '  From  Jerusalem  as 
from  a  fountain  shall  stream  forth  living 
waters  of  wisdom  and  grace  to  all   nations." 

"  *  Again  he  tells  us,  under  a  figure,  that 
exceeding  great  and  large  shall  be  that  out- 
pouring of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  saints, 
especially  when  they  shall  be  removed  to 
that  holy  eternal  life  in  the  world  to  come. 
For  now  through  faitli  in  Christ  we  are 
enriched,  as  with  an  earnest,  with  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  after  the 
Resurrection,  sin  being  wliolly  taken  away, 
tlie  Holy  Spirit  Avill  be  in  us,  not  as  an 
earnest  or  in  a  measure;  but  richly  boun- 
teously and  perfectly  shall  we  enjoy  the  grace 
tlirough  Christ.  He  calletli,  then,  livinf/ 
miter,  the  Spirit  which,  he  says,  will  come 
forth  from  the  Jerusalem  wliich  is  from 
above. — But  that  the  holy  Scripture  is  wont 
to  liken  the  Divine  Spirit  to  water,  the  Giver 
thereof,  the  Son,  accredits,  saying*,  he  that 
helieveth  on  Me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said,  Out 
<if  his  belly  shaH  flow  riiers  of  living  water. 
This  the  Evangelist  explains,  *  This  spake  He 
iiftM  Spirit,  v:hich  they  who  believe  in  Him  sliould 
receive.  vSince  then  the  Spirit  is  life-giving, 
rightly  does  he  liken  it  to  that,  which  is  life- 
giving  to  the  frame." 

9.  And  the  Lord  shdl  be  kino  over  all  the 
rnrth.  Such  should  be  the  influence  of  the 
living  water,  i.  e.  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  God 
Wlio  has  ever  reigned  and  will  reign,  ^  a  great 
King  over  all  the  earth,  shall  be  owned  by  His 
creatures,  as  what  He  is. 

There  shall  be  one  Loi  d,  more  exactly.  The 
Lord  sJiall  be  One,  and  His  Name  One.  He 
had  before  prophesied,  ®  /  vnll  cut  off  the  munes 
of  the  idols  out  of  the  land.  The  Church  being 
thus  cleansed,  no  other  lord  or  object  of  wor- 

1  Kim.  nini  yip  iiinke  up  tlie  whole  year.    <;en. 

/iii.  22,  Ps.  Ixxiv.  17.    tl^n  is  wintPr  Pr.  xx.  4,  Am. 

iil.  15,  Jer.  xxzvi.  22. 

»8.  Cyr.  *  S.  Joliii  vii.  38.  *  lb.  39.  . 

''P.").  xlvli.  3,  8.     "Zeeh.  xiii.2.     'Dion.    "Kim. 
»Ps.  cxxv.  2. 
'"DOXI,  as  DNpl.  Ho3.  x.  14.    X  is  substituted 

III  the  name  of  the  animal  DW"^,  D'OK'^ ;  the  ap- 

pe'.l.,  niOK"l  I'r.  xxiv.  7;  llie  prei'ioux  -iiitistance,   i 


10  All  the  land  shall  be    ^  ^f'^  ^ 
II  turned  ^  as  a  plain  from      cir.  437. 
Geba  to  Rimmon  south  of  lOr,  compassed. 
Jerusalem :  and  it  shall  be 
lifted  up,  and  "^  ||  inhabited  1  ch.  12. 6. 

1  1  n  T»      •      II  Or,  shall  abide. 

in  her  place,  irom  Benja- 
min's gate  unto  the  place 
of  the  first  gate,  unto  the 


ship  should  be  named  but  Himself.  This  is 
one  of  those  prophecies,  of  continued  expan- 
sion and  development,  ever  bursting  out  and 
enlarging,  yet  never,  until  the  end,  reaching 
its  full  fulfillment.  "'Since  in  this  life  we 
contemplate  God  in  His  effects,  in  which  His 
whole  perfection  shineth  not  forth,  now 
we  know  Him  obscurely  and  imperfectly, 
His  perfections  being  in  divers  diversely 
represented.  In  our  home  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is,  face  to  Face,  through 
His  Essence.  Therefore  then  He  will  l)e 
represented  by  one  name,  as  He  shall  be 
beheld  by  one  gaze." 

10.  All  the  land  sludl  be  turned  as  a  plain 
from  Rimmon  to  Gebah,  "®A11  the  land, 
which  is  round  about  Jerusalem,  which  is 
now  mountains,  as  is  said,  "  The  mountains  arc 
round  about  Jerusalem,  shall  be  level  as  a 
plain,  but  Jerusalem  itself  shall  be  exalted  "*, 
and  high  above  all  the  earth."  The  dignity 
of  the  Church,  as  '^«  city  set  upon  a  hill,  which 
cannot  be  hid,  is  symbolized  here  by  the  sink- 
ing of  all  around  and  its  own  uprising  ;  as  in 
Micali  and  Isaiah,  '-  The  mountain  of  the 
Lord's  house  shall  be  established  on  the  top  of 
the  mountains,  and  shcdl  be  exiJted  above  the 
hills.  Gebah,  lit.  hill,  now,  Jeva,  was  a  fron- 
tier-garrison, held  once  by  the  Philistines  ^^ 
and  fortified  by  Asa  '*,  in  the  northern 
boundary  of  Benjamin  '^,  together  with  Mich- 
mash  '*  (now  MukhmaS),  commanding  an 
important  pass,  by  which  Jerusalem  was 
approached  ".  Rimmon,  south  of  Jerusalem  is 
mentioned  in  Joshua  among  the  southern 
towns  of  Judah  '*,  given  to  Simeon  '.'.  Both 
.survived  the  Captivity*".  They  mark  then 
the  N.  and  S.  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  s 
long  mountain  chain,  which  is  pictured  as 
sinking  down  into  a  plain,  that  Jerusalem 
alone  might  be  exalted. 


Ezek.  xxvii.  It!.  .Job  xxviii.  18 ;  the  town,  Deut.  ir. 
43,  Jos.  XX.  8, 1  Clu-.  vi.  65. 

»S.  Matt.  V.  14.  i»  Is.  ii.  2.  Mic.  iv.  1. 

18 1  Sam.  xiv.  5.  »  1  Kgs  xv.  22. 

"  From  Gebah  to  Beer-.'ilieba,"  2  Kg.a  xxiii.  8,  a* 
here,  "from  Gebah  to  Rimmon."  It  is  named 
among  the  northern  towns  of  Benjamin,  Jos.  xviii. 
24. 

'•  1  Sam.  I.  c.  "  Is.  X.  28,  29. 

>«  Jos.  XV.  32.  •»  lb.  xix.  7, 1  Chron.  iv.  32. 

s"Gebnh,  mentioned  with  Miohmasii,  Neii.  xl.  »1, 
Rimmon,  lb.  29. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


453 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 

'  Neh.  3. 1. 
&  12.  39. 
Jer.  31.  38. 


•Jer.  31.  40. 

«Jer.  23.  6. 

I  Or,  shall  abide. 


corner  gate,  "■  aud  from  the 
tower  of  Hananeel  unto 
the  king's  winepresses. 

11  And  men  shall  dwell 
in  it,  and  there  shall  be 
'  no  more  utter  destruction  ; 
'but  Jerusalem  || shall  be 
safely  inhabited. 

12  ^And  this  shall  be 
the  plague  wherewith  the 
Lord  will  smite  all  the 
people    that  have    fought 


From  Benjamin's  gate  unto  the  place  of  the 
first  gate.  Benjamin's  gate  ^  must  obviously 
be  a  gate  to  the  North,  and  doubtless  the 
same  as  the  gate  of  Ephraiin'^,  the  way  to 
Ephraim  lying  through  Benjamin.  This  too 
has  probably  reference  to  the  prophecy  of 
Jeremiah,  that  ^  the  city  shall  be  built  to  the 
Lord  from  the  toiver  of  Hananeel  unto  the  gate 
of  the  corner.  *  Jehoash,  king  of  Israel,  brake 
down  the  wall  of  Jerusalem  from  the  gate  of 
Ephraim  to  the  corner-gate,  four  hundred  cubits, 
alter  the  war  with  Amaziah.  Zechariah 
seems  to  speak  of  Jerusalem,  as  it  existed 
in  his  time.  For  the  tower  of  Han- 
aneel '  still  existed ;  the  first  gate  was  prob- 
ably destroyed,  since  he  speaks  not  of  it,  but 
of  its  place;  the  gate  of  Benjamin  and  the 
corner-gate  probably  still  existed,  since 
Nehemiah®  mentions  the  building  of  the 
sheep-gate,  the  fish-gate,  the  old  gate,  or  gate 
of  the  old  city,  the  valley-gate,  the  dung- 
gate,  the  gate  of  the  fountain ;  but  not 
these. 

11.  And  they  shcdl  dwell  in  it,  in  peace, 
going  forth  fi'om  it,  neither  into  captivity,  nor 
in  flight  ^ ;  for  God  should  exempt  from 
curse  the  city  which  He  had  chosen,  against 
which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail, 
and  He  says  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem, 
"  there  shall  be  no  more  curse. 

12.  Again,  upon  the  restoration  of  His 
people  follows  the  destruction  of  His  enemies. 
It  shall,  first  and  chiefly,  be  God's  doing, 
not  man's.  Tliis  shall  be  the  plague.  The 
word  is  used  of  direct  infliction  by  pestilence, 

1  Mentioned  beside,  Jer.  xx.  2.  xxxvii.  12,  17. 
.Jeremiah  goes  through  it,  "  to  go  into  the  land  of 
Benjamin.''    Jer.  xxxvii.  12, 13. 

'■^  Mentioned  2  Chr.  xxv.  23,  Neh.  viii.  16,  xii.  39. 

3  Jer.  xxxi  38.      *2  Kgs  xiv.  13.  2  Chr.  xxv.  23. 

5  Neh.  iii.  1.  »  Neh.  iii.  1, 3,  6, 13, 14, 15. 

'  V.  2,  5.  8  Rev.  xxii.  3. 

*  f|  J  J  occurs  20  times  of  God's  striking ;  2ce  of  a 

foot  stumbling;  once  Hike  PJJ)  of  an  ox  goring 
another,  once  of  a  man  s  accidental  blow,  both  in 
Ex.  .  niJJO,  in  like  way,  occurs  17  times  of  death 

inflicted  by  God  (once  only  of  an  individual,  Eze- 


again.<t  Jerusalem;  Their  ,HR7'srj|. 
flesh  shall  consume  away  __2iLi*!I:__ 
while  they  stand  upon  their 
feet,  and  their  eyes  shall 
consume  away  in  their 
holes,  and  their  tongue 
shall  consume  away  in  their 
mouth. 

13  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass   in  that  day,  that  "auisam.  14. 15, 
great    tumult    from    the 
Lord    shall    be  among 


wherewith  the  Lord  shall  smite  ®  all  the  people 
[peoples'^  that  fought  against  Jerusalem.  The 
awful  description  is  of  living  corpses.  "  *"  The 
enemies  of  Jerusalem  shall  wa.ste,  not  with 
fever  or  disease,  but  by  a  plague  from  God, 
so  that,  being  sound,  standing,  living,  in 
well-being,  they  should  waste  and  consume 
away,"  as  Isaiah  speaks  of  the  "  carcases  of 
the  men,  that  have  transgressed  against  Me  ;  for 
their  worm  shall  not  die — and  they  shall  be  an 
abhorring  unto  all  flesh. 

Their  flesh  shall  consume  away,  rather,  wast- 
ing away  the  flesh  of  each  one.  It  is  the  act  of 
God,  in  His  individual  justice  to  each  one  of 
all  those  multitudes  gathered  against  Him. 
One  by  one,  their  eyes,  of  which  they  said, 
^^  let  our  eye  look  on  Zion,  i.  e.  with  joy  at 
its  desolation,  shall  consume  away  in  their 
holes,  and  their  tongue,  wherewith^  they 
blasphemed  God  ^^,  shall  consume  away  in 
their  mouths.  Appalling,  horrible,  picture ! 
standing  on  their  feet,  yet  theii-  flesh  moulder- 
ing aAvay  as  in  a  grave-yard,  their  sight- 
less balls  decaying  in  their  holes,  the  tongue 
putrefying  in  their  mouth,  a  disgust  to  them- 
selves and  to  others  !  Yet  w^hat,  compared 
to  the  horrible  inward  decay  of  sin,  whereby 
men  "  have  a  name  that  they  live  and  are  dead  ? 
"^^Let  us  read  Ecclesiastical  histories, 
what  Valerian,  Decius,  Diocletian,  Max- 
imian,  what  the  savagest  of  all,  Max- 
imin,  and  lately  Julian  suflfered,  and  then 
we  shall  prove  by  deeds,  that  the  truth  of 
prophecy  was  fulfilled  in  the  letter  also." 
13.  A  great  tumult,  and  panic  fear,  such  as 

kiel's  wife,  Ez.  xxiv.  16),  and  3  times  only,  of 
slaughter  in  battle  by  men,  1  Sam.  iv.  17,  2  Sam. 
xvii.  9,  xviii.  7.    The  form  Hif.,  pOH,  is  an.    Nif.  is 

used  of  a  putrefying  wound,  Ps.  xxxviii.  6,  and  po 

subst.  Is.  iii.  24.  Nif.  is  also  used  of  man's  wast- 
ing away  through  p)  his  sins  Lev.  xxvi.  39  (bis) 
Ez.  xxiv.  33,  xxxiii.  10  [not  'under  the  weight  o( ' 
as  Ges.]  and  of  the  dissolution  of  the  host  of 
heaven,  Is.  xxxiv.  4. 

lOLap.  "Is.lxvi.24.  '«Mi.  iv.  U. 

'3comp.  Ps.  xii.  3.  Is.  xxxvi.  15, 18.  xxxvii.  3,  4.  17, 
23, 29.  "  R«T.  Iii.  1.  «*  S.  Jer. 


454 


ZECHARIAri. 


chrTst    ^^^^^''     ^^^^    they    shall 
cir.  487.      jay  hold   every  one    on 


»judg.  7. 22.      the  hand    of   his  neigh- 
Ezek.' 38.' 21.'    bor  and  "his   hand  shall 


rise     up 


against     the 


God  said  He  would  send  upon  the  Canaanites 
before  Israel^,  or  on  Israel  itself,  if  disobe- 
dient ^ ;  or  which  fell  on  the  Philistines  after 
Jonathan's  capture  of  the  garrison  at  Mich- 
mash,  when  every  man's  ^ sword  was  against 
It  is  fellow.  There  is  no  real  unity,  except  in 
God ;  elsewhere,  since  each  seeks  his  own, 
all  must  be  impregnated  with  mutual  suspi- 
cion, ready  at  any  moment  to  be  fanned  into 
a  flame ;  as  when,  at  the  blowing  of  Gideon's 
trumpets,  *the  Lord  set  every  man's  mvord 
against  his  fellow  ;  or  when,  at  Jehoshaphat's 
prayer '',  the  children  of  Ammon  and  Moab 
dood  up  against  the  inhabitants  of  Mount  Seir, 
■utterly  to  slay  and  destroy ;  and  when  they  had 
nuide  an  end  of  the  inhabitants  of  Seir,  every  one 
helped  to  destroy  another. 

And  they  shall  lay  hold,  every  one  on  tfte 
hand  of  his  neighbor.  Every  one  shall  be  every 
one's  foe.  Each  shall,  in  this  tumultuous 
throng,  grasp  the  other's  hand,  mastering 
him  powerfully®.  And  his  hand  shall  rise 
up  ''against  the  hand  of  his  neighbor,  as  was 
prophesied  of  Ishraael,  ^his  hand  ivill  be 
against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against 
him. 

14.  And  Jitdah  also  shall  fight  at  Jerusalem. 
This  seems  more  probable  than  the  alter- 
native rendering  of  the  E.  M.,  "against." 
I'^or  Judah  is  united  with  Jerusalem  as  one, 
in  the  same  context®;  and,  if  it  had  shared 
Avith  the  heathen,  it  must  also  have  shared 
their  lot.  It  is  Judah  itself,  not  '"  a  remnant 
of  Judah,"  as  it  is  ^^  every  one  that  is  left  of  all 
the  nations,  which  is  thus  united  to  Jerusalem : 

iDevii.  23.    «Ib.  xxviii.20.    » 1  Sam.  xiv.  20.    The 
same  word  is  used.    ♦  Jud.  vii.  22.    82Chr.  xx.  32. 
*  p'tnn,  with   ace,  is  used  adversely   though 

fieuratively.  Anguish  (Jer.  vi.  24, 1. 43)  amazement 
( lb.  viii.  21)  pangs  (Mic.  iv.  9)  are  said  to  seize  on — ; 
and  David  "  I  seized  CnpfPin)  by  the  beard  the 

lion  and  the  bear."  1  Sam.  xvii.  35.  It  is  used  of  a 
man  grasping  with  violenee  (with  2)  De.  xxii.  25,  2 
.Sam.  xiii.  11 ;  forcibly  detaining  prisoners,  Ex.  ix. 
2,  Jer.  1.33;  the  head  of  an  opponent,  "they  seized 
each  his  fellow  by  the  head,  and  his  sword  in  his 
lellow's  side,"  2  Sani.  ii.  16;  "the  ears  of  a  dog," 
Pr.  xxvi.  17.  Here  the  context  precludes  ambig- 
uity; the  use  of  the  ace.  is  poetic. 

'  n  7i?  "  rise  "  —  "  be  raised  up,"  as  even  of  in- 
animate things,  Am.  iii.  5,  Pr.  xxvi.  9,  Job.  v.  20 ;  of 
a  people  carried  away,  lb.  xxxvi.  20.  Gesenius'  in- 
stances, Thes.  p.  1023  n.  2. 

«Gen.  xvi.  12.  »v.  21.  lOv.  16. 

"  "  Yea,  and  those  of  the  house  of  Judah  the  na- 
tions will  bring,  constrained,  to  carry  war  apainst 
Jerusalem."  Jon.  .  '       Hy.  2, 3. 

'•On  the  one  hand,  "I'JO  On/J  "  fought  against 
th«  city,"  Jnd.  ix.  45;  n3">3  "  against   Rahbah"  2 


hand     of     his    neighbor.    ,^.  hr'Yst 

14  And    II  Judah  also      ^-ir.  487. 
shall  fiaht  ||at  Jerusalem  :  I  Or.<ftou  afeo, 

11  1  ,        r.     11     1        0  Judah,  Shalt. 

^  and  the  wealth  of  all  the  il  Or,  against. 

J  Ezek  39  10 

heathen  round  about  shall  it,  4c. 


it  is  that  same  Judah,  as  a  whole,  of  which  it 
j  is  said,  it  shall  fight.     Nor  is  anything  spoken 
!  of  "  conversion,"  which  is  said  of  those  left 
j  from  the  heathen  nations,  who  had   fought 
against  her.     Yet  for  Judah  to  have  joined 
an  exterminating  Heathen  war  against  Jeru- 
j  salem,  even  though  const niined,  had,  like  the 
j  constrained  sacritices  to  Heathen  gods,  been 
apostasy.     But  there  is  not  even  a  hint  tliat, 
I  as    Jonathan    apologetically    paraphrases", 
I  they  were  "  constrained."     The  war  is  to  be 
j  Judah's  free  act :  Judah  also  shall  fight.    Again, 
j  those  gathered  against  Jerusalem,  and  their 
warfare  against  it,  had  been  described  at  the 
outset,  as  *^  cdl  nations :   here  the  subject  is 
not  the  gathering  or  fighting,  but  the  over- 
throw.    Nor  is  there  any  decisive  contrary 
idiom  ;  for,  although  when  used  of  people,  it 
always  means  "  %ht  against,"  yet,  of  place,  it 
as  often,  means  "  fight  in  ^^."     Probably  then 
the   Prophet   means,  that  not   only  should 
God  fight  for   His   people,  but   that   Judah 
also  should  do  its  part,  as  S.  Paul  says,  '*  We, 
then,  as  workers  together  ivith  Him  ;   and,  '"  ire 
are  laborers  together  with  God  ;  and,  ^®  /  labored 
more  abundantly  than  they  all ;    yet  not  I,  but 
the  grace  of  God  which  was  with  me  ;  or,  ^'  work 
out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  ; 
for  it  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure.     God  so  doth 
all  things  in  the  Church,  for  the  conversion 
of  the  heathen,  and  for  single  souls,  as  to 
wait   for  the  cooperation   of  His  creatui-e. 
"  ^®  God  made  thee  without  thee  ;   He  doth 
not  justify  thee  without  thee." 

Sam.  xii.  27;  n7'J,'p3  "against  Keilah,"  1  Sam. 
xxiii.  1 :  on  the  other,  ^Ji*n3  "  fought  at  Taanach," 
Jud.  V.  19;  DT3"^3,  "at  itephidim,"  Ex.  xvii.  8; 
Tnjp  r>|^p33  "in  the  valley  of  Megiddo,"  2  Chr. 
XXXV.  22,  and  so  probably  in  the  immediate  context, 
(lb.  20)  B^'pS^DS,  "  at   Carchemish,"  since    it    is 

hardly  probable,  that  Carchemish  should  be  men- 
tioned as  the  object  of  such  an  expedition,  and  the 
decisive  battle  between  Egypt  and  Chaldfea  was 

"  at,"  not  "  in  Carchemish,"  iy'p3'^33,  where  Ne- 
buchadnezzar smote  his  armv.  Jer.  xlvi.  2.  For 
such  a  large  army  as  Pliarao"li's  wouUl  not  have 
been  shut  up  in  a' town,  which  was  of  importance 
only  as  a  key  to  the  passage  of  the  Euphrates. 
Also  in  Isaiah  xxx.  32,  tne  Chethib  ,13  must  be  "  in 

her,"  Zion,  which  the  Kri  has  corrected  into  the 
more  common  idiom,  D3.  "against  them."  The 
LXX.  renders  thus,  TropaTofeToi  iv  '  Itpova-aKrin. 

n  2  Cnr.  vi.  1.         's  1  Cor.  iii.  9.         "  lb.  xv.  10. 

"  Phil.  ii.  12.  »8S.  Aug.  9erm.  169.  n.  1.3.  0pp. 

T.  815.  (on  N.  T.  p.  866  O.  T.) 


CHAPTER   XIV 


45.' 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


« ver.  U. 


be  gathered  together,  gold, 
.  and  silver,  and  apparel,  in 
great  abundance. 

15  And  "^  so  shall  be  the 
plague  of  the  horse,  of  the 
mule,  of  the  camel,  and  of 
the  ass,  and  of  all  t  h  e 
beasts  that  shall  be  in  these 
tents,  as  this  plague. 


Aiid  the  ivealth  of  all  the  heathen  round  about 
shall  be  gathered.  Whatever  the  world  had 
taken  in  their  war  against  the  Church  shall 
be  abundantly  repaid.  ^4//  the  heathen  had 
combined  to  plunder  Jerusalem ' ;  the  wealth 
of  all  the  heathen  shall  be  gathered  to  requite 
them.  "  ^  As  Isaiah  says,  The  nations,  con- 
verted to  Christ,  brought  all  their  wealth  to 
the  Church,  whence  he  congratulates  the 
Church,  saying,  "  *  Thou  shalt  aUosuck  tlie  milfc 
(f  the  Gentiles,  and  shalt  suc/c  the  breasts  of 
kings — For  brass  I  ivill  bring  gold,  and  for  iron 
I  u'ill  bring  silver  ;  under  which  he  typically 
understands,  "*  wisdom,  philosophy,  elo- 
quence, learning,  and  all  the  other  arts  and 
sciences,  liberal  and  mechanical,  wherewith 
the  heathen  shall  be  adorned,  who  are  con- 
verted to  the  faith.  8o  shall  the  gilts  of 
nature  be  perfected  by  the  gifts  of  grace,  and 
they  shall  defend  the  Church  who  erstwhile 
attacked  it." 

15.  And  so  shall  be  the  plague  of  the  Lord 
<fcc.  "*So,  when  God  sendeth  the  plague, 
all  the  irrational  animals  of  Anti-Christ  and 
his  satellites  shall  perish,  as  the  aforesaid 
men,  who  used  them,  perished.  For,  for  the 
sins  of  men,  God,  to  their  greater  confusion, 
sometimes  slays  their  beasts,  sometimes  also 
for  their  loving  correction."  "  ^  The  im- 
agery is  from  the  Mosaic  law  of  the  ban.  If 
a  whole  city  became  guilty  of  idolatry,  not 
the  inhabitants  only,  but  tlie  beasts  were  to 
be  destroyed",  so  that  here,  in  miniature, 
should  be  repeated  the  relation  of  the  irra- 
tional to  the  rational  part  of  the  creation, 
according  to  which,  for  the  sins  of  men,  the 
creature  is,  against  its  will,  made  subject  to  van- 
ity. Analogous  is  it  also,  that  on  the  offence 
of  Achan ',  beside  him  and  his  children,  his 
oxen,  asses  and  sheep  were  [stoned  and] 
burned  with  him." 

16.  Every  one  that  is  left  of  the  nations- 
God  so  gives  the  repentance,  even  through 
His  visitations,  that,  in  proportion  to  the 
largeness  of  the  rebellion  and  the  visitation 
upon  it,  shall  be  the  largeness  of  the  conver- 
sion.    *  Jerusalem  shaJl  be  trodden  down  of  the 

» ver.  2.  »  Lap.  »  Is.  Ix.  16, 17.  *  Dion. 
*  Hengst.  9  Deut.  xiii.  15.  f  Josh.  vii.  24,  25. 
»  S.  Luke  xxi.  24.     »  Rom.  xi.  2.5,  26.    >«  Is.  x.  21. 


16  %  And  it  shall  come    ^hrTst 

to  pass,  that  every  one  that      '^''•-  ^^7. 

is  left  of  all  the  nations 
which  came  against  Jerusa- 
lem shall  even  "  ffo  up  from  •  is.  go.  6, 7, 9. 

°        ^.         ,         (fe  (16.  23. 

year  to  year  to  worship  the 

King,  the  Lord  of  hosts, 

11         K  ,      n  '•>  Lev.  2.3. 34, 43. 

and  to  keep  "  the  feast  of  Neh.  s.  14. 
.  ,      ^  Hos.  12. 9. 

tabernacles.  John  7. 2. 


Gentiles,  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be 
fulfilled.  And  S.  Paul,  *  Blindness  in  part  is 
happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles 
slutll  be  come  in  ;  and  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved. 
Hitherto  prophets  had  spoken  of  a  '"  remnant 
of  Jacob,  who  should  return  to  the  mighty 
God,  and  should  be  saved  ;  now,  upon  this 
universal  rebellion  of  the  heathen.  He 
foretells  the  conversion  of  a  remnant  of 
the  heatnen  also. 

Shall  even  go  up  from  year  to  year  to  wor- 
ship the  King,  the  Lord  of  hosts.  There  is  a 
harmony  between  the  rebellion  and  the  re- 
pentance. The  converted  shall  go  to  wor- 
ship God  there,  wliere  they  had  striven  to 
exterminate  His  worshipers.  The  prophet 
could  only  speak  of  the  Gospel  under  the 
image  of  the  law.  The  Feast  of  Tabernacles 
has  its  counterpart,  not,  like  the  Pascha  or 
the  Pentecost,  in  any  single  feast,  but  in  the 
whole  life  of  the  Gospel.  It  was  a  thanks- 
giving for  past  deliverance ;  it  was  a  picture 
of  their  pilgrim-life  from  the  passage  of  the 
Ked  sea,  until  the  parting  of  the  Jordan  opened 
to  them  the  entrance  to  their  temporary  rest 
in  Canaan  ".  "  ^^  In  that  vast,  wide,  terrible 
wilderness,  where  Avas  no  village,  house, 
town,  cave,  it  made  itself  tents,  wherein  to 
sojourn  with  wives  and  children,  avoiding  by 
day  the  burning  sun,  by  night  damp  and  cold 
and  hurt  from  dew;  and  it  was  '^  a  statute 
forever  in  their  generations ;  ye  shall  dwell  in 
booths  seven  days ;  all,  that  are  Israelites  born, 
shall  dwell  in  booths,  that  your  generations  may 
know,  that  I  made  the  children  of  Israel  to  dwell  in 
booths,  when  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt."  "  2  Much  more  truly  do  Christians 
keep  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  not  once  in  the 
year  only,  but  continually,  unceasingly. 
This  is,  what  S.  Peter  admonisheth,  "  Dearly 
beloved,  I  beseech  you,  as  strangers  and  pil- 
grims, abstain  from  fleshly  lusts.  And  S.  Paul 
often  teacheth  that  we,  like  Abraham,  are 
strangers  on  earth,  but  ^^citixens  of  heaven 
with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God. 
Faith,  he  says, '"  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.   By 

»  See  at  greater  length  Hos.  xii.  9.  vol.  1.  p.  122. 
'2  S.  Jer.  >3  Lev.  xxiii.  41-43.  "  1  S.  Pet.  ii.  11 
16  Eph.  ii.  19.  16  Heb.  xi.  1,  0, 10. 


4oG 


ZECHARIAH. 


o  MT^  t       17  "  And  it  shall  be,  that 
cir.  487.      -whoso  wiU  not  come  up  of 
all  the  families  of  the  earth 


0  Is.  60.  12. 


unto  Jerusalem  to  woi"ship 


faith  Abraham  sojourned  in  the  land  of  pro- 
mise as  in  a  strange  country,  dwelling  in  ta- 
bernacles with  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  heirs  with 
him  of  the  same  promise ;  for  he  looked  for  a 
city  which  hath  foundations,  ivhose  builder  and 
maker  is  God."  " '  As  long  as  we  are  in 
progress,  in  the  course  and  militant,  we  dwell 
in  tabernacles,  striving  with  all  our  mind  to 
pass  from  the  tabernacles  to  the  firm  and 
lasting  dwelling-place  of  the  house  of  God. 
Whence  also  holy  David  said,  "^  I  am  a 
stranger  with  Thee  and  a  sojourner,  as  all  my 
fathers  were.  So  speaketh  he,  who  is  still  in 
Egypt  and  yet  placed  in  the  world.  But  he 
Avho  goeth  forth  out  of  Egypt,  and  entereth 
a  desert  from  vices,  holdeth  his  way  and  says 
in  the  Psalm,  ^  I  will  pass  through  to  the 
place  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  Wonderful  unto 
the  iMuse  of  God.  Whence  also  he  says  else- 
where, *  How  amiable  are  Thy  dwellings. 
Thou  Lord  of  hosts;  my  soul  longeth,  yea, 
even  falnteth  for  the  courts  of  the  Lord ;  and  a 
little  after,  '  Blessed  are  they  who  dwell  in  thy 
house,  they  shall  be  alway  praising  Thee.  ^  The 
voice  of  rejoicing  and  salvation  is  in  the  tahei"- 
nades  of  the  righteous.  '  One  thing  have  I  de- 
sired of  the  Lord,  that  will  I  seek  after  ;  that  I 
may  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  all  the  days 
of  my  life,  to  behold  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  and  to 
enquire  in  His  temple.  Whoso  dwelleth  in 
such  tabernacles,  and  hastes  to  go  irom  the 
tabernacles  to  the  court,  and  from  the  court 
to  the  house,  and  from  the  house  to  the 
temple  of  the  Lord,  ought  to  celebrate  the 
feast  of  Tabernacles  &c."  It  symbolizes  how, 
"  *  in  the  New  Testament,  Christians,  being 
delivered  through  Christ  from  the  slavery  to 
sin  and  satan,  and  sojourning  in  this  vale  of 
misery,  by  making  progress  in  virtues  go  up 
to  the  home  of  the  heavenly  paradise,  the 
door  of  glory  being  open  by  the  merit  of  the 
Lord's  Passion,  and  so  the  faithful  of  Christ 
celebrate  the  feast  of  tabernacles  ;  and,  after 
the  destruction  of  Anti-Christ,  they  will 
celebrate  it  the  more  devoutly,  as  there 
will  then  be  among  them  a  fuller  fervor  of 
faith." 

17.  Whoso  will  not  go  XLp.  "  *To  those  who 
go  not  up,  he  threatens  the  same  punishment 
as  persecutors  would  endure.  For  enemies, 
and  they  who  will  not  love,  shall  have  the 
same  lot.     This  is,  I   thinit,    what    Christ 

>S.  Jer.        »Ps.  xxxix.  12.        sib.  xli.  5.  Vulg. 

»Ib.  IxxxiT.  1.  »lb.  4.        "lb.  cxviii.  15. 

'  lb.  xxvii.  4.  »  Dion.  »S.  Cyr. 

iu8.  Luke  xi.  23.  »  De.  xi.  10-15  "  lb.  16, 17. 
»a  lb.  xxviil.  23, 24.  "  Am.  iv.  7.  See  vol.  i.  p.  28  J. 
>►  1  Kgs  xvii.  9-16.  »•  lb.  xviii.  5. 


Ueloie 


the  King,  the   Lord   of    c h  r i s  r 
hosts,  even  upon  them  shall      c''-  ^S7. 
be  no  rain. 

18  And  if  the  family  of 


Himself  said,  ^°  Whoso  is  not  with  Me  it 
against  Me,  and  whoso  gathereth  not  uith  Mb 
scattereth." 

Upon  them  there  shall  be  no  rain.  Rain  wa» 
the  most  essential  of  God's  temporal  gifts  for 
the  temporal  well-being  of  His  people. 
Moses  marked  out  this,  as  his  people  were 
entering  on  the  promised  land,  with  recent 
memory  of  Egypt's  independence  of  rain  in 
Egypt  itself,  and  that  this  gift  depended  on 
obedience.  "  The  land,  ivhilhcr  thou  goest  in  to 
possess  it,  is  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  whence  ye 
came  out,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed  and  water- 
edst  it  loith  thy  foot,  as  a  garden  of  herbs :  but  a 
land  of  hills  and  valleys, — it  drinketh  water  of 
the  rain  of  heaven  ;  a  land  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  careth  for  ;  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  always 
upon  it,  from  the  beginning  of  the  year  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  year.  And  it  shall  be,  if  ye  shall 
hearken  diligently  unto  My  commandments — / 
ivill  give  you  the  rain  of  your  land  in  its  season, 
the  first  rain  and  the  latter  rain,  that  thou  mayest 
gather  in  thy  corn  and  thy  wine  and  thine  oil. 
And  I  will  send  grass  in  thy  fields  for  thy  cattle, 
that  thou  mayest  eat  and  be  full.  But  the  threat 
on  disobedience  corresponded  therewith. 
'^  Take  heed  to  yourselves,  Moses  continues,  that 
your  heart  be  not  deceived,  and  ye  turn  aside 
and  serve  other  gods — and  the  Lord's  wrath  be 
kindled  against  you,  and  He  shut  tip  the 
heaven,  that  there  be  no  rain,  and  that  the 
land  yield  not  her  fruit,  atul  ye  perish  quickly 
from  off  the  good  land,  ivhich  the  Lord  giveth 
you  ;  and,  '•'  Thy  heaven,  thai  is  over  thee,  shall 
be  bra'is,  and  the  earth,  that  is  under  thee,  shall 
be  iron;  the  Lord  shall  make  the  rain  of  thy 
land  powder  and  dust.  Amos  speaks  of  the 
withdrawal  of  rain  as  one  of  God's  chastise- 
ments '*  :  the  distress  in  the  time  of  Ahab  is 
pictured  in  the  history  of  the  woman  of 
Sarepta  '*,  and  Ahab's  directions  to  Oliadiah  '*. 
But  it  is  also  the  symbol  of  spiritual  bles- 
sings ;  both  are  united  by  Hosea  "  and  Joel  '*, 
as  Joel  and  Amos  also  speak  of  spiritual 
blessings  exclusively  under  the  figure  of 
temporal  abundance'".  In  Isaiah  it  is 
simply  a  symbol,  '^°  Drop  down,  ye  heavens, 
from  above,  and  let  the  skies  pour  down  nghl- 
eoiu^ness  ;  let  the  earth  open,  and  let  them  bring 
forth  salvation,  and  let  righteousness  spring  up 
together. 

18.  And  if  the  family  of  Egypt  go  not  up, 

"  Hosea  vi.  3.    See  vol.  i.  p.  64. 

18  Jo.  ii.  23.    See  vol.  i.  pp.  190, 191. 

»Jo.  iii.  18.  See  vol.  i.  pp.  212-21S.  Am.  Ix.  13. 
See  vol.  i.  p.  338. 

« Is.  xlv.  8.  See  also  lb.  v.  0,  both  together  lb. 
XXX.  23. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


457 


cir.  487.       nome  uot,  f'^that  have  no 
rain;    there   shall  be  the 


t  Heb.  upon 
ivhom  va.' 
not. 

*  Deut.  11. 10. 


ere  is 


plague,   wherewith    the 
Lord  will  smite  the  heath- 


aivi  come  not,  that  have  no  rain  ;  rather,  and 
there  shall  not  be  ^  It  may  be  that  the 
prophet  chose  this  elliptical  iorm,  as  well 
knowing  that  the  symbol  did  not  iiold  as  to 
Egypt,  which,  however  it  ultimately  de- 
pended on  the  equatorial  rains  which  over- 
filled the  lakes  which  supply  tlie  IS'ile,  did 
not  need  that  fine  arrangement  of  the  rains 
of  Autumn  and  Spring  which  were  essential 
to  the  fruitfulness  of  Palestine.  The  omis- 
sion leaves  room  for  the  somewhat  prosaic 
supply  of  Jonathan,  "The  Nile  shall  not 
ascend  to  them."  More  probably  the  words 
are  left  undefined  with  a  purposed  abrupt- 
ness, there  shall  not  be  upon  them,  viz.  whatever 
they  need :  the  omission  of  tiie  symbol  in 
these  two  verses  might  the  more  suggest, 
that  it  is  a  symbol  only.  Egypt,  the  ancient 
oppressor  of  Israel,  is  united  with  Judah  as 
one,  in  the  same  worship  of  God,  as  Isaiah 
bad  said,  '^  In  that  day  shall  Israel  be  the  third 
with  Egypt  and  with  Assyria;  and  since  it  is 
united  in  the  duty,  so  also  in  the  punish- 
ment for  despising  it. 

"  *  Let  not  Egypt  be  proud,  that  it  is  wa- 
tered by  the  Nile,  as  if  it  needed  no  rain : 
i.  e.  let  no  one  be  secure  in  this  life.  For 
though  we  stand  by  faith,  yet  may  we  fall. 
For  although  bedewed  by  the  efflux  of 
Divine  grace,  and  filled  with  its  richness,  yet 
if  we  give  not  thanks  continually  for  such 
great  gifts,  God  will  count  us  as  the  rest,  to 
whom  such  copious  goodness  never  came. 
The  safety  of  all  then  lies  in  this,  that  while 
we  are  in  these  tabernacles,  we  cherish 
the  Divine  benefits,  and  unceasingly  praise 
the  Lord,  Who  hath  heaped  such  benefits 
upon  us." 

"  *  Under  the  one  nation  of  the  Egyptians, 
he  undei"stands  those  who  are  greatly  de- 
ceived, and  chose  idolatry  most  unreason- 
ably, to  whom  it  will  be  a  grave  inevitable 
judgment,  the  pledge  of  destruction,  that 

>  The  E.  v.,  following  Kim.,  takes  DiTSj?  nSi 
as  a  subordinate  clause,  "  and  there  is  not  upon 
them,"  viz.  rain  at  any  time ;  but  it  is  unnatural 
that,  in  two  consecutive  verses,  the  words  should 
be  taken  in  such  divergent  senses.    The  omission 

of  K7l  by  the  LXX.,  followed  so  far  (as  so  often) 
by  the  Pesh.,  is  supported  only  by  4  Kenn.  MSS., 
against  those  in  S.  .Jerome's  time,  and  Symm. 
Theod.  Jon.,  and  is  evidently  a  makeshift,  followed 
by  Ewald. 

»  Is.  xix.  24.  3  Osor.  *  S.  Cyr. 

SEccl.  vi.  3,  4.      6S.  Matt,  xxvl.24.      'lb.  xx.  7. 

« lb.  xil.  29.  »  S.  John  xv.  22. 

wThe  E.  V. follows  Kim.  in  rendering  "punish- 


Before 

C  H  R  I  .'^  T 

cir.  487. 


en  that  come  not  up  to  keep 
the  feast  of  tabernacles. 

19  This    shall    be  the 
1 1  punishment   of  Egypt,!  Or,  sin. 
and  the  punishment  of  all 


they  despise  the  acceptable  grace  of  salvation 
through  Christ.  For  they  are  murderers  of 
their  own  souls,  if,  when  they  could  lay  hold 
of  eternal  life  and  the  Divine  gentleness, 
open  to  all  who  will  choose  it  and  put  ofl' 
the  burden  of  sin,  they  die  in  their  errors ; 
the  stain  and  pollution  from  transgression 
and  error  uncleansed,  although  the  Divine 
light  illumined  all  around  and  called  those 
in  darkness  to  receive  sight.  Of  each  of 
these  I  would  say,  ^  Better  is  an  untimely 
birth  than  he ;  /oj-  he  cometh  in  with  vanity, 
and  departeth  in  darkness,  and  his  name  shall 
be  covered  uith  darkness.  ^  Good  had  it  been 
for  them,  if  they  had  never  been  born,  is  the 
Saviour's  word.  That  this  is  not  said  of  the 
Egyptians  only,  but  shall  come  true  of  all 
nations,  who  shall  altogether  be  punished,  if 
they  are  reckless  of  the  salvation  through 
Christ  and  honor  not  His  festival,  he  will 
establish  in  these  words  ; 

19.  This  shall  be  the  sin  of  Egypt  and  the 
sin  of  all  nations  that  come  not  up  to  keep 
the  feast  of  tabernacles.  For  before  the  com- 
ing of  the  Saviour,  good  perhaps  had  been  in 
part  the  excuse  of  the  heathen,  that  they 
had  been  called  by  none.  For  no  one  had 
preached  unto  them.  Wherefore  the  Saviour 
also,  pointing  out  this  in  the  Gospel  parables, 
said,  ^  the  laborers,  called  at  the  eleventh  hour, 
said.  No  man  hath  hired  us.  But  when  Christ 
cast  His  light  upon  us,  ^  bound  the  strong 
man,  removed  from  his  perverseness  those 
subject  to  him,  justified  by  faith  those  who 
came  to  Him,  laid  down  His  life  for  the  life 
of  all,  they  will  find  no  sufficient  excuse  who 
admit  not  so  reverend  a  grace.  It  will  be 
true  of  the  heathen  too,  if  Christ  said  of 
them,  ^  If  I  had  not  come  and  spoken  unto 
them,  they  had  not  had  sin :  bid  now  they  have 
no  ciokefor  their  sin." 

The  prophet  says  sin,  not  punishment ", 
for  sin  includes  the  punishment,  which  is  its 

ment."  Ges.  combines  the  two  in  his  rendering  of 
DE/N,  n.  2"culpam  sustinuit,"  not  in  his  "culpse 

poenas  dedit."  The  rendering  "shall  be  guilty" 
unites  sin  and  punishment  in  his  instances,  Ps. 
xxxiv.  22,  23,  Is.  xxiv.  6,  Jer.  ii.  3,  Hos.  x.  2,  [E.  V., 
in  the  same  sense,  "shall  be  found  faulty"!  xiv.  1 
fxiii.  16  Eng.]  Pr.  xxx.  10,  ["  be  found  guilty,''  E.  V.] 
So  also  in  X  "P  Lam.  iii.  39,  nN£3n  lb-  iv.  6.  When 

the  Lord  said.  It  sliall  be  more  tolerable  in  the  day  of 
iudqnientfor  Sodom  and  Oomorrak  than  for  that  citij. 
He  meant,  that  both  guilt  and  punishment  would 
be  greater.  In  Is.  v.  18,  nXtSn,  and,  lb.  xl.  2, 
rj^Cpn  is  "sin."    So  also  ny^  Is.  V.  18,  Ps.  xxxi.  u. 


AoH 


ZECHARIATT. 


:  H  R  1  S  T 

fir.  4H7. 


I  Or,  brUiles. 
•  laai.  23.  18. 


uatioiit^  that  come  not  up  to 
.  keep  the  feast  of  tabernacles. 
20  ^Lri  that  day  shall 
there  be  upon  the  ||  bells  of 
the  horses,  "HOLINESS 
UNTO  THE  LORD;  and 


due,  and  which  it  entails :  it  does  not  ex- 
press the  punishment,  apart  from  the  sin. 
It  was  the  sin  which  comprised  and  involved 
all  other  sin,  the  refusal  to  worship  God  as 
He  had  revealed  Himself,  and  to  turn  to 
Him.  It  was  to  sav,  ^  We  will  not  have  Him 
to  reign  over  iis. 

20.  In  that  day  there  shaU  be  upon  the  belh  '•' 
of  the  horses,  Holiness  unto  the  Lord.  He  does 
not  say  only,  that  they  should  be  consecrated 
to  God,  as  Isaiah  says  of  Tyre,  *  Her  mer- 
chandise and  her  hire  shall  be  holiness  to  the 
Lord;  he  says  that,  the  bells  of  the  horses, 
things  simply  secular,  should  bear  the  same 
inscription  as  the  plate  on  the  high  priest's 
forehead.  Perhaps  tiie  comparison  was  sug- 
gested by  the  bells  on  the  hi^h  priest's 
dress*  ;  not  the  lamina  only  on  his  forehead, 
but  bells  (not  as  his,  which  were  part  of 
his  sacred  dress),  bells,  altogether  secular, 
should  be  inscribed  witli  the  self-same  title, 
whereby  he  himself  was  dedicated  to  God. 

Holiness  to  the  Lord.  He  does  not  bring 
down  what  is  sacred  to  a  level  with  common 
things,  but  he  uplifts  ordinary  things,  that 
they  too  should  be  sacred,  as  S.  Paul  says, 
*  whether  ye  eat  or  drink  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do 
<dl  to  the  glory  of  God. 

Ami  the  pots  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  like 
bowls  before  the  (dtar.  The  pots  are  mentioned, 
together  with  other  ves.sels  of  the  Lord's 
house  *,  but  not  in  regard  to  any  sacred  use. 
They  were  used,  with  other  vessels,  for  dress- 
ing the  victims '  for  the  partakers  of  the 
sacrifices.  These  were  to  be  sacred,  like 
those  made  for  the  most  sacred  use  of  all, 
the  bowls  for  sprinkling'*,  whence  that  sacrifi- 
cial blood  was  taken,  which  was  to  make  the 
typical  atonement. 

21.  And  every  pot  in  Jerusalem  and  in  Jndah 
tthall  be  holiness  to  the  Lord.  Everything  is  to 
be  advanced  in  holiness.  All  the  common 
utensils  everywhere  in  the  people  of  God 
shall  not  only  be  holy,  but  holiness,  and  capa- 

1. S.Luke  xix.  U. 

■•TlSxO,  »"•  Yet  the  rendering  "bells"  has  the 
analogy  of  D'flSvO  1  Chr.  xiii.  xv.  svi.  xxv.  2  Chr. 
V.  xxlx.  Ezr.  HI.  10,  Neli.  xii.  27.  The  other  guesses, 
"  bridles  "  (Ixx.  Syr.), "  trapping?  of  horses  "  [Jon.]  or 
"  warlike  ornaments"  (S.  Jerome's  Jewish  teacher) 
have  none;  the  fiv9i>vof  Aq.  and  irepirroroi'  trvvKiov 
of  Symm.  (as  from  n^S^fO)  give  no  meaning. 

»ls.  xxlil.  18. 


the  pots  iui*the  L  o  i;  d  "  s 
house  shall  be  like  the 
bowls  before  the  altar. 

21  Yea,  every  pot  in 
Jerusalem  and  in  Judah 
shall  be  holiness  unto  the 


Rofnro 

CHRIST 

cir.  487. 


ble  of  the  same  use  as  the  vessels  of  the 
temple. 

And  there  shail  be  no  more  the  Canaanite  in 
the  house  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  The  actual 
Canaanite  had  long  since  cea.sed  to  be ;  the 
Gibconites,  the  last  remnant  of  them,  had 
been  absorbed  among  the  people  of  God. 
But  all  Israel  were  not  of  Israel.  Isaiah  had 
called  its  princes  and  peojile,  ^rulers  of 
Sodom,  people  of  Gomorrah.  Ezekiel  had 
said,  '*'  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  unto  Jerusa- 
lem ;  Tliy  birth  and  thy  nativity  is  of  the  land 
of  Canaan;  thy  father  was  an  Amorite,  and  thy 
mother  a  Hitlite.  Hosea  used  at  least  the 
term  of  two-fold  meaning,  ^'  Canaan,  in  whose 
hands  are  the  balances  of  deceit ;  and  Zepha- 
niah,  ^'^All  the  people  of  Canaan  are  destroyed. 
After  the  time  of  the  Canon,  Daniel  is  intro- 
duced saying,  "  ^'^  O  thou  seed  of  Canaan  and 
not  of  Judah."  Ezekiel  had  spoken  of  un- 
godly priest.s,  not  only  as  uncircumcised  in 
heart  (according  to  the  language  of  Deute- 
ronomy '*),  but  uncircumcised  in  flesh  also, 
altogether  alien  from  the  people  of  Gtid  '^. 
The  prophet  then  speaks,  as  Isaiah,  '*  It 
sh(dl  be  ccdled  the  way  of  holine.'is ;  the  unclean 
shall  not  jjo.s,s  over  it,  and  Joel,  "  then  shall  Je- 
rusalem be  holy,  and  there  shall  no  strangers 
pass  through  her  any  more.  This  shall  have 
its  full  fulfillment  in  the  time  of  the  end. 
'*  There  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it  anything 
that  defileth,  neither  whatsoever  worketh  abomi- 
nation or  a  lie;  and,  ivithaut  are  dogs  and  sor- 
cerers and  ivhoremongers  and  murderers  ami 
idolaters,  and  wliatsoever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie. 

""Although  born  of  the  blood  of  Israel, 
those  of  old  eagerly  imitated  the  alien  Ca- 
naanites.  But  after  that  the  Only-Begotten 
Word  of  God  came  among  us,  and,  having 
justified  by  faith,  sealed  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  those  who  came  to  His  grace,  our 
mind  hath  been  steadfast,  unshaken,  fixed  in 
piety.  Nor  will  any  one  persuade  those 
who  are  sanctified,  to  honor  any  other  god 

.♦jIDj^S  Ex.  xxviii.  M,  xxxix.  25,  2G,  used  of  it 

only,  and  there  only.  *  1  Cor.  x.  31. 

«  Ez.  xxxviii.3, 1'Kgs  vii.  45,2  Kgs  xxv.  14,2  Chr. 
iv.  11,  10,  JPr.  lil.  18,  19. 

'2Chr.  XX.TV.  13.  SD'plJO.         »  Is.  i.  10. 

'«  Ezek.  xvi.  3.    "  Hosea  xii.  7.    See  vol.  i.  p.  121. 

'«Zfph.  i.  11.    Seeab.  p.  244. 

IS  Hist,  of  Sus.  ver.  56.         "  Deut.  x.  16,  xxx.  6. 

i»Ezek.  xliv.  7.  »'Is.  xxxv.  «. 

"Joeliii.  17.    See  vol.  i.  p.  211. 

•»  Rev.  xxl.  27,  xxii.  15.  '•  9.  Cyr. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 


4r><) 


chrTst    Lord   of   hosts:    ami   all 
cir.  487.      thev  that  sacrifice  shall 


come  and   take   of   them, 
and  seethe  therein  :  and  in 


save  Him  Who  is,  by  nature  and  in  truth, 
God,  Whom  we  have  known  in  Christ.  For 
in  Himself  He  hath  shewn  us  the  Father, 
saying,  ^  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father.  Wherefore  in  that  day,  i.  e.  at  that 
time,  he  says,  there  shaU  he  no  Canaanite,  i.  e. 
alien  and  idolater,  in  the  house  of  the  Lord 
Almighty."     '"But  may  the  Almighty  God 

1  S.  John  xiv.  9. 


that  day  there  shall  be  no    ^  jj^'^^^'YI  ^^ 
more  the   'Canaanite   in__£iriJ!!: 


'  the  house  of  the  Lord  of  jwi-!.!?'. 

1       X  Rev.  21.27. 

hosts.  &  22.  lo. 

t  Eph.  2.  19,  20,  21,  22. 


bring  the  saying  true  at  this  time  also,  that 
no  Canaanite  should  be  seen  among  u.s,  but 
that  all  shoukl  live  according  to  the  Gospel- 
laws,  and  await  that  blessed  hope  and  the 
appearance  of  our  great  God  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  with  Whim  be  glory  to  the 
Father  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  now  and  ever 
and  to  endless  ages.     Amen." 

a  Theod. 


rNTRODUCTION 


TO 


THE   PROPHET 
MALACHI 


The  last  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament, 
like  the  Forerunner  of  our  Lord,  whom  he 
foreannounced  under  his  own  name,  "  *  the 
messenger  of  the  Lord,"  willed  to  be  but 
"  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness  ; " 
as  his  great  successor,  who  took  up  his  mes- 
sage, when  asked.  Who  art  thou?  What 
myest  thou  of  thyself?  said,  ^  I  am  the  voice  of 
one  crying  in  the  wildernes.%  Make  straight  the 
way  of  the  Lord.  He  mentions  neither  his 
parentage,  nor  birthplace,  nor  date ;  nor  did 
he  add  the  name  of  his  office  '^,  and  has  left 
it  to  be  guessed,  whether  the  name  under 
which  he  is  known,  was  the  name  which  he 
bore  among  men  ;  so  wholly  did  he  will  to 
be  hidden.  No  one  before  him  is  recorded 
to  have  borne  his  name.  It  may  be  that  he 
framed  it  for  himself,  and  willed  to  be 
known  only  as  what  it  designated,  "  the 
messenger  of  the  Lord."  This  was  a  favo- 
rite title  with  him,  since,  in  this  brief  pro- 
phecy, he  uses  it,  as  describing  the  priest's 
office,  and  that  of  the  forerunner* ;  whereas, 
before  him,  except  once  by  Ha^gai  and 
once  by  Isaiah  *,  it  had  been  used  only  of 
the  blessed  Angels. 

There  is,  however,  no  ground  to  think 
that  it  was  not  his  name.  Even  the  Seventy, 
who  paraphrase  it,  "  His  messenger,"  prefix 
to  the  book  the  name  Malachi ;  and  the  title, 

•'JDK/D,  the  extremest  abridgement  of  the  fuller 
fonn,^n'^'E?%  T\y{if\  as  -I^X,  Bezaleel's  father 
(and  two  others)  for  H'TIX,  'Uriah'  or  in'T^K, 
Urijah  the  prophet  Jer.  xxvi.  20.  sq.  The  same 
person  'aX  2  Kgs  xviii.  2  is  n'3X  In  2  Chr.  xix.  1; 
'^Df  (the  name  of  11  persons)  ie  doubtless  abridged 
from  mpDT  rV^"^^]. 

""S.  John  i!23.'  ' 


"my  messenger,"  would  not  have  described 
that  he  was  "  the  messenger  of  God,"  since 
the  name  of  God  had  not  preceded.  "If 
names  are  to  be  interpreted,"  S.  Jerome  says, 
'"^and  history  is  to  be  framed  from  them, 
not  a  spiritual  meaning  to  be  derived,  then 
Hosea  who  is  called  Saviour,  and  Joel  whose 
name  means,  '  Lord  God,'  and  the  other  pro- 
phets will  not  be  men,  but  rather  angels  or 
the  Lord  and  Saviour,  according  to  the 
meaning  of  their  name."  No  special  stress 
was  laid  upon  the  name,  even  by  the  Origen- 
ists,  who  supposed  Haggai,  Malachi  and  S. 
John  Baptist  to  have  been  angels  ^.  Origen 
himself  supposed  S.  John  Baptist  to  have 
been  an  angel  in  human  form '',  and  Mel- 
chisedek  •,  as  well  as  Malachi.  More  widely, 
that  "J  they  became  the  words  in  the  pro- 
phets." 

At  the  time'  of  our  Lord,  some  accounted 
him  to  have  been  Ezra,  perhaps  for  his  zeal 
for  the  law.  His  date  must,  however,  have 
been  later,  since  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
building  of  the  temple,  whose  service  was  in 
its  regular  order.  In  the  New  Testament, 
like  others  of  the  twelve,  he  is  cited  without 
his  name  ^,  or  the  substance  of  his  prophecy, 
is  spoken  of  or  alluded  to,  without  any  ref- 
erence to  any  human  author ' ;  so  entirely 
was  his  wish  to  remain  hidden  fulfilled. 

•Habakkuk  and  Hagcai  add  the  title  of  their 
oflficp,  "  the  propliet."    Hab.  i.  1.  Hagg.  i.  1. 

*Mal.  ii.  7,  iii.  1.  eHagg.  i.  i:i,  Is.  xlii.  19. 

f  Prtcf.  ad  Mai.  T.  i.  p.  939  Vail. 

« Id.  on  Hagg.  i.  13  p.  751  Vail. 

•"Orig.  Comm.  in  S.  Joan.  T.  ii.  n.  25.  0pp.  ir.  85 
de  la  Rue.  'S.  Jer.  Ep.  73  ad  Evang.  n.  2. 

i  In  Matt.  Tom.  ii.  n.  30.  0pp.  iii.  649. 

k"  It  is  written."  S.  Matt.  xi.  10.  8.  Luke  vll.  27, 
or,  with  Isaiah,  "  in  the  prophets,"  S.  Mark  i.  2. 

'S.  Luke  i.  17,  7t;.    .S.  Vlatt.  xvii.  10,  S.  John  i.  21. 

461 


162 


INTRODCCTIOX  TO 


Yet  he  probably  bore  a  great  part  in  the 
reformation,  in  which  Nehemiah  cooperated 
outwardly,  and  to  etlect  which,  alter  he  had, 
on  the  expiring  of  his  12  years  of  office  ■", 
returned  to  Persia,  he  obtained  leave  to 
visit  his  own  land  again  °,  apparently  for  a 
short  time.  For  he  mentions  his  obtaining 
that  leave,  in  connection  with  abuses  at  Je- 
rusalem, which  had  taken  place  in  liis  ab- 
sence, and  which  he  began  reforming,  forth- 
witli  on  his  arrival.  But  tliree  cliief  abuses, 
the  neglect  of  Gotl's  service,  the  defilement 
of  the  priestiiood  and  of  their  covenant,  and 
the  cruelty  to  their  own  Jewish  wives, 
divorcing  them  to  make  way  for  idolatresses, 
are  subjects  of  Malachi's  reproofs.  >'ehe- 
miah  found  these  practices  apparently  ram- 
pant. It  is  not  then  probable  tliat  they  had 
been,  before,  tlie  suiyects  of  Malachi's  de- 
nunciation, nor  were  his  own  energetic 
measures  probably  fruitless,  so  that  there 
should  be  occasion  for  these  denunciations 
afterward.  It  remains,  then,  tui  the  most 
probable,  tliat  Malaciii,  as  the  prophet,  co- 
operated with  Nehemiali,  as  tiie  civil  author- 
ity, as  Haggai  and  Zechariah  had  with  Zerub- 
batel.  "°So  Isaiaii  cooperated  with  Heze- 
kiah;  Jeremiah  with  Josiah.  Of  a  mere 
external  reformation  there  is  no  instance " 
in  Jewish  history. 

It  does  not  appear,  whether  Nehemiah,  on 
his  return,  was  invested  by  the  king  of 
Pei-sia  with  extraordinary  authority  for 
these  reforms,  or  whether  he  was  appointed 
as  their  governor.  The  brief  account  afibrds 
no  scope  for  the  mention  of  it.  It  is  not 
then  any  objection  to  the  contemporaneous- 
ness of  Malachi  and  Nehemiah,  that,  where- 
as Nehemiah,  while  governor,  required  not 
the  bread  of  the  governor,  i.  e.  the  allowance  j 
granted  him  by  the  Persian  government,  as 
an  impost  upon  the  people,  Malachi  upbraids 
the  people  that  they  would  not  offer  to  their 
governor  the  poor  things  which  they  offered 
to  Almighty  God,  or  that  the  governor 
would  not  accept  it,  in  tliat  it  would  be  an 
insult  rather  tlian  an  act  of  respect.  For  1) 
the  question  in  Malachi  is  of  a  free-oflfering, 
not  of  an  impost ;  2)  Neliemiah  says  tliat  he 
did  not  require  it,  not  that  he  would  not 
accept  it ;  3)  there  is  no  evidence  that  he 
was  now  governor,  nor  4)  any  reason  why  he 
."iliould  not  accept  in  their  irajiroved  condi- 
tion, what  he  did  not  require,  '^becauie  the 
bondage  vkik  heamj  upon  thif  people.  Presents 
were,  as  tliey  are  still,  a  common  act  of 
courtesv  in  the  East. 

Like"  S.  John  Baptist,  though  afar  ofi',  he 
prepared  tlie  way  of  the  Lord  by  the  ]ireach- 
ing  of  repentance.  More  than  other  prophets, 
lie  unveils  priests  and  people  to  themselves, 
interprets  their  thoughts  to  them,  and  puts 

■  Neh   V.  14.    «Ib.  xiil.  6.    •  Heugst.  Christ,  iil.  583. 
pNeh.  T.IS.        «M»1.  lii.lti.  'i.v!.         »i.6. 


those  thoughts  in  abrupt  naked  language, 
picturing  them  as  demurring  to  every  charge 
which  he  brought  against  them.  They  were 
not,  doubtless,  conscious  hypocrites.  For 
conscious  hypocrisy  is  the  sin  of  individuals, 
aping  the  graces  which  others  possess  and 
which  they  have  not,  yet  wish  to  be  held  in 
estimation  for  having.  Here,  it  is  the  mass 
which  is  corrupt.  Tlie  true  Israel  are  the 
exception ;  ''  thone  who  feared  the  Lord,  the 
jeirels  o/ Almighty  God.  It  is  the  hy[30crisy 
of  self-deceit,  contented  with  poor,  limited, 
outward  service,  and  pluming  itself  upon  it. 
Malachi  unfolds  to  them  the  meaning  of 
their  acts.  llis  tliesis  is  themselves,  whom 
he  unfohis  to  them.  He  interprets  himself, 
putting  into  their  mouths  wt)rds,  betokening 
a  simple  unconsciousness  either  of  God's 
goodness  or  their  own  evil.  ""  Yet  ye  satj, 
Wherein  hnat  Thou  loced  ua  f  Tliis  was  tlieir 
inward  thought,  as  it  is  the  thought  of  all, 
ungrateful  to  God.  But  his  characteristic  is, 
that  he  puts  these  thoughts  into  abrupt,  bold 
bad  words,  which  might  startle  them  for 
their  hideousness,  as  if  he  would  say,  "  This 
is  what  your  acts  mean."  He  exhibits  the 
worm  and  the  decay,  which  lay  under  the 
whited  exterior.  '  Ye  say.  Wherein  have  we 
despised  Thy  Name  ?  Perhaps,  they  were  al- 
ready learning,  not  to  pronounce  the  projier 
Name  of  God,  while  they  caused  it  to  be  de- 
spised. Or  they  pronounced  it  with  reverent 
pause,  while  they  shewed  that  they  held 
cheap  God  and  His  service.  »  Ye  say,  The 
table  of  the  Lord  is  contemptible.  "  Ye  say,  the. 
table  of  the  Lord  is  polluted ;  and  the  fruit 
thereof,  his  meat,  is  contemptible.  Their  acts 
said  it.  What  a  reading  of  thoughts  I  ^  Ye 
mid  ako,  Behold,  vhat  a  weariness!  It  is  the 
language  of  the  heart  in  all  indevotion.  "  Ye 
say.  Wherefore  1  as  if  innocently  unconscious 
of  the  ground  of  God's  judgment.  '  Wheron 
have  we  robbed  Tlieef  The  language  of  those 
who  count  the  earth  as  their  own.  ^  Ye  say, 
^Vherein  have  we  wearied  Him  ?  When  ye  say, 
Every  one  that  doeth  evil  is  good  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord,  and  in  them  doth  He  delight,  or. 
Where  is  the  God  of  judgment  f  The  heart's 
speech  in  all  envy  at  the  prosperity  of  the 
wicked  ! 

Yet  the  object  of  all  this  unfolding  them  to 
themselves,  is  their  repentance.  We  have 
already  the  self-righteousness  of  the  Phari- 
sees, and  the  Sadducees'  denial  of  God's  Pro- 
vidence. And  we  have  already  the  voice  of 
S.  John  liaptist,  of  the  wrath  to  come.  They 
professed  to  *  delight  in  the  coming  of  the  m^t- 
senger  of  the  covenant;  yet  their  deeds  were 
such  as  woidd  be  burned  up  with  the  fire  of 
His  Coming,  not,  rewardeil. 

Pharisees  and  Sadduces  are  but  two  oil- 
shoots  of  the  same  ungodliness;    Pharisei-«., 


«lb.7. 

•II..  %adU 

'  lb.  13            'nil 

»iii.  b. 

TlLn. 

•Ul.  1.  IV.  I 

MALACHI. 


463 


while  tliej  hoped  Ijy  outward  acts  to  be  in 
favor  with  God,  they  become,  at  least,  secret 
Sadducees,  when  the  hope  fails.  First,  they 
justify  themselves.  God  had  said  to  them, 
"  Ye  are  departs  I  oat  of  the  way :  I  luire  made 
i/ou  base,  as  ye  have  not  kept  My  imy.-i.  They 
say  ",  It  is  vain  to  serve  God  ;  and  uhat  profit, 
that  we  have  ki'pt  His  ordinance  f  (affirming 
that  they  had  done,  what  God  called  them  to 
repentance  for  not  doina).  God  said'',  iV 
hrive  covered  the  altar  of  the  Lord  with  tears,  the 
tears  of  their  wronged  wives;  they  insist  on 
their  own  austerities,  ''  we  have  tvalked  mourn- 
fully before  the  Lord  our  God.  Then  comes 
the  Sadducee  portion.  God  had  called  tliem 
to  obedience  and  said,  ^  Prove  Me  now  here- 
with :  they  say,  *  the  ivorkers  of  wickedness  have 
proved  God,  and  are  saved.  God  promised, 
^  Ail  nations  shall  call  you  blessed  ;  they  answei", 
^  a  ad  now  we  call  the  proud  blessed.  What  have 
we  spoken  against  Thee  /  is  the  last  self-justify- 
ing question,  which  Malachi  records  of  them  ; 
and  tills,  while  reproacliing  God  for  the  use- 
lessness  of  serving  Him,  and  choosing  the  lot 
of  those  who  rejected  Him. 

Tl>ereon  Malachi  abandons  this  class  to 
tlieir  own  blindness.  There  was  hope  amid 
any  sin,  however  it  rel^elled  against  God. 
This  was  a  final  denial  of  God's  Providence 
and  rejection  of  Himself.  So  Malachi  closes 
with  the  same  prophecy,  witii  which  S.John 
Baptist  prepared  our  Lord's  coming,  His 
^fan  is  in  His  hand,  and  He  will  thoroughly  purge 
His  floor,  and  will  gather  the  wlieat  into  His 
garner,  but  the  chaff  He  shall  hum  with  fire  un- 
quenchaile.  The  unspeakable  tenderness  of 
God  toward  those  who  fear  His  name,  and  the 
severity  to  those  who  finally  rebel,  are  per- 
haps nowhere  more  vividly  declared,  than  in 
these  closing  words  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Yet  the  love  of  ( Jod,  as  ever,  predominates ; 
and  the  last  prophet  closes  with  the  word 
"  Remember,"  and  with  one  more  effort  to 
avert  the  curse  which  they  were  bringing 
upon  themselves.  Yet  no  prophet  declares 
more  expressly  the  rejection  of  the  people, 
to  whom  he  came  to  minister,  the  calling  of 
the  Gentiles,  the  universal  worship,  in  all 
the  earth,  of  Him  Who  was  hitherto  wor- 
shiped by  the  .Jews  only;  and  that,  not  at 
Jerusalem,  but  each  offering,  in  his  own 
place,  the  sacrifice  which  hitherto  (as  they 
had  recently  experienced,  in  their  captivity 
at  Babylon)  could  be  offered  up  in  Jerusalem 
•mly.  To  him  alone  it  was  reserved  to  pro- 
phesy of  the  unbloody  Sacrifice,  which  should 
be  offered  unto  God  in  every  place  throughout 


» ii.  8,  9. 
•  ii.  1.3. 


»ili.  14. 

•  ill.  16.  una 


'  DoriK  nij?s<i  ill.  12.     ' 

«  D"^2'K0  1  jnjS  lii-  15.    These  last  contrnstH  arc 
Hengstenberg's  Christ.  \\\.  597.  ert.  2. 
"S.  Luke  ill.  17 
•  Nftgelsbacli  in  Herisog  Keal-Eneycl. 


the  world  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  unto  the 
going  down  thereof.  It  has  been  said,  "  '  Ma- 
lachi is  like  a  late  evening,  which  closes  a 
long  day,  ijut  lie  is  at  the  same  time  the  morn- 
ing twilight  which  bears  in  its  bosom  a  glorious 
day." 

" ''  When  Prophecy  was  to  be  withdrawn 
from  the  ancient  Church  of  God,  its  last  light 
was  mingled  with  the  rising  beams  of  the  Suv. 
of  Righteou.-ine.fs.  In  one  view  it  combined  a 
retrospect  of  tiie  Law  with  the  clearest  spe- 
cific signs  of  the  Gospel  advent.  '  licmembrr 
ye  the  law  of  Moses  My  servant,  which  I  com- 
manded  him  in  Horeb,for  all  Israel,  with  thr 
statides  and  tlie  judgments.  Behold  I  will  send 
you  Elijah  the  propfiet,  before  the  great  and 
dreadful  day  of  the  Lord.  Prophecy  had  been 
the  oracle  of  Judaism  and  of  Christianity,  to 
uphold  the  authority  of  the  one,  and  reveal 
the  promise  of  the  other.  Ami  now  its  latest 
admonitions  were  like  those  of  a  faithful  de- 
parting minister,  embracing  and  summing  up 
his  duties.  Eesigning  its  charge  to  the  per- 
.'^onal  Precursor  of  Christ,  it  expired  with  the 
Gospel  upon  its  lips." 

A  school,  wiiich  regards  the  "  prophets  " 
chiefly  as  "  poets,"  says  that  "  the  language 
is  prosaic,  and  manifests  the  decaying  spirit 
of  prophecy."  Tiie  office  of  the  prophets 
was,  to  convey  in  forceliil  words,  which  God 
gave  them.  His  message  to  His  people.  The 
poetic  form  was  but  an  accident.  God,  Who 
knows  the  hearts  of  His  creatures  whom  He 
has  made,  knows  better  than  we,  why  He 
chose  such  an  instrument.  Zechariah,  full 
of  imagination.  He  chose  some  years  before. 
But  He  preserved  in  history  the  account 
of  the  words  which  Zecliariah  spoke,  not  tlie 
words  wherewith  he  urged  the  rebuilding  of 
the  temple,  in  his  own  book.  Had  Malachi 
spoken  in  imaginative  language,  like  that  of 
Ezekiel,  to  whom  God  says,  ™  thou  art  unto 
them  like  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  Ihat  hath  a 
pleasant  voice  and  can  play  tvell  on  an  instru- 
ment, and  they  hear  thy  words  and  they  do  them 
not,  it  may  be  that  they  would  have  acted 
then,  as  they  did  in  the  time  of  Ezekiel.  It 
may  be,  that  times  like  those  of  Malachi, 
apathetic,  self-justifying,  murmuring,  self- 
complacent,  needed  a  sterner,  abrupter,  more 
startling  voice  to  awaken  them.  Wisdom  was 
justified  of  her  children.  God  wrought  by  him 
a  reformation  for  the  time  being :  He  gave 
through  him  a  warning  to  the  generation, 
when  our  Lord  should  come,  that  He  should 
come,  as  their  Judge  as  well  as  their  Saviour, 
and,  how  they  should  stand  in  the  day  of  His 


k  Davison  on  proplieey  pp.  45U,  4J7.  "Malaclii, 
the  last  of  the  prophets,  as  in  order,  so  in  time; 
and  even  for  that  reason,  by  me  chosen  to  fi.x  mv 
thoughts  on,  before  others,  becau.se  nearest,  there- 
fore, in  conjunction  with  the  Gospel;  to  which  it 
leads  us  by  the  hand,  and  delivers  us  over;  for 
that  h<»i^\ns,  \vh>>re  he  fnd?i."     Pococke,  Jirdication. 

Mv.*.  >"  Ezek.  .\xxiii.  ;;^. 


464 


MALACHI. 


Coming.  He  gave  it  as  a  book  to  His  whole 
Church,  whereby  to  distinguish  seeming 
from  real  service.  Parting  words  are  always 
solemn,  as  closing  the  past,  and  opening  out 
a  future  of  expectation  before  us.  The  posi- 
tion of  Malachi,  as  the  last  of  the  prophets, 
bids  us  the  more  solemnly  prepare  for  that 


dread  Day,  our  Lord's  Second  Coming,  which 
he  foretold,  in  one  with  the  First,  warning 
us  that  we  deceive  not  ourselves,  in  uncon- 
sciousness of  our  own  evil  and  remembrance 
of  our  seeming  good,  until  He  profess  unto 
us,  °i  never  knew  you,;  depart  from  Me,  ye  thai 
work  iniquity. 

»8.  Matt.  viL  23. 


MALAOHI 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

1  Malachi  complaineth  of  Israel's 
unkindness,  6  Of  their  irrdig- 
iousness,  12  and  profaneness, 

[E  burden  of  the  word 


JH] 


t  Heb.  by  the  of  the  LoRD  to  Israel 

nana  of  Mala- 
chi. fby  Malachi. 

»Deut.  7. 8.  A      T    1              1          1 

&10. 15.  2  *1  have  loved  you, 


Chap.  1. 1.  The  burden  of  the  word  of  the 
Lord  to  Israel.  "  ^  The  word  of  the  Lord  is 
heavy,  because  it  is  called  a  burden,  yet  it 
hath  something  of  consolation,  because  it  is 
not  'against,'  but  to  Israel.  For  it  is  one 
thing  when  we  write  to  this  or  that  person  ; 
another,  when  we  write  '  against'  this  or  that 
person  ;  the  one  being  the  part  of  friendship, 
the  other,  the  open  admission  of  enmity." 

By  the  hand  of  Malachi ;  through  him,  as 
the  instrument  of  God,  deposited  with  him  ; 
as  S.  Paul  speaks  of  ^  the  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel,  '^  the  word  of  reconciliation,  *  the  Gospel 
of  the  uncircumcision,  being  committed  to  him. 

2.  /  have  loved  you,  saith  the  Lord.  What  a 
volume  of  God's  relations  to  us  in  two  sim- 
ple words,  I-have-loved  you  ^.  So  would  not 
God  speak,  unless  He  still  loved.  "  I  have 
loved  and  do  love  you,"  is  the  force  of  the 
words.  When?  and  since  when?  In  all 
eternity  God  loved ;  in  all  our  past,  God 
loved.  Tokens  of  His  love,  past  or  present, 
in  good  or  seeming  ill,  are  but  an  effluence 
of  that  everlasting  love.  He,  the  Unchange- 
able, ever  loved,  as  the  Apostle  of  love  says  ; 
"we  love  Him,  because  He  first  loved  us.  The 
deliverance  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt,  the 
making  them  His  '' pecidiar  people,  the  adop- 
tion, the  covenant,  the  giving  of  the  law,  the  serz'- 
iee  of  God  and  His  promises,  all  the  several 
mercies  involved  in  these,  the  feeding  with 
manna,  the  deliverance  from  their  enemies 
wiienever  they  returned  to  Him,  their  recent 
restoration,  the  gift  of  the  prophets,  were  so 
many  single  pulses  of  God's  everlasting  love, 
uniform  in  itself,  manifold  in  its  manifesta- 
tions. Rut  it  is  more  than  a  declaration  of  His 
everlasting  love.  "I  have  loved  you;"  God 
would  say;  with '"^a  snecial  love,  a  more 
than  ordinary  love,  with  greater  tokens  of 

1 S.  .Jer.      2 1  Cor.  ix.  17,  Tiv.  i.  3.      »  2  Cor.  v.  19. 

•>Gal.  ii.  7.    1  Tim.  18.  ^  DDnX  'n^HK. 

«1  S.  John  iv.  19.  '  Rom.  ix.  4.  »  Poc. 

»  Ps.  Ixxviii.  11.  i^Ib.  evi.  13.  n  Lap. 

'2Gen.  XXV   23.  is  lb.  xxix.  .31. 

1*  Jlljn,  in  thi.s  fern,  form,  is  but  a  variation  from 

the  form  elsewhere,  D'Jjn.as  we  have  S^X  and  nS*{<, 

Ewald.  Lehrb.  n.  147b.  p.  468.  ed.  8.    Ges.'s  render- 
ing "dwellings"  (after  the  LXX.  S^nara  iprinov, 
and  Syr.)  falls  in    many  ways.    The  .\rab    IlKJJn 
30 


saith  the  Lord.    Yet  ye    chrTst 
say,  Wherein  hast  t  h  o  u  __£iEii!!!i__ 
loved  us?   Was  not  Esau 
Jacob's  brother?  saith  the 
Lord:    yet    ""I    loved " Rom. e. is. 
Jacob. 

^     .      ,    T-    ,  ,     -.^  oJer.  49. 18. 

3  And  I  hated   Esau,  Ezek. 35.3,4, 

,        ,    .  1      ,  .  .  7, 9,  14,  15. 

and  °  laid    his    mountains  Obad.  10,  &c. 


love,  than  to  others."  So  God  brings  to  thpi 
penitent  soul  the  thought  of  its  ingratitude  : 
I  have  loved  you :  I,  you.  And  ye  have  said, 
Wherein  hast  Thou  loved  us  ?  It  is  a  charac- 
teristic of  Malachi  to  exhibit  in  all  its  naked- 
ness man's  ingratitude.  This  is  the  one 
voice  of  all  men's  murmurings,  ignoring  all 
God's  past  and  present  mercies,  in  view  of 
the  one  thing  which  He  withholds,  though 
they  dare  not  put  it  into  words :  Wherein 
hast  Thou  loved  w,s  ?  *  Within  a  xvhile  they  forgat 
His  works,  and  the  wonders  that  He  had  shewed 
them :  ^^  they  made  haste,  they  forgat  His  works. 

Was  not  Esau  Jacob's  brother/  saith  the 
Lord :  and  I  loved  Jacob,  and  Esau  have  J 
haled.  ""W^hile  they  were  yet  in  their 
mother's  womb,  before  any  good  or  evil 
deserts  of  either,  God  said  to  their  mother, 
''■^  The  elder  shall  serve  the  younger.  The  hatred 
was  not  a  proper  and  formed  hatred,  (for 
God  could  not  hate  Esau  before  he  sinned) 
but  only  a  lesser  love,"  which,  in  comparison 
to  the  great  love  for  Jacob,  seemed  as  if  it 
were  not  love.  "  "  So  he  says,  ^^  The  Lord 
saiv  that  Leah  was  hated;  where  Jacob's 
neglect  of  Leah,  and  lesser  love  than  for 
Eachel,  is  called  '  hatred  ; '  yet  Jacob  did  not 
literally  hate  Leah,  whom  he  loved  and  cared 
for  as  his  wile."  This  greater  love  was 
shewn  in  preferring  the  Jews  to  the  Edomites, 
giving  to  the  Jews  His  law,  Chuich,  temple, 
prophets,  and  subjecting  Edom  to  them  ;  and 
especially  in  the  recent  deliverance,  "'*  He 
does  not  speak  directly  of  predestination,  but 
of  prseelection,  (o  temporal  goods."  God 
gave  both  nations  alike  over  to  the  Chaldees 
for  the  punishment  of  their  sins ;  but  the  Jews 
He  brought  back,  Edom  He  left  unrestored. 

3.  And.  I  made  his  mountains  a  waste,  and 
his  heritage  for  the  jackals  "  of  the  wUderness. 

which  he,  after  Pococke,  compares,  is  a  nomen 
actionis,  "a  remaining,  staying,  dwelling,  abiding 
[in  a  country,  town,  place],  not  "the  dwelhng  '  it- 
self 2)  he  supposes  piiri  to  be  =  PMi^Pi  (with  dag. 
lorte  euphon.)  as  ni^pO  for  nKtypD,  hSo'D  for 
ns'^DO,"  (see  Rod.  in  Ges.  Thes.)  But  this  would 
be' to  derive  it  from  NJH.  with  the  characteristics 
of  rjn  and    none    of  S<jr\.    3)   "dwellings  of  the 

465 


466 


MALACHT. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


and  his  heritage  waste  for 
the  dragons  of  the  wilder- 
ness. 

4  Whereas  Edom  saith, 
We  are  impoverished,  but 
we  will  return  and  build 
the  desolate  places;  thus 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
They  shall  build,  but  I 
•will  throw  down ;  and  they 


Malachi  attests  the  first  stage  of  fulfillment 
of  Joel's  prophecy,  ^  Edom  shall  be  a  dcmlate 
wilderness.  In  temporal  things,  Esau's  bless- 
ing was  identical  with  Jacob's ;  the  fatness  of 
the  earth  and  of  the  dew  of  hraven  from  above  ; 
and  the  rich  soil  on  the  terraces  of  its  moun- 
tain-sides, though  yielding  nothing  now  ex- 
cept a  wild  beautiful  vegetation,  and  its  deep 
glens,  attest  what  they  once  must  have  been, 
when  artificially  watered  and  cultivated. 
The  first  desolation  must  have  been  through 
Nebuchadnezzar  '•^  in  his  expedition  against 
Egypt,  when  he  subdued  Moab  and  Ammon  ; 
and  Edom  lay  in  his  way,  as  Jeremiah  had 
foretold  *. 

4.  Whereas  Edom  saith*,  We  are  impover- 
ished^, or,  more  probably,  we  were  crushed. 
Either  gives  an  adequate  sense.  Human 
self-confidence  will  admit  anything,  as  to  the 
past ;  nay,  will  even  exaggerate  past  evil  to 
itself,  "Crush  us  how  they  may,  we  will  arise 
and  repair  our  losses."  So  Ephraim  said  of 
old,  "  *  in  the  pride  and  stoutness  of  heart,  The 
bricks  are  fallen  down,  but  we  ivill  build  tvith 
hewn-stones :  the  sycamores  are  cut  doirn,  but  we 
will  change  them  into  cedars.  It  is  the  one 
language  of  what  calls  itself,  "  indomitable ; " 
in  other  words,  "  untameable,"  conquerors  or 
every  other  gambler ;  "  we  will  repair  our 
losses."     All  is  again  staked  and  lust. 

They  .nhatl  call  them  the  border  of  uickedne^is. 
Formerly  it  liad  its  own  proper  name,  the 
border  of  Edom,  as  other  countries,  '^all  the 
border  of  Egypt,  "  the  border  of  Moab,  *  the  whole 
border  of  Israk, '"  tJie  border  of  Israel,  "  the  whole 

wilflerneop,"  is  tlie  contradictory  of  what  is  meant, 
complete  desolation.    >  Joel  iii.  19.  vol.  i.  pp.  214,  215. 

2.I0S.  Ant.  .X.  11.    See  vol.  i.  on  Obad.  Hi.  p.  362. 

*.Jer.  x.xv.  !i,  21. 

*"^OKn,  Kdom,  for  IdumfCft,  and  .«o  fern. 

6  So  .Ion.  and  Syr.  here  KaTeo-Tpan-Toi,  LXX :  de- 
structl  sniims,  VuIr.  R.  Tanchnm  gives  both,  here 
and  on  Ji-r.  v  17,  and  Sal.  h.  Mel.  here  out  of  Kim. 
on  Jer.  v.  17,"  Poc.  On  .Icrem.,  Tanchnm  say«  the 
meaning  "cutoff"  .suits  best  the  mention  of  the 
.word.  Perhaps  \ilVf^  n'«y  *^t'  —  1'y "1,  and  VJ^tfW,, 
"Tarshish,"  may  be  so  called,  as  a  boast,  "she 
crushes."  Syr.j  in  .lerem.  also  has  "impover- 
ished;" Jon.  "destroy ;  "  S.  Jer.  "conteret."  The 
oAoTJiaouffi  of  the  LXX.  probably  implifs  it  inis- 
r.ndlng,  U^B^T- 


shall  call  them,  The  border    ^  h  r°i  s  t 
of  wickedness,   and.  The      <'''••  ^97. 
people   against  whom  the 
Lord  hath  indignation  for 
ever. 

5  And  your  eyes  shall 
see,  and  ye  shall  say, 
^  The  Lord  will  be  niagni-  ^  „  „.  _ 

*=        *  Ps.  35.  27. 

fied  II  t  from  the  border  of  1  Or  upon. 

"   '  tHeb. /row 

Israel.  ^pon. 


border  of  the  Amorite.  Henceforth  it  should 
be  known  no  more  by  its  own  name ;  but  as 
the  border  of  wickedness,  where  wickedness 
formerly  dwelt,  and  hence  the  judgment  of 
God  and  desolation  from  Him  came  upon  it, 
"  an  accursed  land."  Somewhat  in  like  way 
Jeremiah  says  of  Jerusalem,  ''■'  Many  nations 
shall  pa.%s  by  this  city,  and  they  shall  say,  every 
man  to  his  neighbor.  Wherefore  hath  the  Lord, 
done  this  unto  this  great  city?  Then  they  shall 
answer,  Because  they  have  forsaken  the  covciuint 
of  the  Lord  their  God,  and  irorshiped  other  gods 
and  served  them.  Only  Israel  would  retain 
its  name,  as  it  has  ;  Edom  should  be  blotted 
out  wholly  and  for  ever. 

5.  And  your  eyes  shall  see.  Malicious 
pleasure  in  looking  on  at  the  misery  of 
Judaea  and  Jerusalem,  had  been  a  special  sin 
of  Edom  :  now  God  would  shew  Judah  the 
fruit  of  its  reversal,  and  His  goodness  toward 
themselves.  ""Ye  have  a.ssurance  of  His 
love  toward  you  and  providence  over  you, 
when  ye  see  that  ye  are  returned  to  your  own 
land,  and  can  inhabit  it,  but  they  cannot  do 
tliis:  but  they  build  and  J  throw  down,  and  ye 
therefore  praise  and  magnify  My  name  for 
this,  and  ye  shall  say.  The  Lord  shall  be  mag- 
nified on  the  border  of  Israel,  i.  e.  His  great- 
ness shall  be  always  manifest  upon  you;" 
high  above  and  exalted  over  the  border  of 
IsraeP'',  wiiich  shall  retain  its  name,  while 
Edom  shall  have  ceased  to  be.  Wickedness, 
gives  its  name  to  Edom's  border,  as  in 
Zechariah's  vision  it  was  i-emoved  and  settled 
in  Babylon  "*. 

«Is.  ix.  9,10.         'Ex.r    U,  ls».       "De.  ii.  18. 

«1  Sam.  xi.  3,  7,  xxvii.  1, 1  Chr.  xxi.  12. 

w  2  Chr.  xi.  13.  "  Jud.  xi.  22. 

J2  Jer.  xxii.  8,  0.  Comp.  Deut.  xxix.  23-28. 

"Tanchnm  in  Poc.  here.  Tanchnm  gives,  as 
constructions  of  others,  "the  Lord,  Who  protect- 
eth  the  border  of  Israel,"  or  "ye  from  the  border 
of  Israel,"  or,  "  it  had  been  fitting  that  ye  should 
do  this  and  abide  in  it:  but  ye  have  done  the  con- 
trary," as  he  explains  afterward. 

'<  V^>  *■*  '"  E<^^''  ^'-  ''<  '"^^^  ^y,^-  '"^^^T  "'^"" 
high  from  above  the  high;"  F.zck.  i.  2S.  "a  voice 
from  the  finnament  (V>'D)  from  above  their  heads," 
Gen.  i.  7,  "  the  waters  above  the  firmaoient." 

ii^Zech.  V.  8,  11. 


CHAPTER   r. 


467 


c  H  rTs  t        6  ^  a  sen  "  honoreth  his 
cir.  397.       father,  and  a  servant  his 
'if  then  I  6e  a  fa- 


•  Ex.  20.  12. 
fLuke  6.46 


master 

ther,  where  is  mine  honor  ? 


6.  A  son  honoreth  his  father,  and  a  slave  his 
lord.  Having  spoken  of  the  love  of  God,  he 
turns  to  the  thanklessness  of  man.  God 
appeals  to  the  first  feelings  of  the  human 
heart,  the  relation  of  parent  and  child,  or, 
failing  this,  to  the  natural  self-interest  of 
those  dependent  on  their  fellow-men.  A  son 
by  the  instinct  of  nature,  by  the  unwritten 
law  written  in  the  heart,  honoreth  his  father. 
If  he  fail  to  do  so,  he  is  counted  to  have 
broken  the  law  of  nature,  to  be  an  unnatural 
sou.  If  lie  is,  what  by  nature  he  ought  to  be, 
he  does  really  honor  him.  He  does  not  even 
speak  of  love,  as  to  which  they  might  de- 
ceive themselves.  He  speaks  of  honor,  out- 
ward reverence  only  ;  which  whoso  sheweth 
not,  would  openly  condemn  himself  as  an 
unnatural  son,  a  bad  slave.  "  Of  course,'' 
the  Jews  would  say,  "  children  honor 
parents,  and  slaves  their  masters,  but  what  is 
that  to  us  ?  "  God  turns  to  them  their  own 
mental  admission. 

If  I  am  a  Father.  "  ^  Although,  before  ye 
were  born,  I  began  to  love  you  in  Jacob  as 
sons,  yet  clioose  by  what  title  ye  will  name 
Me :  I  am  either  your  Father  or  your  Lord. 
If  a  Father,  render  me  the  honor  due  to  a 
father,  and  offer  the  piety  worthy  of  a  parent. 
If  a  Lord,  wl  y  despise  ye  Me  ?  wliy  fear  ye 
not  your  Lord?"  God  was  their  Father  by 
creation,  as  He  is  Father  of  all,  as  Creator  of 
all.  He  had  come  to  be  their  Father  in  a 
nearer  way,  by  temporal  redemption  and 
adoption  as  His  peculiar  people,  creating 
them  to  be  a  nation  to  His  glory.  This  they 
were  taught  to  confess  in  their  psalmody, 
"^  He  hath  made  us,  and  not  ice  ourselves;  we 
are  His  people  and  the  sheep  of  His  pasture. 
This  title  God  had  given  them  in  sight  of 
the  Egyptians,  *  Israel  is  My  son,  My  firstborn  : 
of  this  Hosea  reminded  them ;  *  When  Israel 
was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him,  and  called  My  son 
out  of  Egypt ;  and  Jeremiah  reassured  them, 
^  I  am  a  Father  to  Israel  and  Ephraim  is  My 
first-born :  this,  Isaiah  had  pleaded  to  God ; 
^Doubtless  Thou  art  our  Father,  though  Abra- 
ham be  ignorant  of  vs,  and  Israel  aeknouiedge 
us  not.  Thou,  O  Lord,  art  our  Father,  our 
Redeemer,  Thy  name,  is  from  everlasting.  ^And 
now,  0  Lord,  Thou  art  our  Father  ;  we  the  clay, 
nncl  Tliou  our  potter ;  and  we  all,  the  work  of 
Thy  hands.  God  had  impressed  this  His 
relation  of  Father,  in  Moses'  prophetic  warn- 

iS.  Jei,  «Ps.  C.  3 

»  Ex.  iv.  22.  ••  Hos.  xi.  1.    See  vol.  i.  p.  109. 

s  .Jer.  xxxi.  9.  •  Is.  Ixiii.  16.        "  lb.  Ixiv.  8. 

8  Pent,  xxxii.  6.  » Lap. 


and  if  1  be  &  master,  where    ^  h  R°i  s  t 
is  my  fear  ?  saith  the  Lord      ^ir.  397. 
of  hosts  unto  you,  O 
priests,    that    despise    my 


ing ;  ®  Do  ye  thus  requite  the  Lord,  0  foolish 
people  and  unwise  f  Is  not  He  thy  Father  that 
hath  bought  theef  hath  He  not  made  thee  and, 
established  theef  '"God  is  the  Father  of  the 
faithful ;  1 )  by  creation  ;  2)  by  preservation 
and  governance ;  3)  by  alimony ;  4)  by 
fatherly  care  and  providence ;  5)  by  faith 
and  grace,  whereby  He  justifies  and  adopts 
us  as  sons  and  heirs  of  His  kingdom." 

If  I  am  a  Father.  He  does  not  throw 
doubt,  that  He  is  our  Father ;  but,  by  diso- 
bedience, we  in  deeds  deny  it.  Our  life 
denies  what  we  in  words  profess.  Where  is 
My  honor  f  "  i"  Why  obey  ye  not  My  pre- 
cepts, nor  honor  Me  with  acts  of  adoration  ; 
praying,  praising,  giving  thanks,  sacrificing, 
and  reverently  fulfilling  every  work  of  God  ? 
For  ^^  cursed  is  he  that  doeth  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  deceitfully." 

And  if  lam  your  Lord,  "as  I  certainly  am, 
and  specially  by  singular  providence." 
"  ^^  He  is  our  Lord  by  the  same  titles,  that 
He  is  our  Father,  and  by  others,  as  that  He 
has  redeemed  us,  and  purchased  us  to  Him- 
self by  the  Blood  of  His  Son ;  that  He  is  the 
Supreme  Majesty,  Whom  all  creation  is 
bound  to  serve ;  that,  setting  before  us  the 
reward  of  eternal  glory,  He  has  hired  us  as 
servants  and  laborers  into  His  vineyard." 
God  Alone  is  Lord  through  universal  sover- 
eignty, underived  authority,  and  original 
source  of  laws,  iirecepts,  rights ;  and  all  other 
lords  are  but  as  ministers  and  instruments, 
compared  to  Him,  the  Lord  and  original 
Doer  of  all.  Hence  He  says,  ^^  I  am  the 
Lord ;  that  is  My  Name,  and  My  glory  will  I 
not  give  to  another. 

Where  is  My  fear?  which  ought  to  be  shewn 
Me.  "  ^*  If  thou  art  a  servant,  render  to  the 
Lord  the  service  of  fear ;  if  a  son,  shew  to 
thy  Father  the  feeling  of  piety.  But  thou 
renderest  not  thanks,  neither  lovest  nor 
fearest  God.  Thou  art  then  either  a  contu- 
macious servant  or  a  proud  son."  "^''Fear 
includes  reverence,  adoration,  sacrifice,  the 
whole  worship  of  God."  "  '^  Whoso  feareth 
is  not  over-curious,  but  adores;  is  not  in> 
quisitive,  but  praises,  and  glorifies." 

" '"  Fear  is  twofohl ;  servile,  whereby  pun. 
ishment,  not  fault,  is  dreaded;  filial,  by 
which  fault  is  feared.  In  like  way  service  in 
twofold.  A  servant  with  a  service  of  feai-, 
purely  servile,  does  not  deserve  to  be  called 


wDion.      "Jer.  xlviii.  10.     i^Lap.     "  Is.  xlii.  8. 
1*  Lap.  as  from  S.  Ambr. 

»S.  Chvrs.  de  luoompr.  Dei.  Horn.  li.  T.  1.  p.  459. 
Beu. 


468 


MALACHI. 


chrTst    ^^™®-      '^^^    y®   Sf)'' 
cir.  397.      Wherein  have  we  despised 


I  ch.  2.  14,  17 
&  3.  7,  8, 13. 


thy  name  ? 


a  son  of  God,  nor  is  in  a  state  of  salvation, 
not  having  love.  Whence  Christ,  distin- 
guishing such  a  servant  from  a  son  of  God 
by  adoption,  saith,  ^  The  servant  abideth  not  in 
the  house  forever,  but  the  son  abideth  ever :  and 
again,  '•'  The  servant  knoiveth  not  what  his  Lord 
doeth.  But  a  servant,  whose  service  is  of 
pure  and  filial  love,  is  also  a  son,  of  whom 
the  Saviour  saith,  *  Well  done,  good  and  faith- 
ful servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord.  But  since  a  distinction  is  made  here 
between  the  son  and  the  servant,  he  seems  to 
be  speaking  of  servile  fear,  which,  although 
it  doth  not  good  well  and  meritoriously,  i.  e. 
with  a  right  intention  and  from  love,  yet 
withdraws  from  ill,  and  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,  because  it  disposeth  to  grace. 
Wlience  it  is  written,  '*Th8  fear  of  the 
Lord  driveth  away  sins,'  and  again  Scripture 
saith,  ^  By  the  fear  of  the  Lord  imin  depart^ 
from  evil." 

"  8  God  requireth  to  be  feared  as  a  Lord, 
honored  as  a  Father,  loved  as  a  Husband. 
Which  is  chiefest  of  these  ?  Love.  With- 
out this,  fear  has  torment,  honor  has  no 
grace.  Fear,  when  not  enfreed  by  love,  is 
servile.  Honor,  which  cometh  not  from 
love,  is  not  honor,  but  adulation.  Honor 
and  glory  belong  to  God  Alone ;  but  neither 
of  them  will  God  accept,  unless  seasoned 
with  the  honey  of  love." 

Saith  the  Lord  unto  you,  0  prieMs,  who  de- 
.^pise  My  Naine,  lit.  despisers  of  My  Name,  hab- 
itually beyond  others.  Tlie  contempt  of 
God  came  specially  from  those  bound  most 

I  to  honor  him.  Priests,  as  consecrated  to 
God,  belonged  especially  to  God.  "'Mala- 
chi  begins  his  prophecy  and  correction  by 

!  the  correction  of  the  priests ;  because  the  re- 
formation of  the  state  and  of  the  laity  hangs 
upon  the  reformation  of  the  clergy  an(|  tlie 
priest;  for  ^as  is  the  pri^;st,  such  also  is  the 
people."  He  turns,  with  a  suddenness  which 
must  have  been  startling  to  them,  to  them 
as  the  centre  of  the  offending. 

And  ye  say,  Wherein  have  we  despised  Thy 
Namef     Before,  it  was  ignorance  of  God's 

»S.  John  viii.  35.  sih.  xv.  15. 

38.  Matt.  XXV.  21, 23.    <  Eeclus.  i.  21.    sPr.  xvi.  0. 

6S.  Bern.  Serm.83  in  Cunt.  n.  4.  0pp.  i.  I'lffl)  Ben. 
Lap.  'Lap.  8Hoh.  Iv.  9.  «Gen.  iv.  9. 

ins.  Matt.  vii.  22,  23.  "  lb.  xxv.  44,  Hi. 

"The  collocation  of  D't^'JO  '«  probably  subor 
■  dinato  to  the  verb,  expressed  in  the  question,  i/e  de 
spise,ojTerin<i;  as  the  participle  often  is  to  the  e.\ 
pressed  finite  verb.  Nu.  xxvi.  27.  Jud.  viii.  4.  Pii 
vli.  3.  Ixxviii.  4,  Job  xiv.  2",  xxiv.  5,  Ezr.  x.  l.Jor. 
xlili.  2  (in^ianoes  out  of  those  in  Ewald  Lohrb.  § 
341.  6  3.  p.  >t;ii>.  ed.  8.)  This  case  is  however  more 
developed  t bun  the  rest,  as  not  beinv:  <'ontemporn- 
neous  uiilv,  lait  in  oxpinnatiou  (jf  tli.it  .-xprossed 


7  II  Ye    ofler"    polluted    chrTst 

bread   upon    mine    altar  ; cir^r. 

and  ye  say,  Wherein  have "  ulto,  !Jtc.^ 

h  Deut.  15.  21. 


love :  now  it  is  ignorance  of  self  and  of  sin. 
They  affect  to  themselves  innocence  and  are 
unconscious  of  any  sin.  They  said  to  them- 
selves doubtless,  (as  many  do  now)  "  we  can- 
not help  it ;  we  do  the  best  we  can,  under  the 
circumstances."  Without  some  knowledge 
of  God's  love,  there  can  be  no  sense  of  sin ; 
without  some  sense  of  sin,  no  knowledge  of 
His  love.  Tliey  take  the  defensive,  they  are 
simply  surprised,  like  Cain,  "^  Am  I  my 
brother's  keeper  f  or  many  of  the  lost  in  the 
Day  of  judgment,  ^'^  Many  will  say  to  3fe  in 
that  day.  Lord,  Lord,  fuive  we  not  prophesied  in 
Thy  Name  f  and  in  Thy  Nanu  liave  cast  ovi 
devils  ?  and  in  Thy  Name  done  imny  wonderful 
works  f  and  yet  were  all  the  while  workers  of 
iniquity,  to  whom  He  will  say,  /  Mver  knew 
you:  and,  ^^ Lord,  when  saw  we  Thee  an 
hungered,  or  athirst,  or  a  stranger,  or  naked,  or 
sick,  or  in  prison,  and  did  not  minister  unto 
Theef  And  yet  they  shall  go  away  into  ever- 
lasting punishment. 

7.  Offering  polluted  bread  upon  Mine  altar. 
This,  continuing  on  the  words,  despisers  of 
My  Name^'\  is  the  answer  to  their  question, 
Wherein  have  ive  despised  Thy  Namef  Bread 
might  stand,  in  itself,  either  for  the  shew- 
bread,  or  for  the  "  mincliah,"  meal-offering, 
which  was  the  necessary  accompaniment  of 
sacrifices  and  sometimes  the  whole.  But 
here  the  polluted  bread  cannot  be  the  shewbread, 
since  this  was  not  put  upon  tlie  altar,  but 
upon  its  own  table;  and  although  the  altar  is, 
as  here,  also  called  "a  table'""  in  regard  to 
the  sacrifice  hereon  consumed,  "  the  table " 
of  the  shewbread  is  nowhere  called  "  altar." 
The  prophet  then  means  by  bread,  either  the 
meal-offering,  as  representing  the  sacrifice, 
or  the  offerings  by  fire  altogether,  as  in 
Ezekiel,  "  When  ye  offer  My  bread,  the  fat  and 
the  blood ;  and  in  Leviticus,  '*  the  offerings  of 
the  Lord,  made  by  fire,  the  bread  of  their  God, 
do  they  offer;  and  of  the  peace-offering^^,  the 
priest  shall  bum  it  upon  the  altar;  the  bread  of 
the  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord :  and 
specifically,  of  aiiiiiials  with  blemish,  as 
these,    it '  is    forbidden,    "  Neitlier   from    a 

by  the  finite  verb.  B'' JH  is  used  with  S,  of  offer- 
ings to  God,  Am.  V  25,  Mai.  ii.  12 ;  with  Si',  here  only. 

"inEzek.  xli.  22,  the  "altar  "  is  called  the  tnhlc 
that  is  before  the  Xo?rf,and  in  regard  to  the  offerinx 
of  the  sacrifice,  it  is  said,  they  shall  come  near  to  mij 
table,  Ezek.  xli.  15, 1(>.  "  Ezek.  xliv.  7. 

""Lev  xxi.  fi:  more  brieriy,  the  bread  of  thy  Ood, 
ib.  8,  of  his  God,  ib.  17  and  (parallel  with  to  offer  the 
otferiiu/n  of  the  Lord  made  bii  fire,)  21 ;  to  eat  the 
bread  of  his  Ood  (in  contrast  with  oftoring  it)  ib.  22, 
and  inNu.  xxxiii.  2,  "  thy  offering,  thy  bread  for  thu 
siirrifictH  made  bi/  tire,  shall  //e  observe  to  offer  to  Mf. 

loLov.  iii.  U.     "  "lb.  xxii.2.-.. 


CHAPTER  T. 


469 


chrTst    ^^e  polluted  thee?  In  that 
cir.  3!)7.      ye  say, '  The  table  of  the 


i  Ezek.  41. 22.  LoRD  IS  contemptible. 

ver.  12.  ^ 

k Lev. 22.22.  8  And  "if  ye  offer  the 

ver.  u.    " '  blind  t  for  sacrifice,   is  it 

t  Heb.  to  sacri- 

jice.  not  e\al?  and  it  ye  oiier 


strange)-'s  hand  shall  ye  offer  the  bread  of  your 
God,  of  any  of  these,  because  their  corruption  is 
in  them,  blemishes  in  them:  they  shcdl  not  be 
accepted  for  you.  It  was,  as  it  were,  a  feast  of 
God  with  man,  and  what  was  withdrawn 
from  the  use  of  man  by  fire,  was,  as  it  were, 
consumed  by  God,  to  AVhom  it  was  oflered. 

It  was  polluted,  in  that  it  was  contrary  to 
the  law  of  God  which  forbade  to  sacrifice  any 
animal,  Icmie  or  blind  or  with  any  ill  blemish, 
as  being  inconsistent  with  the  typical  per- 
fection of  the  sacrifice.  Even  the  Gentiles 
were  careful  about  the  perfection  of  their 
sacrifices. 

"  1  Blind  is  the  sacrifice  of  the  soul,  which 
is  not  illumined  by  the  light  of  Christ. 
Lame  is  his  sacrifice  of  prayer,  who  comes 
with  a  double  mind  to  entreat  the  Lord." 
"^Heofllereth  one  weak,  whose  heart  is  not 
established  in  tlie  grace  of  God,  nor  by  the 
anclior  of  hope  fixed  in  Christ.  These  words 
are  also  uttered  against  those  who,  being 
rich,  offer  to  the  Creator  the  cheaper  and 
least  things,  and  give  small  alms." 

And  ye  say,  Wherewith  have  we  polluted 
Thee'^1  It  is  a  bold  expression.  Yet  a 
word,  to  which  we  are  but  too  ill-accus- 
tomed, which  expresses  what  most  have 
done,  "  dishonor  God,"  comes  to  the  same. 
Though  less  bold  in  expression,  they  are 
yet  like  in  meaning.  *  Will  ye  pollute  Me 
any  more  among  My  people?  or,  ^that  My 
Name  should  not  be  polluted  before  the  heathen. 
®  My  holy  Name  shall  Israel  no  more  defile ; 
'  /  will  not  let  them  pollute  My  Name  any  more. 
"*Much  more  in  the  new  law,  in  which  the 
Sacrifice  is  Christ  Himself  our  God,  whence 
tlie  Apostle  says  expressly,  ^  Whoso  eateth  this 
bread  and  drinketh  this  Cup  of  the  Lord  un- 
worthily, shall  be  (juilty  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
the  Lord.  "^For  when  the  Sacraments  are 
violated,  Himself,  Whose  Sacraments  they 
are,  is  violated."  God  speaks  of  our  acts 
with  an  unveiled  plainness,  which  we  should 
not  dare  to  use.  "  ^  As  we  are  said  to  sanctify 
Ood,  when  we  minister  to  Him  in  holiness 
and  righteousness,  and  so,  as  far  as  in  us  lies, 

1  S.  Jer.  2  Dion. 

3  The  conj.  SnJ  occurs  only  here :  the  pass.  7HJ. 
here  and  12,  Ezr.  ii.  62,  Neh.  vii.  64,  in  one  idiom. 

*  Ezelc.  :::iii.  19.  '  Jb.  x.x.  9,  14,  22. 

•  lb.  xlili.  7.  'lb.  xxxix.  7.  8Lap. 
»lCor.  xi.  27. 

'"Kin  ni3J;  the  noun  being  prefixed  absolutely, 


the  hum:  and  sick,  w  it  not 
evil  ?  offer  it  now  unto  thy 
governor;  will  he  be 
pleased  with  thee,  or  '  ac- 
cept thy  person  ?  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


1  Job  42.  8. 


shew  that  He  is  holy  ;  so  we  are  said  to  pol- 
lute Him,  when  we  conduct  ourselves  irrev- 
erently and  viciously  before  Ilim,  especially 
in  His  worship,  and  thereby,  as  far  as  in  us 
lies,  shew  that  He  is  not  holy  and  is  to  be 
dishonored." 

Li  that  ye  say,  the  table  of  the  Lord  is  contempt- 
ible, lit.  contemptible  is  it '",  and  so  any  con- 
temptible thing  might  be  offered  on  it.  They 
said  this  probably,  not  in  words,  but  in  deeds. 
Or,  if  in  words,  in  plausible  words.  "  "  God 
doth  not  require  the  ornamenting  of  the 
altar,  but  the  devotion  of  the  offerers." 
"  ^  What  good  is  it,  if  we  offer  the  best?  Be 
what  we  offier,  what  it  may,  it  is  all  to  be 
consumed  by  fire."  "  ®  The  i^retext  at  once 
of  avarice  and  gluttony ! "  And  so  they 
kept  the  best  for  tliemselves.  They  were 
poor,  on  their  return  from  the  captivity. 
Anyhow,  the  sacrifices  were  offered.  What 
could  it  matter  to  God  ?  And  so  they  dis- 
pensed with  God's  law. 

"  ^'^  So  at  this  day  we  see  some  priests  and 
prelates,  splendid  in  their  tables  and  feasts, 
sordid  in  the  altar  and  temple  ;  on  the  table 
are  costly  napkins  and  wine  ;  on  the  Altar 
torn  linen  and  wine-mace  ^^  rather  than 
wine."  " '  We  pollute  the  bread,  that  is,  the 
Body  of  Christ,  when  we  approacli  the  Altar 
unworthily,  and,  being  defiled,  drink  that 
pure  Blood,  and  say,  Tlie  table  of  the  Lord  is 
contemptible;  not  that  any  one  dareth  to  say 
this,  but  the  deeds  of  sinners  pour  contempt 
on  the  Table  of  God." 

8.  And  if  ye  offer  the  blind  for  sacrifice,  is  it 
not  evil  ?  Others,  it  is  not  evil,  as  we  should 
say,  "  there  is  no  harm  in  it."  Both  imply, 
alike,  an  utter  unconsciousness  on  the  part 
of  the  offerer,  that  it  was  evil :  the  one,  in 
irony,  that  this  was  always  their  answer, 
"  there  is  nothing  amiss  ;  "  the  other  is  an 
indignant  question,  "  is  there  indeed  nought 
amiss?"     And  this  seems  the  most  natural. 

The  sacrifice  of  the  blind  and  lame  was  ex- 
pressly forbidden  in  the  law  ^*,  and  the  sick 
in  manifold  varieties  of  animal  disease. 
Whatever  hath  a  blemish  ye  shcdl  not    offer, 

as  in  Gen.  xxxiv.  21,  "  these  men,  peaceful  are  they," 
lb.  xlii.  11;  "all  of  us,  sons  of  one  man  are  ti'e." 
Ewald  n.  297.  b.  pp.  761,  762. 

"  Remig;. 

12  Lap.  referring  to  Card.  Bellarmine  de  gemitu 
columbte. 

"•'villum  ("the  refuse  of  kernels  and  skins,"), 
potius  quam  vinum  "  "  Deut.  xv.  21. 


470 


MALACHI. 


'•■■••  a^"^-  beseech  f  God  that  he  will  [ 
iUeh.  the  face  be  gracious  unto  US :  "this  ' 
"■  Mos-^ia.  9.       hath  been  f  by  your  means : 

t  Heb. /roOT  -n    i,  i 

yourUnd.  Will  he  regard  your  per- 
sons? saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts. 

10  Who  is  there  even 


'  blind  or  with  limb  broken,  or  uonnded  or 
mangy  or  scabby  or  scurfy.  Perfectness  was 
an  essential  principle  of  sacrifice  ;  whetlier, 
as  in  the  daily  Siicrifice,  or  the  sin  or  trespass- 
offering,  typical  of  the  all-perfect  Sacrilice, 
or  in  tlie  whoie-burnt-offcring,  of  the  entire 
self-oblation.  But  these  knew  better  than 
God,  what  was  fit  for  Ilim  and  them.  His 
law  was  to  he  modified  by  circumstances. 
He  would  not  be  so  particular,  (as  men  now 
say  so  often.) 

Is  it  then  fit  to  offer  to  God  wliat  under 
the  very  same  circumstances  man  would  not 
ofler  to  man  ?  Against  these  idle,  ungrateful, 
covetous  thoughts  God  saith, 

Offer  it  now  unto  thy  governor.  He  appeals 
to  our  own  instinctive  thought  of  propriety 
to  our  fellow  creature,  wluch  may  so  often  be 
a  test  to  us.  No  one  would  think  of  acting 
to  a  fellow-creature,  as  they  do  to  Almighty 
God.  Who  would  make  diligent  prepara- 
tion to  receive  any  great  one  of  the  earth,  and 
turn  his  back  upon  him,  when  come?  Yet 
what  else  is  the  l)ehaviorof  most  Christians 
after  Holy  Communion  ?  If  thou  wouldest 
not  do  this  to  a  mortal  man,  who  is  but  dust 
and  ashes,  how  much  less  to  God  Almighty, 
the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  !  "^The 
words  are  a  reproof  to  tiiose  most  negligent 
persons,  who  go  through  their  prayere  to 
God  without  fear,  attention,  reverence  or  feel- 
ing ;  but  if  they  have  to  speak  to  some  great 
man,  prelate  or  prince,  approach  iiim  witii 
great  reverence,  speak  carefully  and  dis- 
tinctly and  are  in  awe  of  him.  Do  not  thou 
prefer  tiie  creature  to  the  Creator,  man  to 
(lod,  tlie  servant  to  the  Lord,  and  that  Lord, 
<«)  exalted  and  so  Infinite." 

9.  And  now  entreat,  I  pray  yon,  God  *,  that 
He  loill  be  gracious  unto  you.  This  is  not  a 
call  to  repentance,  for  lie  assumes  tliat  CJod 
would  not  accept  thefli.  It  is  rather  irony  ; 
"  go  now,  seek  the  favor  of  God,  as  ye  would 
<iot  that  of  your  governor."  From  yrmr  hand, 
not  from  your  fathers,  not  from  aliens,  hath 
this  been:  will  lie  accept  persons  from  you? 
The  unusual  construction  seems  to  imply  a 

'  Lev.  xxii.  22.  «Dion. 

*Sx  seems  to  be  used  purposely  In  contrast  with 
man,  as  in  Ih.  xxxi.  3,  The  Egyptians  are  men  and 
not  Qod. 


auiuiiii  von  that  would  shut    _  ^®i'\''t ,,. 

the   doors   for    n  o ught !      f'*"-  397. 

"  neither  do  ye  kindle  jire  ■>  i  Cor.  9. 13. 

on  mine  altar  for  nought. 

I  have  no  j^leasure  in  you, 

saith   the   Lord  of  hosts, 

"neither   will  I  accept  au»isai.  1. 11. 

„    .  ,        /  Jer.  6.20. 

onering  at  your  hand.  Amos  5. 21. 


difference  of  meaning ;  as  if  he  would  say, 
that  it  consisted  not  with  the  justice  of  God, 
that  He  should  be  an  accepter  of  persona, 
(which  He  declares  that  He  is  not)  which 
yet  He  would  be,  were  He  to  accept  them, 
while  acting  thus. 

10.  117/(j  is  there  even  among  you  ?  This 
stinginess  in  (iod's  service  was  not  confined 
to  those  offices  which  cost  something,  as  the 
sacrifices.  Not  even  services  absolutely  cost- 
less, which  required  only  a  little  trouble,  as 
that  of  closing  the  folding-doors  of  the 
temple  or  the  outer  court,  or  bringing  the 
fire  to  consume  the  sacrifices,  would  they  do 
without  .some  special  hire.  All  was  merce- 
nary and  hireling  service.  Others  iiave  ren- 
dered it  as  a  wish,  w/(o  is  there  among  you  !  i.  e. 
woiUd  that  there  were  one  among  you,  who 
would  close  the  doors  altogether;  so  shall  ye 
not  kindle  fire  on  Mine  altar  for  nought,  i.  e. 
fruitlessly !  But  apart  from  the  difficulty  of 
the  construction,  it  is  not  God's  way  to  quench 
the  smouldering  flax.  He  Who  bids.  Gather 
rip  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be 
lost,  accepts  any  imperfect  service  rather 
than  none.  He  does  not  break  off  the  last 
link,  wliich  binds  man  to  Himself.  Then, 
if  or  when  God  willed  His  service  to  sur- 
cease. He  woidd  do  it  Plimself,  as  He  did  by 
the  destruction  of  the  temple  before  the 
Captivity,  or  finally  by  the  Romans.  It 
would  have  been  an  ungodly  act,  (such  as 
was  only  done  by  Ahaz,  perhaps  the  most 
ungodly  king  of  Israel^),  and  one  which  espe- 
cially called  down  His  wrath*,  to  close  the 
doors,  and  therewith  to  break  off  all  sacrifice. 
Manasseh  carried  the  worship  of  false  gods 
into  the  tem|>le  itself;  Ahaz,  as  far  as  in  him 
lay,  abolished  the  service  of  God.  A  pro- 
))het  of  God  could  not  express  a  wish,  that 
l)ious  Israelites  (for  it  is  presupposed  that 
they  would  do  this  out  of  zeal  for  ( iod's  honor) 
should  bring  the  service  of  Ciod  to  an  end. 

He  sums  up  with  an  entire  rejection  of 
them,  {)resent  and  future.  I  have  no  pleasure 
in  you  ;  it  is  a  term  of  repudiation  ®,  some- 
times of  disgust ',  neither  will  I  accept   an  offer- 

*  2  Chron.  xxviii.  24.  "  lb.  xxix.  8. 

*  3  r£3n  ya  l  Sam.  xvlii.  26.  Eccl.  v.  3.  [4  Eng.) 

'  13  van  rX  ^h2  Jer.  xxll.  28,  ilvlli.  38,  Ho». 
vlii.  8. '  ' 


CHAPTER  1. 


471 


feefoie  1 1  Por  ^  from  the  risiug 

CHRIST  A  -M.    -m.  ^'.                                      o 

cir.  397.  of  the  sun  even  unto  tlie 

pPs.  113. 3.  going  down   of  the  same 

Isai.59.19.  ^^    ^^^^    ^J^^^     jg    g^.gj^l- 


''  among  the  Gentiles  ; '  and    ^  h  rTI  t 
in  every  place   '  incense      "^-  ''^^'^■ 


mg  at  your  hands.  He  says  not  simply,  ^  your 
burnt-offerings  are  not  acceptable,  nor  your  sac- 
rifices sweet  unto  Me,  but,  /  mil  not  accept  it. 
Siich  as  they  were,  such  they  would  be  here- 
aiter.  God  would  not  accept  their  sacrifices, 
but  would  replace  them. 

11.  For.  The  form  of  words  does  not  ex- 
press whether  this  declaration  relates  to  tlie 
l)resent  or  the  future.  It  is  a  vivid  present, 
such  as  is  often  used  to  describe  the  future. 
But  the  tilings  spoken  of  shew  it  to  be  future. 
The  Jewish  sacrifices  had  defects,  partly  in- 
cidental, partly  inherent.  Incidental  were 
those,  whh  which  the  Prophet  had  upbraided 
them;  inherent,  (apart  from  tlieir  mere 
typical  characterjthat  they  never  could  be  the 
religion  of  the  world,  since  they  were  locally 
iixed  at  Jerusalem.  Malachi  tells  them  of  a 
new  sacrifice,  which  should  be  offered 
throughout  the  then  heathen  world,  grounded 
on  His  new  revelation  of  Himself  to  them. 
For  great  shall  be  3Iij  Name  among  the  heuthai. 
The  prophet  anticipates  an  objection  ^  which 
the  Jews  might  make  to  him.  ^  }Vhat  then 
vill  God  do  unto  His  great  Name  f  Those  by 
which  He  would  replace  them,  would  be 
more  worthy  of  God  in  two  ways,  1)  in  them- 
stdves,  2)  in  their  universality.  Then^  what- 
soever the  heathen  worshiped,  even  if  some 
worshiped  an  unknoim  Ood,  His  Name  was 
not  known  to  them,  nor  great  among ^  them. 
Those  who  knew  of  Him,  knew  of  Him,  not 
as  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  but  as  the 
God  of  the  Jews  only ;  tlieir  offerings  were 
not  pure,  but  manifoldly  defiled.  A  Hebrew 
prophet  could  not  be  an  apologist  for  heathen 
idolatry  amidst  its  abominations,  or  set  it  on 
a  level  wath  the  worship  which  God  had,  for 
the  time,  appointed  ;  much  less  could  he  set 
it  forth  as  the  true  acceptable  service  of  God  *. 
Malachi  himself  speaks  of  it,  as  an  aggrava- 

1  Jer.  vi.  20.  -  Poc.  »  jos.  vii.  9. 

«So  in  Rashi;  Our  rabbis  say,  that  "they  [the 
lieathen]  called  Him  [the  Lord]  God  of  gods;  he 
too  who  hath  an  idol,  knoweth,  that  He  [the  Lord] 
is  God  that  He  is  above  all  those  things,  and  tliat 
in  every  place  the  Gentiles  also,  of  their  own  aoeord, 
offer  unto  my  name.  But  our  rabbis  have  ex- 
i)ounded,that  they  [those  spoken  of]  are  the  disci- 
ples of  the  wise,  who  in  every  place  are  occupied 
in  the  rules  of  the  Divine  worship ;  so  also  all  the 
prayers  of  Israel,  which  they  make  in  every  place, 
these  are  like  a  pure  oblation  (Minchah),  and  so 
.lonathan  interprets,  'at  whatever  time  ye  shall  do 
Aly  will,  I  receive  your  prayers, and  My  great  name 
is  sanctified  by  vou,  and  your  prayer  is  like  a  pure 
oblation  before  Me.'"  See  Ibn  Ezra,  D.  Kim.,  Ian- 
chum,  Abarb.,  in  Foe.  „  ,.     , 

sMal.  ii.  11.  szeph.  n.  11. 

■  S.  John  iv.  21,  23,  24.  *S.  Matt.  xxi.  41,  43. 

» Id.  viii.  11, 12. 


shall  he   offered  unto   myrjohn4. 21, 23. 

,  „.    .  1  Tim.  2. 8. 

name, and  a  pure  oiiering : .Rev. 8. 3. 


tion  of  cruelty  in  their  divorcing  of  their 
wives,  that  they  ° married  the  daughter  of  a 
strange  god.  The  worship  of  those  Jews,  who 
remained,  out  of  secular  interests,  in  foreign 
countries,  could  not  be  represented  as  the 
"  pure  offering ;  "  for  they  made  no  offerings  : 
then  as  now,  these  being  forbidden  out  of  Je- 
rusalem ;  nor  would  the  worship  of  such 
Jews,  as  were  scattered  in  the  large  empire 
of  Persia,  be  contrasted  with  that  at  Jerusa- 
lem, as  the  pure  woi-ship  ;  else  why  should 
the  Jews  have  returned  ?  It  would  have  been 
an  abolition  of  the  law  before  its  time.  Mal- 
achi prophesies  then,  as  had  Micah,  Isaiah, 
Zephaniah",  of  a  new  revelation  of  God, 
when,  and  in  which,  men  should  worship 
Him,  every  one  from  his  place,  even  all  the  isles 
of  the  heathen. 

Our  Lord  Himself  explains  and  expands 
it  in  His  words  to  the  Samaritan  woman  ; 
'  Woman,  believe  Me,  the  hour  cometh,  when  ye 
shall  neither  in  this  mountain,  nor  yet  at  Jeru- 
salem, worship  the  Father. — The  hour  cometh,  and 
now  is,  when  the  true  worshipers  shall  worship 
the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth;  for  the  Father 
seekefh  such  to  worship  Him.  God  isaSpint: 
and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth,  and  declared  the  rejection 
of  the  Jews,  sealing  their  own  sentence 
against  themselves,  ^  I  say  unto  you,  Theking- 
dmn  of  God  shall  be  taken  from  you,  and  given 
to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof  ;  and 
before,  '  Many  shcdl  come  from  the  East  ai\d 
West,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham  and 
Isaac  and  Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and 
the  children  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  cast  out  into 
outer  darkness. 

Incense  shall  be  offered  unto  My  name,  lit.  I 
think,  there  shall  be  incense,  oblation  made  unto 
My  name  [this  is  a  mere  question  of  construc- 
tion *"],  and  a  pure  oblation. 

'"U'JD  ItDpP  are,  I  think  most  probably,  two  in- 
dependent impersonal  passive  participles,  taken  as 
future,  "  will  be  incensed,  offered  fwird  gerauchert, 
dargebrachtasEwald  J(Lehrb.29.5a)  'lU'i'n,  "  there 
is  begun,"  Tlt^,  "there  Is  wasted,"  "l^np  "there 
is  spoken  "(Ps.  ixxxvii.  3),  and  this  place.  Tan- 
chum  praises  Abuiwalid  for  taking  IDpO  a.s  a 
noun  ==  rrnOp  (Lib-  Rad.  col.  6.34).  He  adds," The 
rest  (n"^'^')  take  them  as  adjectives  with  an  unex- 
pressed substantive."  This,  I  think  right :  for,  al- 
though IDpO  might  be  '  what  is  incensed,'  and  so 
a  subst.,  B'Un  IS  u.sed  elsewhere  of  offering  a  sac- 
rifice, not  of  offering  incense,  and  so  TC3pO  could 
not  be  the  subject  to  it.  '  _ 


472 


MALACHl. 


This  sacrifice,  which  should  be  oflfered,  is 
designated  by  the  special  name  of  meal-offer- 
inrj '.  God  would  not  accept  it  from  tlie 
Jews;  He  would,  from  the  Heatlien.  It  was 
a  special  sacrifice,  oflered  by  itself  as  an  un- 
bloody sacrifice,  or  together  with  the  bloody 
sacrifice.  */<  is  lao.^l  hohj,  a.s  (he  dn-offering 
and  CDS  (he  irespa.''f:-offering.  In  the  daily  sacrifice 
it  was  oflierea  moruing  and  evening,  with  the 
lamb.  As  this  was  typical  of  the  precious 
blood-shedding  of  the  Lamb  without  spot  upon 
tlie  Cross,  so  was  the  meal-ofl^ering  which 
accompanied  it,  of  the  Holy  Eucharist. 

The  early  Cliristians  saw  the  force  of  the 
prediction,  that  sacrifice  was  contrasted  with 
sacrilice,  the  bloody  sacrifices  which  were 
ended  by  the  "  One  full  perfect  and  sufficient 
^>acrifice  Oblation  and  Satisfaction  "  made  by 
our  Lord  "on  the  Altar  of  the  Cross  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world,"  and  those  sacrifices 
which  He  commanded  to  be  made  on  our 
Altars,  as  a  memorial  of  Him.  So  S.  Justin, 
who  was  converted  probably  A.  D.  133, 
within  30  years  from  the  death  of  S.  John, 
says,  "  *  God  has  therefore  beforehand  de- 
clared, that  all  who  through  this  name  offer 
those  sacrifices,  which  Jesus,  Who  is  the 
Christ,  commanded  to  be  offered,  that  is  to 
say,  in  the  Eucharist  of  the  Bread  and  of  the 
Cup,  which  are  offered  in  every  part  of  the 
world  by  us  Christians,  are  well-pleasing  to 
Him.  But  those  sacrifices,  which  are  ofTered 
by  you  and  through  those  priests  of  yours, 
He  wholly  rejects,  saying.  And  I  will  not 
accept  your  offerings  at  your  hands.  For  from 
the  rising  of  the  sun  even  to  the  going  down  of 
the  same,  My  Name  is  glorified  among  the  Gen- 
tiles;  bat  ye  profane  it." 

He  points  out  further  the  failure  of  the 
Jewish  explanation  as  to  their  sacrifices,  in 
that  the  Church  was  everywhere,  not  so  the 
Jews.  "  *  You  and  your  teachers  deceive 
yourselves,  when  you  interpret  this  passage 
of  Scripture  of  those  of  your  nation  who 
were  in  the  dispersion  *,  and  say  that  it 
speaks  of  their  prayers  and  sacrifices  made 
in  every  place,  as  pure  and  well-pleasing, 
and  know  that  you  speak  falsely,  and 
endeavor  in  every  way  to  impose  upon 
yourselves;  first,  because  your  people  are 
not  found,  even  now,  from  the  rising  to  the 
setting  of  the  sun,  but  there  are  nations,  in 
whicli  none  of  your  race  have  ever  dwelt: 
whilst  there  is  not  one  nation  of  men,  whether 
Bart)arians,  or  Greeks,  or  by  wliatsoevcr  name 
distinguished,  whether  of  those  (nomads) 
who  live  in  wagon.s,  or  of  those  who  have  no 
houses,  or  those  pastoral  people  that  dwell 
in  tents,  among  whom  prayers  and  thanks- 
givings  are  not  oflered  to  the  Father  and 

1  Lev.  11.  7  (14  Eng.)  sqq. 
9  1b.  vi.  17.  [1(1.  Hpb.] 

»  Dial.  c.  Trynh.  g  117  pp.  215,  216  Oxf.  Tr.  also  g  28, 
29  pp.  104,  lo.").  lb. 
»Tlu-  Jews  ilicn   must    have  interpri-ted   it  of 


Creator  of  all  things,  through  the  name  of  the 
crucified  Jesus.  And  you  know  that  at  the 
time  when  the  prophet  Malachi  said  this, 
the  dispersion  of  you  through  the  whole 
world,  in  which  you  now  are,  had  not  yet 
taken  place ;  as  is  also  shewn  by  Scripture." 

S.  Irena-us  in  the  same  century,  "  ^  He 
took  that  which  is  part  of  the  creation,  viz. 
bread,  and  gave  thanks,  saying.  This  w  My 
Body,  And  the  Cup  likewise,  which  is  of 
the  creation  which  appertains  unto  us.  He 
professed  to  be  His  own  Blood,  and  taught 
men  the  new  oblation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  whicli  the  Ciiurch  receiving  from  the 
Apostles  offers  unto  God  in  the  world  : — unto 
Him  Who  giveth  us  nourishment,  the  first- 
fruits  of  His  own  gifts,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  of  which  in  the  twelve  prophets 
Malachi  gave  beforehand  this  intimation 
[quoting  Mai.  i.  10,  11]  ;  most  evidently  inti- 
mating hereby,  that  while  the  former  people 
should  cease  to  make  offerings  to  God,  in 
every  place  sacrifice  should  be  offered  unto 
Him,  and  that  in  pureness ;  His  Name  also 
is  glorified  among  the  Gentiles.  Now  what 
other  name  is  there,  which  is  glorified  among 
the  Gentiles,  than  that  which  belongs  to  our 
Lord,  by  Whom  the  Father  is  glorified,  and 
man  is  glorified  ?  And  because  man  belongs 
to  His  Own  Son,  and  is  made  by  Him,  He 
calls  him  His  Own.  And  as  if  some  King 
were  himself  to  paint  an  image  of  his  own 
son,  he  justly  calls  it  his  own  image,  on  both 
accounts,  first  that  it  is  his  son's,  next,  that 
he  himself  made  it:  so  also  the  Name  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  is  glorified  in  the 
Church  throughout  the  whole  world,  the 
Father  professes  to  be  His  own,  both  because 
it  is  His  Son's,  and  because  He  Himself 
wrote  and  gave  it  for  the  salvation  of  men. 
Because  tiierefore  the  Name  of  the  Son 
properly  belongs  to  the  Father,  and  in  God 
Almighty  through  Jesus  Christ  the  Church 
makes  her  offering,  well  saith  He  on  both 
accounts,  And  in  every  place  incense  is  offered 
unto  My  Name,  and  a  pure  sacrifice.  And 
incense,  John  in  the  Apocalypse  declares  to 
be  the  prayers  of  the  Saints.  Therefore  the 
ofTering  of  the  Church,  which  the  Lord  hath 
taught  to  be  offered  in  the  whole  world,  is 
accounted  with  God  as  a  pure  sacrifice,  and 
accepted  of  Him." 

TertuUian  contrasts  the  ""sacerdotal  law 
through  Moses,  in  Leviticus,  prescribing  to 
the  people  of  Israel,  that  sacrifices  should 
in  no  other  place  be  offered  to  God  than  in 
the  land  of  promise,  which  the  Lord  God 
was  about  to  give  to  the  people  Israel  and  to 
their  brethren,  in  order  that  on  Israel's  intro- 
duction    thither,    there     should     be    there 

themselves  in  the  present,  and  so  of  the  times  of 
Malachi  alter  the  return  of  others  from  Babylon. 
6  iv.  17.  5.  pp.  a.lfi,  3.'i7.  Oxf.  Tr.    See  also  his  FraK- 
mont  xxxvl.  p.  .5.14,  .l.'o.  Oxf.  Tr,  'e.  .hid.  i.  6. 

p.  214  Edinb.  Tr.    Add  c.  .Marclon.  iii.  22. 


CHAPTER   I. 


celebrated  sacrifices  and  holocausts,  as  well 
for  siiis  as  for  souls,  and  nowhere  else  but  in 
the  holy  land  V'  a"d  this  subsequent  predic- 
tion of  "the  Spirit  through  the  prophets, 
that  in  every  place  and  in  every  land  there 
should  be  offered  sacrifices  tc^God.  As  He 
says  through  the  angel  Malachi,  one  of  the 
twelve  prophets,  (citing  the  place)." 

S.  Hippolytus,  a  disciple  of  S.  Irenseus, 
A.D.  220.  martyr,  in  a  commentary  on  Daniel, 
says  that  "  '^  when  Anti-Christ  cometh,  the 
sacrifice  and  libation  will  be  taken  away, 
which  is  now  in  every  place  offered  by  the 
Gentiles  to  God."  The  terras  "Sacrifice 
offered  in  every  place  "  are  terms  of  Malachi. 

So  S.  Cyprian,  in  his  Testimonies  against 
the  Jews,  sums  up  the  teaching  of  the  passage 
under  this  head,  "  ^  That  the  old  sacrifice 
was  to  be  made  void,  and  a  new  sacrifice 
instituted." 

In  the  "  *  Apostolic  Constitutions,"  the 
prophecy  is  quoted  as  "  said  by  God  of  His 
oecumenical  Church." 

Eusebius  says,  "  ^  The  truth  bears  witness 
to  the  prophetic  word,  whereby  God,  reject- 
ing the  Mosaic  sacrifices,  foretells  that  which 
shall  be  among  us.  For  from  the  rising  of  the 
Sim  &c.  We  sacrifice  then  to  the  supreme 
God  the  sacrifice  of  praise  ;  we  sacrifice  the 
Divine,  reverend  and  holy  oblation :  we 
sacrifice,  in  a  new  way  according  to  the  New 
Testament,  the  pure  sacrifice.  The  broken 
heart  is  also  called  a  sacrifice  to  God — We 
sacrifice  also  the  Memory  of  that  great  Sacri- 
fice, performing  it  according  to  the  mysteries 
which  have  been  transmitted  by  Him." 

S.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  "  speaks  of  it  only  as 
prophesying  the  rejection  of  the  Jews  and 
the  adoption  of  the  Gentiles. 

In  the  liturgy  of  S.  Mark  ',  it  is  naturally 
quoted,  only,  as  fulfilled  "  in  the  reasonable 
and  unbloody  sacrifice,  which  all  nations  offer 
to  Thee,  O  Lord,  from  the  rising  of  the  sun 
to  the  setting  thereof,"  not  in  •  reference  to 
the  cessation  of  Jewish  sacrifices. 

S.  Chrysostora  dwells  on  its  peculiar  force, 
coming  from  so  late  a  prophet ".  "  Hear 
Malachi,  who  came  after  the  other  prophets. 
For  I  adduce,  for  the  time,  no  testimony 
either  of  Isaiah  or  Jeremiah  or  any  other 
before  the  Captivity,  lest  thou  shouldest  say 
that  the  terrible  things  which  he  foretold 
were  exhausted  in  the  Captivity.  But  I 
adduce   a   prophet,   after  the    return    from 


'  Lev.  xvii.  1-6,  Deut.  xii.  5-14,  26,  27. 

"Interpret,  in  Dan.  n.  xxii.  p.  UO,  published  from 
the  Chisian  codex  of  cent.  x.  in  D.iniel  sec.  LXX. 
Romse  1772.  The  passage  is  quoted  loosely  by  S. 
.lerome  in  Dan.  c.  9.  0pp.  V.  689.  Vail. 

J  Testim.  ad  Quirin.  i.  16.  pp.  23  and  31.  Oxf.  Tr. 

*  vii.  .30  [on  their  age,  especially  of  that  of  their 
substance,  see  Pusey,  The  Real  Presence  the  doc- 
trine of  the  early  Church  pp.  605-G09.] 

»Dem.  Ev.  i.lO.  fin.  He  also  quotes  the  passage 
in  proof  of  the  abolition  of  the  Jewish  sacrifices, 


Babylon  and  the  restoration  of  your  city, 
prophesying  clearly  about  you.  For  when 
they  had  returned,  and  recovered  their  city, 
and  rebuilt  the  temple  and  performed  the 
sacrifices,  foretelling  this  present  desolation 
then  future,  and  the  taking  away  of  the 
sacrifice,  Malachi  thus  speaks  in  the  Person 
of  God  [ver.  10  fin.— 12  beg.].  When,  oh 
Jew,  happened  all  this  ?  When  was  incense 
offered  to  God  in  every  place  ?  when  a  pure 
sacrifice  ?  Thou  couldest  not  name  any  other 
time,  than  this,  after  the  Coming  of  Christ. 
If  the  prophet  foretelleth  not  this  time  and 
our  sacrifice,  but  the  Jewish,  the  prophecy 
will  be  against  the  law.  For  if,  when  Moses 
commandeth  that  sacrifice  should  be  offered 
in  no  other  place  than  the  Lord  God  should 
choose,  and  shutteth  up  those  sacrifices  in  one 
place,  the  prophet  says  that  incense  should 
be  offered  in  every  place  and  a  pure  sacrifice, 
he  opposeth  and  cuntradicteth  Moses.  But 
there  is  no  strife  nor  contention.  For 
Moses  speaketh  of  one  sacrifice,  an.l  Malachi 
of  another.  Where  doth  this  appear?  [From 
the  place,  not  Judsea  only  ;  from  the  mode, 
that  it  should  be  pure  ;  from  the  offerers,  not 
Israel,  but  the  nations,]  from  East  to  West, 
shewing  that  whatever  of  earth  the  sun 
surveys,  the  preaching  will  embrace. — He 
calls  the  former  sacrifice  impure,  not  in  its 
own  nature  but  in  the  mind  of  the  offerers  ; 
if  one  compares  the  sacrifice  itself,  there  is 
such  a  boundless  distance,  that  this  [that 
offered  by  Christians]  might  in  comparison 
be  called  '  pure.' " 

Even  the  cold,  but  clear,  Theodoret  has, 
"  "  Foretelling  to  the  Jews  the  cessation  of 
the  legal  priesthood,  he  announces  the  pure 
and  unbloody  sacrifice  of  the  Gentiles.  And 
first  he  says  to  the  Jews,  I  have  no  pleasure  in 
you,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  I  ivill  not  accept 
a  sacrifice  at  your  hands.  Then  he  foreshews 
the  piety  of  the  Gentiles,  For  from  the  i~ising 
of  the  sun  &c,  (Mai.  i.  11.)  You  then  I  will 
wholly  reject ;  for  I  detest  altogether  what 
you  do.  Wherefore  also  I  reject  the  sacrifice 
offered  by  you  ;  but  instead  of  you,  I  have  the 
whole  world  to  worship  Me.  For  the  dwell- 
ers in  the  whole  earth,  which  the  rising  and 
setting  sun  illumines,  will  everywhere  both 
offer  to  Me  incense,  and  will  sacrifice  to  Me 
the  pure  sacrifice,  which  I  love.  For  they 
shall  know  My  name  and  My  will,  and  shall 
offer  to  Me  reverence  due.    So  the  Lord  said 


although  without  allusion  to  the  Eucharistic  sacri- 
fice, lb.  i.  6.  p.  19  ;  and  in  ii.  29.  pp.  55,  56,  of  the  re- 
jection of  the  -Jewish  nation  and  their  bodily  wor- 
ship according  to  the  law  of  Moses,  and  the  spirit- 
ual worship  given  to  all  nations  through  Christ.' 

6  Cat.  xviii.  25.  ^  Assem.  Cod.  Lit.  vii.  19,  20. 

8 Ad.  Jud.  V.  12.  0pp.  i.  (i47,  648  Montf.  See  also 
his  Expos,  in  Ps.  112.  n.  2.  0pp.  v.  288,  289,  and  Quod 
Christus  sit  Deus  0pp.  i.  582,  "Seest  thou,  how 
plainly  he  both  cast  out  Judaism  and  exhibited 
Christianity  effulgent  and  extended  over  the  whole 
world?"  *ad.  loc. 


474 


MALACHI. 


Bo  for' • 
CHRIST 

cir.  3U". 

tisfti.  66. 19,  20. 


"  ver.  7. 


'  for  my  name  shall  be  great 
.among   the  heathen,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts. 

1 2  •[  But  ye  liave  pro- 
faned it,  in  that  ye  s  a  y, 
"The  table  of  the  Lord 
/*•  polluted :  and  the  fruit 


thereof,  even  his   meat    js 
contemptible. 

13  Ye  said  also,  Behold, 
w  hat  a  weariness  is  it ! 
II and   ye  have  snuffed  at: 
it,  saith   the  Lord  of 
hosts:  and  ye  brought 


to  the  Samaritan  woman,  Woman,  believe  Me, 
thai  the  hour  cometh  and  now  is,  when  neither  in 
this  mountain,  nor  in  Jerusalem  shall  ye  worship 
tlie  Father. — The  blessed  Paul,  being  in- 
structed in  this,  says,  '  /  will  that  men  pray 
everywhere  &c,  and  the  Divine  Malachi  clearly 
taught  us  in  this  place  tlie  worship  now 
used ;  for  the  circumscribed  worsliip  of  the 
priests  is  brought  to  an  end,  and  every  place 
is  accounted  tit  for  the  worship  of  God,  and 
tlie  sacrifice  of  irrational  victims  is  ended, 
and  He,  our  spotless  Lamb,  Wlio  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world,  is  sacrificed." 

Lastly,  S.  Augustine,  "  '^  Malachi,  pro- 
pliesying  of  the  Church  which  we  see  pro- 
pagated through  Christ,  says  most  plainly  to 
the  Jews  in  the  person  of  God,  /  have  no 
pleasure  in  you,  and  will  not  receive  an  offering  at 
your  haruls.  For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  &c. 
feince  we  see  this  sacrifice  through  the 
priesthood  of  Christ  after  the  order  of 
Melchisedek,  now  oifered  to  God  in  every 
•jdace  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  its  set- 
1  ing ;  but  the  sacrifice  of  the  Jews,  of  which 
it  is  said,  /  have  no  pleasure  in  you,  neitlier  loill 
I  accept  an  offering  from  your  hands,  they  can- 
not d^ny  to  have  ceased ;  why  do  they  yet 
expect  another  Christ,  since  what  they  read 
as  prophesied  and  see  fulfilled,  could  not  be 
lulfiUed,  except  tlimugh  Him  ?  " 

12.  And  ye  have  profaned  [^  are  hahilually 
profaning  iV],  in  thnt  ye  say.  It  was  the  daily 
result  of  their  daily  lives  and  acts.  "  *  It  is 
probable  that  the  priests  did  not  use  such 
words,  but  that  by  tlieir  very  deeds,  they 
proclaimed  thisaloud:  as  in  the.  The  fool  hath 
said  in  hii  heart,  Tiwre  is  no  God.  For  in  that 
he  is  seen  to  be  a  despiser,  though  he  say  it 
not  in  words,  yet,  by  their  very  deeds  and  by 
the  crookedness  of  tlieir  lives,  they  ail-but 
cry  out,  There  is  no  (xod.  For  they  who  live 
as  though  ( Jod  beheld  not,  and  do  all  tilings 
recklessly  and  unholily,  by  their  own  deeds 
and  works  deny  Goil.     So  they  who  are  not 

'  1  Tim.  ii.  8.  ^de  Civ.  Dei.  xviii.  35.  3. 

4  8.  CHt.  6  EzPk.  xhv.  Ifi. 

•.S.  Matt.  V.  23.  Hel>.  xiii.  10.  '  1  Cor  x.  21. 

8S  iKiiftt.  ad  Pliilad.  u.  4.  p.  32.  Cotc-l. 

«  This  too  is  one  of  the  TitckunC-  Soplieriin,  ii*  if, 
had  it  not  been  profane,  the  prophet  wouM  liave 
Haid,  ut  Me.  On  the  cliaraeter  of  these  hypothetic 
corrections,  see  on  Hab.  i.  12.  p.  18G.  n.  17. 

>"Thi8  Is  the  one  sense  of  71  J,  which  occurs  iu  34 


Before 
H  R  I  S  T 

eir.  397. 


Or,  whereas  ye 
might  hate 
blon-ii  it  awai/. 


earnest  to  preserve  to  the  holy  Altar  the 
reverence  becoming  to  it,  by  the  very  things 
which  they  do,  say, 

The  table  of  the  Lord  is  despised.  Not  the 
table  of  shewbread,  since  it  is  so  called  in 
reference  to  the  sacrifice  offered  thereon. 
EzeUiel  had  probably  so  called  the  altar, 
which  he  saw  in  his  vision  of  the  new  tem- 
ple''. It  is  what  was  before  called  the  altar; 
an  altar,  in  regard  to  the  sacrifices  offered  to 
Go;l ;  a  table,  in  regard  to  the  I'ood  of  the 
sacrifice  therefrom  received.  Both  names, 
"altar'*"  and  "table""  being  received  in 
the  New  Testament,  both  were  received  in 
the  early  Church.  For  each  represented  one 
side  of  the  gi"eat  Eucharistic  action,  as  it  is  a 
Sacrifice  and  a  Sacrament.  But  the  title 
"altar"  was  the  earliest  *. 

It  may  be  here  a  different  profaneness  of 
the  priests.  They  connived  at  the  sin  of  the 
people  in  sacrificing  the  maimed  animals 
which  they  brought,  and  yet,  since  they  had 
their  food  from  the  sacrifices,  and  such  ani- 
mals are  likely  to  have  been  neglected  and 
ill-conditioned,  they  may  very  probably  have 
complained  of  the  poverty  of  their  lot,  and 
des]iised  the  whole  service.  For  the  word.-; 
used,  its  produce,  the  eating  thereof  is  contempt- 
ible belong  to  theu-  portion,  not  to  what  was 
consumed  by  fire.  With  this  agrees  their 
cry, 

13.   1^7(0/  a  weariness .'    What  an  onerous 
service  it  is  !     The  service  of  God  is  its  own 
reward.     If  not,   it  becomes  a  greater  toil, 
with  less  reward  from  this  earth,  than  the 
things  of  this  earth.     Our  only  choice  is  be- 
tween love  and  weariness. 
!       And  ye  have  snuffed  Ipuffed"]  at  it^,  i.e.  at 
!  the  altar;  as  a  thing  contemptible.      Ye  have 
I  brought  i\\i\twh\{:h  vfiis  taken  by  violence^'^.     In 
despising    any    positive    law   of   GxmJ,  they 
despised  the  lawgiver ;    and   so,  from   con- 
1  tempt    of  the    ceremonial    law,    they  went 
j  on   to  break   the  moral   law.      It   were   in- 

i  -separate  pa.«?aKe,<»  (beside  two  met.  .Job.  xxiv.  lOj 
'■  Pr.  iv.  Ifi.)  It  is  n.-'ed  specially  of  tlie  rolibery  ot 
I  the  poor,  whi'thcr  by  wrons  jtidsment  (Keel.  v.  7, 
i   [Hfb.]   Is.   X.  2)  or  open  violonee.    The  nicaninic 

''  torn  "  wa.s  ^nined,  as  if  the  animal  lm<l  been  oar- 
'  ried  0(1'  by  beasts  (0r}pid\uiTof),  the  eatim)  of  which 
!  was  forbidden,  Ex.  xxii.  .'1(1,  Lev.  vii.  24,  xxii.  8. 
i  Ezek.  iv.  14,  xliv.  31.  But  this  had  its  own  name, 
J!   naiD,  mid  could  not  be  used  iu  sacrifices,  since  it 

was  dead  already. 


(HAJ^TKR  I. 


-l7o 


r  H  r"^i  s  T    ^^'-''^   which   ivas  torn,  and 
<="'•  397.       the   lame,   and    the   sick : 


thus  ye  brought  an  offer- 
« Lev.  22. 20,  &c.  ing :  '^  should  I  accept  this  of 

your  hand  ?  saith  the  Lord. 
j^ver. 8.  14  But   cursed  be  ''the 

I  Or,  in  whose       ,        .  1 1      i  •   i      i      .  i      • 

flock  is.  deceiver,  1 1  which  hath  in 


deed  a  mockery  of  God,  to  break  a  law 
whereby  He  bound  man  to  man,  and  there- 
I'rom  to  seek  to  appease  Himself.  Yet  in 
rough  times,  people,  even  in  Christianity, 
liave  made  their  account  with  their  souls,  by 
giving  to  the  poor  a  portion  of  wdiat  they 
liad  taken  from  the  rich.  "  God,"  it  was 
said  to  sucli  an  one,  "  rejects  the  gifts  ob- 
tained by  violence  and  robbery.  He  loves 
mercy,  justice  and  humanity,  and  by  the 
lovers  of  these  only  will  He  be  worshiped." 
"  ^  He  that  sacrificeth  of  a  thing  wrongfully 
gotten,  his  offering  is  ridiculous,  and  the 
gifts  of  unjust  men  are  not  accepted.  Tlie 
Most  High  is  not  pleased  with  the  offerings 
of  the  wicked,  neither  is  He  pacified  for  sin 
by  the  multitude  of  sacrifices.  Whoso 
bringeth  an  offering  of  the  goods  of  the  poor 
doeth  as  one  that  killeth  the  son  before  the 
father's  eyes." 

14.  Cursed  is  the  deceiver.  "^The  fraudu- 
lent, hypocritical,  false  or  deceitful  dealer, 
who  makes  a  sliow  of  one  thing,  and  doth  or 
intends  another,  nor  doth  to  his  power  what 
he  would  make  a  show  of  doing  ;  as  if  he 
could  deceive  God  in  doing  in  His  service 
otherwise  than  He  required,  and  yet  be  ac- 
cepted by  Him."  The  whole  habit  of  these 
men  was  not  to  break  with  God,  but  to  keep 
well  with  Him  on  as  easy  terms  as  they 
could.  They  even  went  beyond  what  tlie  law 
required  in  making  vows,  probably  for  some 
temporal  end,  and  then  substituted  for  that 
which  had  typical  perfection,  the  less  valua- 
ble animal,  the  ewe  ^,  and  that,  diseased.  It 
was  probably,  to  prevent  self-deceit,  that  the 
law  commanded  that  the  oblation  for  a  vow 
should  be  *a  male  imthoiit  blemish,  perfect ;  lest 
(which  may  be  a  temptation  in  impulsive 
vows)  repenting  of  their  vow,  they  should 
persuade  themselves,  that  they  had  vowed 
less  than  they  had.  Ordinarily,  then,  it 
would  not  have  been  allowed  to  one,  who 
had  not  the  best  to  offer,  to  vow  at  all.  But, 
in  their  alleged  poverty,  the  prophet  sup- 
poses that  God  would  so  far  dispense  with 
His  own  law,  and  accept  the   best  winch  any 

1  Ecclus.  xxxiv.  18-20.  2  Poc. 

3  nnE?0  fern,  for  nmE/D.as  m.K/ip  for  flJ^^I'^rp, 

Kgs  i.  15.  and  H^nO  Lev.  ii.  5,  Ewald  Lehrb.  n. 

188.  p.  495  ed.  8.  Keil  would  read  finK'D  (mase.)  and 

miake  it  a  separate  case, "  the  deceiver,  whereas  in 


his  ilock  a  male,  and  vow-    ^.  j^'jl"[|  j 

eth,   and   sacrificeth    unto      ''■■••  ■^»7. 

the  Lord  a  corrupt  thing  : 

for  '  L  am  a  great  King,  ^  Ps.  47. 2. 

saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 

and  my  name  is  dreadful 

amona:  the  heathen. 


one  had,  although  it  did  not  come  up  to  that 
law.  Hence  the  clause,  v;hich  hath  in  his 
floc/c  a  mide.  "^If  thou  hast  not  a  male,  that 
curse  in  no  wise  injureth  thee.  But  saying 
this,  he  sheweth,  that  they  have  what  is  best, 
and  ofler  what  is  bad." 

They  sinned,  not  against  religion  only,  but 
against  justice  also.  "®  For  as  a  merchant, 
wh<j  offers  his  goods  at  a  certain  price,  if  he 
supply  them  afterward  adulterated  and  cor- 
rupted, is  guilty  of  fraud  and  is  unjust,  so  he 
who  promised  to  God  a  sacrifice  worthy  of 
God,  and,  according  to  tlie  law,  perfect  and 
sound,  is  fraudulent  and  sins  against  justice, 
if  lie  afterward  gives  one,  defective,  muti- 
lated, vitiated,  and  is  guilty  of  theft  in  a 
sacred  thing,  and  so  of  sacrilege." 

Clergy  or  "  all  who  have  vowed,  should 
learn  hence,  that  what  they  have  vowed 
should  be  given  to  God,  entire,  manly,  per- 
fect, the  best. — For,  reverence  for  the  su- 
preme and  Divine  Majesty  to  Whom  they 
consecrate  themselves  demandeth  this,  that 
they  should  offer  Him  the  highest,  best  and 
most  perfect,  making  themselves  a  whole- 
burnt-offering  to  God." 

" '  They  who  abandon  all  things  of  the 
world,  and  kindle  their  whole  mind  with  the 
fire  of  Divine  love,  these  become  a  sacrifice 
and  a  whole-burnt-ofiering  to  Almighty 
God."  "  ®  Man  himself,  consecrated  and  de- 
voted in  the  name  of  God,  is  a  sacrifice."  He 
then  offers  a  cori'upt  thing  who,  like  Ana- 
nias, keeps  back  part  of  the  price,  and  is  the 
more  guilty,  because,  while  it  was  his  own, 
it  was  in  his  own  power. 

I  am  a  (jreat  King.  "  "  As  God  is  Alone 
Lord  through  His  universal  Providence  and 
His  intrinsic  authority,  so  He  Alone  is  King, 
and  a  King  so  great,  that  of  His  greatness  or 
dignity  and  perfection  there  is  no  end." 

My  Name  is  dreadful  among  the  heathen.  Ab- 
sence of  any  awe  of  God  was  a  central  defect 
of  these  Jews.  They  treated  Him,  as  they 
would  not  a  fellow-creature,  for  whom  they 
had  any  respect  or  awe  or  fear.  Some  re- 
maining  instinct   kept   them   from   parting 

his  flock  is  a  male  ;  and  he  who  voweth  &e. : "  but 
then  nothing  would  be  said,  wherein  the  deceit 
consisted. 

*  Levit.  xxii.  19,  21.  6  8.  Jer.  •  Lap. 

f  S.  Greg,  in  Ezek.  L.  i.  Horn.  xii.  30,  Opp.  i.  305 
Ben.  L. 

8S.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei.  x.  6.  L.  •Difln. 


4TG 


maT.acht. 


Before  CHAPTEK    II. 

CHRIST 
c'r-  ^^"^^  1  He  sharply  reproveth  (he  priests 
for  neglecting  their  covenant, 
11  and  tlie  people  for  idolatry, 
14  for  adultery,  17  and  for 
infidelity. 

now,  O  ye  priests, 
this  commandment  is 

•  Lev.  26. 14,  Ac.  for  VOU. 
Deut.28,15,  n\  Ti^  -11         *   1, 

&e.  2     If  ye  will  not  hear, 


A^? 


with  Him ;  but  they  yielded  a  cold,  weari- 
some, heartless  service.  Malachi  points  to 
the  root  of  the  evil,  the  ignorance,  how 
awful  God  is.  This  is  the  root  of  so  much 
irreverence  in  people's  theories,  thoughts, 
convei-sations,  systems,  acts,  of  tlie  present 
day  also.  They  know  neither  God  or  them- 
selves. The  relation  is  summed  up  in  those 
words  to  a  saint ',  "  Knowest  tliou  well.  Who 
I  am,  and  who  thou  art  ?  I  am  He  Wlio  Is, 
and  thou  art  she  who  is  not."  So  Job  says 
in  the  presence  of  God,  ^/  have  heard  of  Thee 
by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  bid  now  mine  eye  seeth 
thee:  wherefore  I  abhor  myself  and  repent  in 
diiat  and  ashes.  To  correct  this,  God,  from 
the  beginning,  insists  on  the  title  which  He 
gives  Himself.  ^  Gircumcise  the  foreskin  of 
your  hearts  and  be  no  more  stiff-necked:  for  the 
Lord  your  Ood  is  Ood  of  godi  and  Lord  of 
lords,  the  great  Ood,  the  mighty  and  tJie  terrible ; 
and  in  warning,  *  If  tlioic  wilt  not  observe  to 
do  all  the  words  of  this  law  that  are  written 
in  this  book,  that  thou  mai/est  fear  this  glorious 
and  fearful  name,  The  Lord  thy  God,  then 
the  Lord  thy  God  will  make  thy  plagues  won- 
derful &c. 

II.  1.  And  now  this  is  My  commandment 
unto  you,  not  a  commandment,  which  He 
gave  them,  but  a  commandment  in  regard  to 
them.  As  God  said  of  old,  upon  obedience, 
^  /  wiM  command  My  blessing  unto  you,  so  now 
He  would  command  what  should  reach  them, 
IjUt  a  curse.  "®He  returns  from  the  people 
to  the  priests,  as  the  fountain  of  the  evil, 
whose  carelessness  about  things  sacred  he 
had  rebuked  before.  Let  the  priests  of  the 
new  law  hear  this  rebuke  of  God,  and  con- 
ceive it  dictated  to  them  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  hear,  from  whom  God  rightly  requires 
greater  holiness,  and  so  will  punish  them 
more  grievously,  if  careless  or  scandalous  in 
their  office."  All  Christians  are,  in  some 
sense,  '  a  royal,  holy  prieMhood,  over  and  above 
the  special  "  Christian  priesthood  ;  "  as  the 


'  S.  Catherine  of  Sienna.  «  Job  xlii.  5,  0. 

3Deut.  X.  10,  17,  vii.  21.  Nohemiah  uses  it  in  ills 
prayers  (i.  5,  ix.  32)  and  Daniel  (ix4.)  It  occurs 
also  Neii.iv.8(14  Ene.)  Ps.  xlvli.  :<,lxviii.3C,lxxxix. 
8,  xcvi.  4,  xcix.  3,  cxi.  9,  Zeph.  ii.  11. 

*Deut.  xxvlli.  68,  69. 


and  if  ye  will  not  lay  it  to  ^  ^■^1%,  t 
heart,  to  give  glory  nnto  cir.  397. 
my  name,  saitli  the  Lord 
of  hosts,  I  will  even  send 
a  curse  upon  you,  and  I 
will  curse  your  blessings : 
yea,  I  have  cursed  them 
already,  because  ye  do  not 
lay  it  to  heart. 


Jews,  over  and  above  the  special  priesthood 
of  Aaron,  were  a  "  kingdom  of  priests.  What 
follows  then  belongs,  in  their  degree,  to  them 
and  their  duties. 

2.  If  ye  wdl  not  lay  to  heart,  viz.  the  rebukes 
addressed  to  them,  to  give  glory  to  God.  For 
the  glory  of  (lod  is  the  end  and  aim  of  the 
priesthood.  This  should  be  the  principle 
and  rule  of  their  whole  life,  "  ®  to  the  greater 
glory  of  God."  /  ivill  send  the  curse  upon  you, 
viz.  that  which  He  had  threatened  in  the 
law  upon  disobedience ;  and  will  curse  your 
blessings,  will  turn  your  blessings  into  a  curse. 
He  does  not  say,  I  will  send  you  curses  in- 
stead of  blessings,  but,  I  will  make  the  bless- 
ings themselves  a  curse.  '"  The  things  which 
should  have  been  to  their  wealth  became  to  them 
an  occcuiion  of  falling ;  to  the  proud,  the 
things  which  lift  them  up  ;  to  the  gluttonous, 
their  abundance;  to  the  avaricious,  their 
wealth;  which,  if  used  to  the  glory  of  God, 
become  blessings,  do,  when  self  not  God  is 
their  end,  by  God's  dispensation  and  Provi- 
dence, become  a  curse  to  them.  " "  The 
goods  of  nature,  the  goods  of  fortune,  the 
goods  of  tlie  Church  allowed  to  you,  I  will 
turn  to  your  greater  damnation,  permitting 
you  to  abuse  them  to  pride ;  and  your  dam- 
nation shall  be  the  more  penal,  the  more 
good  things  ye  have  received  from  Me. 
Whence  Christ  declares  in  the  Gospel, 
^"^  Unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  him  shall 
be  much  required." 

Yea,  I  have  cursed  them  [lit.  )'<],  i.  e.  each 
one  of  the  blessings,  already.  God's  judg- 
ments as  well  as  His  mercies  are  individual 
with  a  minute  care,  shewing  that  it  is  His 
doing.  The  curse  had  already  gone  forth, 
and  had  begun  to  seize  upon  them  from  the 
time  that  tiiey  began  to  despise  His  Name. 
His  judgments  do  not  break  in  at  once,  but 
little  by  little,  with  warnings  of  their  ap- 
proach, that  so  we  may  turn  to  Him,  and  es- 
cape the  wrath  to  come. 

6  Lev.  XXV.  21,  ddS  'n:)i3  riK  'n'li'v 

•  Lap.  '  1  S.  Pet.  ii.  9.  »  Ex.  xix.  6. 

»"Ad  tnajorem   Dei.  gloriam,"  the  motto  of  Sk 
Ignatius  Loyola. 
10  Ps.  I  xix.  23. 
n  Dion.  "  3.  Luke  xii.  48. 


CHAPTER  II. 


chrTst       3  Behold,  I   will  ||cor- 
cir.  397.      yupt    your    Seed,    and 


B  Or,  reprove,     f  Spread  duug  upon  your 

t Heb.  scatter,     n  .^         ^  n 

faces,  even    the  dung  oi 

your  solemn   feasts ;    and 

II  Or,  it  shall      11  one  shall  ''take  you  away 

take  you  away       .  ,    . 
to  it.  With  it. 

4  And  ye   shall   know 


3.  Lo,  I  will  rebuke  the  seed  *  for  your  sake, 
i.  e.  that  it  should  not  grow.  He  Who  work- 
eth  by  His  sustaining  will  all  the  opera- 
tions of  nature,  would  at  His  will  withhold 
them.  Neither  priests  nor  Levites  cultivated 
the  soil ;  yet,  since  the  tithes  were  iissigned  to 
them,  the  diminution  of  the  harvest  afTected 
them.  The  meal-offering  too  was  a  requisite 
part  of  the  sacrifice  ^. 

A')id  spread  dung  upon  your  faces,  the  dung  ^ 
of  your  solemn  feasts,  or,  o/  your  sacrifices  *.  It 
w^as  by  the  law  carried  without  the  camp 
and  burned  with  the  animal  itself.  They 
had  brought  before  the  face  of  God  maimed, 
unfitting  sacrifices ;  they  should  have  them 
cast  back,  with  their  refuse,  upon  them ; 
"  ^  as  a  lord  that  rejecteth  a  gift,  brought  to 
him  by  his  servant,  casts  it  back  in  his  face." 
"  *  0/"  your  sacrifices,  not  of  Mine ;  for  I  am 
not  worshiped  in  them :  ye  seek  to  please, 
not  Me,  but  yourselves."  So  God  said  of 
Eli,  '  thnn  that  honor  Me  I  will  honor,  and  they 
that  despise  Me  shall  be  lightly  esteemed. 

And  one  shall  take  you  away  with  it,  lit.  to  it. 
They  should  be  swept  away,  as  if  they  were 
an  appendage  to  it,  as  God  said,  *  /  wiU  take 
away  the  ramiant  of  the  house  of  Jeroboam,  as  a 
man  taketh  axcay  dung,  till  all  be  gone.  As  are 
the  offerings,  so  shall  it  be  with  the  offerers. 

4.  Ami  ye  sJiall  know  that  I  have  sent  this 
commandment  unto  you :  this,  which  He  had 
just  uttered.  They  who  believe  not  God 
when  threatening,  know  that  He  is  in  earn- 
est and  not  to  be  trifled  with,  through  His 
punishing.  That  My  covenant  might  be  tvith 
Levi^.  God  willed  to  punish  those  who  at 
that  time   rebelled  against   Him,   that    He 

1  Keil  objects  to  this  rendering  of  the  text  and 
adopts  the  punctuation  IPIH  from  Ixx.  Aq.  Vulg. 

"the  arm,"  i.  e.  render  it  useless  and  incapable  of 
discharging  its  office.  But  when  ")j;j  is  used  of 
other  than  men  themselves,  it  is  a  whole,  as  to 
which  the  metaphor  is  used,"  either  being  animate, 
as  "the  devourer,"  Mai.  iii.  11,  or  pictured  as  ani- 
mate, as  "the  sea,"  Ps.  cvi.  9.  Nab.  i.  4. 

2  See  also  Joel  i.  13.  ii.  14. 

» ly^a  is  only  used  of  the  dung,  as  it  lies  in  the 
animal  killed  for  sacrifice,  Ex.  xxix.  4,  Lev.  iv.  11, 
viii.  7,  xxi.  27,  Nu.  xix.  5,  and  here. 

*  jn  is  certainly  the  animal  sacrificed  at  the 
teast,  Ex.  xxiii.  18^  Ps,  cxviii.  27,  and  so  probably 
here.    So  Kim. 


that  I  have  sent  this  com-    ^  h  rTI  t 
mandment  unto  you,  that      "'f-  397. 
my  covenant   might  be 
with  Levi,  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts. 

5  "My  covenant  was«Num. 25. 12. 

•*V,     v.-  fi    ^•f  A     Ezek.34.25. 

with   him   01    lite  and  &37. 20. 
peace;  and   I   gave  them 


might  spare  those  who  should  come  after 
them.  He  chastened  the  fathers,  who  shewed 
their  contempt  toward  Him,  that  their  sons, 
taking  warning  thereby,  might  not  be  cut  off. 
He  continues  to  say,  what  the  covenant  was, 
which  He  willed  still  to  be,  if  they  would 
repent. 

5.  My  covenant  teas  with  him  life  and  peace; 
lit.  the  life  and  the  peace;  that,  which  alone 
is  true  Ufe  and  peace.  The  covenant  was  not  • 
with  Levi  himself,  but  with  Aaron,  his  re- 
presentative, with  whom  the  covenant  was 
made  in  the  desert,  as  is  indeed  here  ex- 
pressed ;  and,  in  him,  with  all  his  race  ^^ 
after  him,  Avho  succeeded  him  in  his  office  ; 
as,  when  it  is  said,  that  ^^Aaron  and  his  sons 
offered  upon  the  altar  of  burnt  offering,  it  must 
needs  be  understood,  not  of  Aaron  in  person 
alone  and  his  sons  then  living,  but  of  any  of 
his  race  that  succeeded  in  his  and  their 
room.  So  our  Lord  promised  to  be  with 
His  Apostles,  '^  cdways  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
i.  e.  with  them  and  those  whom  they  should 
appoint  in  their  stead,  and  these  others, 
until  He  should  Himself  come.  God 
promised,  if  they  would  keep  the  law,  that 
they  should  live  in  peace  on  the  earth  ;  yea, 
that  they  should  have  peace  of  mind  and  a 
life  of  grace.  Life  is  an  indefectible  being, 
which  man  does  not  forfeit  by  sin,  to  which 
death  is  no  interruption,  changing  only  the 
place  of  the  soul's  life. 

And  I  gave  them  to  him,  in,  or  as,  fear, 
"  '^  Fear,  not  servile  but  filial  and  pure,  as  S. 
Paul  bids  Christians,  ^*work  out  your  own  sal- 
vation with  fear  and  trembling."  God  gave 
them  an  awful  gift,  to  be  held  with  fear 


oRib. 


7 1  Sam.  li.  30. 


6  Abarb.  Poc. 

8  1  Kgs  xiv.  10. 

*  Keil  says  that  TV7\  means  indeed  to  "exist," 
but  not  to  "continue  existence."  But  the  contin- 
uance is  involved  in  the  existence  in  the  future, 
for  the  being  in  the  future  involves  the  continued 
being.  His  own  rendering,  "that  this  should  be 
My  covenant  with  Levi ; "  requires  a  more  definite 
subject:  and  it  should  rather  be,  "that  My  cove- 
nant with  Levi  should  come  to  this."  In  ver.  5,  6, 
he  speaks  of  the  past  emphatically,  "  My  covenant 
was  with  him,"  "  the  law  of  truth  was  in  his 
mouth."  So  it  shall  be  with  you,  if  you  become 
like  him. 

10  By  the  art.  in  'ibn  v.  8.    See  Num.  xxv.  12, 13. 

11 1  "Chr.  vi.  49.       i^  S.  Matt,  xxviii.  20.      "  Dlou, 

nphil.  ii.  12. 


478 


MALACHT. 


to  him  ^Jor  the  fear  \vhere- 
with   he   feared   me,  and 
<«  Deut.  33. 8, 9.   was  afraid  before  my  name. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


and  awe,  for  its  very  preciousness,  as  one 
wouKl  hold  anxiously  what  is  very  precious, 
yet  very  fragile  and  easily  marred. 

And  he  feared  Me,  and  icas  afraid  before  My 
Name.  Malachi  unites  two  words,  the  second 
expressive  of  strong  fear,  by  which  a  man  is, 
as  it  were,  crushed  or  broken.  They  are 
often  united  in  Hebrew,  but  as  expressing 
terror,  which  men  are  bidden  not  to  feel 
before  men.  Toward  man  it  is  ever  said, 
'/ear  not,  neither  be  ye  dwnayed  ;  toward  God 
Alone,  it  is  a  matter  of  praise.  Man's  high- 
est fear  is  too  little ;  for  he  knows  not,  AVho 
God  is.  So  Isaiah  says,  ^  Fear  ye  not  their 
fear  [<Ae  fear  of  this  people'],  nor  be  afraid. 
S<uictify  the  Lord  of  hosts  Himself,  and  Id  Him 
be  your  fear  and  let  Him  be  your  dread. 
"  ^  What  can  be  more  precious  (than  this 
fear)  ?  For  it  is  written,  ■•  He  whofearelh  the 
Lord  will  be  rewarded.  '*The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  honor  and  glory  and  gladness  and  a 
crown  of  rejoicing.'  He  saith,  the  fear,  xohere- 
vith  he  feareth  Me  and  was  afraid,  i.  e.  he  re- 
ceived the  fear  of  God  in  his  whole  heart 
and  soul.  For  these  reduplications  and  em- 
phases suggest  to  the  hearer  how  rooted  in 
virtue  are  those  thus  praised." 

6.  The  law  of  truth  was  in  his  mouth.  Apart 
from  tliose  cases,  whicli  were  brought  to  the 
priests  at  the  tabernacle*,  in  which  their 
voice  was  the  voice  of  God  through  them,  to 
teach  the  law  was  part  of  the  office  botli  of 
the  priest  and  Levite.  Of  the  priest  God 
says ;  '  that  ye  may  teach  the  children  of  Israel 
(dl  the  statute.'!,  which  the  Lord  hath  apoken  unto 
them  by  the  harul  of  Moses:  of  the  tribe  of 
Levi  generally  Moses  says,  "  They  shall  teach 
Jacob  Thy  judyments  and  Israel  Thy  law. 
After  the  schism  of  the  ten  trilies,  a  prophet 
says  to  Asa,  that  Israel  had  ^for  a  long  time 
been  without  the  true  God  and  without  a  teach- 
inrj  priest  and  ivithonl  lau:  Tl\ey  are  evil 
times,  of  which  Ezekiel  says,  '"  the  law  shall 
perish  from  the  priest;  and  God  says  of  cor- 
rupt priests,  "  The  priest  said  not,  where  is  the 
Lord  f  and  they  that  handle  the  law  knew  Me 
not.  '■■'  Tft«y  did  violence  to  My  law.  On 
their  return  from  the  captivity  Ezra  was 
known  to  Artaxerxes  as  '^a  scribe  of  the  law 
nf  the  God  of  heaven,  and  he  looked  upon  iiim 
apparently,  as  one  who  should  keep  the  i)eo- 

»  Dent.  i.  21,  xx.xi.  8,  Josh.  i.  9,  x.  2.5, 1  Chr.  xxii. 
13,  xxviii.  '20,  2  Clir.  xx.  1%  17,  xxxii.  7,  I.«.  li.  7,  Jer. 
xxiii.  4,  XXX.  10,  xlvi.  27,  Ez.  li.  fi,  iii.  9. 

«  Is.  viii.  12, 13.  »9.  Cyr.  *Pr.  xiii.  13. 

»  Ecclus.  1.  11. 

•Deut.  xvii.  »,  10, 11,  xlx.  17;  (add  Dtut.  xxi.  5, 

Ezek.  xliv.  2:J,  24.)  hence  the  use  ol  D'H^^X  Ex. 
xxl.  0,  xxii.  7,  8. 


6  ^The  law  of  truth 
was  in  his  mouth,  and  in- 
iquity  was  not   found   in » Deut.  33.  lo. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


pie  in  good  order  by  teaching  it.  "  Thou, 
Ezra,  after  the  wisdom  of  thy  God  which  is  in 
thy  hand,  set  mayistraleit  and  judges,  which  may 
judge  all  the  people  which  are  beyond  the  rivei; 
(dl  such  as  know  the  laws  of  thy  God,  and  teach 
ye  them  that  know  them  not :  and  whosoever  will 
not  do  the  law  of  thy  God  or  the  law  of  the  king, 
let  judgment  be  executed  speedily  xipon  him. 
Ezra  says  of  himself,  that  he  '*  had  prepared 
his  heart  to  seek  the  law  of  the  Lord  and  to  do  it 
and  to  teach  in  Israel  statutes  and  judgments. 

"  '®  God's  "  law  is  the  truth :  the  true  doc- 
trine of  this  law  did  he  teach  the  people, 
and  instruct  tiiem  in  the  true  meaning  and 
intent  thereof,  that,  according  to  the  right 
rule,  they  miglit  frame  all  their  actions ; 
nothing  of  it  did  he  conceal  from  them,  nor 
teach  any  thing  contrary  to  it  or  false.  This 
was  in  his  mouth  ;  nothing  contrary  to  it 
was  found  in  his  lips." 

And  iniquity  u'cts  not  found  in  hi.f  lips.  He 
expresses  the  perfectness  of  that  teaching, 
first  positively,  then  negatively.  The  true 
priest  taught  truth  without  any  admixture 
of  wrong.  "  "  Not  he  only  is  a  betrayer  of 
the  truth,  who,  transgressing  the  truth, 
openly  teaches  a  lie  for  the  truth ;  but  he 
too,  Avho  does  not  freely  utter  the  truth, 
which  he  ought  to  utter  freely,  or  who  does 
not  freely  defend  the  truth  Avhich  he  ought 
to  defend  freely,  is  a  betrayer  of  the  truth. 
^'  For  with  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  right- 
eousness, and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  maile 
unto  salvation."  "  Nothing,"  says  S.  Am- 
brose ■'°  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  "  is  so 
perilous  to  the  priest  with  God,  so  disgrace- 
ful with  men,  as  not  to  utter  freely  what  he 
thinks.  For  it  is  written,  '^'  /  spake  of  Thy 
testimonies  before  kings,  and  wets  not  ashamed. 
And  therefore  a  priest's  silence  ought  to  dis- 
please your  Clemency  ;  his  freedom,  to  plea.se 
you.  For  you  are  involved  in  the  peril  of 
my  silence,  art  aided  by  the  good  of  my  free 
speech." 

He  ivalked  with  Me.  To  awe  of  God, 
truthfulness  of  teaching,  he  adds  a  devout 
continual  intercourse  with  God.  Like  the 
patriarchs  of  old,  Enoch  and  Noah,  he 
'^^  walked  with  God.  He  not  only  lived  in  the 
Presence,  but  walked  up  and  down  with 
Him,  through  his  whole  life,  as  a  Friend  ; 

'Lev.  X.  n.     8Deut.  xxxiii.  10.     »2  Chr.  xv. .'". 
'"Ezek.  vii.  2G.  n  Jer.  ii.  .><. 

"  Ezelt.  xxii.  20,  Zeph.  iii.  4.       '"  Ezr.  vii.  12,  21. 
»  lb.  2.5,  26.     "  lb.  10.      J«  Poe.      "  Ps.  cxix.  142. 
18  Opus  imp.  in  S.  Matt.  ap.  S.  Chrys.  Horn.  26.  T, 
vi.  .App.  p.  eix.  Ben. 
«»  Rom.  X.  10. 

«>S.  Ambr.  Ep.  xl  ad  Theod.  n.  2.  3.  Ben.  L. 
«'  Ps.  cxix.  40.  "  Gen.  v.  24.  vi.  9. 


CHAriER  II. 


479 


chrTst    ^^®  ^^P®-   ^®  walked  with 

cir.  397.      me   in  peace   and   equity, 

'jam't.'fo.       and  did  ""turn  many  away 

BLev.  111.  11.         «  .    .       •,„ 

Dent.  17.  9,  10.  from  UliqUlty. 

EzKi?'.  111.  7  «For  the  priest's  lips 

Jer.  18.  18.  Hag.  2.  11, 12. 


should  keep  knowledge,    chrTIt 

and  they  should  seek  the cir.  397._ 

law    at    his   mouth:   ''f^JrbGal.4.l4. 
he  is  the  messenger  of  the 
Lord  of  hosts. 


"  having  respect  in   all  things  to  Him  and 
His  glory." 

Ln  peace  and  equity.  The  inward  peace 
with  God  overflowing  in  peace  to  men.  The 
brief  words  comprise  the  duties  of  both 
tables ;  as  that,  '  Follow  peace  ivith  all  men, 
and  holiness,  without  which  no  man  shall  see 
God  ;  ^  Live  in  peace,  and  the  God  of  love  and 
peace  shall  be  with  you  ;  ^  blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers, for  they  shall  be  called  the  children  of 
God.  "*  God's  covenant  with  him  was  of 
peace ' ;  so  he  observed  it  on  his  part." 
Even  equity,  or  real  considerate  justice,  would 
alienate  those,  whom  it  found  wrong,  so  he 
joins  with  it  peace,  that  even  equity  Avas  not 
administered  but  with  love.  ""To  have 
peace  with  God,  what  is  it  but  to  will  to  be 
mended  and'  to  do  Avhat  He  willeth,  and  in 
nothing  to  offend  Him  ?  " 

And  turned  away  many  from  iniquity.  They, 
the  true  priests  of  tlie  Old  Testament  then, 
were  not  satisfied  with  their  own  sanctilica- 
tion,  but  were  zealous  for  the  salvation  of 
souls.  "What  a  history  of  zeal  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  conversion  of  sinners  in 
those,  of  whom  the  world  knows  nothing  ; 
of  whose  working,  but  for  the  three  words  ' 
in  the  closing  book  of  the  Old  Testament, 
we  should  have  known  nothing !  The  Pro- 
phets upbraid  the  sins  of  the  many;  the 
Psalms  are  the  prayers  given  to  and  used  by 
the  pious ;  such  incidental  sayings  as  these, 
record  some  of  the  fruits.  "  Be  of  the  disci- 
ples of  Aaron,"  said  Hillel ",  "  who  loved 
peace  and  followed  peace,  and  who  loved 
men  and  brought  them  near  to  the  law." 
Yet  even  under  the  Gospel  S.  Gregory  com- 
plains, "  ^  The  world  is  full  of  priests  ;  yet  in 
the  harvest  of  God  the  laborers  are  few. 
For  we  undertake  the  priestly  ofBce,  but  do 
not  fultill  its  work.  We  receive  the  fruit  of 
holy  Church  in  daily  stipend,  but  labor  not 
for  the  everlasting"  Church  in  preaching-." 
"  "*Tiiere  are  many  priests,"  says  a  writer  in 
the  IVth  cent.,  "and  few  priests ;  many  in 
name,  few  in  deed.  See  tiien,  how  ye  sit  on 
vour  thrones ;  for  the  throne  maketh  not 
"the  priest,  but  the  priest  the  throne ;  the 
place  sanctilieth   not   the  man,  but  the  man 

1  Heb.  xii.  U.  Rom.  xii.  18.  2  2  Cor.  xiii.  11. 

3  S.  Matt.  V.  9.        «  Poe.         ^  ver.  5.        «  S.  Cyr. 

'p;?D  Ttyn  D'3ni. 

s  Pirke  Abotli  c.  i.  3  13  Poe. 

»S.  Greg.  Horn.  .xvii.  in  Evang.  n.  3  and  8.  0pp.  i. 
1496, 1499.  Ben.  L. 


the  place.  Whoso  sitteth  well  on  the  throne, 
receiveth  honor  from  the  throne;  whoso  ill, 
doth  injustice  to  the  throne.  Thou  sittest  in 
judgment.  If  thou  livest  well  and  teachest 
"well,  thou  wilt  be  a  judge  of  all ;  if  thou 
teachest  well  and  livest  ill,  thine  own  only. 
For  by  teaching  well  and  living  well  thou 
instructest  the  people,  how  it  ought  to  live ; 
by  teaching  well  and  living  ill,  thou  teach- 
est God,  how  He  should  condemn  thee." 
"  '^  We  who  are  called  priests,  above  the  ills 
which  we  have  of  our  own,  add  also  the 
deaths  of  others.  For  we  slay  as  many  as 
we,  in  tepidity  and  silence,  see  daily  go  to 
death. — lie  who  is  placed  under  thee  dies 
without  thee,  when  in  that  which  causes  his 
death,  thou  hast  withstood  him.  For  to 
that  death,  which  thou  ha.st  not  withstood, 
thou  wilt  be  added.  " 

7.  For  the  priest's  lips  should  keep  knowledge. 
"  '^  He  assigns  the  reason  for  what  he  had 
just  said,  the  laic  of  truth  uas  in  his  mouth; 
they  had  done  what  it  was  their  duty  to  do ; 
as  in  Ecclesiasticus  it  is  said  of  Aaron ; 
'^^  God  gave  unto  him  His  commandments, 
and  authority  in  the  statutes  of  judgments, 
that  he  should  teach  Jacob  the  testimonies, 
and  inform  Israel  in  His  laws.'  So  S.  Paul 
requires  of  Titus  to  ordain  such  Bishops,  as 
shall  be  able  to  "  exhort  by  sound  doctrine  and 
to  convince  yainsayers.  Wherefore  S.  Am- 
brose ^*  calls  the  Bible,  which  contains  the 
law  of  God,  '  the  book  of  priests,'  as  spe- 
cially belonging  to  them,  to  be  specially 
studied  by  them.  S.  Jerome  notes  that  he 
says  keep,  not  'give  forth,'  that  they  should 
speak  seasonably,  and  give  their  fellow-ser- 
vants meat  in  due  season." 

For  he  is  the  messenger  [or  angel']  of  the 
Lord  of  hosts.  Malachi  gives  to  the  priest 
the  title  which  belongs  to  the  lowest  order 
of  the  heavenly  spirits,  as  having  an  office 
akin  to  theirs ;  as  Haggai  does  to  the  pro- 
phet ^",  as  an  extraordinary  messenger  of  God  ; 
and  S.  Paul  tells  the  Galatians,  ^'' ye  received 
me  as  an  anqel  of  God,  as  Christ  Jesus;  and 
Christ,  by  S.  John,  speaks  to  the  Bishops  of  the 
seven  Churches,  good  or  bad,  or  of  mixed 
good  and  bad,  as  the  angels  '*  of  those  Churcha. 

i"Op.  Imperf.  in  S.  Matt,  cxxiii.  Horn,  xllii.  App. 
p.  clxxxiii.  Ben.  L. 

1'  R.  Greg.  Horn,  in  Ezek.  L.  i.  Horn.  xi.  nn.  9.  ana 
11.  0pp.  1.  1285.  L. 

12  Lap.  "  Eeclu.s.  xlv.  17.  "Tit.  i.  9. 

15  lie  fide  iii.  e.  15.  n.  128.  0pp.  i.  519.  Ben. 

10  Ha.i:g.  ii.  U.  "  Gal.  iv.  14.  'S  Rev.  i.  20. 


480 


MALACHI. 


chrYst       ^  -^"^  y®  ^^®  departed 
c'r-  397.      out  of  the  way ;  ye  '  have 


iiSam.  2. 17.  caused  many  to  ||  stumble 
II  'oVjaii  in  'the  at  the  law ;  "  ye  have  cor- 
k  .Neli.  13. 29.      rupted   the   covenant   of 

Levi,  saith  the  Lord  of 

hosts. 


"  ^  Since  in  the  heavenly  hierarchy  the 
order  of  Angels  is  the  lowest,  and  in  the 
Eucharistical  hierarchy  the  order  of  the 
priesthood  is  the  highest,"  "^most  tnily  is 
the  priest  of  God  called  angel,  i.  e.  messen- 
ger, because  he  intervenes  between  God  and 
man,  and  announces  the  things  of  God  to 
the  people ;  and  therefore  were  the  Urim 
and  Thumraim  placed  on  the  priest's  breast- 
plate of  judgment,  that  we  might  learn,  that 
the  priest  ought  to  be  learned,  a  herald  of 
Divine  truth."  Much  more  in  the  New 
Testament.  "*\Vho,  as  it  were  in  a  day, 
can  form  one  of  earth,  to  be  the  defender  of 
truth,  to  stand  with  angels,  to  give  glory 
with  Archangels,  to  transmit  the  sacritices 
to  the  altar  above,  to  be  partaker  of  the 
priesthood  *  of  Christ,  to  reform  the  thing 
formed,  and  present  the  image,  to  re-create 
for  the  world  above,  to  be  a  god  *  and  make 
men  partakers  of  the  Divine  Nature "  ? " 
" '  The  priesthood  is  enacted  on  earth,  but 
is  ranked  with  the  heavenly  ranks.  Very 
rightly.  For  not  man,  not  angel,  not  arch- 
angel, not  any  other  created  power,  but  the 
Paraclete  Himself  hath  ordained  this  office, 
and  persuaded  them,  while  yet  abiding  in 
the  flesh,  to  conceive  the  ministry  of  the 
Angels.  Wherefore,  he  who  is  consecrated 
as  priest,  ought  to  be  pure,  as  if  he  stood 
among  the  heavenly  powers."  "^The 
throne  of  the  priesthood  is  placed  in  the 
heavens,  and  he  is  entrusted  with  minister- 
ing things  of  heaven.  Who  saith  this? 
The  King  of  heaven  Himself.  For  He 
saith,  Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall 
be  bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  ye  shall 
loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven.— So  the 
priest  standeth  in  the  middle  between  God 
and  human  nature,  bringing  down  to  us  Di- 
vine benefits,  and  transmitting  thither  our 
supplications." 

8.  Bat  ye^  are  departcl  out  of  the  uay 
"  '*•  of  knowledge,  truth,  equity,  fear  of  God, 
which  I  appointed  to  Aaron  and  the  Levitcs." 
Ye  have  caused  many  to  stumble  at  the  law.  He 
does  not  simply  say,  in  the  law,  but  at  it. 
The  !aw  was  what  they  stumbled  at.     Tiiey 

'Dion.  «3.  Jer. 

•S.  Greg.  Naz.  Oral.  li.  u.  73.  p.  48  Ben. 

*  avvitpivaovra. 

''  0tof  taintvov  Kat  BtonoiqaofiOi.       *  2  S.  Pet.  1.  4. 

■'  S  Chrys.  de  Sacerdotio  iii.  4.  0pp.  i.  382  Ben. 


9  Therefore  'have  I    chrTst 
also  made  you  contempt!- __£ilL5£Ii__ 
ble  and  base  before  all  theiisam.  2. 30. 
people,  according  as   ye 
have   not   kept  my  ways,  II  t)r,  ii.Ued  up 

1  M  J.1  1  .    ,     thejace 

but     thave  been  partial  asninst. 

,"  !  ^  iHeh.  accepted 

in  the  law.  faces. 


did  not  only  misunderstand  the  law,  through 
the  false  teaching  of  the  priests,  as  though  it 
allowed  things  which  in  truth  were  sins  (al- 
though this  too)  ;  itself  was  their  source  of 
stumbling.  As  Jei«us  Himself  was  a  rock  of 
offence  whereon  they  stumbled,  because 
through  His  Divine  holiness  He  was  not 
what  they  expected  Him  to  be,  so  contrari- 
wise the  law  became  an  offence  to  them 
through  the  un holiness  and  inconsistency  of 
the  lives  and  waj's  of  those  who  taught  it ; 
much  as  we  now  hear  Christianity  spoken 
against,  because  of  the  inconsistency  of 
Christians.  So  S.  Paul  saith  to  the  Jews, 
^'  The  name  of  God  is  blasphemed  among  the 
Gentiles  through  you,  as  it  is  written;  and,  for 
the  sins  of  Eli's  sons  '■',  men  abhorred  the  offer- 
ing of  the  Lord. 

And  have  corrupted  the  covenant  of  Levi ;  as  it 
is  said  in  Nehemiah,  ^'  They  have  defiled  the 
priesthood,  and  the  covenant  of  the  priesthood  and 
of  Levi,  that  covenant  which  was  life  and  peace  '*, 
and  therefore  forfeited  them. 

9.  Therefore  have  I  made  you  contemptible. 
They  had  said  in  their  hearts,  '*  The  table  of 
the  Lord  is  contemptible.  So  God  would 
requite  them  "  '®  measure  for  measure."  Yet 
not  (mly  so,  but  in  their  office  as  judges, 
against  the  repeated  protestations  in  tiie  law, 
"  Thou  shall  not  respect  the  person  of  the  poor, 
nor  honor  the  person  of  the  mighty,  in  righteous- 
ness shall  thou  judge  thy  neighbor ;  '*  ye  shall  not 
respect  persons  in  judgment;  ^^ thou  shcdl  not 
wrest  judgment,  he  says, 

Ye  have  accepted  persons  in  the  law.  You 
have  interpreted  the  law  differently  for  rich 
and  poor,  or  have  put  it  in  force  against  the 
poor,  not  against  tiie  rich.  It  would  include 
actual  bribery ;  but  there  are  many  more 
direct  offences  against  equal  justice.  How 
differently  is  the  like  oflonre  again-<t  the 
eighth  commandment  visited  upon  the  poor 
who  have  real  temptation  to  it,  and  tlie  rich 
who  have  none,  but  the  lust  of  the  eyes! 

"  Crows  he  condones,  vexes  the  simple  dove." 

That  contempt  which  they  ca.'st  n\K)n  God 
and  His  law,  by  wresting  it  out  of  respect  to 

« Id.  in  Ts.  Ti.  1.  Horn.  v.  1.  0pp.  vl.  132. 
•OPKI,  emphatic.  "Lap. 

»' Rom.  11.  24.    i2  1Sam.li.17.Poc.   'iNeh.  xiii.2<» 


>*ii.  6. 
'*Deut.  1. 17. 


>•  Kim. 


>'  Ler.  XIX.  15. 
liilh.  XVI.  1<J. 


CHArTER  II. 


481 


10  "Have  we   not  all 


Before 
CHRIST 

cir-  397.      one  father  ?  °  hath  not  one 


» 1  Cor.  8. 6.      God  created  us  ?  why  do 

Eph.4. 6.  J      I    *  1  1 

•Job 31. 15.       we  deal  treacherously 

every  man   against  his 

brother,  by  profaning  the 

covenant  of  our  fathers  ? 

11  ^  Judah  hath  dealt 


persons,  that  so  they  might  gain  favor  and 
respect  from  them,  so  honoring  them  more 
than  Him,  and  seeking  to  please  them  more 
than  Him,  will  He  cast  back  on  them  making 
them  contemptible  even  in  the  eyes  of  those, 
from  whom  they  thought  by  that  means  to 
find  respect. 

10.  Have  tve  not  all  one  Father^?  Hath  not 
one  God  created  its  f  Malachi  turns  abniptly 
to  another  offence,  in  which  also  the  priests 
set  an  evil  example,  the  capricious  dismissal 
of  their  Hebrew  wives  and  taking  other 
women  in  their  stead.  Here,  as  before,  he 
lays  down,  at  the  outset,  a  general  moral 
principle,  which  he  applies.  The  one  Father, 
(it  appears  from  the  parallel),  is  manifestly 
Almighty  God,  as  the  Jews  said  to  our  Lord, 
^  We  have  one  Father,  even  Ood.  He  created 
them,  not  only  as  He  did  all  mankind,  but 
by  the  spiritual  relationship  with  Himself, 
into  which  He  brought  them.  So  Isaiah 
speaks,  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  that  created  thee, 
0  Jacob,  and  He  that  formed  thee,  0  Israel. 
Every  one  that  is  called  by  My  Name;  I  have 
created  Him  for  My  ylory  ;  I  have  formed  him  ; 
yea  I  have  made  him.  This  people  have  I 
formed  for  Myself;  they  shall  shew  forth  My 
praise.  And  from  the  first  in  Moses'  song, 
*  Is  not  He  thy  Father  that  a'eated  *  thee  f 
Hath  He  not  made  thee  and  established  thee  ? 
This  creation  of  them  by  God,  as  His  people, 
gave  them  a  new  existence,  a  new  relation  to 
each  other ;  so  that  every  oflence  against 
each  other  was  a  violation  of  their  relation 
to  God,  Who  had  given  them  this  unity,  and 
was,  in  a  nearer  sense  than  of  any  other, 
the  common  Father  of  all.  Why  then,  the 
prophet  adds,  do  ice  deal  treacherously,  a  man 
against  his  brother,  to  profane  the  covenant  of  our 
fathers?  He  does  not  yet  say,  wherein  this 
treacherous  dealing  consisted  ;  but  awakens 
them   to   the   thought,   that    sin   against   a 

ijews  (Ibn  E.,  Tanchum,  Kim.  Abarb.  ap.  Poe.) 
have  understood  the  one  father  to  be  Jacob ;  S.  Cyril, 
to  be  Abraham.  The  parallelism  is,  I  think,  deci- 
sive against  both.  Althou-i!  Abraham  is  specially 
spoken  of  as  their  fatlier,  yet  tlie  appeal  to  that  rela- 
tion would  not  liold  against  the  marriage,  condemned 
here,  since  he  was  the  father  of  the  descendants 
of  Ishmael  as  of  Isaac,  of  the  bitterest  foes  of 
Israel,  the  heathenish  Edomites.  Ammon  and  Moab, 
inveterate  persecutors  of  Israel,  were  lii.s  near 
kindred.    Ammonltesses  and  Moabitesses  were  as 

31 


treacherously,  and  an    chrTst 
abomination  is  committed      <^"'-  ^'•>''- 
in   Israel   and   in  Jerusa- 
lem ;  for  Judah  hath  pro- 
faned the  holiness  of  the 
Lord  which  he    1 1  loved, !  or,  oug/it  to 

' '  love. 

"  and   hath    married   the  •  Ezra  9.  x 

11/.  1       *  !"•  2- 

daughter  ot  a  strange  god.   Neh.  la.  23. 


brother  is  sin  against  God,  Who  made  him  a 
brother;  as,  and  much  more  under  the 
Gospel,  in  which  we  are  all  members  of  one 
mystical  body;  ^when  ye  sin  so  against  the 
brethren,  and  wound  their  weak  conscience,  ye  sin 
against  Christ.  He  speaks  of  the  sin,  as 
aflecting  those  who  did  not  commit  it.  Why 
do  we  deal  treacherously  ?  So  Isaiah,  before 
his  lips  were  cleansed  by  the  mystical  coal, 
said,  '/am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell 
in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips,  and  the 
high-priest  Joshua  was  shewn  in  the  vision, 
clothed  with  defiled  garments*;  and  the  sin 
of  Achan  became  the  sin  of  the  children  of 
Isi'ael^,  and  David's  sinful  pride  in  number- 
ing the  people  was  visited  upon  all '",  He 
teaches  beforehand,  that,  ^'  whether  one  mem- 
ber suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it,  or  one 
member  be  honored,  all  the  members  rejoice  with 
it.  They  profaned  also  the  covenant  of  their 
fathers,  by  marrying  those  whom  God  forbade, 
and  who  would  seduce,  as  heathen  wives  had 
Solomon,  from  His  worship.  S.  Paul  in 
sanctioning  the  remarriage  of  widows,  adds, 
only  '^  in  the  Lord,  i.  e.  Christian  husbands. 
"^^He  who  treated  as  null  the  difference 
between  the  Israelites  and  a  heathen  woman, 
shewed  that  the  difference  between  the  God 
of  Israel  and  the  God  of  the  heathen  had 
before  become  null  to  him,  whence  it 
follows ; 

11.  Treacherously  has  Judah  decdt;  an 
abomination  is  committed  in  Israel.  The  pro- 
phet, by  the  order  of  the  words,  emphasizes 
the  treachery  and  the  abomination.  This  have 
they  done  ;  the  very  contrary  to  what  was 
required  of  them  as  the  people  of  God.  He 
calls  the  remnant  of  Judah  by  the  sacred 
name  of  the  whole  people,  of  whom  they 
were  the  surviving  representatives.  The 
word  "  abomination  '* "  is  a  word  belonging 
to  the   Hebrew,   and  is  used  especially  of 

mucli  forbidden  by  Ezra  (ix.  2)  as  women  of  tbi 
different  nations  of  Canaan,  Ashdod  or  Egypt. 

2S.  .John  viii.  41. 

3  Is.  xliii.  1.  7.  21.  add  xliv.  2,  21,  24. 

*  Deut.  xxxii.  6.  -  *pp  T3X. 

•  1  Cor.  viii.  12.  t  Is.  vi.  5. 
«  Zech.  iii.  3,  4.    See  ab.  pp.  354,  S.'JS. 

•Josh.  vii.  1,  11.  i«2Sam.  xxiv. 

"1  Cor.  xii.  2G.  "  ib.  vii.  39. 

"  Hengst.  Christ,  iil.  305.  '*  T\2y\T\. 


-iS2 


MALA(  HI. 


^,?^!"TIt.        12  The  Lord  will  cut 
cir.  :to7.      off  the   niau  that  doeth 


lOr,  him  that    this,  ||the  master  and  the 

tihn^thnt^an-     scholar,  out  of  the  taber- 

pNcTu'it  28, 29.  uacles  of  Jacob,  Pand  him 

that  offereth   an   offering 

unto  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

13  And   this   have  ye 


».Jer.  ii.  3.  »  Poc. 

SNeh.  xiii.  29. 


things  offensive  to,  or  separating  from, 
Almighty  God;  idolatry,  as  the  central 
dereliction  of  God,  and  involving  offences 
against  the  laws  of  nature,  but  also  all  other 
sins,  as  adultery,  wliich  violate  His  most 
sacred  laws  and  alienate  from  Him. 

Hath  profaned  the  ho'itiess  of  the  Lord  which 
He  loved,  in  themselves,  who  had  been  sepa- 
rated and  set  apart  by  God  to  Himself  as  a 
*  hol>/  nntion.  ''■  L-<mel  was  holiness  to  the  Lord. 
"■'The  Lord  is  holy,  pt>rfcct  holiness;  His 
name,  holy  ;  all  things  relating  to  Ilini,  holy  ; 
His  law,  covenant  and  *all  His  ordinances 
and  institutions  holy ;  Israel,  His  peculiar 
people,  an  holy  people;  tlie  temple  and  all 
things  tlierein  consecrated  to  Him,  holy ; 
Jerusalem,  the  city  of  the  great  God,  holy  ; 
yea,  the  wliole  land  of  His  inheritance,  lioly  ; 
so  that  whosoever  doth  not  observe  those 
due  res[)ects  which  to  any  of  these  belong, 
may  be  said  to  have  profaned  the  holiness  which 
He  loved." 

Unlawful  marriages  and  unlawful  lusts 
were  in  themselves  a  special  proianation 
of  that  holiness.  The  liigli  priest  was 
to  *lake  a  vir(/in  of  his  oivn  people  to  leife, 
and  not  to  profane  his  seed  arnowj  the  people. 
The  priests  who  married  stranrje  wires,  defiled 
the  priesthood  and  the  covenant  of  the  prialhood  '. 
The  marriage  with  idolatresses  brouglit,  as 
one  consequence,  the  profanation  l)y  their 
idolatries.  The  i>rohibition  is  an  anticipa- 
ti(m  of  the  fuller  revelation  in  the  Gospel, 
tiiat  "the  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  so,  that  sins  afjoinst  the  bodij  are 
profanations  of  tiie  temple  of  God.  "^As 
tliose  wiio  acknowledge,  worship  and  serve 
the  true  God  are  called  His  ''  son.i  ami  daiKjh- 
ters,  so  they  that  worshiped  any  strange 
god  are,  by  like  reason,  here  called  the 
daughters  of  that  god.  Hence  the  Jews  say, 
'  **  He  tliat  marrieth  a  heathen  woman  is,  as 
if  he  made  himself  son-in-law  to  an  idol.' " 

Hath  inarried  the  daughter  of  a  strange  god. 


»  Ex.  xix.  r,. 
*U-\:  xxi.  14,1.5. 
6 1  Cor.  vi.  \ry-2n. 
'  Deut.  xxxii.  19,  2  Cor.  vi.  18. 
'  .Maim,  in  Issiire  blah,  c.  12.  g  1.  Poo. 
«  Not  "the  aw.ikoner,"  us  if  "y^  wore  ni-tive:  for 
1U'  is  always  intransitive,  except  in  the  correction 


done  again,  covering  the 


Before 

C  H  R  I  S  X 

altar  of   the   Lord  with  __£i£ii2Ii_ 


tears,  with  weeping,  and 
with  crying  out,  insomuch 
that  he  regardeth  not  the 
offering  any  more,  or  re- 
ceiveth  it  with  good  will 
at  your  hand. 


And  so  he  came  into  closest  relation  with 
idols  and  with  devils. 

12.  l^te  Lord  will  cut  off  the  man  that  doeth 
thli,  the  master  and  the  scholar,  lit.  The  Lord  cut 
off  from  the  man  that  doeth  this-,  watcher^  and 
answerer.  A  proverbial  saying  apparently, 
in  which  the  two  corresponding  classes  com- 
prise the  whole '".  Yet  so,  proljably,  that 
the  one  is  the  active  agent ;  the  other,  the  pas- 
sive. The  one  as  a  ivaJcher  goea  his  rounds,  to  see 
that  nothing  stirreth  against  that  which  lie  is 
to  guard  ;  the  other  answereth,  when  roused. 
Together,  they  exjjress  the  two  opposite 
classes,  active  and  passive  sin ;  those  who 
originate  the  sin,  and  tlio.se  who  adopt  or 
retain  it  at  the  instigation  of  the  inventor  or 
active  propagator  of  it.  It  will  not  exempt 
from  punishment,  that  he  was  led  into  the  sin. 

From  the  tabernacles  of  Jacob.  Perhaps 
i  "  he  chose  the  word,  to  remind  them  of  their 
j  unsettled  condition,"  out  of  which  God  had 
!  brought  them. 

Aiul  him  that  offereth  an  offering  unto  the 
Lord  of  hosts ;  i.  e.  him,  who,  doing  these 
things,  offereth  an  oflering  to  God,  to  bribe 
Him,  as  it  were,  to  ccmnivance  at  his  sin. 
In  the  same  meaning,  Isaiah  says,  that  God 
hateth  "  iniquity  and  the  .solemn  meeting,  and, 
''■'  /  hate  robbery  ivith  burnt-offering ;  or  Sol- 
omon, '*  The  sacrifice  of  the  wicked  is  an  abom- 
inution  to  the  Lord ;  ^*  he  that  tnrneth  away  his 
ear  from  hearing  the  law,  his  prayer  shall  be  an 
abomination.  And  God  by  Amos  says,  '=  / 
luite,  I  despise,  your  feast-dnys,  and  tvill  not 
accept  your  soletnn  a.tsemhlies.  In  one  sense 
the  sacrifice  was  an  aggravation,  in  that  the 
worship  of  God  made  the  oflence  either  a  sin 
against  light,  or  imjilied  tiiat  Go<l  might  be 
bribed  ir.to  connivanie  in  the  breaking  of 
His  laws.  The  ancient  discipline  of  remov- 
ing from  Comnnuiion  those  guilty  of  grievous 
sin  was  founded  on  this  principle. 

13.  And  thi.'<  ye  luive  done  aqain,  adding  the 
.second  sin  of  crueltv  to  their  wives  to  the 


of  tlip    text,  .I.jli    xli.  2.      In  Chald.    T|»    Is    "» 
watcher."    I)an.  iv.  lo  14. 

10  Dietrich,  Ahhanrtll.  znr  Helir.  Gram.  p.  201  «<qq., 
has  in.otances  from  tlie  Arabic,  but  not  so  energetic 
as  tlio.se  in  the  O.  T.,  except  when  tliey  are  thr 
.same. 

11  1.9.  i.  1.?.  « lb.  Ixi.  ,<«.  '»  PioT.  XT.  R, 
'•  lb.  xxviii.  0.     'S.-^pe  vol.  I.  p.  299  on  Am.  v.  21. 


CHAPTER  II. 


48^ 


Before  14^Yet    ve    sav, 

CHRIST  ^^    1\    ^  '^         J  J  > 

cir.  397.      Wherefore  ?     Because  the 


Lord  hath   been   Avitness 

qProv.5.18.      between    thee  and   ^the 

wife  of  thy  youth,  against 

whom   thou   hast   dealt 

» Prov.  2. 17.      treacherously :  "  yet  is  she 


taking  foreign  women ;  they  covered  the  altar 
of  God  with  tears,  in  that  they  by  ill-treat- 
ment occasioned  their  wives  to  weep  there  to 
God  ;  and  God  regarded  this,  as  thongh  they 
had  stained  the  altar  with  their  tears. 

Insomuch  that  He  regardeth  not  the  offering 
any  more.  God  regarded  the  tears  of  the 
oppressed,  not  the  sacrifices  of  the  oppres- 
sors. He  would  not  accept  what  was  thus 
oflered  Him  as  a  thing  well-pleasing  Ho 
Him,  acceptable  to  win  His  good  pleasure. 

14.  And  ye  say,  Wherefore?  They  again 
act  the  innocent,  or  half-ignorant.  What 
had  they  to  do  with  their  wives'  womanly 
tears  ?  He  Who  knows  the  hearts  of  all  was 
Himself  the  witness  between  them  and  the  wife 
of  youth  of  each ;  her  to  whom,  in  the  first  fresh- 
ness of  life  and  their  young  hearts,  each  had 
plighted  his  troth,  having  been  entrusted  by 
her  with  her  earthly  all.  '^  Tlie  Lord,  said 
even  Laban,  when  parting  from  his  daughters, 
waich  between  me  and  thee,  when  loe  are  absent, 
the  me  from  the  other;  if  thou  shah  afflict  my 
daughters,  or  if  thou  shall  take  wires  beside  my 
daughters,  no  man  is  with  us;  see,  Godisivitncss 
between  me  and  thee. 

And  he  dealt  treacherously  agaimt  her,  violat- 
ing his  own  faith  and  her  trusting  love, 
which  she  had  given  once  for  all,  and  could 
not  now  retract.  And  she  is  thy  compuniun  ; 
she  has  been  another  self,  the  companion  of 
thy  life,  sharing  thy  sorrows,  joys,  hopes, 
fears,  interests ;  difl'erent  in  strength,  yet  in 
all,  good  and  ill,  sickness  and  health,  thy 
associate  and  companion  ;  the  help  meet  for 
the  husband  and  provided  for  him  by  God 
in  Paradise;  and  above  all,  the  wife  of  thy 
covenant,  to  whom  thou  didst  pledge  thyself 
before  God.  These  are  so  many  aggrava- 
tions of  their  sin.  She  was  the  wife  of  their 
youth,  of  their  covenant,  their  companion  ; 
and  God  was  the  witness  and  Sanctitier  of 
their  union.  Marriage  was  instituted  and 
consecrated  by  God  in  Paradise.  Man  was  to 
leave  father  'and  mother  (if  so  be),  but  to 
cleave  to  liis  wife  indissolubly.  For  they 
were  to  be  ■'  no  more  (wain,  hut  nnefie^h.  Hence, 
as  a  remnant  of  Paradise,  even  the  heathen 
knew  of  marriage,  as  a  religious  act,  guarded 


tlip         Before 
""=     CHRIST 
cir.  397. 


thy   companion,  and 
wife  of  thy  covenant. 

15  And   'did  not   he«Matt.  19. 4, 5. 
make   one?    Yet  had  he 
the   II  residue  of  the  spirit.  }Or.««f;jy^ 
And  wherefore  one  ?    That ,  God. 

t  Ezra  9.  2. 

he  might  seed  t*a  godly  icor. 7. u. 


3  S.  Matt.  xix.  6. 
-'•  .Marriage  Service. 


2  Gen.  xxxi.  49,  50. 

♦  Prov.  ii.  17. 
«Lap. 


by  religious  sanctions.  Among  God's  people, 
niarriage  was  a  *corenant  of  their  God.  To 
that  original  institution  of  marriage  he  seems 
to  refer  in  the  following ; 

1-5.  And  did  not  He,  God,  of  Whom  he  had 
spoken  as  the  witness  between  man  and  his 
wife,  mahe  one,  viz.  Adam  first,  to  mark  tlie 
oneness  of  marriage  and  make  it  a  law  of 
nature,  appointing  "that  out  of  man 
(created  in  His  own  image  and  similitude,) 
woman  should  take  her  beginning,  and,  knit- 
ting them  together,  did  teach  that  it  should 
never  be  lawful  to  put  asunder  those,  whom 
He  by  matrimony  had  made  one  ^  ? " 
"  ^  Between  those  two,  and  consequently 
between  all  other  married,  to  be  born  from 
them.  He  willed  that  there  should  be  one 
indivisible  union ;  for  Adam  could  be  mar- 
ried to  no  other  save  Eve,  since  no  other  had 
been  created  by  God,  nor  could  Eve  turn  to 
any  other  man  than  Adam,  since  there  was 
no  other  in  the  world.  '  Infringe  not  then 
this  sanction  of  God,  and  unity  of  marriage, 
and  degenerate  not  from  your  first  parents, 
Adam  and  Eve.'  "  " '  If  divorce  had  been 
good,  Jesus  says,  God  would  not  liave  made 
one  man  and  one  woman,  but,  having  made 
one  Adam,  would  have  made  two  women,  had 
He  meant  that  he  should  cast  out  the  one, 
bring  in  the  other ;  but  now  by  the  mode  of 
creation,  He  brought  in  this  law,  that  each 
should  have,  throughout,  the  wife  which  he 
had  from  the  beginning.  This  law  is  older 
than  that  about  divorce,  as  much  as  Adam  is 
older  than  Moses." 

Yet  had  he  the  residue  of  the  spirit ;  "  the 
breath  of  life,  which  He  breathed  into  Adam, 
and  man  became  a  living  soul.  All  the  souls, 
which  God  would  ever  create,  are  His,  and 
He  could  have  called  them  into  being  at 
once.  Yet  in  order  to  designate  the  unity  of 
marriage,  He  willed  to  create  but  one.  So 
our  Lord  argues  against  divorce,  *  Have  ye 
not  read,  that  He  ivhich  made  them  at  the  begin- 
ning, made  them  mcde  andfemcde  ?  They  both 
together  are  called  one  nian^°,  and  therefore 
should  be  of  one  mind  and  spirit  also,  the 
unity  of  which  tliey  ought  faithfully  to 
preserve. 

IS.  Chrys.  de  libello  repnd.  n  2.  0pp.  iii.  28.  Ben. 
Rib. 
8  Gen.  ii.  7.        ^  S.  Matt.  xix..  4-6.        i«Gcii.  i.  2T. 


484 


MALACHI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  3n7. 

I  Or,  unfaithr 
ftUly. 


"Deut.  24.1. 
Matt.  5. 32. 

&  19.  8. 
I  Or,  ij  he  hate 

heT,'put  her 

away. 
iHeU  to  put 

away. 


seed.  Therefore  take  heed 
to  your  spirit,  and  let  none 
deal  II  treacherously 
against  the  wife  of  his 
youth. 

16  For  "the  Lord,  the 
God  of  Israel,  saith  ||  that 
he  hateth  f  putting  away : 
for  one  covereth  violence 
with  his  garment,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts  :  there- 
fore take  .  heed  to  your 


And  wherefore  one  f  Seeking  a  seed  of  God, 
i.  e.  worthy  of  God  ;  for  from  religious  mar- 
riage, religious  offspring  may  most  be  hoped 
from  God ;  and  by  violating  that  law,  those 
before  the  flood  brought  in  a  spurious,  un- 
sanctified  generation,  so  that  God  in  His  dis- 
pleasure destroyed  them  all.  And  take  heed 
to  your  spirit^,  which  ye  too  had  from  (lod, 
which  was  His,  and  which  He  willed  in 
time  to  create.  He  closes,  as  he  began, 
with  an  appeal  to  man's  natural  feeling, 
let  none  deal  treacherously  against  the  wife  of  his 
youth. 

16.  He  hateth  putting  away\  He  had  al- 
lowed it  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  yet 
only  in  the  one  case  of  some  extreme  bodily 
foulness  ^,  discovered  upon  marriage,  and 
which  the  woman,  knowing  the  law,  con- 
cealed at  lier  own  peril.  Not  subse(iuent  ill- 
ness or  any  consequences  of  it,  liowever 
loathsome  (as  leprosy),  were  a  ground  of 
divorce,  but  only  this  concealed  foulness, 
which  the  husband  found  upon  marriage. 
The  capricious  tyrannical  divorce,  God  saith, 
He  hateth:    a  word*-  naturally   used    only 


'The  DDnn,  "your  spirit,"  manifestly  refers 
back  to  "  tlie  residue  of  the  spirit,"  mi  1NB'  whieli, 
he  says,  was  (Votl's. 

'■'The  E.  M.  "If  he  hate  her,^^^lier  ntmi/," 
(which  follows  Joii.)  seems  to  enj^^Bint  Mnlachi 
reproves  these  for,  their  eruelty^Hpiir  wives,  us 
al.so  it  gives  an  unbounded  license  6f  divorce. 

'13T  nnj?  Deut  xxiv.  1,  used  of  disgusting 
foulness  in  tlie  chapter  before,  xxiii.  15. 

♦Things  spoken  of  as  objects  of  God's  hatred, 
are,  "  a  proud  look,  a  lying  tongue,  hands  that  shea 
ii)ni>cent  blood,  a  heart  that  deviseth  wicked  Imag- 
inations, feet  that  be  swift  in  nnining  t<>  mischief, 
a  false  witnes.«  that  speaketh  lies,  and  he  that  sow- 
eth  ilisccird  among  brethren,"'  I'l'ov.  vi.  lO-liij 
"pride,  arrogancy,  the  evil  way,  and  th(?  froward 
mouth,"  lb.  viil.  I'li ;  idolatiy,  Di"'.  xvi.  22,  .Jcr.  xliv. 
4,  "  robbery  with  burnt-ottering,"  Is.  Ixi.  8;  heathen 
abominations,  Deut.  xli.  ."Jl;  worstiip  with  sin.  Am. 
V.  21.  is.  i.  14. 

6  No  .Ievvish-.'\rablc  writer  notices  (he  meaning, 
which    Pocoeke  suggested,   and   (Jeseiiius,    Kflrst, 

Ewald  folhjw  ;  as  if  t^oS  signified  *'  wife,"  lieeause 
In  the  Koran  DX^S  is  used,  not  directly  for  '  hus- 
liaud' or  "  wife."  lau  in  itf!  original  sense,  "cover- 


spirit,  that   ye  deal  not    ^  h  r°i  s  t 
treacherously.  c'r-  397 

17  ^  '^  Ye  have  wearied  »isai  43.24. 
the  Lord  with  your  words,  ch  sf  13, 14, 15. 
Yet  ye  say,  Wherein  have 
we  wearied  him?  When 
ye  say,  Every  one  that  do- 
eth  evil  is  good  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord,  and  he 
delighteth  in  them;  or. 
Where  is  the  God  of  judg- 
ment? 


as  to  sin,  and  so  stamping  such  divorce  as 
sin. 

One  covereth  violence  tvith  his  garment  *  or, 
and  violence  covereth  his  garment^,  or,  it  might 
be,  in  the  same  sense,  he  covereth  his  qarnifnt 
with  violence'',  so  that  it  cannot  be  hid,  nor 
washed  away,  nor  removed,  but  envelopes 
him  and  his  garment ;  and  that,  to  his  shame 
and  punishment.  It  was,  as  it  were,  an 
outer  garment  of  violence,  as  Asaph  says, 
*  violence  covereth  them  as  a  garment ;  or 
David,  "  he  clothed  himself  ivith  cursing  as  with 
a  garment.  It  was  like  a  garment  with  fret- 
ting leprosy,  unclean  and  making  iniclean,  to 
be  burned  with  lire  ***.  Contrariwise,  the 
redeemed  saints  had  "  washed  their  robtx  and 
made  them  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb. 
Having  declared  God's  hatred  of  this  their 
doing,  he  sums  up  in  the  same  words, 
but  more  briefly;  a')id  this  being  so,  ye  shall 
take  heed  to  your  spirit,  and  not  deal  treacher- 
ously. 

17.  Ye  have  wearied  the  Lord  with  your 
words.  "  '^  By  your  blasphemous  words,  full 
of  unbelief  and  mistrust,  you  have  in  a  man- 

ing,"  of  each  reciprocally,  DfUNI  D37  DX37  JH 
tnS  Dt53'7)"they  (your  wives)  are  a  garment  to 

you,  and  you  are  a  garment  to  them."  So  Ablme- 
leeh  said  to  Sarah,  "/)«  [.\braham]  is  to  thee  a  cover- 
ing (niOJ)  f/  "**  eyes,  unto  all  tchich  are  with  thee, 
(Gen.  XX.  IG).  But  DX^S  does  not  signify,  either 
husband  or  wife.  In  Arable,  n?n  and  IJtlX  loose 
dresses,  (See  Lane  .\rab.  Lex.  p.  >".3,  021)  are  used 
metapli.  of  a  wife  ;  (1XTH  also  of  a  person's  self  or 
family  as  well).  But  there  Is  no  trace  of  this  In 
Heb. 

«.\cciirding  to  the  constr.,  Xu.  xvl.  3.1,  Lev.  iv.  ><, 
Job  xxl.  2t'i,  where  the  thing  covering  is  the  nom- 

hiative  and  7j,'  is  put  before  the  thing  cuvered.  So 
Vulg.  and  LXX.  origlnallv,  as  shewn  by  the  Arable 
transl.,  though  now  the  t,XX.  has  evOvfirmaTa  tor 
ivSvtxaTa.  (  Ite  Diell.) 

'\n  IvA.  xxlv.  7,  .lob  xxxvi.  32,  the  thing  cover- 
ing is  in  the  ace,  with  S^of  thing  covered 

»Ps.  Ixxlll.  0.     »!!).  elx.  18.      ii'L<'v.  xlil.4:--s. 

11  Kev.  vii.  14.  i-'l>i.-n. 


CHAPTER  ITI. 


485 


■Rofore 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


CHAPTER  III. 

.  1  Of  the  messenger,  majesty  and 
grace  of  Christ.  7  Of  the  re- 
bellion, 8  sacrilege,  13  and  in- 
fidelity of  the  people.  16  The 
promise  of  blessing  to  them 
that  fear  God. 


gEHOLD,  "I   will  scud    eHRTsT 
my  messenger,  and  he      ^*'"-  ^^^• 


ner  wearied  God.  He  speaks  of  God,  after 
the  manner  of  men,  as  a  man  afflicted  bv 
the  ills  of  others.  Whence  also  the  Lord 
says  in  Isaiah,  '  /  am  weary  to  bear  them,  and 
*  thou  hast  made  Me  to  serve  with  thy  sins  ;  thou 
hiist  wearied  Me  with  thine  iniquities.  In  like 
way  the  Apostle  says,  ^  Grieve  not  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God." 

With  the  same  contumacy  as  before,  and 
unconsciousness  of  sin,  they  ask,  Wherein  f 
It  is  the  old  temptation  at  the  prosperity  of 
the  wicked.  "  Does  God  love  the  wicked  ? 
if  not,  why  does  He  not  punish  them?" 
"*The  people,  when  returned  from  Babylon, 
seeing  all  the  nations  around,  and  the  Baby- 
lonians themselves,  serving  idols  but  abound- 
ing in  wealth,  strong  in  body,  possessing  all 
which  is  accounted  good  in  this  world,  and 
themselves,  who  had  the  knowledge  of _  God, 
overwhelmed  with  want,  hunger,  servitude, 
is  scandalized  and  says, '  There  is  no  provi- 
dence in  human  things  ;  all  things  are  borne 
along  by  blind  chance,  and  not  governed  by 
the  judgment  of  God ;  nay  rather,  things  evil 
please  Him,  things  good  displease  Him  ;  or 
if  God  does  discriminate  all  things,  where  is 
His  equitable  and  just  judgment  ?'  Questions 
of  this  sort  minds,  which  believe  not  in  the 
world  to  come,  daily  raise  to  God,  when  they 
see  the  wicked  in  power,  the  saints  in  low 
estate ;  such  as  Lazarus,  whom  we  read  of  in 
the  Gospel,  who,  before  the  gate  of  the  rich 
man  in  his  purple,  desires  to  support  his 
hungry  soul  vv'ith  the  crumbs  which  are 
thrown  away  from  the  remnants  of  the  table, 
while  the  rich  man  is  of  such  savagery  and 
cruelty,  that  he  had  no  pity  on  his  fellow- 
man,  to  whom  the  tongues  of  the  dogs 
shewed  pity  ;  not  understanding  the  time  of 
judgment,  nor  that  those  are  the  true  goods, 
which  are  for  ever,  say.  He  is  pleased 
with  the  evil,  and,  Where  is  the  God  of 
judgment  ?  " 

Where  is  the  God  of  the  judgment  f  "  ^  i.  e.  of 
that  judgment,  the  great,  most  certain,  most 
exact,  clearsighted,  omniscient,  most  just, 
most  free,  wherein  He  regards  neither 
powerful  nor  rich  nor  gifts,  nor  aught  but 
justice  ?  For  He  is  the  God  of  the  judgment,  to 
Whom  it  belongs  by  nature  to  judge  all  men 
and  things  by  an  exact  judgment :  for  His 

ils.'i.  14.  2Ib.  xliii.  24.  8Eph.  iv.  30. 

«S.  Jer.  6  Lap. 

s-i-nnJD  had  been  used  only  by  Isaiah,  xl.  3, 


shall  "  prepare  the  way  be-  a  Matt.  ii.  lo. 

Mark  1.  2. 

fore  me:  and  the  Lord,  Luke i.' 76. 
whom  ye  seek,  shall  sud- b  i.«ai.  40. 3. 
denly  come  to  his  temple. 


nature  is  equity  -itself,  justice  itself,  provi- 
dence itself,  and  that,  most  just,  most  wise. — 
To  Him  it  belongs  to  be  the  Judge  of  all, 
and  to  exercise  strict  judgment  upon  all ;  and 
He  will  exercise  it  fully  on  that  decisive  and 
last  day  of  the  world,  which  shall  be  the 
horizon  between  this  life  and  the  next,  part- 
ing off  time  from  eternity,  heaven  from  hell, 
the  blessed  from  the  damned  forever,  through 
Christ,  Whom  He  constituted  Judge  of  all, 
quick  and  dead." 

III.  1.  God  answers  their  complaints  of 
the  absence  of  His  judgments,  that  they 
would  come,  but  would  include  those  also 
who  clamored  for  them.  For  no  one  who 
knew  his  own  sinfulness  would  call  for  the 
judgment  of  God,  as  being  himself,  chief  of 
sinners.  S.  Augustine  pictures  one  saying  to 
God,  "  Take  away  the  ungodly  man,"  and 
that  God  answers,  "  W^hich  ?  " 

Behold,  I  send  My  messenger  before  My  face, 
and  he  shall  prepare  My  way  before  Me.  They, 
then,  were  not  prepared  for  His  Coming,  for 
W'hom  they  clamored.  The  messenger  is  the 
same  whom  Isaiah  had  foretold,  whose  words 
Malachi  uses  " ;  '  The  voice  of  one  crying  in 
the  wilderness.  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord, 
make  straight  in  the  dese)-t  a  high-way  for  oxir 
God.  **  Thou,  child,  was  the  prophecy  on  S. 
John  Baptist's  birth,  shall  be  called  the  prophet 
of  the  Highest ;  for  thou  shall  go  before  the  face 
of  the  Lord  to  prepare  His  way,  to  give  know- 
ledge of  salvation  unto  His  people,  for  the  remis- 
sion of  their  sins.  Repentance  was  to  be  the 
preparation  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  the 
Messiah,  for  Whom  they  looked  so  impa- 
tiently. 

He  Who^peaks,  is  He  Who  should  come. 
For  it  was  before  Him  Who 


V  nqspe? 
id^Klt 


God  the  ^^ 

came  and^BRt  among  us,  that  the  way  was 
to  be  prepared.  He  speaks  here  in  His  Di- 
vine Nature,  as  the  Lord  Who  should  send, 
and  Who  should  Himself  come  in  our  flesh. 
In  the  Gospel,  when  He  icas  come  in  the  flesh, 
He  speaks  not  of  His  own  Person  but  of  the 
Father,  since  "  '^  indivisible  are  the  operations 
of  the  Trinity,  and  what  the  One  doth,  the 
other  Two  do,  since  the  Three  are  of  one 
nature,  power  and  operation."  Whence 
Christ,  in  order  to  give  no  excuse  to  the  Jews 
to  speak  against  Him  before  the  time,  refers 

Ivii.  14,  Ixii.  10,  although  TTisS  7139,  abs.,  had 
been  used  Ps.  Ixxx.  10. 
Us.  xl.  3.  8 s.  Luke  L  76.  'Lap. 


486 


MALACHI. 


,.  ■? d'^",'"!:  t    *"  evfu  the  nu\-:.<en"^or  of  the 
cir.  3(17.       covenant,  whom  ye  delight 


0  Isai.  63.  9. 


it,  as  He  does  His  life ',  His  doctrine  *, 
Avords*  and  works*  to  tlie  Father. 

"*  Those  works,  which  do  not  relate  to 
that  which  belongs  peculiarly  to  each  Person, 
being  common,  are  ascriljed  now  to  One  Person, 
now  to  Another,  in  order  to  set  forth  the  One 
Substance  in  the  Trinity  of  Persons."  Thus, 
S.  John  says",  Isaiah  spoke  of  the  unbelief 
of  the  Jews,  when  he  saw  the  glory  of  God 
the  Son  and  spake  of  Him,  and  S.  Paul  says' 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  spake  then  by  him. 

And  he  sludl  prepare  the  way  before  Me. 
"^The  same  is  God's  way  here,  and  Christ's 
there,  an  evident  proof  that  Christ  is  one 
God  with  the  Father,  and  that,  in  Christ, 
God  came  and  was  manifest  in  the  flesh." 
The  prophets  and  all  who  turned  men  to 
righteousness,  or  who  retained  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth  or  of  righteousness  or  of  God  in 
the  world,  did,  in  their  degree,  prepare  the 
way  for  Christ.  But  John  was  His  imme- 
diate forerunner  before  Hi^  Face,  the  herald 
of  His  immediate  approach;  whence  he  is 
called  ""the  end  of  the  law,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Gospel,"  "  ^"  the  lamp  before  the 
Light,  the  voice  before  the  Word,  the  me- 
diator between  the  Old  and  the  ]S'ew  Testa- 
ment ; "  "  "  the  link  of  the  law  and  of  grace ; 
a  new  morning  star  ;  a  ray,  before  the  true 
Sun  should  bui-st  forth,"  the  end  of  night, 
the  beginning  of  day. 

And  the  Lord,  Whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly 
come  to  His  temple.  He,  Whose  Coming  they 
sought  for,  was  Almighty  God,  the  God  of 
Judgment  ^'^    He  Who  should  come,  was  the 

IS.  John  vi.  57.  «Ib.  vii.  IC. 

8  lb.  ill.  U,  V.  43,  viii.  38,  40,  47,  55,  xii.  40,  xiv.  10, 
24. 

« lb.  iv.  .34,  V.  19,  20,  26, 30,  36,  vi.  38,  viii.  28,  ix.  4, 
X.  2.'i,  .32,  37,  38,  xiv.  10,  11. 

*  Rib.         »  8.  John  xii.  41.  '  Acts  xxviii.  25. 

8Poc. 

» 8.  Thorn.  3  p.  q.  38.  art.  1.  ad  2.  See  Tert.  in 
Mare.  iv.  33.  pp.  317,  318.  Edinb.  Tr. 

'"S.  Greg.  Naz.  Orat.  21.  n.  3  p.  387  Ben. 

11  S.  Chrysol.  Serin.  21.  Bibl.  Patr.  vii.  917. 

i^Rashi,  "The  God  of  judgment."  Ibn  Ezra 
says,  "  Tliis  is  the  glory ;  this  is  the  messenger  of  the 
covenant ;  for  the  sense  is  doubled."  Abarbanel, 
"  Haadon  is  the  Name  which  is  glorified,  who  will 
then  come  to  His  temple,  the  house  of  His  sanctu- 
ary, and  His  glorious  name  and  His  Sheehinah 
shall  dwell  there;  and  this  is  what  they  sought  in 
their  murmnrings."  In  the  "  Mashmia' yeshu'ah," 
"he  says,  "  Haadon  may  be  explained  of  the  king 
Messiah."  Kimohi  also  gives  it  as  his  first  explana- 
tion; "  Haadon,  he  IS  the  king  Messiali,  and  he  is  the 
angel  of  the  covenant ; "  hut  he  gives  an  alternative 
explanation,  "or  hecalls  Elijah  the  messengerof  the 
covenant."  Saadiah  (iaon  admits  the  '  ^fc,"  before 
whom  the  messenger  is  sent,  to  be  the  Messiah  b. 
David.  "The  forernnnerof  the  Messiah  b.  David  will 
be  likehiscmbassadiir,  andasouewhopropareth  the 
people,  and  cleareth  the  way,  as  in  what  is  said,  IJe- 
iiold  1  send  Ac."  Sepher  Haemunoth  Tr.  8  de  re- 
demptione,  (quoted  by  Voiain  on  the  P.  F.  f.  127.) 


ill :  behold,  **  he  shall  come, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 


Before 

C  H  li  1  S  T 

cir.  .397. 


■•Hag.  2.  7. 


Lord,  again  Almighty  God,  since,  in  usage 
too,  none  else  is  called  "  the  Lord  'V'  ^  none 
else  can  Ijc.  The  temple  also,  to  which  He 
was  to  come,  the  temple  of  God,  is  His  own. 
The  messenger,  or  the  Angel  of  the  covenant^ 
plainly,  even  from  the  parallelism,  is  the 
.same  a.s  the  Lord.  It  wa.s  one,  for  whom  they 
looked  ;  one,  of  whose  absence  they  com- 
plained ;  ^*  where  is  the  God  of  jud'pnent  f  one, 
who  should  come  to  His  temple  '^ ;  one, 
whose  coming  they  sought  and  prepared  to 
have  pleasure  in '" ;  one,  of  whom  it  is  re- 
peated, lo.  He  cometh  " ;  one,  in  the  day  of 
whose  coming,  at  whose  appearing,  it  was 
asked,  who  shall  stand?  "  "*  All  Christian  in- 
terpreters are  agree<l  that  thLs  Lord  is  Christ, 
'"  Whom  God  hath  made  both  Lord  and  Christ, 
and '^^Wlio  is  Lord  over  all;  by  Whom  all 
things  were  made,  are  sustained  and  gov- 
erned ;  Who  is  (as  the  root  of  the  word  '^^  im- 
ports) the  basis  and  foundation,  not  of  any 
private  family,  tribe  or  kingdom,  but  of  all ; 
^■■^  by  Whom  are  all  things  and  «v;  6//  Him :  and 
Whose  we  are  also  by  right  of  redemption  ; 
and  so  He  is  ^^  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of 
kings,  deservedly  called  tlie  Lord."  As  then 
the  special  presence  of  God  was  often  indi- 
cated in  connection  with  the  Angei  of  the 
Lord,  so,  here,  Pie  Who  was  to  come  was  en- 
titled the  Angel  or  messenger  of  the  cove- 
nant, as  God  also  calls  Him  the  covenant  it- 
self, ^*  1  will  give  Thee  for  a  covenant  of  the 
people,  a  light  of  the  Gentiles.  He  it  was,  ^  the 
Angel  of  His  Presence,  Who  saved  His  former 
people,  in  Whom  His  Xume  was,  and  Who, 

The  author  of  the  older  Nizzachon  (whether  seri- 
ously or  to  have  sometliing  to  say)  said,  "  He  is  sent 
and  is  not  God."  Wagenseil  p.  120.  Tanchum  says, 
"they  are  promised  a  time,  in  which  transgressors 
will  be  requited  with  a  swift  retribution  by  the  just 
king  whom  God  will  raise  up  to  the  rule,  and  he  is 
the  king  Messiah." 

The  Jews  are  agreed  also  that  the  messenger  is 
no  ordinary  person.  Ibn  Ezra  supposes  him  to  he 
the  Messiali  o.  Joseph,  liokling  ae<'orilingly  that  he, 
before  whose  face  he  should  come,  was  the  Messiah 
ben  David:  Kimohi,  tliaf  it  wa«  an  angel  from  heaven 
(as  in  Ex.  .xxiii.  20.)  to  guard  tlicm  in  the  wsiy.  But 
to  guard  in  the  way  is  not  to  prcpivre  the  way  bifore 
him;  Rashi  and  the  author  of  tlie  .\bkath  rochel, 
"the  angel  of  death  who  should  clear  away  the 
wicked;"  Abarl)anel,  that  it  was  Malachi  himself; 
but  he  who  is  promised  through  Malachi,  was  yel 
to  come.  \ 

"  rnxn  Ex.  xxiii.  17,  xxxiv.  2l  Is.  i.  24,  lii.  1,  x. 

10,  3.3,  xxix.  4.  [all,  beside  this  pl^.] 


"ii.  17. 

'•D'15'P30,  D'2(3"l  11'. 


7K  KIT,  lii.  1. 

run.     "  Poc. 


10  Acts  ii.  30.  aoib.  X.  30. 

2iPoc.,(asAbuhvaliii,Menal)em,Parchon,  Kimchi) 
derives  jnK  fiom  pK. 
« I  Cor.  viii.  6.  »  Rev.  xvii.  14,  xix.  16. 

2Ms.  xlii.  6.  «lb.  Ixiil.  9. 


CHAPTER  III. 


487 


chrTst         ^  -^"^   ^^'^'^    "^'^^    ^^^^^ 
cir.  397.         e  ^J^g     ^Jj^y     ^f   ]y^^   COmillg  ? 


ech.  4. 1. 
f  Rev.  6.  17. 


and  *■  who  shall  stand  when 


by  the  prerogative  of  God,  would  ^  not  par- 
don their  tmii.'i<jressloiis.  He  should  be  ^the 
Mediator  of  the  >mv  and  better  covenant  which 
is  promised;  '■* not  according  to  the  covenant, 
that  I  made  with  their  fathers,  in  the  day  when  I 
took  them  by  the.  hand  to  lead  them  out  of  the  land 
of  Eyypt,  which  My  covenant  they  brake,  al- 
ihoiiyh  I  was  a  husband  unto  them,  saith  the 
Lord  ;  but  this  shall  be  the  covenant,  that  I  will 
make  with  the  house  of  Israel  after  those  days, 
saith  the  Lord,  I  will  put  My  law  in  their  in- 
ward parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts,  and  ivill 
be  their  Ood  and  they  shall  be  My  people. 
.  Whom  ye  seek,  are  seeking.  Whom  ye  delight 
^  in,  i.  e.  profess  so  to  do ;  He  ivill  come,  but 
will  be  very  different  from  Hira  whom  ye 
look  for,  an  Avenger  on  your  enemies. 
Judgment  will  come,  but  it  will  begin  with 
yourselves. 

Shcdl  suddenly  come,  "  *  unawares,  when  men 
should  not  think  of  them ;  whence  perhaps 
it  is  that  the  Jews  reckon  tlie  Messiah 
among  what  shall  come  unawares^.  As,  it  is 
here  said  of  His  first  Coming,  so  it  is 
said  of  His  second  Coming  (which  may 
be  comprehended  under  this  here  spoken  of) 
that  except  they  diligently  watch  for  it,  ^  it 
shall  come  upon  them  unawares,  ''suddenly,  ^ in 
such  an  hour  as  they  think  not.  "  "  The  Lord 
of  glory  always  comes,  like  a  thief  in  the 
night,  to  those  who  sleep  in  their  sins." 

io.  He  ivill  come :  he  insists  again  and  calls 
their  minds  to  that  Coming,  certain,  swift, 
new,  wonderful,  on  which  all  eyes  should  be 
set,  but  His  Coming  would  be  a  siiting-time. 
2.  And  who  may  abide  the  day  of  His  com- 
ing ?  And  who  shall  stand  when  He  appeareth  ? 
The  implied  answer  is,  "  No  one ; "  as  in  the 
Psalm,  ^°  If  Thou,  Lord,  ivill  mark  iniquities,  0 
Lord,  who  shall  stand?  Joel  had  asked  the 
same,  "  The  day  of  the  Lord  is  great  ami  very 
terrible  ;  and  who  can  abide  itf  ''  '^  How  cap 
the  weakness  of  man  endure  such  might ;  his 
blindness,  such  light;  his  frailty,  such  power; 
his  uncleanness,  such  holiness ;  the  chaflT,  such 
a  fire  ?  For  He  is  like  a  refiner'' s  fire.  Who 
would  not  fail  through  stupefaction,  fear, 
horror,  shrinking  reverence,  from  such 
majesty?" 

I  Ex.  xxiii.  21.  ^  Heb.  xii.  24,  viii.  G. 
8  Jer.  xxxi.  32,  33,  Heb.  viii.  n.  <  Poc. 
6"Buxt.  Lex.  Cii.  et  Talm.  v.  flDJ  "  Poc. 

6S.  Luke  xxi.  35. 
'S.  Mark  xiii.  36. 

8  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  44.  «  Schmleder. 

i"Ps.  cxxx.  3. 

II  Jo.  ii.  11,  IjS'3'  '01;   Jer.  x.  10,  "  The  nations 
shall  not  abide  {ihy)  Sis  Indignation:'    Vulg.  lias, 


he  appeareth  ?   for  Mie  is    oi-fuTsT 
like   a   refiner's  fire,   and '^•'''-  ^"'^- 

g  j^(i^  Ifs  4  4 

like  fullers'  soap  :  Matt.'i  io.'ii, 


Malachi  seems  to  blend,  as  Joel,  the  first 
and  second  coming  of  our  Lord.  The  first 
Coming  too  was  a  time  of  sifting  and  sever- 
ance, according  as  those,  to  wh<im  He  came, 
did  or  did  not  receive  Him.  The  sevei-ance 
was  not  final,  because  there  was  yet  space  for 
repentance  ;  but  it  was  real,  an  earnest  of 
the  final  judgment.  ^^  For  judgment,  our 
Lord  says,  /  am  come  into  this  world,  that  they 
which  see  not  may  see,  a)id  they  whiih  see  might 
be  made  blind  ;  and  again,  ^*  Now  is  the  judg- 
ment of  this  ivorld;  and,  ^^He  that  believeth  not 
is  condemned  already,  because  he  hath  not  be- 
lieved on  the  name  of  the  Only-Begotten  Son  of 
God  ;  ^^  He  that  believeth  not  the  Son,  shall  not 
see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him. 
As,  on  the  other  hand.  He  saith,  ^'^  whoso 
eateth  My  Flesh  and  drinketh  My  Blood  hath 
eternal  life ;  and  ^*^  he  tlud  beli-t:vefh  on  the  Son 
hath  everlasting  life;  "hath,"'  He  saith;  not, 
"  shall  have ;  "  hath  it,  in  present  reality  and 
earnest,  though  he  may  forfeit  it :  .so  the 
other  class  is  condemned  already,  although  the 
one  may  repent  and  be  saved,  the  other  may 
^^  turn  from  his  righteousness  and  commit  in- 
iquity; and  if  he  persevere  in  it,  shall  die 
therein.  It  is  then  one  ever-present  judg- 
ment. Every  soul  of  man  is  in  a  state 
of  grace  or  out  of  it ;  in  God's  favor  or  under 
His  wrath ;  and  the  judgment  of  the  Great 
Day,  in  which  the  secrets  of  men's  hearts 
shall  be  revealed,  will  be  but  an  outward 
manifestation  of  that  now  hidden  judgment. 
But  the  words,  in  their  fullest  sense,  imply  a 
passing  of  that  judgment,  in  whicii  men  do 
or  do  not  stand,  as  in  those  of  our  Lord,  '^Ms 
a  snare  shall  that  day  come  on  all  those  that 
dwell  on  the  face  of  the  ivhole  earth.  Watch  ye, 
therefore,  and  pray  always,  that  ye  may  be  ac- 
counted worthy  to  escape  all  these  things  which 
shall  come  to  pass,  and  to  stand  before  the  Son  of 
Man  ;  and  S.  Paul,  ^'  Take  unto  you  the  whole 
armor  of  God,  tlmt  ye  may  be  able  to  withstand 
in  the  evil  day,  and,  having  done  all,  to  stand ; 
and  in  the  Revelation,  ^'-  They  said  to  the 
mountains  and  7'ocks ;  Fall  on  us,  and  hide  u.s 
from  the  wrath  of  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the 
throne,  and  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb.  For 
the  great  day  of  His  wrath  is  come,  and  who  shall 

cogitare,  i.  6.  who  shall  comprehend?  But  73^3, 
in  this  sense,  is  used  of  actual  containing,  the 
heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  the  Infinite  God,  (1 
Kgs  viii.  27,  2  Chr.  ii.  5,  [G  Eng.J  vi.  18.)  not  of  intel- 
lectually comprehending. 

12  Lap.  "  S.  John  ix.  39.  "  lb.  xii.  31. 

i5Ib.  iii.  18.  16  1b.  36. 

I'lb.  vi.  .54.  18  1b.  47. 

19  Ezfk.  xxxiii.  18.  '-w  S.  Luke  xxi.  35,  36. 

21  Eph.  vi.  13.  **  Rev.  vi.  16, 17. 


488 


MALACHI. 


B.-fop- 

C  H  R  I  8  T 

cir.  397. 

>>  Isai.  1.  25. 
Zeeh.  13.  9. 


3  And  ""he  shall  sit  as 
a  refiner  and  purifier  of 
silver :  and  he  shall  purify 
the   sons   of  Levi,   and 


be  able  to  stand  ?  Asaph  says  of  a  temporal, 
yet,  for  this  lile,  final  destruction ;  ^At  Thy 
rebuke,  0  God  of  Jacob,  both  the  chariot  and 
horse  are  cast  into  a  deep  sleep.  Thou  art  to  be 
feared,  and  tvho  may  stand  in  Thy  sight,  when 
Thou  art  angry  f 

For  He  is  like  a  refiner's  fire,  and  likefullei^s 
soap.  Two  sorts  of  materials  for  cleansing 
are  mentioned,  the  one  severe,  where  the 
baser  materials  are  inworked  with  the  rich 
ore ;  tlie  other  mild,  where  the  defilement  is 
easily  separable.  "  ^  He  shall  come  like  a 
refining  fire;  *a  fire  shall  burn  before  Him, 
and  it  shall  be  very  tempestuous  round  about 
Him.  Then  He  shall  call  the  heaven  from  above, 
and  the  earth,  that  He  may  judge  His  people; 
streams  of  fire  shall  sweep  before,  bearing 
away  all  sinners.  For  the  Lord  is  called  a 
fire,  and  a  *  cowiuming  fire,  so  as  to  burn  our 
^  wood,  hay,  stubble.  And  not  fire  only,  but 
fuller's  soap^.  To  those  who  sin  heavily,  He 
is  a  refining  and  consuming  fire,  but  to  those 
who  commit  light  ains,  fuller^ s  soap,  to  restore 
cleanness  to  it,  when  washed."  Yet,  though 
light  in  comparison,  this  too  had  its  severity ; 
for  clothes  which  were  washed  (of  which  the 
word  is  used)  were  trampled  '  on  by  the  feet. 
"  ^  The  nitrum  and  the  fuller's  soap  is  peni- 
tence." Yet  the  whiteness  and  purity  so 
restored,  is,  at  the  last,  perfected.  Inspira- 
tion could  find  no  more  adequate  comparison 
for  us,  for  the  brightness  of  our  Lord's 
raiment  from  the  glory  of  the  Transfigura- 
tion, than,  "  exceeding  white  as  snow ;  so  as  no 
fuller  on  earth  can  vihite  them. 

Our  Lord  is,  in  many  ways,  as  a  fire.  He 
says  of  Himself;  '"/  am  come  to  send  afire 
upon  earth,  and  what  will  I,  if  it  be  already 
kindled  f  S.  John  Baptist  said  of  Him,  "  ife 
shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  fire.  He  kindles  in  the  heart  "a  fire  of 
love,"  which  softens  what  is  hard,  will 


iPs.  lxxvi.6,7. 
*  Dent.  iv.  24. 


2S.  Jer. 


8  Ps.  I.  3,  4. 
61  Cor.  iii.  12. 


*  H'^S  is  a  generic  name  for  materials  tor  cleans- 
ing; but  various  plants,  possessing  alkaline  quali- 
ties, grew  and  grow  in  Palestine,  and  "kali"  is 
still  an  article  of  trade.  Being  united  with  irij 
Jer.  ii.  22,  it  lias  been  supposed  the  "borith"  is  a 
vegetable,  as  contrasted  with  IflJ.  (*  mineral. 
"•  For  n»e  herb  Bnnth,  the  LXX.  have  translated 
jroar,  to  signify  the  herb  of  fullers,  which  .'iceord- 
Jngtothe  wontOl  Palestine  grows  in  luxuriant  moist 
places,  and  has  the  same  virtue  for  cleansing  defile- 
ments as  nitrum."    8.  Jer.  on  Jerfin.  ii.  21. 

'  D33i  (only  used  in  Piel,  except  in  the  part,  of 
the  obsolete  Kal.  Comp.,  with  Ges    \y22  and  D13, 

eS.  Jer.  ib.      SS.  Mark  ix.3.     »0S.  Luke  xii.  4'J. 

>i  lb  iii.  Ifi. 

»>  Transl.  of  Whitsun-hymn,  Veni  Sancte  Spiritus, 


P.oforp 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


purge   them   as   gold  and 
silver,  that  they  may  'of- 
fer unto  the  Lord  an  of- 1 1  Pet.  2. 5. 
fering  in  righteousness. 


"  '^  Wash  wliate'er  of  stain  is  here, 
Sprinkle  what  is  dry  or  sere, 

Heal  and  bind  the  wounded  sprite; 
Bend  whate'er  is  stubljorn  still. 
Kindle  what  is  cold  and  chill, 

What  hath  wandered  guide  aright." 

But  as  God  is  a  consuming  fire,  Who  must 
burn  out  the  dross,  unless  we  be  '^  reprobate 
silver  which  the  founder  melteth  in  vain,  either 
He  must,  by  His  grace,  consume  the  sin 
within  us,  or  must  consume  us  with  it,  in 
hell. 

3.  And  He  shall  sit^*,  as  a  King  and  Judge 
on  His  throne,  with  authority,  yet  also  to 
try  accurately  the  cause  of  each,  separating 
seeming  \irtues  from  real  graces ;  hypocrites, 
more  or  less  consciously,  from  His  true  ser- 
vants. 

He  shall  purify  ^^  the  sons  'of  Levi.  These 
had  been  first  the  leaders  in  degeneracy,  the 
corrupters  of  the  people  by  their  example 
and  connivance.  Actually  ^^  a  great  company 
of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the  faith.  Barna- 
bas also  Avas  a  Levite  ".  But  more  largely, 
as  Zion  and  Jerusalem  are  the  titles  for  the 
Christian  Church,  and  Israel  who  believed 
was  the  true  Israel,  so  the  sous  of  Levi  are  the 
true  Levites,  tlie  Apostles  and  their  succes- 
sors in  tlie  Christian  priesthood. 

It  was  through  three  centuries  of  persecu- 
tions that  the  Church  was  purified  by  fire. 

That  they  may  offer,  lit.  an/l  they  shall  be 
unto  the  Lord  offerers  of  a  meal-offering  in 
righteousness,  i.  e.  tliey  shall  be  such,  and 
tliat,  habitually,  abidingly.  Again,  here  and 
in  the  next  words,  and  the  meal-offering  of 
Judah  shall  be  pleasant  unto  the  Lord,  it  is  re- 
markable, that  the  meal-offering,  to  which  the 
Holy  Eucharist  corresponds,  is  alone  men- 
tioned. Of  bloody  offerings  Malachi  is  silent ; 
for  they  were  to  cease. 

in  Hymns  for  the  Week  and  the  Seasons  p.  105. 
1848. 

13  Jer.  vi.  20,  .30. 

1*  The  usual  word  for  sitting  on  a  throne,  Ex.  xii. 
2!),  Deut.  xvii.  18,  1  Kgs  i.  13,  17,  4(i,  48,  ii.  12,  24,  iii. 
6,  viii.  20,  25,  xvi.  11,  xxii.  10,  2  Kgs  x.  30,  xi.  19,  xiii. 
13,  XV.  12,  Ps.  cxxxii.  12,  Pr.  xx.  8,  Is.  xvi.  5,  Jer. 
xiii.  1.3,  xvii.  25,  xxii.  4,  30,  xxxiii.  17,  xxxvi.  30, 
Zech.  vi.  13;  or  for  judgment,  Ex.  xviii.  13.  Jud.  v. 
10,  Ps.  cxxii.  5,  Is.  xxviii.  i\  Jer.  xxix.  16,  Dan.  vii. 
9,  2(!,  Jo.  iii.  12.  Of  God,  Ps.  ii.  4,  ix.  5,  8,  xxix.  10, 
xlvii.  8,  Iv.  20, 1  Kgs  xxii.  19,  Is.  vi.  1.  and  others. 

'^ppT.  probably  originally  "strained,"  used  of 

wine,    Is.  xxvi.  0,  but   thence   perhaps,    the  first 
meaning  being  lost,  of  precious  metals;  gold.  Job 
xxviii.  1,  1  Chr.  xxviii.  18,  pilver,  Ps.  xii.  7, 1  Chr. 
xxix.  4. 
»•  Acts  vi.  7.  "  l^-  iv-  36. 


CHAPTER  III. 


489 


Before  4  Then  "  shall  the  offer- 

P  TT  R.  I  S  T  ---^iv^* 

cir.  397  ■  ing  of  Juclah  and  Jerusa- 
'  ch.  1. 11.         lera  be   pleasant  unto  the 

Lord,  as  in  the  days  of 
\ Or, ancient,      old,   aud   as    ||in   former 

years. 


In  righteousness,  as  Zacharias  prophesied, 
that  we  might  serve  Him  in  holiness  and 
righteousness  before  Him  all  the  days  of  our 
life. 

4.  Then  [And^  shall  the  offering  of  Judah 
and  Jerusalem.  The  laiv,  the  new  revelation 
of  God,  was  to  ^  go  forth  from  Zion  and  the 
word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem.  Judah  and 
Jerusalem  then  are  here  the  Christian 
Church.  They  shall  be  pleasant  [lit_.  sweet] 
unto  the  Lord.  It  is  a  reversal  [using  the 
self-same  word]  of  what  God  had  said  of 
iliem  in  the  time  of  their  religious  decay, 
^  they  shall  not  offer  wine-offerings  to  the  Lord, 
neither  shall  they  be  sweet  unto  Him;  '^your 
burnt-offerings  are  not  acceptable,  nor  your  sac- 
rifices sweet  unto  Me. 

As  in  the  days  of  old,  before  the  days  of 
degeneracy;  as  it  stands  in  the  ancient 
Liturgies,  "*  Vouchsafe  to  look  upon  them 
[the  consecrated  oblations]  with  a  propitious 
and  serene  Countenance,  and  to  accept  them, 
as  Thou  vouchsafedst  to  accept  the  gifts  of 
Thy  righteous  Abel  and  the  sacrifice  of  our 
Patriarch  Abraham,  and  the  holy  sacrifice, 
the  immaculate  offering,  which  Thy  high 
priest  Melchisedec  ofiered  unto  Thee." 
"^The  oblation  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Eucharist,  made  by  the  Jews  who  should 
believe  in  Christ,  which  is  known  to  have 
been  first  instituted  by  Christ  in  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  and  afterward  to  have  been  con- 
tinued by  His  disciples  *>,  shall  be  pleasing 
unto  the  Lord,  as  the  sacrifices  of  the  Patri- 
archs, Melchisedec,  Abraham,  and  the  holy 
priests  in  the  law,  as  Aaron ;  yea,  the  truth 
takes  precedence  of  the  figure  and  shadow  ; 
the  sacrifice  of  the  new  law  is  more  excellent 

1  Is.  ii.  3.  "  Hos.  ix.  4.  ^  jer.  vi.  20. 

*  Canon  Missse.  So  in  S.  James'  Liturgy,  in  the 
prayer  of  the  incense,  "  O  God,  Who  did^t  receive 
the  sift  of  Abel,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Noah  and 
Abraham,  the  incense  of  Aaron  and  Zachariah." 
Ass.  Cod.  Lit.  T.  v.  p.  5.  "  Receive  from  the  hand 
of  us  sinners  this  incense,  as  Thou  didst  receive 
the  oblation  of  Abel  and  Noah  and  Aaron  and  all 
Thy  saints."  lb.  p.  0.  "Grant  us.  Lord,  with  fear 
and  a  pure  conscience  to  present  to  Thee  this 
spiritual  and  unbloody  Sacrifice,  which,  when  Thou 
hast  received  on  Thy  holy  supercelestial  and 
spiritual  altar,  as  a  sweet  savor,  do  Thou  send 
back  to  us  the  grace  of  Thine  All-holy  Spirit,  and 
look  upon  us,  O  God,  and  regard  this  our  reason- 
'  able  service,  and  accept  it,  as  Thou  didst  accept  the 
gifts  of  Abel,  the  sacrifice  of  Noah,  the  priesthoods 
of  Moses  and  Aaron,  the  peace-otferings  of  Samuel, 
the  repentance  of  David,  the  incense  of  Zachary. 
As  Thou  didst  receive  this  true  worship  from  the 


5  And  I  will  come  near    ^  jl  r'Ys  t 

to  you  to  judgment ;  and  I cIt^joT; — 

will  be  a  swift  witness 
against  the  sorcerers,  and 
against  the  adulterers, '  and '  Zech.  5. 4. 

o  Jam.  5.  4, 12. 

against  false  swearers,  and 


and  acceptable  to  God,  than  all  tlie  sacrifices 
of  the  law  or  before  the  law.  With  this 
agrees  what  the  Lord  saith  to  the  synagogue, 
'  /  will  turn  My  hand  upon  thee,  and  purely 
purge  aivay  thy  dross,  and  takeaway  all  thy  tin; 
and  I  will  restore  thy  judges  as  at  the  first,  and 
thy  counsellors,  as  at  the  beginning:  and  the 
destruction  of  the  transgressors,  and  of  the  siw- 
ners,  shall  be  together,  and  they  that  forsake  the 
Lord  shall  be  consumed."     So  now  it  follows  ; 

5.  And  I  will  come  near  to  you  to  judgment. 
They  had  clamored  for  the  coming  of  the 
God  of  judgment;  God  assures  them  that  He 
will  come  to  judgment,  which  they  had  de- 
sired, but  far  other  than  they  look  for.  The 
few  would  be  purified ;  the  great  mass  of 
them  (so  that  He  calls  them  you],  the  main 
body  of  those  who  had  so  clamored,  would 
find  that  He  came  as  a  Judge,  not  for  them 
but  against  them. 

And  I  will  be  a  swift  witness.  "  ^  In  j  udging 
I  will  bear  witness,  and  witnessing,  I,  the 
Same,  will  bring  forth  judgment,  saith  the 
Lord  ;  therefore  the  judgment  shall  be  ter- 
rible, since  the  judge  is  an  infallible  witness, 
whom  the  conscience  of  no  one  will  be  able 
to  contradict." 

God  would  be  a  swift  witness,  as  He  had 
said  before.  He  shall  come  suddenly.  Our  Lord 
calls  Himself  "  the  Faithful  and  True  witness, 
when  He  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  Church, 
as  their  Judge.  God's  judgments  are  always 
unexpected  by  those,  on  whom  they  fall.  The 
sins  are  those  specially  condemned  by  the 
law  ;  the  use  of  magical  arts  as  drawing  men 
away  from  God,  the  rest  as  sins  of  special 
malignity.  Magical  arts  were  rife  at  the 
time  of  the   Coming   of    our    Lord  * ;  and 

hand  of  Thine  Apostle,  so,  in  Thy  goodness,  receive 
also  from  us  sinners  the  gifts  which  lie  before  Thee, 
and' grant  that  our  oblation  may  be  acceptable, 
hallowed  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  Ac."  lb.  p.  29,  30. 

5  Dion.  6  S.  Matt.  xxvi.  [29]  Acts  ii.  42.  46. 

'  Is.  i.  25,  26,  28. 

8  Rev.  iii.  14,  i.  5,  "  I,  and  not  other  witnesses,  hav- 
ing seen  with  Mv  own  eyes."    Theod.  S.  Jer. 

^See  Introduction  to  Zeehariah  pp.  S.W,  331,  and 
on  Zech.  xiii.  2.  p.  442.  Lightfoot,  on  S.  Matt.  xxiv. 
24.,  quotes  Maimonides,  alleging  that  one  "  elected 
m  the  Sanhedrin  ought  to  be  learned  in  the  arts  of 
astrologers,  diviners,  soothsayers  &c.  that  he 
might  be  able  to  judge  those  guilty  thereof."  San- 
hedrin c.  2.  He  mentions  the  belief  that  many  had 
perished  thereby  (Hieros.  Sanhedr.  f.  18,  3),  80  wo- 
men hung  in  one  day  for  it  at  Ascalon,  (lb.  f.  23,  3. 
Babyl.  Sanh.  f.  44,  2  ;)  lor  that  "  the  Jewish  women 
had  greatly  broken  out  into  such  practices."  Gloss 
lb. 


490 


MALACHI. 


H  rTs  t    '^g^^"st  those  that  1 1  oppress 
cir.  307.       the  hireling  iii  his  wages, 


\OT,defraud.     the  widow,  and  the  father- 
less, and   that  turn  aside 


the  stranger /ro??i  his  rirjht, 
and  fear  not  me,  saith  the . 
Lord  of  hosts. 

6  For  I  am  the  Lord, 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


adultery,  as  shewn  in  tlie  liistory  of  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery,  when  her  accusers  were 
convicted  in  their  own  consciences  ^ 

Oppress  the  hireliny,  lit.  oppress  the  hirej* i.  e. 
deal  oppre.ssively  in  it.  Behold,  says  S. 
James*,  the  hire  of  the  laborers  who  have  reaped 
down  your  fields,  which  is  by  you  kept  back  by 
fraud,  crieth  ;  and  the  cries  of  them  which  have 
reaped  are  entered  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of 
Sabaoth.  The  mere  delay  in  the  payment  of 
the  wages  of  the  laborer  brought  sin  unto  him, 
awainst  whom  he  cried  to  God*.  It  is  no 
light  sin,  since  it  is  united  with  the  heaviest, 
and  is  spoken  of  as  reaching  the  ears  of  God. 
The  widow  and  the  fatherless  stand  in  a 
relation  of  special  nearness  to  God. 

And  fear  nut  Me.  H©  closes  with  the 
central  defect,  wiiich  was  the  mainspring  of 
all  their  sins,  the  absence  of  the  fear  of  God. 
The  commission  of  any  of  these  sins,  rife  as 
they  unhappily  are,  proves  that  those  who 
did"  them  had  no  fear  of  God.  "»  Nothing 
hinders  that  this  should  be  referred  to  the 
first  Coming  of  Christ.  For  Christ,  in  preach- 
ing to  the  Jews,  exercised  upon  them  a 
judgment  of  just  rebuke,  especially  of  the 
priests,  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  as  the  Gospels 
shew." 

6.  /  am  the  Lord,  I  change  not,  better,  more 
concisely,  /,  the  Lord^,  cluimje  not.  The 
proper  name  of  God,  He  Who  Is,  involves 
His  Unchangeableness.  For  change  implies 
imperfection  ;  it  changes  to  that  which  is 
either  more  perfect  or  less  perfect:  to  some- 
what which  that  Ijeing,  who  changes,  is  not 
or  has  not.  l^ut  God  has  everything  in 
Himself  perfectly.  " ''  Tiiou  Alone,  O  Lord, 
Art  what  Thou  Art,  and  Thou  Art  Who  Art. 
For  what  is  one  thing  in  the  whole  and  another 
in  parts,  and  wherein  is  anything  subject  to 
change,  is  not  altogether  what  Is.  And 
what  beginneth  from  not  being,  and  can  be 
conceived,  as  not  being,  and   only  subsisteth 

'  S.  John  viii.  3,  adulterous  generation.  S.  Matt, 
xii.  39.  Lightfoot  on  S.  John  viii.  3  quotes  Sotah  f. 
47. 1.  "  From  the  time  that  homieides  wore  mul- 
tiplied, the  lielieading  of  tlie  heifer  ceased:  from 
the  time  that  adulterers  were  multiplied,  the  hitler 
waterH  ceased  : "  and  Maimonides  on  Sotah,  c.  3, 
"When  the  adulterers  multiplied  under  the  2d 
Temple,  the  Sanhedrin  aboli.shed  the  ordeal  of  the 
adulteresses  by  the  bitter  water  ;  relying  on  its  be- 
ing written,  'I  will  not  visit  your  daughters  when 
they  commit  whoredom,  nor  your  spouses  when 
they  commit  adultery.' "  Lightfoot  subjoins, "  The 
Gemarists  teach  that  Johanan  b.  Zacchai  was  the 
author  of  that  advice,  who  was  still  alive  in  the 
8aiihc<lriii,  and  perliai)s  among  those  who  brought 
the  adulteress  before  Christ.  For  some  things 
make  it  proba>)le,  that  the  Scribes  and  Phm-isees, 
iii.iitioned  here,  were  elders  of  the  Synagogue." 


through  another  thing,  returns  to  not-being  ; 
and  what  hath  a  '  lias  been,'  which  now  is 
not,  and  a  'to  be,'  which  as  yet  is  not,  that  is 
not,  i)roperly  and  absolutely.  But  Thou  Art 
what  Thou  Art.  For  whatever  Thou  Art  in 
any  time  or  way, /A«/  Thou  Art  wholly  and 
always ;  and  Thou  Art,  AVho  Art  properly 
and  simply,  because  Thou  hast  neither  '  to 
have  been  '  or  '  to  be  about  to  be  ;  '  but  only 
to  be  present ;  and  canst  not  be  conceived, 
ever  not  to  have  been."  ""There  is  only 
(me  simple  Good,  and  therefore  One  Alone 
Unchangeable,  which  Ls  God." 

Our  life  is  a  "  becoming "  rather  than  a 
simple  "being;"  it  is  a  continual  losing  of 
what  we  had,  and  gaining  what  we  had  not ; 
for  "*in  as  far  as  anyone  is  not  what  he  wa.s, 
and  is  what  he  was  not,  so  far  forth  he  dieth 
and  ariseth  ;  "  dieth  to  what  he  was,  ariseth 
to  be  something  otherwise. 

"  '"  Increase  evidences  a  beginning ;  de- 
crease, death  and  destruction.  And  there- 
fore Malachi  says,  /  am  God,  and  I  change  not, 
ever  retaining  His  own  state  of  being ;  be- 
cause what  has  no  origin  cannot  be  changed." 

So  the  Psalmist  says,  ^^  As  a  ve.'sture,  Thou 
shah  change  them  and  they  shall  be  changed,  but 
Thou  art  the  Same,  and  Thy  years  shall  not  fail; 
and  Balaam,  controlled  by  God,  '"•'  God  is  not 
a  man,  that  He  should  /iV,  or  the  son  of  man,  that 
He  should  repent ;  and,  ^*  with  Whom  k  no  vari- 
ableness, neither  shadow  of  turning. 

Of  this  unchangeableness  of  God,  His  holy 
ones  partake,  as  far  as  they  fix  themselves  on 
God.  "  '*  The  soul  of  man  hangs  upon  Him, 
by  Whom  it  was  made.  And  because  it  was 
made,  to  desire  God  Alone,  but  everything 
which  it  desires  below  is  less  than  He,  rigiitly 
doth  not  that  suffice  it,  which  is  not  Got!. 
Hence  is  it,  that  the  soul  is  scattered  hither 
and  thither,  and  is  repelled  from  everything, 
toward  which  it  is  borne,  tlirough  satiety  of 
them.     But  holy  mai  guard  themselves   by 

S.  Justin  reproaches  them  with  liaving  fresh  wives, 
wherever  they  went  throughout  the  world.    Dial, 
fin.  p.  243.  Oxf.  Tr. 
^lOE?  IDC'  'pty>»,  as  in   Mi.  ii.  2,  n3J  )p\ffi^ 

in'31  oppress  a  vian  and  his  hou.ie. 

»  S.  Jas.  V.  4.         <  Deut.  xxiv.  14, 15.         ^  Dion. 

8  T/ie  Lord  is  in  apposition  to  /,  as,  in  the  follow- 
ing clause,  tlie  sons  of  Jacob  to  j/c.  The  two  clauses 
correspond  in  form,' 

1,  CJX)  the  Lord,  change  not; 

Ye,  (Dj^KI)  sons  of  Jacob,  are  not  consumed. 

'  S.  Anselm  I'rosl.  c.  22.  p.  34  Ben. 

8!*i.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei  xi.  10. 

OS.  Aug.  Conf.  xi.  7.  p.  291.  Oxf.  Tr. 

10  Novatian  de  Trin.  c.  4.  "  Ps.  cii.  27. 

"Nu.  xxiii.  19.  13S.  Jas.  i.  17. 

i<S.  Greg.  Mor.  x.wi.  44.  n.  79.  Bcu. 


CHAPTER  111. 


491 


Before       m  I  cliaiisie  iiot ;  "  therefore 

CHRIST  vmi^Q-.-  I 

cir.  397.      ye  SOUS  of  Jacob  are  not 
»  Num.  23. 19.    consumed. 
?aT.-  L  if  •         7  m  Even  from  the  days 
°ActTv'5f      of  "your  fathers   ye   are 
gone  away  from  mine  or- 
dinances,  and   have   not 
pZech.  1.3.       keTpithem.     p  Return  unto 
me,  and  I  will  return  unto 
you,  saith  the  Lord  of 


cautious  observation,  lest  they  should  be  re- 
laxed from  their  intentness  by  change,_  and 
because  they  desire  to  be  the  same,  wisely 
bind  themselves  to  the  thought,  whereby 
they  love  God.  For  in  the  contemplation  of 
the  Creator,  they  will  receive  this,  that  they 
should  ever  enjoy  one  stability  of  mind.  No 
changeableness  then  dissipates  them,  because 
their  thought  ever  perseveres,  free  from  un- 
likeness  to  itself.  This  therefore  they  now 
imitate,  striving  with  effort,  which  hereafter 
they  shall  with  joy  receive  as  a  gift.  To 
which  unchangeableness  the  prophet  had 
bound  himself  by  the  power  of  love,  when  he 
said,  1  One  thing  1  required  of  the  Lord,  which  I 
vill  require,  that  I  may  dwell  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord.  To  this  unity  Paul  clave  intently, 
when  he  said^  ^  One  thing  I  do,  forgetting 
those  things  which  are  behind  and  stretching  forth 
to  those  things  which  are  before,  I  press  forward 
toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

And  ye  sons  of  Jacob  are  not  consumed.  Man 
would  often  have  become  weary  of  man's 
wickedness  and  waywardness.  We  are  im- 
patient at  one  another,  readily  despair  of 
one  another.  God  might  justly  have  cast  off 
them  and  us;  but  He  changes  not.  He 
abides  by  the  covenant  which  He  made  with 
their  fathers  ;  He  consumed  them  not ;  but 
with  His  own  unchangeable  love  awaited 
their  repentance.  Our  hope  is  not  in  our- 
selves, but  in  God. 

7.  Even  from  the  days  of  your  fathers.  Back 
to  those  days  and  from  them  ^,  ye  are  gone  away 
from  My  ordinances.  "*I  am  not  changed 
from  good  ;  ye  are  not  changed  from  evil. 
I  am  unchangeable  in  holiness ;  ye  are  un- 
changeable in  perversity." 

Return  unto  Me.  The  beginning  of  our  re- 
turn is  from  the  preventing  grace  of  God. 
*  Turn  Thou  me,  ami  I  shall  be  turned ;  for 
Thou  art  the  Lord  my  God,  is  the  voice  of  the 
soul  to  God,  preparing  for  His  grace  ;  ^  turn 

1  Ps.  xxvii.  4.  2  Phil.  iii.  1.3, 14.  ""D'oS. 

*Rup. 

6  Jer.  xxxi.  18.  Lam.  v.  21. 

sps.  Ixxxv.  4.  inonnNum.  xv.19,20. 

»  Ex.  XXX.  13-15. 


hosts.      ''But   ye   said,    ^. ^{''^'H ^ 
Wherein  shall  we  return?  cir^_m. 

8  ^  W  i  1 1   a   man    rob  q  ch.  i.  g. 
God?   Yet  ye  have  robbed 

me.     But  ye  say,  Wherein 

have  we  robbed  thee  ?    '  In '  Neh.  i3.  lo,  12. 

tithes  and  offerings. 

9  Ye  are  cursed  with  a 
curse :  for  ye  have  robbed 
me,  even  this  whole  nation. 


vs,  0  God  of  our  salvation.  For,  not  in  its 
own  strength,  but  by  His  grace  can  the  soul 
turn  to  God.  Turn  thou  to  Me  and  I  wiU  re- 
turn unto  you,  is  the  Voice  of  God,  _  acknowl- 
edging our  free-will,  and  promising  His 
favor,  if  we  accept  His  grace  in  return. 

And  ye  say.  Wherein shallire  return  f  Strange 
ignorance  of  the  blinded  soul,  unconscious 
that  God  has  aught  against  it !  It  is  the 
Pharisaic  spirit  in  the  Gospel.  It  would 
own  itself  doubtless  in  general  terms  a  sinner, 
but  when  called  on,  wliolly  to  turn  to  God, 
as  being  wholly  turned  from  Him,  it  asks, 
"  In  what  ?  What  would  God  have  of  me  ?  " 
as  if  ready  to  do  it. 

8.  Shall  a  man  rob  or  cheat,  defraud  God  ? 
God  answers  question  by  question,  but  thereby 
drives  it  home  to  the  sinner's  soul,  and  ap- 
peals to  his  conscience.  The  conscience  is 
steeled,  and  answers  again,  Liwhat?  God 
specifies  two  things  only,  obvious,  patent, 
which,  as  being  material  things,  they  could 
not  deny.  In  tithes  and  offerings.  The  offer- 
ings included  several  classes  of  dues  to  God, 
a)  the  first  fruits^;  b)  the  annual  half- 
shekel  * ;  c)  the  offerings  made  for  the  tab- 
ernacle ^,  and  the  second  temple  ^^  at  its  first 
erection ;  it  is  used  of  ordinary  offerings  "  ; 
d)  of  the  tithes  of  their  own  tithes,  which  the 
Levites  paid  to  the  priests  ^^ ;  e)  of  the  por- 
tions of  the  sacrifice  which  accrued  to  the 
priests  ^^. 

9.  Ye  have  been  cursed  with  the  curse  (not 
"with  a  curse").  The  curse  threatened  had 
come  upon  them :  but,  as  fore-supposed  in 
Leviticus  by  the  repeated  burthen.  If  ye  still 
walk  contrary  to  Me,  they  had  persevered  in 
evil.  God  had  already  shemi  His  displeas- 
ure. But  they,  so  far  from  being  amended  by 
it,  were  the  more  hardened  in  their  sin.  Per- 
haps as  men  do,  they  pleaded  their  punish- 
ment, as  a  rea.son  why  they  should  not  amend. 
They  defrauded  God,  under  false  pretences. 
They  were  impoverished  by  His  curse,  and 

» lb.  xxy.  2,  3,  XXXV.  5,  21,  24,  xxxvi.  3,  6. 
w  Ezr.  viii.  25. 

112  Chr.  xxxi.lO.  12  (where  nty^'OH  and  nDHnn 
are  joined,  as  here,  but  in  inverse  order.) 
12  Nu.  xviii.  26,  28,  29.  i^  Ley.  vii.  14. 


492 


MALACHI. 


Before 
CHRIST 
cir.  397. 
•  Prov.  3.  9, 10. 
1 1  Chr.  26.  20. 
2  Chr.  31.  11. 
Neh.  10.  38. 
&  13.  12. 


10  'Bring  ye  all  the 
tithes  into  '  the  storehouse, 
that  there  may  be  meat  in 
mine  house,  and  prove  me 


so  they  could  not  afiford  to  pay  the  tithes ; 
as  men  say,  "  tlie  times  are  bad ;  so  we  can- 
not help  tlie  poor"  of  Christ.  And  Me  ye 
still  are  defraudm;/  ' ;  Me,  ye ;  man,  God. 
And  that  not  one  or  other,  but  thi>i  whole 
people.  It  was  a  requital  a.s  to  that,  in  which 
they  had  ofiended.  "  '^  Because  ye  have  not 
rendered  tithes  and  first-fruits,  therefore  ye 
are  cursed  in  famine  and  penury."  "  ^  Be- 
cause the  people  did  not  render  tithes  and 
first-fruits  to  tlie  Levites,  the  Lord  saith,  that 
He  Himself  sufiered  fraud,  Whose  ministers, 
constrained  by  hunger  and  penury,  deserted 
the  temple.  For,  if  He  is  visited  by  others 
in  prison,  and  sick,  is  received  and  cared  for, 
and,  hungry  and  athirst,  receives  food  and 
drink,  wliy  should  He  not  receive  tithes  in 
His  ministers,  and,  if  they  are  not  given,  be 
Himself  deprived  of  His  portion  ?" 

10.  Bring  the  whole  tithes,  not  a  part  only, 
keeping  back  more  or  less,  and,  as  he  had 
said,  di'Jranding  God,  ofiering,  like  Ananias, 
a  part,  as  if  it  had  been  the  whole  ;  into  the 
treasury,  wliere  they  were  collected  in  the 
time  of  Hezekiah  ^,  and  again,  at  this  time, 
by  the  direction  of  Nehemiah,  so  that  there 
shall  be  food*,  not  superfluity,  in  My  house, 
"  ^  for  those  who  minister  in  the  house  of  My 
sanctuary."  ®  The  Levites  and  singers  had, 
before  the  reformation,  fled  every  one  to  his 
field,  because  the  portion  of  the  Levites  had  not 
been  given  them.  On  Nehemiah's  remon- 
strance, aided  by  Malachi,  tlie  tithe  of  corn  and 
the  wine  and  the  new  oil  were  brought  into  the 
treasuries. 

Bring  the  whole  tithes.  "'Thou  knowest 
that  all  things  which  come  to  thee  are  God's, 
and  dost  not  thou  give  of  His  own  to  the  Cre- 
ator of  all  ?  The  Lord  God  needeth  not :  He 
asketh  not  a  reward,  but  reverence :  He 
asketli  not  anytliing  of  tliine,  to  restore  to 
Him.  He  asketh  oi  thee  first-fruits  and  tithes. 
Niggard,  what  wouldest  thou  do,  if  He  took 
nine  parts  to  Himself,  and  left  thee  the 
tenth?— What  if  He  said  to  thee;  'Man, 

'  D'J?3b.      According    to   its    probable    etym. 

("withdrew  and  so  hid,"  Arab.),  it  might  be  de- 
frauding rather  than  open  robbery.  But  it  has  not 
tliis  motapli.  meaning  in  Arabic.  Abulw.  Tanchum, 
Hunt.  200.,  render  it  of  open  violence  2"^}^.  i?2p 

occurs,  beside,  in  Hebrew  only  in  Pr,  x.xii.  23,  The 
Lord  will  plead  their  cause  and  xdll  spoil  those  ivho 
spoil  them,  i.  e.  He  will  requite  them  as  they  have 
done;  in  the  same  bold  language,  as  in  Ps.  xviii.  17. 

«S.  Jer. 

"2  Chr.  xxxi.  11.  sqq.  Neh.  x.  38,  32,  xii.  44.  xiii. 
12.  *  HTO,  food,  as  Pr.  xxxi.  15,  Ps.  cxi.  5. 


now  herewith,  saith  the  ^  h  r*Ys  t 
Lord  of  hosts,  if  I  will  ._£Eii?I^ 
not  open  you  the  "  windows  2  Ki'n.V.  2. 

/.I  1     J.  T  t  Heb.  empty 

01   heaven,   and   j  pour  ou«. 

X  2  Chr.  31.  10. 


thou  art  Mine,  Who  made  thee ;  Mine  is  the 
land  which  thou  tillest;  Mine  are  the  seeds, 
which  thou  sowest ;  Mine  are  the  animals, 
which  thou  weariest;  Mine  are  the  showers. 
Mine  the  winds,  Mine  the  sun's  heat ;  and 
since  Mine  are  all  the  elements,  whereby 
thou  livest,  thou  who  givest  only  tlie  labor 
of  thine  hands,  deservest  only  the  tithes.' 
But  since  Almighty  God  lovingly  feeds  us. 
He  gives  most  ample  reward  to  us  who  labor 
little:  claiming  to  Himself  the  tithes  only, 
He  has  condoned  us  all  the  rest." 

And  prove  Me  now  herewith,  in  or  by  this 
thing.  God  pledges  Himself  to  His  creatures, 
in  a  way  in  which  they  themselves  can  verify. 
"  If  you  will  obey,  I  will  supply  all  your 
needs ;  if  not,  I  will  continue  your  dearth." 
By  whatever  laws  God  orders  the  material 
creation,  He  gave  tliem  a  test,  of  the  comple- 
tion of  which  they  themselves  could  judge,  of 
which  they  themselves  must  have  judged. 
They  had  been  afflicted  with  years  of  want. 
God  promises  them  years  of  plenty,  on  a  con- 
dition which  He  names.  What  would  men 
think  now,  if  any  one  had,  in  God's  name, 
promised  that  such  or  such  a  disease,  which 
injured  our  crops  or  our  cattle,  should  coufe 
at  once  to  an  end,  if  any  one  of  God's  laws 
should  be  kept?  We  should  have  been  held 
as  fanatics,  and  rightly ;  for  we  had  no  com- 
mission of  God.  God  authenticates  those  by 
whom  He  speaks ;  He  promises.  Who  alone 
can  perform. 

'"'There  be  three  keys  which  God  hath  re- 
served in  His  own  hands,  and  hath  not  deliv- 
ered to  any  to  minister  or  substitute,  the  keys 
of  life,  of  rain,  and  of  the  resurrection.  In 
the  ordering  of  the  rain  they  look  on  His 
great  power,  no  less  than  in  giving  life  at 
first,  or  afterward  raising  the  dead  to  it ;  as 
S.  Paul  saith,  ^God  lift  not  llinuielf  ivithout  wit- 
ness, in  tltat  He  did  good  and  gave  rain  from 
heaven  and  fruitful  .reasons." 

If  I  will  not  open  the  windows  of  heaven  ^^  In 
the  time  of  the  Hood,  tliey  were,  as  it  were, 

6  Jon.  •  Neh.  xiii.  10-23. 

T  App.  Serm.  S.  Aug.  277.  Opp.  v.  ■■Vpp.  p.  461.  "  Not 
S.  Augustine's  ;  more  like  CiEsarius  than  S.  Aug." 
Ben. 

sPoc.  quoting  Sanhedr.  c.  Cheiek,  and  Taanith 
c.  1.  ».\cts  xiv.  17. 

"•  The  exact  expression  occurs  only  in  the  history 
of  the  flood.  Gen.  vii.  11,  viii.  2;  in  the  scoffing 
courtier's  speech,  ironically,  of  God  "making  win- 
dows in  heaven  "  (D'Oty^).  '^  Kgs  vii.  2.  and,  per- 
haps in  reference  to  the  flood,  Isaiah  says,  "tci'ii- 
dows  from  on  high  are  opened,  and  the  foundations 
of  the  earth  do  shake."    Is.  xxiv.  18. 


CHAPTEK  III. 


493 


Before 


CHRIST    y°^   ^^^   ^  blessing,  that 
cir.  397.      there  shall  not   be  room 


enough  to  receive  it. 

11  And   I  will   rebuke 
J  Amos  4. 9.       ^  the  devourer   for  your 

sakes,   and   he   shall   not 
tHeb.  corrupt,  f  destroy  the  fruits  of  your 

ground ;  neither  shall  your 

vine  east  her  fruit  before 


opened,  to  man's  destruction  :  now,  God  would 
rain  abundantly /or  you,  for  their  sakes.  And 
pour  you  out,  lit.  empty  out  to  you,  give  to  them 
fully,  holding  back  nothing.  So  in  the  Gos- 
pel it  is  said,  that  the  love  of  God  is  shed 
abroad  ^,  poured  out  and  forth  in  our  hearts  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  to  us. 

That  there  be  not  room  enough  to  receive  it; 
lit.  until  there  be  no  sufficiency  '\  The  text  does 
not  express  what  should  not  suffice,  whether 
it  be  on  God's  part  or  on  man's.  Yet  it  were 
too  great  irony,  if  understood  of  God.  His 
superabundance,  above  all  which  we  can  ask  or 
think,  is  a  first  principle  in  the  conception  of 
God,  as  the  Infinite  Source  of  all  being.  But 
to  say  of  God,  that  He  would  pour  out_  His 
blessing,  until  man  could  not  contain  it,  is 
one  bliss  of  eternity,  that  God's  gifts  will 
overflow  the  capacity  of  His  creatures  to  re- 
ceive them.  The  pot  of  oil  poured  forth  the 
oil,  until,  on  the  prophet's  saying,  ^  Bring  me 
yet  a  vessel,  the  widow's  son  said.  There  is  uot 
a  vessel  more.  And  the  oil  stayed.  (lod's  gitts 
are  limited  only  by  our  capacity  to  receive 
them. 

11.  And  I  will  rebuke  the  devourer,  the  locust, 
caterpillar,  or  any  like  scourge  of  God.  It 
might  be,  that  when  the  rain  watered  the 
fields,  the  locust  or  caterpillar  &c.  might  de- 
stroy the  corn,  so  that  the  labors  of  man 
should  perish ;  wherefore  he  adds,  /  tuill  re- 
buke the  devourer.  Neither  shall  your  vine  cast 
her  fruit*'  before  the  time,  holding  out  a  fair 
l^romise,  but  cut  oft'  by  the  frost-wind  or  the 
hail ;  the  blossoms  or  "the  unripe  fruit  strew- 
ing the  earth,  as  a  token  of  God's  dis- 
pleasure. 

12.  All  TMtious  shall  call  you  blessed.  The 
promise  goes  beyond  the  temporal  prosperity 
of  their   immediate  obedience.     Few  could 

1  e/cice'x"'''""  Roin.  V.  0. 

2  In  Ps.  Ixxii.  3  (quoted  by  Ges.  Ro.s.  &c.)  "there 
shall  be  abundance  of  peace  ni''  ''/2'^]^,  lit-  "until 
there  be  no  moon,"  has  a  literal  meaning,  that  the 
peace  should  last  until  the  end  of  our  creation, 
without  saying  anything  of  what  lies  beyoml. 

^  2  Kgs  iv.  C. 

*'73K',  used  elsewhere  as  to  the  animal  world,  is 
used  of  a  land,  2  Kgs  ii.  19,  whence  r\72K/0  lb.  21. 


the  time  in  the  field,  saith    ^  h  r°[s  t 
the  Lord  of  hosts.  ^''-  ^^"^^ 

12  And  all  nations  shall 
call  you   blessed :   for   ye 
shall   be  'a  delightsome •  Dan. 8. 9. 
land,  saith  the  Lord   of 

hosts. 

13  ^ '  Your  words  have  "ch.  2.  n. 
been  stout    against   me, 


know  or  think  much  of  the  restored  prolifi- 
calness  of  Judsea;  none  could  know  of  its 
antecedents.  A  people,  as  well  as  individuals, 
may  starve,  and  none  know  of  it.  Had  the 
whole  population  of  Judah  died  out,  their 
Persian  masters  would  not  have  cared  for  it, 
but  would  have  sent  fresh  colonists  to  replace 
them  and  pay  the  tribute  to  the  great  king. 
The  only  interest,  which  a// minions  could  have 
in  themli  was  as  being  the  people  of  God,  from 
whom  He  should  come,  the  Desire  of  all  ncc- 
lions,  in  ^Y  horn  all  the  families  of  the  earth  would 
be  blessed.  Of  this,  God's  outward  favor  was 
the  earnest;  they  should  have  again  the 
blessings  which  He  had  promised  to  His 
people. 

And  ye  shall  be  called  a  delightsome  land,  lit. 
a  land  of  good  pleasure.  It  was  not  so  much 
the  land  as  the  people  ;  ye  shall  be  called.  The 
land  stands  for  the  people  upon  it,  in  whom 
its  characteristics  lay.  The  river  Jordan  was 
not  so  bright  as  Abana  and  Pharpar :  "  the 
aspect  of  the  shore  "  is  the  same,  when  the 
inhabitants  are  spiritually  or  morally  dead ; 
only  the  more  beautiful,  in  contrast  with  the 
lifeless  "spirit  of  man."  So  Isaiah  says, 
'"  The  nations  shall  see  thy  righteousness,  and  all 
kings  thy  glory ;  and  thou  shall  be  called  by  a 
name,  ivhkh  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  shall  name — 
Thou  shall  no  more  be  called  Forsaken,  nor  shall 
thy  land  be  called  Desolate,  but  thou  shall  be  called 
My-delight-is-in-her,  and  thy  land  Married :  for 
the  Lord  delighteth  in  thee  and  thy  laTid  shall  be 
married.  God  and  man  should  delight  in 
her. 

13.  Your  words  have  been  stout  against  Me, 
probably  oppressive  to  ^  Me,  as  it  is  said,  the 
famine  was  strong  upon  the  land.  And  ye  have 
said,  IVhat  have  we  spoken  among  ourselves'' 
against  Thee  f    Again,  the  entire  unconscious- 

of  "  immaturity."    Pliny  speaks  of  "  arborum  abor- 
tus."   H.  N.  xii.  2,  0.  Ges.  "  Is.  Ixii.  2-4. 
'  pin,  with  3  on  the  land,  Gen.  xli.  50, 57 ;  the  city, 

2  Kgs  XXV.  3,  Jer.  lii.  0 ;  with  h^,  of  persons,  Gen. 
xlvii.  20;  hand  of  God  was  strong  upon  the  pro- 
phet, Ez.  lii.  U ;  they  were  urgent,  pressed  upon. 
Ez.  xii.  :i3. 
7  The  force  of  Nif.  as  in  iii.  16.  Ps.  cix.  23,  Ezek. 

xxxiii.  30.  The  constr.  with  Sj^  as  Pih.  in  Ps.  cix. 
20,  Hos,  vii.  1:!,  Jer.  xxix.  32. 


494 


MALACHI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


»>Job21.14, 15, 
&  22.  17. 
Ps.  7.3.  1.3. 
Zeph.  1. 12. 


t  Heb.  hts 
observatwyi. 


saith  the  Lohd.  Yet  ye 
.  say,  What  have  we  spoken 
so  much  against  thee  ? 

14  "Ye  have  said,  It  is 
vain  to  serve  God :  and 
what  profit  is  it  that  we 
have  kept  f  his  ordinance, 
and  that  we  have  walked 


ness  of  self-ignorance  and  self-conceit !  They 
had  criticised  God,  and  knew  it  not.  "  '  Be- 
fore, he  had  said,  '■*  Ye  have  ivearml  the  Lord 
with  your  words,  ami  ye  said,  Whereiii  have  we 
wearied  Him  f  When  ye  said.  Every  one.  that 
doeth  evil  is  good  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  etc. 
Now  he  repeats  this  more  fully.  For  the 
people  who  returned  from  Babylon  seemed  to 
have  a  knowledge  of  God,  and  to  observe  the 
law,  and  to  understand  their  sin,  and  to  offer 
sacrifices  for  sin  ;  to  pay  tithes,  to  observe  the 
sabbath,  and  the  rest,  connnanded  in  the  law 
of  God,  and  seeing  all  the  nations  around 
them  abounding  in  all  things,  and  tliat  they 
themselves  were  in  penury,  hunger  and 
niiseiy,  was  scandalized  and  said,  '  What  does 
it  benefit  me,  that  I  worship  the  One  True 
God,  abominate  idols,  and,  pricked  with  the 
consciousness  of  sin,  walk  mournfully  before 
God?'  A  topic,  wliich  is  pursued  more 
largely  in  the  73d  I'salm."  Only  the  Psalmist 
relates  his  temptations  to  God,  and  God's  de- 
liverance of  him  from  them;  these  adopted 
them  and  spake  them  against  God.  Tliey 
claim,  for  their  partial  ami  meagre  service,  to 
have  fulfilled  God's  law,  taking  to  themselves 
God's  words  of  Abraham,  he  kept  My  charge'''. 
14.  Ye  have  said,  It  is  vain  to  serve  the  Lord  : 
"  *  as  receiving  no  gain  or  reward  for  their 
service.  This  is  the  judgment  of  the  world, 
whereby  worldlings  think  pious,  just,  sincere, 
strict  men,  vain,  i.  e.  especially  when  they  see 
tliem  impoverished,  despised,  opi)ressed, 
alllicted,  because  they  know  not  the  true 
goods  of  virtue  and  eternal  glory,  but  measure 
all  things  by  sight,  sense  and  taste. — Truly,  if 
the  righteous  liail  not  hope  of  another  and 
better  life,  in  vain  would  they  afflict  them- 
selves, and  bear  the  afflictions  of  othei'S. 
For,  as  the  Apostle  says,  ^  //"  in  this  life  only  we 
have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  wost  mis- 
erable.   But  now,  hoping  for  another  blessed 

iS..Jer.  Sii.  17. 

'TI'^DK'O  nniy'l  «cn.  .x.wi.  .■>;  add  Lev.  xviii. 
:!0,  xxii. !»,  DpiU.  xi.  1,  Jos.  xxii.  ."{.  2  Kgs  ii.  .3,  2  Chr. 
xiii.  1 1,  xxiii.  0,  Zecli.  iii.  7. 

*  Lap.  .  6  1  Cor.  XV.  10. 

*n'J"5np  IJOvH.    The  form   p  is  one  found  only 

here;  the  phrase  in  tlie  P.s.  is 'IjSn  "1"|p  P-*-  xxxv. 
14,  xxxviil.  7,  xlii.  1<),  xliii,  2. 
^  verse  12.  "IjriJW  empli. 


t mournfully  before  the    chrTst 
Lord  of  hosts  ?  <'■'••  ^"^- 

15  And   now   "we   call t Heb. in w<jcft. 
the  proud   happy;    yea,  ch. 2.17? 
they  that  work  wickedness 
t  are  set  up  ;  yea,  they  that  t  Hob.  are  bmit. 
^  tempt  God  are  even  de-  •»  Ps.  95. 9. 
livered. 


and  eternal  life  for  the  slight  tribulations  of 
this,  we  are  the  happiest  of  all  men." 

And  we  have  walked  mournfully^.  Again 
they  take  in  their  mouths  the  words  of  Psalm- 
ists, that  they  took  the  gai-b  of  mourners, 
going  about  mourning  belore  God  for  their 
country's  afflictions. 

15.  Ami  now  we  call  the  prowl  happy  [blessed'^. 
This  being  so,  they  sum  up  the  case  against 
God.  God  had  declared  that  all  nations 
should  call  them  blessed '',  if  they  would  obey. 
They  answer,  using  His  words  ;  Ami  now  we, 
(they  lay  stress  on  the  word,  '*  wc,)  pronounce 
blessed,  in  fact,  those  whom  God  had  pro- 
nounced cursed :  "  Thou  ha-^t  rebuked  the  proud, 
who  are  c^irsed.  Their  characteristic,  among 
otiier  bad  men,  is  of  insolence  '",  arrogance, 
boiling  over  with  self-conceit,  and  presump- 
tuous toward  (iod.  The  ground  of  Babylon's 
sentence  was,  '^  .s7ie  hath  been  proud  toward  the 
Lord,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel ;  Jetliro  says  of 
the  Egyptians,  as  a  ground  of  his  belief  in 
God,  ^'^for,  in  the  thing  that  they  dealt  proudly, 
He  was  above  them.  It  describes  the  character 
of  the  act  of  Israel,  when  God  bade  them  not  go 
up,  neither Jight,  and  they  would  not  hear,  and 
went  up  presumptuously  into  the  battle^'^;  the 
contumacious  act  of  those,  who,  appealing  to 
the  judgment  of  God,  afterward  refused  it  "  : 
of  Johanan's  associates,  who  accuse  Jeremiaii 
of  speaking  falsely  in  the  name  of  God'^; 
they  are  persons  who  rise  up  '",  forge  lies 
against",  dig  pits  for"*,  deal  perversely 
with''-*,  liold  in  derision'^",  oppress'-^,  the 
pious.  Whether  or  no,  they  mean  specifically 
the  iieatiien,  those,  whom  the.se  pronounced 
blessed,  were  those  who  were  contemptuous 
toward  (rod. 

Yea,  the  workers  of  wickedness,  those  who 
habitually  work  it,  whose  employment  it  is, 
are  built  up  ;  yea,  they  have  tried  God  and  have 
escaped.      God   had  promised  that,  if  '^^  they 

»  Ps.  c'xix.  21.  loPr.  xxi  24. 

"  Ss  mi  Jpi"-  '•  ^3.      It  i.s  used  in  regard  to 

Babylon  together  with  D'X"11^  (as  in  Ps.  Ixxxvi. 
14.)  Is.  xiii.  11. 

13  Ex.  xviii.  11.  It  is  used  of  Egypt  toward  I.s- 
rael.    Noh.  ix.  Hi. 

•3  Dent.  i.  41, 4;$.  "  lb.  xvii.  12, 1.3. 

'f'.Ier.  xliii.  2.    ">  P9.  Ixxxvi.  14.     >'  lb.  cxix.  ii!». 

uil-.S-V  »»Ib.  78.                       son.,  f.l. 

«i  lb.  122.  «2,Ier.  xii.  Hi.    . 


CHAPTER  Iir. 


495 


c  H  rTI  t        1^  H  Then  they  H  h  a  t 
cir.  8117.      feared    the    Lord   'spake 
often  one  to  another :  and 


«  Ps.  66.  10. 

oh.  4.  2. 
fHeb.  3.  13. 

K  P.<5.  56.  8. 
Isai.  65.  6. 
Rev.  20.  12. 


the  Lord  hearkened,  and 
heard  it,  and  ^  a  book  of 
remembrance  was  written 


^vill  diHgrntly  learn  the  ways  of  My  people,  they 
shall  be  built  up  in  the  midst  of  My  people  ;  these 
say,  the  workers  of  wickedness  had  been  built 
up  :  God  had  bidden  themselves, '  make  tried 
of  Me  in  this  ;  these  answer,  the  wicked  had 
made  trial  of  Him,  and  had  been  unpun- 
ished. 

16.  Then  they  that  feared  the  Lord  spake  often 
among  themselves.  The  proud-speaking  of  the 
ungodly  called  out  the  piety  of  the  God- 
fearing. ""The  more  the  ungodly  spake 
against  God,  the  more  these  spake  ainohcj 
themselves  for  (iod."  Both  went  on  till  the 
great  Day  of  severance.  True,  as  those  said, 
the  distinction  between  righteous  and  wicked 
was  not  made  yet,  but  it  was  stored  up  out 
of  sight.  They  spake  amoncj  themselves,  strength- 
ening each  other  against  the  ungodly  sayings 
of  the  ungodly. 

And  the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard  it.  God, 
^Vhoni  these  thought  an  idle  looker-on,  or 
regardless,  all  the  while  (to  speak  after  the 
manner  of  men)  was  bending  the  e«r^  from 
heaven  and  heard.  Not  one  pious  loyal  word 
for  Him  and  His  glory,  escaped  Him. 

And  a  book  of  remenibrance  was  urittcn  before 
Him.  Kings  had  their  chronicles  written*, 
wherein  men's  good  or  ill  deeds  toward 
them  were  recorded.  But  the  image  is  one 
of  the  oldest  in  Scripture,  and  in  the  .self- 
same words,  ^the  Lord  said  to  Moses,  Write 
this,  a  memorial  in  a  book.  God  can  only 
speak  to  us  in  our  own  language.  One  ex- 
pression is  not  more  human  than  another, 
since  all  are  so.  Since  with  God  all  things 
are  present,  and  memory  relates  to  the  past, 
to  speak  of  God  as  "  remembering "  is  as 
imperfect  an  expression  in  regard  to  God,  as 
to  speak  of  "  a  book."  "  ®Forgetfulness  hath 
no  place  with  God,  because  He  is  in  no  way 
changed  ;  nor  remembrance,  because  He  for- 
getteth  not."  Both  expressions  are  used, 
only  to  picture  vividly  to  our  minds,  that 
our  deeds  are  present  with  God,  for  good  or 


loh.  iii.lO. 


2  a  Castro. 
^niJIDin  liJD  Esth.  vi.  1. 


51SD3  I'n^T  n«i  3r\D  ex.  xvii.  u. 

6  S.  Aug.  in  P.s.  xxxvii.  n.  5.  ^  Dan.  vii.  10. 

8Rev.  XX.  12.  9Ex.  xxxii.  32.  ' 

")  P.S.  Ixix.  28. 

u  S.  Luke  X.  20.  «  Mai.  f.  f..  "  is.  Hii.  ?,, 

i-tPoe.  iSKim.  ib.  '«  Ibn   Ezr.  ib. 

''  The  grounds  tor  this  rendering  are  1)  the  recur- 
rence of  the  words,  Dt^j;  'J{<  ll^K   DV,  ver.  21. 


before  him  for  them  that    ch^TIt 
feared  the  Lord,  and  that      cir.  397. 
thought  upon  his  name. 

17  And  Hhey  shall  be  "Ex.  19. 5. 

.  ,        ,        -r  o     Deut.  7. 6. 

mine,  saith  the  Lord  01    ps.  135. 4. 

Tit.  2.  14. 

hosts,  in  that  day  when  I   1  Pet.  2. 9. 


for  evil ;  and  in  the  Day  of  Judgment  He 
will  make  them  manifest  to  men  and  angels, 
as  though  read  out  of  a  book,  and  will  requite 
them.  So  Daniel  had  said,  '  the  judgment 
was  set,  and  the  books  were  opened.  And  S. 
John  says,  **  The  books  ivere  opened,  and  another 
book  ivas  opened,  u'hich  is  the  book  of  life ;  and 
the  dead  ivere  judged  0 ul  of  those  th ings  v'h ich  were 
uritten  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works. 
So  Moses  says  to  God,  "  //'  not,  blot  me  out  of 
Thy  book  which  Thou  hast  ivritten;  and  David, 
prophesying,  prays,  ^°  Let  them  be  blotted  out  of 
the  book  of  the  living,  and  not  be  uritten  among 
the  righteous ;  and  our  Lord  bids  His  disci- 
ples, ^^  Rejoice  in  thi.^f,  that  your  names  are  writ- 
ten in  heaven. 

And  that  thought  upon  Mis  mime,  rather, 
esteemed,  prized,  it,  in  contrast  with  those  who 
^'^  despised ;  as,  of  Christ,  when  He  should 
come,  it  is  said,  '■*  He  mis  d&^pised,  and  we 
esteemed  Him  not.  "  '*  The  thinking  on  His 
Name  iniiwrts,  not  a  bare  thinking  of,  but  a 
due  esteem  and  awful  regard  of,  so  as  with 
all  care  to  avoid  all  things  which  may  tend 
to  the  dishonor  of  it,  as  always  in  His  pres- 
ence and  with  i-espect  to  Him  and  fear  of 
Him."  " '"  Those  are  meant  who  always 
meditate  on  the  ways  of  the  Lord  and  the 
knowledge  of  His  Godhead  ;  for  His  name  is 
Himself,  and  He  is  His  Name  ; "  "  '*  the  wise 
in  heart  Avho  know  the  mystery  of  the  awful 
glorious  Name." 

17.  And  they  shall  be  Mine,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts,  in  that  day  ichen  I  make  v.p  My  jeweh^'', 
or  perhaps  better,  And  they  shall  be  to  Me, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  in  that  day  which  Iiruike 
(or,  in  which  I  do  this)  a  peculiar  treasure  ^^. 
"  '^  In  the  day  of  judgment,  those  who  fear  Me 
and  believe  and  maintain  My  providence 
shall  be  to  Me  a  peculiar  treasure,  i.  e.  a 
people  peculiarly  belonging  and  precious  to 
Me,  blessed  in  the  vision  and  fruition  of 
Me.  For  as  in  the  old  law,  Israel  was  a  pecu- 
liar treasure^*',  a  sjiecial  people '^^  and  inher- 

Heb.  [iv.  3.  Eng.],  and  tlie  hSjD  'S  DH'Tn  Ex. 
xix.  5;  so  that  we  have  both  phrases  el.sewhere.  In 
Dent.  vii.  0,  there  is  the  equivalent  Q^^  1^  nvn*? 

ri/JD,  a>ifl  t'le  I'liP,  Deut.  xiv.  2,  Ps.  cxxxv.  4. 

'8  Beside  the  places  in  which  Israel  is  spoken  of 
such,  it  occurs  only  of  David's  treasures,  laid  up 
for  building  the  temple  1  Chr.  xxix.  3.  and  of  the 
public  treasures  of  kings  and  provinces,    Eccl.  ii.  8. 

>9  Lap.  20  rihlO  Ex.  xxix.  5,  Ps.  cxxxt.  4. 

-'n'lJD  D>'  Deut.  vii.  6. 


496 


MALACHI. 


chrTst    °iake  up  my   ||' jewels; 
cir-  397.      and  "  I  -nill  spare  them,  as 


I  Or,  special       a  man  spareth  his  own  son 
I  isai!*62. 3.        that  serveth  him. 
ips^.'ss. ii. '  18  'Then   shall    ye   re- 

turn, and  discern  between 
the  righteous  and  the 
■wicked,  between  him  that 
serveth  God  and  him  that 
serveth  him  not. 


itance  of  God,  chosen  out  of  all  nations,  so  in 
tlie  new  law  Christians,  and  those  who  are 
righteous  through  grace,  are  the  special  treas- 
ure of  God,  and  in  heaven  shall  be  His  special 
treasure  in  glory,  possessed  by  God  and  pos- 
sessing God.'  The  peculiar  treasure,  is  some- 
thing, much  prized,  made  great  store  of,  and 
guarded.  .Sucli  are  ('hristians,  bought  at  a 
great  price,  even  by  the  precious  Blood  of 
Christ ;  but  much  more  evidently  such  sliall 
they  be,  Malachi  says,  in  all  eternity,  which 
that  Day  of  final  retribution  shall  decide, 
"^joying  in  the  participation  of  their 
Creator,  by  Whose  eternity  tliey  are  fixed, 
by  Whose  truth  they  are  assured,  by  Whose 
gift  they  are  holy." 

And  I  uill  spare  them.  It  is  a  remarkable 
word,  as  used  of  those  who  should  be  to  Him 
a  peculiar  treasure,  teaching  that,  not  of  their 
own  merits,  they  shall  be  such,  but  by  Plis 
great  mercy.  It  stands  in  contra.st  with  the 
doom  of  the  wicked,  whom  that  day  shall 
sentence  to  everlasting  loss  of  God.  Still, 
the  saved  also  shall  have  needed  the  tender 
mercy  '•*  of  God,  whereby  He  pardoned  their 
misdeeds  and  had  compassion  upon  them. 
^  If  Thou,  Lord,  shall  lay  up  iniquities,  0  Lord, 
ivho  shall  stand  f  Among  those  whom  God 
will  spare  on  that  day,  will  be  countless, 
whom  the  self-righteous  despised  as  sinners. 
"*I  will  spare  them,  although  formerly 
sinners;  I  will  spare  them,  repenting,  and 
serving  Me  with  the  service  of  a  pious  con- 
fession, as  a  man  spareth  his  own  son  wliich 
served  him."  For  our  Lord  saith  of  the  son, 
who  refused  to  go  work  in  his  Father's 
vineyard,  and  afterward  repented  and  went, 
that  he  ^dld  the  u'ill  of  his  Father. 

18.  Then  .?/<«//  ye  return,  or  turn,  not, 
"  return  "  in  the  sense  of  refurning  to  God,  for 
in  that  day  will  be  the  time  of  judgment,  not 
of  repentance  ;  nor  yet,  "  then  shall  ye  again 
see;"  for  this  is  what  they  denied  ;  and,  if 
tiiey  had  ceased  to  deny  it,  they  would  have 
been  converted,  not  in  that  day,  but  before, 

1 8.  Aug.  in  Civ.  Dei  x.  7. 

a'7nn  iiaH  originally  the  meaning  of  teuiler 
coinpa.xsion. 


CHAPTER   IV.  Before 

CHRIST 

1  God^s  judgment  on  the  wicked, '■ '■ — 

2  and  his  blessing  on  the  good. 
He  exhorteth  to  the  study  of 
the  laiv,  5  and  telleth  of  Eli- 
jah's coming  and  office. 

"POR,   behold,   *the  day » joei  2. 3i. 
Cometh,  that  shall  burn  2  Pet.  3. 7. 
as  an  oven;  and  all  "the^'ch. 3. is, 
proud,  yea,  and  all  that  do 


when  God  gave  them  grace  to  see  it.  They 
shall  turn,  so  as  to  have  other  convictions 
tiian  belore;  but,  as  Judas.  The  Day  of 
judgment  will  make  a  great  change  in 
earthly  judgment.  Last  shall  be  first,  and 
first  last ;  this  world's  sorrow  shall  end  in  joy, 
and  worldly  joy  in  sorrow;  afflictions  shall 
be  seen  to  be  God's  love :  •*  Thou  in  vei-y 
faithfulness  hast  afflict(xl  me;  and  the  un- 
clouded prosperity  of  the  ungodly  to  be  God's 
abandonment  of  them.  The  picture  of  the 
surprise  of  the  wicked  in  the  Day  of 
judgment,  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon, 
is  a  comment  on  the  Prophet.  " '  Then 
shall  the  righteous  man  stand  in  great  bold- 
ness before  the  face  of  such  as  have  afflicted 
him,  and  made  no  account  of  his  labors  ; 
when  they  see  it,  they  shall  be  troubled  witli 
terrible  fear,  and  siiall  be  amazed  with  the 
strangeness  of  his  salvation,  so  far  beyond  all 
they  looked  for:  and  they,  repenting  and 
groaning  for  anguish  of  spirit,  shall  say 
within  themselves.  This  Avas  he  whom  we 
had  sometimes  in  derision  and  a  proverb  of 
reproach  :  we  fools  counted  his  life  madness 
and  his  end  to  be  without  honor:  how  is  he 
numbered  among  the  children  of  God,  and 
his  lot  is  among  the  saints !  " 

IV.  1.  For,  behold,  the  day  cometh,  which 
shall  burn  as  an  oven.  He  had  declared  the 
great  severance  of  the  God-fearing  and  the 
God-blaspheming,  those  who  served  and 
those  who  did  not  serve  God ;  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked;  now  he  declares  the  way 
and  time  of  the  severance,  tiie  Day  of  Judg- 
ment. Daniel  had  described  the  fire  of  that 
day,  ®  The  throne  [of  the  Ancient  of  days'}  was 
a  fiery  Jlame ;  his  wlieels  a  burning  fire:  a 
fiery  stream  issued  and  came  forth  from  Him  : 
the  judfpnent  rras  set  and  the  books  were  opened. 
Fire  is  ever  spoken  of,  as  accompanying  the 
judgment.  *  Our  (rod  shall  come,  and  shall 
110I  keep  silence,  a  fire  shall  dnvur  before  Him  ; 
'"  Behold  the  Lord  will  come  with  fire :  for  by  fire. 
and  by  the  sword  ivill  the  Lord  plead  icith   all 


"Ps.  exxT.  3. 
o  Ps.  cxix.  75. 
»  I>an.  vii.  U,  10, 


4Riip.  »S.  Matt.  xxi.  31. 

'  Wisd.  V.  1-.5. 

»Pd.  1.3.        i>'Is.  Ixvi.  15, 16. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 


40" 


c  H  R^'i's  T    "wickedly,  shall  be '  stubble : 
cir.  397.      and  the  day  that  cometh 
shall  burn  them  up,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts,  that  it 


0  Obad.  18. 


flesh :  ^  every  man's  ivork  shaJl  be  made  vmnifest, 
foi-  the  Day  shall  declare  it,  became  it  shall  be 
revealed  by  fire :  and  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's 
work,  of  what  sort  it  is.  S.  Peter  tells  us  that 
fire  will  be  of  this  burning  world ;  ^  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  which  are  now,  by  the  same  word 
are  kept  in  store,  reserved  unto  fire  against  the 
day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men  ; 
— 171  the  ivhich  the  heavens  shall  pass  away 
with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt 
with  fervent  heat,  the  earth  also  and  the  works 
that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up. 

The  oven,  or  furnace,  pictures  the  intensity 
of  the  heat,  which  is  white  from  its  intensity, 
and  darts  forth,  fiercely,  shooting  up  like  a 
living  creature,  and  destroying  life,  as  the 
flame  of  the  fire  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  ^  burn- 
ing fiery  furnace  slew  those  men  that  took  up 
Shadrach  Meshach  and  Abednego.  The  whole 
world  shall  be  one  burning  furnace. 

And  all  the  proud  and  all  that  do  wickedly. 
All  those,  whom  those  murmurers  pronounced 
blessed  *,  yea  and  all  who  should  thereafter  be 
like  them  (he  insists  on  the  universality  of 
the  judgment),  evei-y  doer  of  wickedness,  up  to 
that  day  and  those  who  should  then  be,  shall 
be  stubble.  "  ^  The  proud  and  mighty,  who  in 
this  life  were  strong  as  iron  and  brass,  so 
that  no  one  dared  resist  them,  but  they  dared 
to  fight  with  God,  these,  in  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment, shall  be  most  powerless,  as  stubble  can- 
not resist  the  fire,  in  an  everliving  death." 

That  shall  leave  them  neithei-  root  nor  branch 
"  i,  e.  *  they  shall  have  no  hope  of  shooting 
up  again  to  life ;  that  life,  I  mean,  which  is 
worthy  of  love^  and  in  glory  with  God,  in 
holiness  and  bliss.  For  when  the  root  has 
not  been  wholly  cut  away,  nor  the  shoot  torn 
up  as  from  the  depth,  some  hope  is  retained, 
that  it  may  again  shoot  up.  For,  as  it  is 
written,  ^  There  is  hope  of  a  tree,  if  it  be  cut 
down,  that  it  will  sprout  again,  and  that^  the 
tender  branch  thereof  will  not  cease.  But  if  it 
be  wholly  torn  up  from  below  and  from  its 
very  roots,  and  its  shoots  be  fiercely  cut 
away,  all  hope,  that  it  can  again  shoot  up  to 
life,  will  perish  also.  So,  he  saith,  will  all 
hope  of  the  lovers  of  sin  perish.  For  so  the 
Divine  Isaiah  clearly  announces,  •*  their  tvorm 
shall  not  die  and  their' fire  shall  not  be  quenched, 
and  they  shall  be  an  abhorring  to  all  flesh." 

2.  But  (And)  unto  you,  who  fear  My  Name, 

1 1  Cor.  iii.  13.   2  2  S.  Pet.  iii.  7-10.    "  Dan.  iii.  22. 

4  eh.  iii.  15.       »  Lap.       «  S.  Cyr.       '  Job  xiv.  7. 

8l9.lxTi.ult.    »Ps.  Ixxxiv.  11.     lois.  Ix.  19,  20. 
11  S.  Luke  i.  76,  78,  79. 

i«  EU8.  Dem.  Ev.  iv.  29.  '3  Heb.  ix.  28. 

14  As.  Ps.  i.  6,  ii.  12,  iii.  7,  8,  v.  10-12,  vi.  8-10,  vii.  16, 

32 


Before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 


shall  *  leave  them  neither 
root  nor  branch. 

2  ^  But  unto  you  that* Amos 2. 9. 
^fear  my  name  shall  the'ch.s.  le. 


shall  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  arise.    It  is  said 
of  God,  ^  The  Lord  God  is  a  sun  and  a  shield, 
and,  1°  The  Lord  shall  be  to  thee  an  everlasting 
light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory  ;  thy  sun  shcdl  no 
more  go  down  ;  for  the  Lord  shall  be  thine  ever- 
lasting light ;  and  Zacharias,  speaking  of  the 
office  of  S.  John  Baptist  in  the   words  of 
Malachi,  thou  shall  go   before   the  face  of  the 
Lord  to  prepare  His  tmy,  speaks  of  "  the  tender 
mercy  of  our  God,  whereby  the  Dayspring  from 
on  high  hath  insited  us,  to  give  light  to  them  that 
sit  in  darkness.    "  ^'^  He  Who  is  often  called 
Lord  and  God,  and  Angel  and  Captain  of  the 
Lord's  host,  and  Christ  and  Priest  and  Word 
and  Wisdom  of  God  and  Image,  is  now  called 
the    Sun  of  Righteousness.    He,   the   Father 
promises,  will  arise,  not  to  all,  but  to  those 
only  who  fear  His  Name,  giving  them  the 
light  of  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness,  as  the  re- 
ward of  their  fear  toward  Him.    This  is  God 
the  Word  Who  saith,  I  am  the  Light  of  the 
world,  Who  was  the  Light  of  every  one  who  com- 
eth   into    the    world."       Primarily,    Malachi 
speaks  of  our  Lord's  second   Coming,  when 
"to  them  that  look  for  Him  shall  He  appear,  a 
second  time  unto  salvation.     For  as,  in  so  many 
places  ",  the  Old  Testament  exhibits  the  op- 
posite lots  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked, 
so  here  the  prophet  speaks  of  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  in  reference  to  the  two  opposite 
classes,  of  which  he  had  before  spoken,  the 
proud  and  evil  doers,  and  the  fearers  of  God. 
The  title,  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  belongs  to 
both  Comings;  "^in  the  first,  He  diffused 
rays  of  righteousness,  whereby  He  justified 
and  daily  justifies  any  sinners  whatever,  who 
will  look  to  Him,  i.  e.  believe  in  Him  and  obey 
Him,  as  the  sun  imparts  light,  joy  and  life  to 
all  who  turn  toward  it."     In  the  second,  the 
righteousness  which  He  gave,  He  will  own 
and  exhibit,  cleared  from  all  the  misjudg- 
ment  of  the  world,  before  men  and  Angels. 
Yet  more,  healing  is,  throughout  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, used  of  the  removal  of  sickness  or  cur- 
ing of  wounds,  in  the  individual  or  state  or 
Church,  and,  as  to  the  individual,  bodily  or 
spiritual.     So  David  thanks  God,  first  for  the 
forgiveness,  ^*  Who  forgiveth  cdl  thine  iniquities  ; 
then  for  healing  of    his  soul,    Who  healeth 
all  thy  diseases ;  then  for  salvation,    Who  re- 
deemeth  thy  life  from  destruction;  then  for  the 
crown  laid  up  for  him,  Who  crowneth  thee  with 

17  ix  17-20,  X.  lG-18,  xi.  6,  7,  xvii.  13-15,  xx.  8,  xx\i. 
9-12,  xxxi.  23,  xxxii.  10, 11,  xxxiv.  21, 22,  xxxv.  26-28, 
xxxvi.  10-12,  xxxvii.  38-40,  xl.  15-17,  1.  22,  23,  In. 
5-9  Iv.  22,  23,  Iviii.  10, 11,  Ixiii.  10, 11,  Ixiv.  9, 10,  Ixxiu. 
27,  28,  civ.  33-35,  exii.  9,  10,  exxvi.  5,  exlix.  9. 
15  Ps.  ciii.  3-5, 


498 


MALACHI. 


/.«®i°7ann      '  Suil     of    T  Igh  te  OU  S  H  CSS 
CUKlal  _  .i-ii.  •         1. 

cir.  397.      arise  with  healing  in   his 

go 
as 


Luke  1.  78. 
Eph.  5. 14. 
2  Pet.  1. 19. 
Rev.  2.  28. 
f  2  Sam.  22.  43. 
Mic.  7. 10. 
Zech.  10.  5. 


wings;    and  ye 
forth,   and   grow 
calves  of  the  stall. 
3  *  And  ye  shall 


shall 
up 


1  Pomerins  de  vit.  contempl.  i.  4. 


Lap. 


8S.  Aug.  En.  118  n'l  Diosc.  n.  14  0pp.  ii.  .%'J4.  L 
«So  LXX.  VuIk.  Svr.  (and  on  .ler.  1.  11)  Jon.  (here 
"go  "only);  of  rnocWrn  Jews,  Tanchnm  here  and 
on  Jer.  1.  11.  Poeocke  says  more  cautiously  tlian 
modern.s  xfiierally,  "  not  far  from,  this  signification 
is  the  Arab.  K/Ni!,  which  signifies  to 'vaunt' or 
'  boast '  or  '  go  strutting '  or  '  proudly.' "   For  "  arro- 


tread 


loving-kindness  and  tender  mercies  ;  then,  with 
the  abiding  sustenance  and  satisfying  joy, 
Who  salisfieth  thy  mouth  with  good  things. 
Healing  then  primarily  belongs  to  this  life, 
in  which  we  are  still  encompassed  with  in- 
firmities, and  even  His  elect  and  His  Saints 
have  still,  whereof  to  be  healed.  The  full 
then  and  complete  healing  of  the  soul,  the 
integrity  of  all  its  powers  will  be  in  the  life 
to  come.  There,  will  be  "  '  understanding 
without  error,  memory  without  forgetful ness, 
thought  without  distraction,  love  without 
simulation,  sensation  without  offence,  satisfy- 
ing witliout  satiety,  universal  health  without 
sickness."  "  '^  P"or  through  Adam's  sin  the 
soul  was  wounded  in  understanding,  through 
obscurity  and  ignorance ;  in  will,  through 
the  leaning  to  perishing  goods ;  as  concupis- 
cent, through  infirmity  and  manifold  concu- 
piscence. In  heaven  Christ  will  heal  all 
these,  giving  to  the  understanding  light  and 
knowledge  ;  to  the  will,  constancy  in  good  ; 
to  the  desire,  that  it  should  desire  nothing 
but  what  is  right  and  good.  Then  too  the 
healing  of  the  soul  will  be  the  light  of  glory, 
the  vision  and  fruition  of  God,  and  the  glori- 
ous endowments  consequent  thereon,  over- 
streaming  all  the  powers  of  the  soul  and 
therefrom  to  the  body."  "  ^  God  has  made 
the  soul  of  a  nature  so  mighty,  that  from  its 
most  full  beatitude,  which  at  the  end  of  time 
is  promised  to  the  saints,  tliere  shall  over- 
flow to  the  inferior  nature,  the  body,  not 
bliss,  which  belongs  to  the  soul  as  intelligent 
and  capable  of  fruition,  but  tiie  fullness  of 
health  that  is,  the  vigorousness  of  incorrup- 
tion." 

And  ye  shall  go  forth,  as  from  a  prison- 
house,  from  the  miseries  of  this  lifeless  life, 
and  grow  up,  or  perhaps  more  probably,  bound  *, 
as  the  animal,  which  has  been  confined,  ex- 
ults in  its  regained  freedom,  itself  full  of  life 
and  e.xuberance  of  delight.  So  the  P.salmist, 
*  The  saints  shall  exult  in  glory.  And  our  Lord 
u.ses  the  like  word  ®,  as  to  the  way,  with 
which  they  should  greet  persecution  to  the 
utmost,  for  His  Name's  sake.     Swiftness  of 


down  the  wicked  ;  for  they    ^  ^  r°i  g  m 
shall  be  ashes  under  the      c'r-  397. 
soles  of  your  feet  in  the 
day   that   I  shall   do   this, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 
4  ^  Remember    ye    the 

motion  is  one  of  the  endowments  of  the  spir- 
itual body,  after  the  resurrection ;  as  the 
angels,  to  whom  the  righteous  shall  be  like ', 
"rau  and  returned  as  the  appearance  of  a  flash  of 
lightning. 

3.  And  ye  shall  tread  doicn  the  wicked ;  for 
they  shall  be  ashes  umler  the  soles  of  your  feet. 
It  shall  be  a  great  reversal.  He  that  exalteth 
himself  shall  be  abased,  and  he  that  humbleth 
himself  shall  be  exalted.  Here  the  wicked  often 
have  the  pre-eminence.  This  was  the  com- 
plaint of  the  murmurers  among  the  Jt  ws ; 
in  the  morning  of  the  Resurrection  "  the  up- 
right shall  have  dominion  over  them.  The 
wicked,  he  had  said,  shall  be  as  stubble,  and 
that  day  ^'^ shall  burn  them  up;  here,  then, 
they  are  as  the  ashes,  the  only  remnant  of 
the  stubble,  as  the  dust  under  the  feet. 
"  "  The  elect  shall  rejoice,  that  they  have,  in 
mercy,  escaped  such  misery.  Therefore  they 
shall  be  kindled  inconceivably  with  the  Di- 
vine love,  and  shall  from  their  inmost  heart 
give  thanks  unto  God."  And  being  thus  of 
one  mind  with  God,  and  seeing  all  things  a.s 
He  seeth,  they  will  rejoice  in  His  judgments, 
because  they  are  His.  For  they  cannot  have 
one  slightest  velleity,  other  than  the  all- 
perfect  Will  of  God.  So  Isaiah  closes  his 
prophecy,  ^'And  they  shall  go  forth,  and  look 
upon  the  carcases  of  the  men,  that  have  trans- 
gressed against  Me;  foi-  their  worm  shall  not  die, 
neither  shall  their  fire  be  quenched,  and  they 
shall  be  an  abhorring  to  all  flesh.  So  "  The 
righteous  shall  rejoice,  when  he  seeth  the  ven- 
geance; and  anotlier  Psalmist,  '*  The  righteous 
shcdl  see  and  rejoice ;  and  all  wickedness  shall 
stop  her  mouth ;  and  Job,  '*  The  righteous  see 
and  are  glad,  and  the  innocent  laugh  them  to 
scorn. 

4.  Remember  ye  the  laiv  of  Moses,  My  ser- 
vant. '®  The  law  uns  our  schoolma.^ter  to  bring 
r«  iinto  Chri'it.  They  then  who  were  most 
faithful  to  the  law,  would  be  most  prepared 
for  Christ.  But  for  those  of  his  own  day, 
too,  who  were  negligent  both  of  the  cere- 
monial and  moral  law,  he  says,  "  "  Since  the 
judgment  of  God  will  be  so  fearful,  remem- 

gnnce,"  not  "  exuberance  of  joy,"  seems  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Arabic  word.  The  E.  V.,  "grow." 
"  enlarge,"  follows  the  interpretation  given  by  mosi 
Heb.  Comm.  or  lexicographers. 

'  Ps.  C.xlix.  5.                 1  aKiprritfart  S.  Luke  vi.  2.'i. 

"  S.  Luke  XX.  3f..      »  Ezek.  i.  14.  »  Ps.  xlix.  14. 

10  iv.  I.                    i>  Dion.  '"Is.  Ixvi.  24. 

'^  Ps.  Iviii.  10.  >Mb.  cvii.  42. 

isjob  xxii.  19.  lOGal.  iii.  24. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


499 


before 

CHRIST 

cir.  397. 

^  Ex.  20.  3.  ire. 
i  Deut.  i.  10. 
k  Ps.  147. 19. 


''  law  of  Moses  my  servant, 
which  I  commanded  unto 
him  'in  Horeb  for  all  Is- 
rael, with  ^  the  statutes  and 
judgments. 


5  ^  Behold,  I  will  send    chrTst 
you  'Elijah   the   prophet,     cir.  397. 


ber  now  unceasingly  and  observe  the  law  of 
God  given  by  Moses." 

\Vhich  I  commanded^  unto  him  for  [lit. 
upon,  incumbent  upon']  all  Israel.  Not  Moses 
commanded  them,  but  God  by  His  servant 
Moses  ;  therefore  He  "  ^  would  in  the  day  of 
judgment  take  strict  account  of  each,  whether 
they  had  or  had  not  kept  them.  He  would 
glorify  those  who  obeyed,  He  would  con- 
demn those  who  disobeyed  them."  They 
had  asked,  Where  is  the  God  of  judgment  f 
What  profit,  that  ice  have  kept  the  ordinance  f 
He  tells  them  of  the  judgment  to  come,  and 
bids  them  take  heed,  that  they  did  indeed 
keep  them  ;  for  there  was  a  day  of  account 
to  be  held  for  all. 

With  the  statutes  and  judgments,  better, 
statutes  and  judgments,  i.  e.  consisting  in  them  ; 
it  seems  added  as  an  explanation  of  the  word, 
law,  individualizing  them.  Duty  is  fulfilled, 
not  in  a  general  acknowledgment  of  law,  or 
an  arbitrary  selection  of  some  favorite  com- 
mandments, wliich  cost  the  human  will  less  ; 
as,  in  our  Lord's  time,  they  minutely  ob- 
served the  law  of  tithes,  but  ^omitted  tveight- 
ier  matters  of  the  law,  judgment,  mercy,  and 
faith.  It  is  in  obedience  to  the  command- 
ments, one  by  one,  one  and  all.  Moses  ex- 
horted to  the  keeping  of  the  law,  under  these 
same  words :  *  Nov:,  therefore  hearken,  0 
Israel,  unto  the  statutes  and  judgments  ivhich  I 
teach  you,  to  do  them,  that  ye  may  live. —  Ye  shall 
not  add  unto  the  word  that  I  comnuind  you, 
neither  shall  ye  diminish  it. — Behold,  I  have 
taught  you  statutes  and  judgments,  even  as  the 
Lord  my  God  commanded  me. —  }\^at  nation  so 
great,  that  hath  statutes  and  judgments,  righteous 
as  all  this  law,  which  I  set  before  you  this  day  ? 
The  Lord  commanded  me  at  that  time,  to  teach 
you  statutes  and  judgments,  that  ye  might  do 
them  in  the  land,  whither  ye  go  to  possess  it. 

5.  Behold  I  will  send  [/  send,  as  a  future, 
proximate  in  the  prophet's  mind]  you  Elijah 
the  prophet.  The  Archangel  Gabriel  inter- 
prets this  for  us,  to  include  the  sending  of 
S.  John  Baptist.  For  he  not  only  says  ^  that 
he  shall  go  before  the  Lord  in  the  spirit  and 
power  of  Elias,  but  describes  his  mission  in 
the  characteristic  words  of  Malachi,  to  turn 
the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children:   and 

1  niV  with  double  accus.  2  Lap. 

»  S.  Matt,  xxiii.  23.  «  Deut.  iv.  1,  2,  5,  8, 14. 

6 S.  Luke  i.  17.  eg.  John  i.  21. 

^  S.  Matt.  xi.  14.  8  ib.  xvii.  12. 

3  The  error  of  the  Jews  consisted,  not  in  thfir 
rooted  belief,  as   founded  on   these  words,  that 


■"before  the  coming  of  the'J^ia«"i4- 

»  <fc]7. 11. 

great  and  dreadful  day  of  Mark  9. 11. 

*=       _  *'  Luke  1. 17. 

the  Lord:  ■njoei2. 31. 


those  other  words  also,  and  the  disobedient 
to  the  ivisdom  of  the  just,  perhaps  represent  the 
sequel  in  Malachi,  and  the  hearts  of  the  children 
to  the  fathers;  for  their  hearts  could  only  be 
so  turned  by  conversion  to  God,  Whom  the 
fathers,  patriarchs  and  prophets,  knew,  loved 
and  served ;  and  Whom  they  served  in  name 
only.  S.  John  Baptist,  in  denying  that  he 
was  Elias  *,  denied  only,  that  he  was  that 
great  prophet  himself.  Our  Lord,  in  saying, 
'  ITiis  (.3  Elias,  which  ivas  for  to  come,  ^  that 
Elias  is  come  already  and  they  knew  him  not,  but 
have  done  unto  him  whatsoever  they  listed,  met 
the  error  of  the  Scribes,  that  He  could  not 
be  the  Christ,  because  Elias  was  not  yet 
come  ®.  When  He  says,  ^"EUas  truly  shcdl  first 
come  and  restore  cdl  things,  He  implies  a  com- 
ing of  Elias,  other  than  that  of  S.  John  Bap- 
tist, since  he  was  already  martyred,  and  all 
things  were  not  yet  restored.  Tliis  must  also 
be  the  fullest  fulfillment.  For  the  great  and 
terrible  Day  of  the  Lord  is  the  Day  of  judg- 
ment, of  which  all  earthly  judgments,  how- 
ever desolating,  (as  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem) are  but  shadows  and  earnests.  Before 
oiu'  Lord's  coming  all  things  looked  on  to 
His  first  Coming,  and,  since  that  Coming,  all 
looks  on  to  the  Second,  which  is  the  comple- 
tion of  the  first  and  of  all  things  in  time. 

Our  Lord's  words,  Elias  truly  shall  first  come 
and  restore  all  things,  seem  to  me  to  leave  no 
question,  that,  as  S.  John  Baptist  came,  in 
the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias,  before  His 
First  Coming,  so  before  the  Second  Coming, 
Elias  should  come  in  person,  as  Jews  and 
Christians  have  alike  exj^ected.  This  has 
been  the  Christian  expectation  from  the  first. 
*S'.  Justin  Martyr  asked  his  opponent  ",  "  Shall 
we  not  conceive  that  the  Word  of  God  has 
proclaimed  Elias  to  be  the  forerunner  of  the 
great  and  terrible  day  of  His  second  Com- 
ing?" "Certainly,"  was  Trypho's  reply. 
S.  Justin  continues,  "  Our  Lord  Himself 
taught  us  in  His  own  teaching  that  this  very 
thing  shall  be,  when  He  said  that  Elias  also 
shcdl  come;  and  we  know  that  this  shall  be 
fulfilled,  when  He  is  about  to  come  from 
Heaven  in  glory."  Tertullian  says  >'^,  "Elias 
is  to  come  again,  not  after  a  departure  from 
life,  but  after  a  translation  ;  not  to  be  re- 
Elijah  should  come  before  the  great  and  terrible 
Day  of  the  Lord,  but  in  their  denial  that  He  should 
have  any  forerunner  of  His  Coming  in  His  great 
humility.  They  erred,  not  in  what  they  believed, 
but  in  what  they  disbelieved. 

1"  .S.  Matt.  xvii.  11.     "  Dial.  c.  49.  p.  131.  Oxf.  Tr. 

12  De  anima  c.  35.  p.  539.  Rig. 


500 


MALACHI. 


stored  to  the  body,  from  wlucli  he  was  never 
taken ;  but  to  be  restored  to  the  world,  from 
which  he  was  translated  ;  not  by  way  of  re- 
storation to  life,  but  for  the  completion  of 
prophecy  ;  one  and  the  same  in  name  and  in 
person."'  "  '  Enoch  and  Elias  were  trans- 
lated, and  their  death  is  not  recorded,  as 
l)eing  deferred ;  but  they  are  reserved  as  to 
die,  that  they  may  vanquish  Antichrist  by 
tiieir  blood."  And,  in  proof  that  the  end 
was  not  yet,  "^No  one  has  yet  received 
Elias  ;  no  one  has  yet  fled  from  Antichrist." 
And  the  ancient  author  of  the  verses  arjainst 
Marcion ;  " '  Elias  who  has  not  yet  tasted 
the  debt  of  death,  because  he  Ls  again  to 
come  into  the  workl."  Origen  says  simply 
in  one  place*,  that  the  Saviour  answered  the 
question  as  to  the  objection  of  the  Scribes, 
"  not  annulling  what  had  been  handed  down 
concerning  Elias,  but  affirming  that  there 
was  another  coming  of  Elias  before  Christ, 
unknown  to  the  scribes,  according  to  which, 
not  knowing  him,  and,  being  in  a  manner, 
accomplices  in  his  being  cast  into  prison  by 
Herod  and  slain  by  him,  they  had  done  to 
him  what  they  listed."  S.  Hippolytm  has; 
"  *  As  two  Comings  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
were  indicated  by  the  Scriptures,  the  first  in 
the  flesh,  in  dishonor,  that  He  might  be  set  at 
naught — the  second  in  glory,  when  He  shall 
come  from  Heaven  with  the  heavenly  host 
and  the  glory  of  the  Father — so  two  forerun- 
ners were  pointed  out,  the  first,  John,  the 
son  of  Zacharias,  and  again — since  He  is 
manifested  as  Judge  at  the  end  of  the  world. 
His  forerunners  must  first  appear,  as  He  says 
through  Malachi,  /  ivill  send  to  you  Elias  the 
Tishbite  before  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the 
Lord  shaU  come." 

S.  Hilary;  "®The  Apostles  enquire  in 
anxiety  about  the  times  of  Elias.  To  whom 
He  answereth,  that  Elias  will  come  and  restore 
all  things,  that  is,  will  recall  to  the  knowledge 
of  God,  what  he  shall  find  of  Israel ;  but  he 
signifies  that  John  came  in  the  spirit  and 
power  of  Elias,  to  whom  they  had  shewn  all 
severe  and  harsh  dealings,  that,  foreannounc- 
ing  the  Coming  of  the  Lord,  he  might  be  a 
forerunner  of  the  Passion  also  by  an  example 
of  wrong  and  harass."  " '  We  understand 
that  those  same  prophets  [Moses  and  P^lias] 
will  come  before  His  Coming,  who,  the 
Apocalypse  of  John  says,  will  be  slain  by 
Antichrist,  although  there  are  various  o^)in- 
ions  of  very  many,  as  to  Enoch  or  Jeremiah, 
that  one  of  them  is  to  die,  as  Elias." 
Hilary  the  Deacon,  A.D.  355,  has  on  the  words, 


1  Id.  ib.  c.  50,  p.  549. 

*  de  res.  carnis  c.  22.  p.  385.  Rig. 

3  (.arm.  incert.  Auct.  adv.  Marcion.  L.  iii.  p.  802. 
col.  1  Rie. 
<  in  S.  Matt.  xvii.  10.  0pp.  iii.  567. 
t>  de  Antichri.sto  c.  44-40  pp.  21,  22. 

•  in  Matt.  c.  xvii.  n.  4.  Opp.  p.  G94,  695. 
'  Id.  U).  c.  .XX.  n.  10.  p.  710.  Ben. 


I  suppose  God  hath  set  forth  ns  the  Apostles 
last;  ''"He  therefore  applies  these  to  hia 
own  i)erson,  because  he  was  always  in  dis- 
tress, suffering,  beyond  the  rest,  persecutions 
and  distresses,  as  Enoch  and  Elias  will  sufler, 
who  will  be  Apostles  at  the  last  time.  For 
they  have  to  be  sent  before  Ciirist,  to  make 
ready  the  people  of  God,  and  fortify  all  the 
Churches  to  resist  Antichrist,  of  whom  the 
Apocalypse  attests,  that  they  will  sutler  per- 
secutions and  be  slain."  ""When  the  faith- 
less shall  be  secure  of  the  kingdom  of  the 
devil,  the  saints,  i.  e.  Enoch  and  Elias  being 
slain,  rejoicing  in  the  victory,  and  sending 
gifts,  one  to  another,  as  the  Apocalypse  says '°, 
sudden  destruction  shall  come  upon  them. 
For  Christ  at  His  Coming,  shall  destroy 
them  all."  iS'.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  quotes  the 
prophecy  under  the  heading,  that  '"'  before 
the  second  Coming  of  our  Lord,  Elias  should 
come." 

S.Ambrose;  "'^Because  the  Lord  was  to 
come  down  from  heaven,  and  to  ascend  to 
heaven.  He  raised  Elias  to  heaven,  to  bring 
him  back  to  the  earth  at  the  time  He  should 
please."  "  *^  The  beast.  Antichrist,  ascends 
from  tiie  abyss  to  fight  against  Elias  and 
Enoch  and  John,  who  are  restored  to  the 
earth  for  the  testimony  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  as 
we  read  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John." 

S.  Jerome  gives  here  the  mystical  meaning; 
"God  will  send,  in  Elias,  (which  is  inter- 
preted '  My  God '  and  who  is  of  the  town 
Thisbe,  which  signifies  'conversion'  or 
'  penitence')  the  whole  choir  of  the  Prophets, 
to  convert  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  sons,  viz. 
Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  and  all  the 
patriarchs,  that  their  posterity  may  believe 
in  the  Lord  the  Saviour,  in  whom  them- 
selves believed  :  for  Abraham  saw  the  day  of 
the  Lord  and  ivas  glad."  Here,  he  speaks  of 
the  "  coming  of  Elias  before  their  anointed,"  aa 
a  supposition  of  Jews  and  Judaizing  heretics. 
But  in  commenting  on  our  Lord's  words  in 
S.  Matthew,  he  adheres  twice  to  the  literal 
meaning.  "  "  Some  think  that  John  is  there- 
fore called  Elias,  because,  as,  according  to 
Malachi,  at  the  second  Coming  of  the 
Saviour^*,  Elias  will  precede  and  announce 
tiie  Judge  to  come,  so  did  John  at  His  first 
Coming,  and  each  is  a  messenger,  of  the  first 
or  second  Coming  of  the  Lord : "  and  again 
concisely,  "  ^^He  who  is  to  come  in  the  second 
Coming  of  the  Saviour  in  the  actual  body, 
now  comes  through  John  in  spirit  and 
power  ; "  and  he  speaks  of  Enoch  and  Elias 
as  "  ^*  the  /jfo  witnesses  in  the  Revelation, 


«  App.  S.  Ambros.  ii.  125.  in  1  Cor.  iv.  9. 

» Ib.  p.  282.  in  1  T  Hess.  v.  1.  >•>  Rev.  xi.  10. 

11  adv.  Jud.  Opp.  ii.  p.  2GC.  "  de  posnlt.  i.  8. 

13  in  P.«alm  45,  n.  10.  Opp.  i.  930.  "Only  one  MS. 
has,  •  and  John.' "  Ben.  note, 
in^n  S   Matt. 'xi.  14,  15. 
IS  On  S.  Matt.  xvii.  11,  12. 
>«Ep  .W  [ul.  Ms]  ad  Maroell.  Opp.  i.  32G.  Vail. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


601 


since,  according  to  the  Apocalypse  of  John, 
Enoch  and  Elias  are  spoken  of,  as  having  to 
die." 

•S".  Cki'ysostom,  "  ^  When  He  saith  that 
Elias  Cometh  and  shall  restore  all  things,  He 
means  Elias  himself,  and  the  conversion  of 
the  Jews,  which  shall  then  be ;  but  when  He 
saith,  which  was  to  come,  He  calls  John,  Elias, 
according  to  the  manner  of  his  ministry." 

In  aS'.  Augustine's  time  it  was  the  universal 
belief.  "  ^  When  he  [Malachi]  had  admon- 
ished them  to  remember  the  law  of  Moses, 
because  he  foresaw,  that  they  would  for  a 
long  time  not  receive  it  spiritually,  as  it 
ought,  he  added  forthwith ;  And  I  ivUl  send 
you  _  Elias  the  Thisbite  &c.  That  when, 
through  this  Elias,  the  great  and  wonderful 
prophet,  at  the  last  time  before  the  judg- 
ment, the  law  shall  have  been  expounded  to 
them,  the  Jews  shall  believe  in  the  true 
Christ,  i.  e.  in  our  Christ,  is  everywhere  in 
the  mouths  and  hearts  of  the  faithful.  For 
not  without  reason  is  it  hoped,  that  he  shall 
come  before  the  Coming  of  the  Saviour,  as 
Judge,  because  not  without  reason  is  it  be- 
lieved that  he  still  lives.  For  he  was  carried 
in  a  chariot  of  fire  from  things  below  ;  which 
Scripture  most  evidently  attests.  When  he 
shall  come  then,  by  expounding  the  law 
spiritually,  which  the  Jews  now  understand 
carnally,  he  shall  turn  the  heart  of  the 
fathers  to  the  children." 

S.  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  his  antagonist 
Theodoret,  and  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  who 
was  loose  from  all  tradition,  had  the  same 
clear  belief.  S.  Cyril ;  "  It  is  demonstrative 
of  the  gentleness  and  long-suffering  of  God, 
that  Elias  also  the  Tishbite  shall  shine  upon 
us,  to  foreannounce  when  the  Judge  shall 
come  to  those  in  the  whole  world.  For  the 
Son  shall  come  down,  as  Judge,  in  the  glory 
of  the  Father,  attended  by  the  angels,  and 
shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,  judging  the 
world  in  righteousness,  and  shall  reward  every 
man  according  to  his  works.  But  since  we  are 
in  many  sins,  well  is  it  for  us,  that  the 
Divine  Prophet  goes  before  Him,  bringing 
all  those  on  earth  to  one  mind ;  that  all, 
being  brought  to  the  unity  through  the  faith, 
and  ceasing  from  evil  intents,  may  fulfill  that 
which  is  good,  and  so  be  saved  when  the 
Judge  cometh  down.  The  blessed  Baptist 
John  came  before  Him  in  the  spirit  and  power 
of  Elias.  But,  as  he  preached  saying,  Pre- 
pare ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  His  paths 
straight,  so  also  the  divine  Elias  proclaims 
His  then  being  near  and  all-but-present,  that 
He  may  judge  the  world  in  righteousness." 
Theodoret ;  "  ^  Malachi  teaches  us  how,  when 
Antichrist  shall  presume  on  these  things, 
the  great  Elias  shall  appear,  preaching  to 
the  Jews  the  Coming  of  Christ :  and  he  shall 
convert  many,  for  this  is  the  meaning  of,  he 

1  lu  S.  Matt.  Horn.  57.  0pp.  vii.  577.     «  de  Civ.  Dei, 


shall  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children, 
i.  e.  the  Jews  (for  these  he  calls  fathers,  as 
being  older  in  knowledge)  to  those  who  be- 
lieved from  the  Gentiles.  They  who  shall 
believe  through  the  preaching  of  the  great 
Elias,  and  shall  join  themselves  to  the  Gen- 
tiles who  seized  the  salvation  sent  to  them, 
shall  become  one  Church.  He  hints,  how 
when  these  things  are  done  by  Antichrist,  S. 
Michael  the  Archangel  will  set  all  in  motion, 
that  Elias  should  come  and  foreannounce  the 
Coming  of  the  Lord,  that  the  then  Jews  may 
obtain  salvation."  And  on  this  place, 
"  Knowing  well,  that  they  would  neither  obey 
the  law,  nor  receive  Him  when  He  came,  but 
would  deliver  Him  to  be  crucified,  He 
promises  them,  in  His  unspeakable  love  for 
man,  that  He  will  again  send  Elias  as  a 
herald  of  salvation,  Lo,  I  loill  send  you  Elias 
the  Tishbite.  And  signifying  the  time,  He 
added.  Before  the  great  and  terrible  Bay  of  the 
Lord  shall  come :  He  named  the  Day  of  His 
Second  Coming.  But  He  teaches  us,  what 
the  great  Elias  shall  do,  when  he  comes,  Who 
shall  bring  back  the  heart  of  the  father  to  the  son 
&c.  And  pointing  out  the  end,  for  which 
Elias  should  first  come,  Lest  I  come  and  smite 
the  earth  utterly.  For  lest,  finding  you  all  in 
unbelief,  I  send  you  all  to  that  endless  pun- 
ishment, Elias  will  first  come,  and  will  per- 
suade you,  O  Jews,  to  unite  you  indissolubly 
with  those,  who  from  the  Gentiles  believe  in 
Me,  and  to  be  united  to  My  one  Church." 

Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  paraphrases:  "In 
addition  to  all  which  I  have  said,  I  give  you 
this  last  commandment,  to  remember  My  law, 
which  I  gave  to  all  Israel  through  Moses, 
plainly  declaring  what  they  ought  to  do  in 
each  thing,  and  as  the  first  token  of  obedi- 
ence, to  receive  the  Lord  Christ  when  He 
cometh,  appearing  for  the  salvation  of  all 
men :  Who  will  end  the  law,  but  shew  His 
own  perfection.  It  had  been  well,  had  you 
immediately  believed  Him  when  He  came, 
and  known  Him,  as  He  Whom  Moses  and 
all  the  prophets  signified.  Who  should  put 
an  end  to  the  law,  and  reveal  the  common 
salvation  of  all  men,  so  that  it  should  be 
manifest  to  all,  that  this  is  the  sum  and 
chief  good  of  the  whole  dispensation  of  the 
law,  to  bring  all  men  to  the  Lord  Christ, 
Who,  for  those  great  goods,  should  be  mani- 
fested in  His  own  time.  But  since, 
when  He  manifested  Himself,  ye  mani- 
fested your  own  ungainliness,  the  blessed 
Elias  shall  be  sent  to  you  before  the 
second  Coming  of  Christ,  when  He  will  come 
from  Heaven,  to  unite  those  who,  for  re- 
ligion, are  separated  from  each  other,  and, 
through  the  knowledge  of  religion,  to  bring 
the  fathers  to  one-mindedness  with  the 
children,  and  in  a  word,  to  bring  all  men  lo 
one  and  the  same  harmony,  when  those,  then 


XX.  29.  0pp.  vii.  613. 


3  On  Daniel,  e.  xii.  init. 


502 


MALACHI. 


Before 

CHRIST 

eir.  397. 


6  And  he  shall  turn  the 
heart  of  the  fathei's  to  the 
children,  and  the  heart  of 


found  in  ungodliness,  shall  receive  from  him 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth  in  the  commun- 
ion with  the  godly  thence  ensuing." 

The  African  author  of  the  work  on  the  prom- 
ises and  predictions  of  God.  (between  A.  D. 
450-455.) 

"*  Against  Antichrist  shall  be  sent  two 
witnesses,  the  prophets  Enoch  and  Elijah, 
against  whom  shall  arise  three  false  prophets 
of  Antichrist." 

Isidore  of  Seville  A.  D.  595. ; 

"^Elias,  borne  in  a  chariot  of  fire,  as- 
cended to  heaven,  to  come  according  to  the 
prophet  Malachi  at  the  end  of  the  world,  and 
to  precede  Christ,  to  announce  His  last 
Coming,  with  great  deeds  and  Avondrous 
signs,  so  that,  on  earth  too,  Antichrist  will 
war  against  him,  be  against  him,  or  him  who 
is  to  come  with  him,  and  will  slay  them ; 
their  bodies  also  will  lie  unburied  in  the 
streets.  Then,  raised  by  the  Lord,  they  will 
smite  the  kingdom  of  Antichrist  with  a  great 
blow.  Alter  this,  the  Lord  will  come,  and 
will  slay  Antichrist  with  the  word  of  His 
mouth,  and  those  who  worshiped  him." 
"  ^  This  will  be  in  the  last  times,  when,  on 
the  preaching  of  Elias,  Judah  will  be  con- 
verted to  Christ." 

To  add  one  more,  for  his  great  gifts,  S. 
Gregory  the  Great.  "*It  is  promised,  that 
when  Elias  shall  come,  he  shall  bring  back 
the  hearts  of  the  sons  to  their  fathers,  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  old,  which  is  now  taken 
from  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  may,  in  the 
mercy  of  God,  return,  when  the  sons  shall 
begin  to  understand  of  the  Lord  God,  Avhat 
the  fathers  taught."  "*  Although  Elias  is 
related  to  have  been  carried  to  heaven,  he 
deferred,  he  did  not  escape,  death.  For  it  is 
said  of  him  by  the  mouth  of  the  Truth  Him- 
self, Elias  sludl  come  and  restore  all  things. 
He  shall  come  to  restore  all  things;  for  to 
this  end  is  he  restored  to  this  world,  that  he 
may  both  fulfill  the  office  of  preaching,  and 
pay  the  debt  of  the  flesh."  "«The  holy 
Church,  although  it  now  loses  many  through 
the  shock  of  temptation,  yet,  at  tlie  end  of 
the  world,  it  receives  its  own  double,  when, 
having  received  the  Gentiles  to  the  full,  all 
Judaea  too,  whicli  shall  then  be,  agrees  to 

>  Dimid.  Temp.  c.  l.'i.  .\pp.  to  S.  Prospor.  Enoch 
and  Elias  aro  f  pokpn  of,  n.s  the  two  witnes.ses,  b^ 
Ammonius  in  the  Comm.  variorr.  on  Daniel.  Mai 
Scriptt.  Vett.  Nov.  Coll.  T.  1.  P.  iii.  p.  52. 

»de  ort.  et  ob.  Pair.  e.  35.  0pp.  v.  107, 108. 

■'  (\  Jnd.  ii.  5. 9.  0pp.  vi.  79. 

♦Moral,  xi.  15.  n.  24.  Ben. 

I-  lb.  XX.  .34.  n.  66.  Ben. 

•  lb.  XXXV.  14.  n.  24.  See  also  on  Ezek.  L.  i.  Horn. 
12.  n.  8, 9,  where  he  speaks  of  the  conning  of  Enoch 
l^lao. 


the  children  to  their  fathers, 
lest  I  come  and  °  smite  the 
earth  with  "  a  curse. 


hasten  to  its  faith.  For  hence  it  is  written. 
Until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come,  and 
so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved.  Hence  in  the  Gos- 
pel the  Truth  says,  Elicu^  shall  eome  and  shall 
restore  all  things.  For  now  the  Church  ha.s 
lost  the  Israelites,  whom  it  could  not  convert 
by  preaching;  but  then,  at  the  preaching  of 
Elias,  while  it  collects  all  which  it  shall  lind, 
it  receives  in  a  manner  more  fully  what  it 
has  lost."  " '  John  is  spoken  of  as  to  come 
in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias,  because,  as 
Elias  shall  precede  the  second  Coming  of  the 
Lord,  so  John  preceded  His  first.  For  as 
Elias  will  come,  as  precursor  of  the  Judge,  so 
John  was  made  the  precursor  of  the  Re- 
deemer. John  then  was  Elias  in  spirit ;  he 
was  not  Elias  in  pei'son.  What  then  the 
Lord  owned  as  to  spirit,  that  John  denies  as 
to  tlie  person." 

Whether  Elias  is  one  of  the  two  witnesses^, 
spoken  of  in  the  Apocalypse,  is  obviously  a 
distinct  question.  Of  commentators  on  the 
Apocalypse,  Arethas'  remarks  tliat  as  to 
Elias,  there  is  clear  testimony  from  Holy 
Scripture,  this  of  Malachi ;  but  that,  with 
regard  to  Enoch,  we  have  only  the  fact  of 
his  being  freed  from  death  by  translation, 
and  the  tradition  of  the  Church.  S.  John 
Damascene  fixed  the  belief,  in  the  Eastern 
Church  '*.  In  the  West,  Bede  e.  g.  who 
speaks  of  the  belief  that  the  two  witnesses 
were  Elijah  and  Enoch,  as  what  was  said  by 
"  "  some  doctors,"  takes  our  Lord's  declara- 
tion, that  Elias  shall  return,  in  its  simple 
meaning  ''^  Yet  it  was  no  matter  of  faith  '^. 
When  the  belief  as  to  a  personal  Anticlirist 
was  changed  by  Luther  and  Calvin,  the 
belief  of  a  personal  forerunner  of  Christ  ga\'e 
way  also. 

G.  And  he  shall  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers 
vnto  the  children.  Now  they  were  unlike,  and 
severed  by  that  unlikeness  from  each  other. 
Yet  not  on  earth;  for  on  earth  parents  and 
cliildren  were  alike  alienated  from  God,  and 
united  between  themselves  in  wickedness  or 
worldliness.  The  common  love  of  the  world 
or  of  worldly  pursuits,  or  gain  or  self-exalta- 
tion, or  making  a  fortune  or  securing  it,  i.s 
so  far,  a  common  bond  of  interest  to  those  of 
one  family,  through  a  common  selfishness, 

'in  Evanjc.  Horn.  vii.  n.  1.        8. See  vol.  i.  p.  4."). 

9  Coinm.  on  Apocalypse  printed  with  QEcumenius 
p.  942.  ed.  1530. 

lo  De  fide  iv.  26.  "  on  Kev.  c.  xi. 

Won  S.  Matt.  xvii.  11.  S.  Mark  ix. 

'«Riipertus  says  here,  "  Of  the  coming  of  Elias  I 
dare  not  define  anytliinp;,  because  some  doctor.*, 
with  whom  almost  all  agree,  believe  that  he  will 
come  in  the  letter,  and  will  restore  all  things,  and 
will  pay  the  debt  of  death;  but  others  not,  with 
rtliom  the  illubtrious  S.  Jerome  seems  to  at^reu. 


CHAPTER   \y 


503 


though  that  selfishness  is  the  i^areut  of  gen- 
eral discord;  of  fraud,  violence,  and  other 
misdeeds.  Nay,  conversion  of  children  or 
parents  becomes  rather  a  source  of  discord, 
embittering  the  unconverted.  Whence  our 
Lord  says,  Think  not,  that  I  '  am  come  to  send 
peace  on  the  earth.  I  came  not  to  send  peace  on 
tarlh,  but  a  sword.  For  I  am  come  to  set  a  man 
at  variance  against  his  father,  and  the  daughter 
against  her  mother,  and  the  daughter-in-law 
against  her  mother-in-law :  and  a  nmn's  foes 
shcdl  be  they  of  his  own  household  ;  a  prophecy 
fulfilled  continually  in  the  early  persecu- 
tions, even  to  the  extent  of  those  other  words 
of  our  Lord,  ^  the  brother  shall  deliver  up  the 
brother  to  death,  and  the  father  the  child;  and 
the  children  shall  rise  up  against  their  parents, 
and  cause  them  to  be  put.  to  death.  It  is  ful- 
filled also  in  the  intense  hatred  of  the  Jews 
at  this  day,  to  any  who  are  converted  to 
Christ;  a  hatred  which  seems  to  have  no 
parallel  in  the  world.  Nor  do  the  words 
seem  to  mean  that  fathers  and  children 
should  be  united  in  one  common  conversion 
to  God,  as  one  says,  "  ^  All  shall  be  one 
heart  to  return  to  the  Lord,  both  fathers  and 
children ; "  for  he  speaks  isrimarily  of  their 
mutual  conversion  to  one  another,  not  to 
God. 

The  form  of  the  expression  seems  to  imply 
that  the  effect  of  the  preaching  of  Elias  shall 
be,  to  bring  back  the  children,  the  Jews  then 
in  being,  to  the  faith  and  love  which  their 


1 S.  Matt.  X.  S-l-ae.  2  lb.  21. 

3  Ibn  Ezra.  The  Jews,  although  mostly  agreed, 
that  Elijah  will  come,  are  disagreed  as  to  the  end 
of  his  coming.  By  some  he  is  spoken  of  as  a  Re- 
deemer. Tanchuma,  (f.  31.  1.)  "  God  said  to  Israel, 
In  this  world  I  sent  an  angel  to  cast  out  the  na- 
tions before  you,  but  in  the  future  [or,  in  the  world 
to  come,  Yalkut  Shim'oni  f  98-29]  myself  will  lead 
you  and  will  'send  you  Elijah  the  prophet.'"  Pes- 
ikta  rabbathi  (in  Yalkut  Shim'oni  ii.  f.  32.  4)  "  Both 
redeemed  Israel :  Moses  in  Egypt,  and  Elias  in 
that  which  is  to  come."  (Id.  ib.  f.  53.  2.)  "  I  send  you 
a  redeemer."  Midrash  Shocher  tof  lb.  i.  884,  "  Is- 
rael said, '  It  is  written  of  the  first  redemption,  'He 
sent  Moses  His  servant,  Aaron  whom  He  had  chosen  ; 
send  me  two  like  them.'  God  answered ;  '  I  will 
send  you  Elijah  the  prophet :  this  is  one,  the  other 
is  he,  of  whom  Isaiah  spoke  (xlii.  1.)  Behold,  my 
servant  whom  I  have  chosen.'  "  "  Shemoth  Rabba 
[Sect.  3.  col.  108.  2.  ad  loc]  'In  the  second  redemp- 
tion, ye  shall  be  healed  and  redeemed  by  the  word 
/,  i.  e.  Iivill  send."  Or,  as  a  comforter,  "I  will  send 
you  Elias,  he  shall  come  and  comfort  you."  De- 
barim  rabba  sect.  3.  fin.  Or  to  pronounce  some 
things  clean,  others  unclean.  Shir  hashirim  rabba 
f.  27.  3.  [all  the  above  in  Schottgen  ad  loc]  Others, 
in  different  ways,  to  settle,  to  which  tribe  each  be- 
longs. Kiniohi  on  Ezek.  .xlvii.  and  this  with  differ- 
ent explanations  as  to  strictness.  (See  Edaioth  fin. 
Mishnah  T.  iv.  p.  362.  Surenhus.)  "  Rabbi  Simeon 
says,  '  To  remove  controversies.'  .'Vnd  the  wise 
and  doctors  say,  To  make  peace  in  the  world,  as  is 
said,  "  Behold  I  send."  R.  Abraham  B.  David  ex- 
plains the  peace  to  be  "from  the  nations,"  and 
adds,  "to  announce  to  them  the  coming  of  the  re- 
deemer, and  this  in  one  day  before  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah  ; "  and  to  "  turn  the  hearts  &c."  he  e.x- 
plains  "  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  and  childi'en  (on 
whom  softness  had  fallen  from  fear,  and  they  fled, 
.?ome  here,  some  there,  from  their  distresses)  on 


fathers,  the  Patriarchs,  had ;  that  "  *  as 
these  believed,  hoped  for,  longed  exceedingly 
for,  and  loved  Christ  to  come,  so  their  sons 
should  believe,  hope  in,  long  exceedingly  for 
and  love  Christ,  Who  was  come,  yea  is 
present;  and  so  the  heart  of  fathers,' which 
before  was  turned  from  their  unbelieving 
children,  he  should  turn  to  them,  now  b»- 
lieving,  and  cause  the  Patriarchs  to  own  and 
love  the  Jews  believing  in  Christ,  as  indeed 
their  children ;  for  *  your  father  Abraham  re- 
joiced to  see  My  day ;  he  saw  it  and  was  glad, 
Christ  saith." 

Lest  I  come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse, 
i.  e.  with  an  utter  destruction,  from  which 
there  should  be  no  redemption.  In  the  end, 
God  will  so  smite  the  earth,  and  all,  not  con- 
verted to  Him.  The  prayer  and  zeal  of 
Elijah  will  gain  a  reprieve,  in  which  God 
will  spare  the  world  for  the  gathering  of  His 
own  elect,  the  full  conversion  of  the  Jews, 
which  shall  fulfill  the  Apostle's  words,  ®  So 
shall  all  Israel  be  saved. 

After  the  glad  tiding",  Malachi,  and  the 
Old  Testament  in  him,  ends  with  words  of 
aM'e,  telling  us  of  the  consequence  of  the  final 
hardening  of  the  heart ;  the  eternal  sever- 
ance, when  the  unending  end  of  the  everlast- 
ing Gospel  itself  shall  be  accomplished,  and 
its  last  grain  shall  be  gathered  into  the 
garner  of  the  Lord.  The  Jews,  who  would 
be  wiser  than  the  prophet,  repeat  the  pre- 
vious verse ',  because  Malachi  closes  so  aw- 


that  daj/  they  shall  return  to  their  might  and  to 
one  another  and  shall  comfort  each  other."  Abar- 
banel  says,  that  Elijah  shall  be  the  instrument  of 
the  resurrection,  and  that,  through  those  who  rise, 
the  race  of  man  shall  be  directed  in  the  recogni- 
tion of  God  and  the  true  faith."  Ibn.  Ezra,  "  that  he 
shall  come  at  the  collection  of  the  captives,  as 
Moses  at  the  redemption  of  Egypt,  not  for  the  res- 
urrection." [These  are  collected  by  Frischmuth 
de  Elise  adventu.  Thes.  Theol.  Phil.  V.  T.  T.  i.  p. 
1070.  sqq.]  R.  Tanchum,  from  Maimonides,  says, 
"This  is  without  doubt  a  promise  of  the  appear- 
ance of  a  prophet  in  Israel,  a  little  before  the  com- 
ing of  the  Messiah;  and  some  of  the  wise  think 
that  it  is  Elias  the  Tishbite  himself,  and  this  is 
found  in  most  of  the  Midrashoth,  and  some  think 
that  it  is  a  prophet  like  him  in  rank,  occupying  his 
place  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  manifest- 
mg  His  Name  and  that  so  he  is  called  Elijah.  And 
so  explained  the  great  Gaon,  RabMosheh  ben  Mai- 
mon,  at  the  end  of  his  great  book  on  jurisprudence, 
called  'Mishneh  Torah.'  And,  perhaps  he  [the 
person  sent]  may  be  Messiah  ben  Joseph,  as  he 
says  again — And  the  exactness  of  the  matter  in 
these  promises  will  only  be  known,  when  they  ap- 
pear: and  no  one  has  therein  any  accredited  ac- 
count, but  each  of  them  says  what  he  says,  accord- 
ing to  what  appears  to  him,  and  what  preponderates 
in  his  mind  of  the  explanation  of  the  truth."  "  The 
turning  of  the  heart  of  the  father  to  the  children," 
he  explains  to  be,  "  the  restoration  of  religion,  un- 
til all  should  be  of  one  heart  in  the  obedience  to 
God."  f"  Lap. 

<  S.  John  viii.  5fi. 

6  Rom.  xi.  2G. 

7  The  Masora  at  the  end  of  Malachi  notices,  that 
in  the  reading  of  ppr\%  i.  e.  Isaiah,  the  Twelve  [as 

one  book,  ending  with  Malachi],  the  Lamentations, 
Eeclesiastes,  the  last  vers»e   but  one  is  repeated. 


504 


MALACHI. 


fully.  The  Maker  of  the  heart  of  man  knew 
better  the  hearts  which  He  had  made,  and 
taught  their  authors  to  end  the  books  of 
Isaiah  and  Ecclesiastes  with  words  of  awe, 
from  which  man's  heart  so  struggles  to 
escape.  To  turn  to  God  here,  or  everlasting 
destruction  from  His  presence  there,  is  the 
only  choice  open  to  thee.  "  ^  Think  of  this, 
when  lust  goads  thee,  or  ambition  solicits 
thee,  or  anger  convulses  thee,  or  the  flesh 
blandishes  thee,  or  the  world  allures  thee,  or 
the  devil  displays  his  deceitful  pomp  and 
enticement.  In  thy  hand  and  thy  choice  are 
life  and  death,  heaven  and  hell,  salvation 

The  three  do  end  heavily ;  but  Ecclesiastes  only 
•nds  with  the  declaration  of  a  day  of  judgment, 


and  damnation,  bliss  or  misery  everlasting. 
Choos*  which  thou  wiliest.  Think,  'A 
moment  which  delighteth,  eternity  which 
tortureth ; '  on  the  other  hand,  '  a  moment 
which  tortureth,  eternity  which  delighteth.' " 

"I  see  that  all  things  come  to  an  end: 
Thy  commandment  is  exceeding  broad." 
Ps.  cxix.  96. 


"  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks, 
So  panteth  my  soul  after  Thee,  O  God." 

Ps.  xlii.  1. 

which,  it  must  be  supposed,  they  did  not  like  to 
dwell  upon.  '  Lap. 


Date  Due 


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